We’re playing in my Barbie Dreamhouse now! I studied computer engineering, so the design cycle is something I am intimately familiar with! I am also currently working in a program that is ostensibly targeting integrating the ADST curriculum (along with the Art Ed curriculum) into all subject areas, and all subject areas with each other. I have some reflections on how design thinking has informed my practice.
I have had some success integrating design thinking projects into math, science, and (of course) ADST at the high school level. I found it a lot easier to experiment and dive right into these projects as a solo teacher with my own classroom, where I was largely beholden to no one and made my own schedule. I’m particularly proud of a Workplace Math 10 project where students interviewed stakeholders around the school, measured using trigonometry, and performed qualitative and quantitative data analysis to redesign their classroom to better fit stakeholders’ needs. I liked that this process allowed students to have a hands-on, contextually relevant experience with math, especially since, let’s face it, the WP Math crew are taking that course because they need it to graduate and not out of any passion for the subject matter.
Another project I’m proud of (that was interrupted by the pandemic and lockdown) was an ADST/Science project for my grade 8/9s. Inspired by the Do Your :Bit challenge, I used the United Nations Global Development Goals as a jumping off point for creating electronic devices to solve problems in their own communities. I got a lot of “why are we doing social studies in science class” comments, but I think that connecting science and ADST to authentic problems in our local community really did help a lot of students to engage with the material and feel like they could be successful.
Now, of course, I am in an unusual team teaching position with four teachers and 80-ish students in a site without traditional classrooms. One of the challenges in our highly collaborative environment is that we are perpetually compromising four sets of visions, practices, and skillsets to build a program every teacher is able to engage with. On the other hand, we are each growing and learning from each other, and we are becoming better generalists as a result, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for another year of isolated teaching, but projects like the above are simply not happening for us as a group yet.
One of the things I feel like we as a team are struggling with is a self-induced pressure to meet all curriculum goals for all three grades in our cohort in a single year. The ideological place that a project like the middle school in Maine is coming from is one that values deeper learning in a few areas over breadth. In order to produce an iterated, beautiful product and really come to grips with the design process, we need to give that process time to breathe and our students time to explore it. Right now, if we have scheduled 2 weeks for a project, we are marching forward, even if there was not a single revision in that two weeks (as there often isn’t). If we are going to value deeper learning, we should be able to sacrifice time in some areas to facilitate a more complete experience in others.
Coming from traditional high school environments, most of the teachers in this program were accustomed to working in their own subject area with little overlap in others. At the beginning of the year, I was disappointed with the lack of willingness to have that overlap between subject areas and break down the walls in a meaningful way. Looking back, a lot of other logistical things weren’t in place yet (e.g., we had no phones on site until October) and I feel like as a group we were trying to find a place of comfort while we worked out the kinks of our unusual space. We did move into more project-based approaches after a few months.
From a teacher-librarian perspective, I have a few takeaways.
- First, I feel like human-centred design thinking is a valuable framework for project-based learning and authentic learning.
- It is a framework used in actual engineering programs and engineering job.
- It allows for examination of ethics and sustainability in tech through the empathize phase.
- It helps guide students to beautiful work through critique and revision.
- It is an inherently interdisciplinary framework – to solve problems, one must have an understanding of the human context, tying into humanities subjects, and environmental impacts, tying into the sciences.
- Second, there are going to be really gung-ho teachers who will take the plunge with gusto into larger, interdisciplinary, integrated design projects, but not everyone is going to start from that place. As leaders, we need to have patience and meet our colleagues where they are at to help them move out of their comfort zone into larger scale projects. Starting small is valid; Rome wasn’t built in a day.
- Third, a role for the LLC could be to provide a centralized place for teachers and students to collaborate across disciplines and find the tools they need to address the problems they are looking at.
I am not an experienced teacher, but I am an experienced design thinker, and I hope that I can leverage my experience in this area to help others collaborate and build comfort with the design process.
Sources
Averill, S. (Director). (2020, March 24). ADST design Thinking K-9 [Video file]. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://vimeo.com/400420774
Averill, S., & Bernie, S. (2017, October 21). Applied design skills and Technologies K-9. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://issuu.com/av3rill/docs/applied_design_skills_and_technolog
Micro:bit Educational Foundation. (n.d.). Do your :bit. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://microbit.org/projects/do-your-bit/
PBS NewsHour (Director). (2013, May 06). Maine school Engages kids with Problem-Solving Challenges [Video file]. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i17F-b5GG94