Design Thinking Day Challenges Students to Brainstorm Creative Solutions

The week before break is always a time filled with excitement and jitters as the promise of two weeks off gets even closer. The Middle School team took the opportunity to spend some time doing out-of-the-box activities with their students.

Yesterday, the entire Middle School took the whole day to focus on the Design Thinking process as they worked in groups to come up with creative solutions to four different prompts. The Design Thinking process is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that focuses on empathetic user-focused solutions and many rounds of iteration. 

All students across grades 5-8 were broken into small groups to focus on addressing one of four different prompts. Some of the prompts focused on ways to improve the Overlake campus at large while others were more broadly focused. A hallmark of the Design Thinking process is to have students think about someone outside of themselves and imagine what their needs might be in relation to the prompt. These are the prompts the students worked with:

1. How might we…Create a system that allows students to keep their belongings safe so that they don't have to carry them around all day?
2. How might we…Design a lost and found system for the Overlake community that works for everyone?
3. How might we…Design a game that anyone can play?
4. How might we…Design an outdoor instructional space on the Overlake campus for all grades and departments?

 “I expect that ALL teams will have unique and different solutions to the problems,” says Brian Husted, Physics teacher and one of the leaders of the day. “The best part of the day is that ALL teams can be successful by developing a solution that meets the needs of the user.”

The day is broken into specific parts to aid in the Design Thinking process. Students spent the morning brainstorming ideas in their small groups and laying out ideas on paper first. Then they graciously observed and gave feedback on each other’s ideas and decided whether to make any last changes to their concept. The idea phase is just as important as the hands-on prototyping phase as it gives them time to be thoughtful about their end user in their designs before beginning the creating process. 

The prototyping phase was a hands-on flurry of crafting as students used everything from blocks to yarn to cardboard and pipe cleaners to assemble prototypes of their ideas. 

“While teams are asked to assemble prototypes of their solutions, the emphasis of the day is really on the process of problem- solving and less about the final product.”

All prototypes were presented to their peers today to show off the designs they came up with. Throughout the process, students had the chance to focus on more than just seeking out a singular ‘correct answer’ to a problem but had the freedom to come up with creative solutions to broad problems. Enjoy this slideshow of student’s work here.