Design Process in the Classroom & Creative Thinking

Makedo creates open-ended opportunities for students to work at their own pace to imagine ideas and create solutions. The learning lies in the thinking, the design process and, finally, the invention itself. 

These thinking skills, and the hands-on making they encourage, can be brought into any classroom, makerspace or library program. All you need is an educator/group leader/parent to support the process.

When introducing hands-on making there are some common and simple design principles that can help the process run smoothly: 

Define the challenge

Identify and understand the challenge or idea. Who is the design for? Consider their needs and their perspective?

Imagine

Research and brainstorm lots of possible solutions and ideas, ask questions, explore. Be creative.

Design

Plan what your solution will look like. Think, sketch, label it if you like. Collaborate with others (both novice and expert).

Make it

Build a prototype or model to represent your plan.

Try it out

Enter the testing phase. What worked? What didn’t work? Ask for feedback - evaluation is crucial.

Evaluate

Reflect on how you can modify your creation to better meet your goals and improve your prototype.

Share

Share your solution with others.

Reference: the five-stage Design Thinking model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school) - Dam, R. and Siang, T. (2018). 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process. Interaction Design Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-procss

Image credit: Classroom learning matrix via @SingleStepsBlog