Design Challenge

This summer I was fortunate enough to travel with our principal, Scott Emery, and a few other NA staff members to Detroit Michigan to the Henry Ford Learning Institute. We went through a Design Thinking Workshop and it was incredible! Here is the link if you would like to find out more about design thinking. Henry Ford Design Thinking

 Yesterday we did our first Rapid Cycle, a quick determined cycle through the design process. The kids were given the challenge to redesign the name badges for their users, who were their classmates. They went through the first stage of empathy- listening and interviewing to understand what their users need and like. Then they were given time to define specifically what the user needs. Next they created 5 sketches or ideas how to redesign the name tag to meet the interests and needs of the user; ideate. They received feedback from the user before they built their prototypes. We had a discussion about prototyping and that is not a finished product. This is hard for first graders because they have strong desires to finish what they start! They met again with their user to share their prototype (nametag) and give/get more feedback. Last, they reflected on the entire process. It was quite a journey for them. As we do more rapid cycles, they will better understand the process. It was overall very successful and sparked curiosity in all of the students.