The Design Thinking Process: Day 2

When students returned for their next library class, they were excited to share the list of problems they'd compiled over the past week. We went over the list together, and students shared the inspiration and stories behind the problems they'd recorded. 

In one third grade class, students explained that they were missing the two-man ship in their classroom's Battleship board game, and they were wondering if they might be able to design a replacement game piece. Another third grader explained that her classroom teacher was always losing the dry-erase markers, and she thought she might be able to design a basket or marker-holder for her teacher. In fourth grade, students explained that they'd noticed the cafeteria door could use a new doorstop. And, in fifth grade, some students expressed interest in designing a pencil holder for a wheelchair-bound classmate because they'd noticed her pencils were always rolling off her tray. 

After students shared some of their ideas, they began working in groups of three to select a problem they were most interested in designing a solution for. Then, I distributed a Design Thinking brainstorming paper I designed to guide students through their thought process. 

 

In their groups of three, students worked on filling out the "Ask" and "Imagine" sections. They talked about the problems they'd noticed, and they began imagining what some solutions might look like.

 

 Next, students used the space at the bottom of the first page to begin sketching their design ideas. They verbalized their ideas with their table mates as they worked, and there was a lot of great discussion and idea sharing going on!

At the end of the class period, students handed in their papers, and I told them they would begin working on the "Plan" and "Create" sections during the next class period.