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Compassionate Making at Innovation Academy - Wakelet

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How can we create for a purpose and make a difference in our communities? As you think about projects, consider the following: 1. What needs do you see in your community? 2. What are you passionate about? 3. Do you want to create something for an immediate need?

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We believe in the of your ideas and your to solve real problems.

Many communities face income gaps and inequities in freedom of speech, health care, and social class. Join over 15,000 youth to help find solutions and BUILD a better future for all.

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We believe in the of your ideas and your to solve real problems. Many communities face income gaps and inequities in freedom of speech, health care, and social class. Join over 15,000 youth to help find solutions and BUILD a better future for all.

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Novel Engineering - Tying in STEM and Design Thinking with Literacy

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Novel Engineering - Tying in STEM and Design Thinking with Literacy

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Students use existing classroom literature - stories, novels, and expository texts - as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.

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MakerSpace for Education Design Thinking

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MakerSpace for Education Design Thinking

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​In schools we often have a traditional model of a teacher providing knowledge and a student replicating that knowledge in the form of a project after the knowledge transfer has taken place. Despite this project perhaps being viewed as "hands on learning" and some type of creation made by the student, it is not constructionism just because a student "constructed" something. There was no problem to be solved, only information to be reproduced.
Design thinking is the crucial element that MUST occur BEFORE, DURING and AFTER making happens.
​This thinking process is the true evidence of creativity, application and problem solving using what the child already knows and giving them a reason to learn more. ​This design thinking is a methodology that will encourage the solving of complex problems through ideation and iteration.

Creativity has the potential to help reform education, and yet we have educated our students out of creativity with our factory model classrooms and high stakes testing (Robinson & Aronica, 2015). With the maker movement finding its way into our schools, we have a chance to use design thinking as a way to teach and develop complex skills of creativity. Creativity can and must be taught if we are to prepare students for a world that requires innovators (Wagner & Compton, 2012). This design thinking must be approached with intentionality.

​Dr. Susan Crichton from the Innovative Learning Centre warns of what can happen if the maker movement is not approached with a shift in purpose.

"Unless educators intentionally pursue innovation and creativity as learning outcomes, makerspaces will become "imagination ghettos" where issues of access, purpose, and ownership resemble those common in the cloistered environments of early computer labs and many of today's shops and students are tasked with cookie cutter activities and trivial projects to complete." (Crichton & Carter, 2015, p. 3).

Giving students a real life problem to solve, as an intentional reason to use design thinking, changes the quality of the learning. Students are not learning because a teacher simply told them information they are required to remember, students are learning because they need and want to solve a problem to make the world a better place. This type of design thinking has the power to transform students into global citizens committed to creative solutions to solve global problems. This is the type of student innovator we are missing in our current educational settings (Wagner & Compton, 2012). Below are examples of student innovations that have changed communities for the better. You can use these examples as inspiration with your students.

In design thinking repeating a process to test, improve and design is crucial. This is known as iterations. In education we often allow children two iterations; rough copy and good copy. In design thinking we need to expand our understanding by allowing students to continually revise their design on an ongoing basis for the support of a process over the completion of a product.

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​In schools we often have a traditional model of a teacher providing knowledge and a student replicating that knowledge in the form of a project after the knowledge transfer has taken place. Despite this project perhaps being viewed as "hands on learning" and some type of creation made by the student, it is not constructionism just because a student "constructed" something.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Information

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Design-Thinking to AccelerateSolutions for the Sustainable Development Goals 

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Design-Thinking to AccelerateSolutions for the Sustainable Development Goals 

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Design Thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals

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Design Thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals

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Design Thinking Projects

5 Chairs Exercise - Students design and create 5 chairs for a user

Spaghetti Marshmallow Challenge - Students build towers using only spaghetti, marshmallows, tape and string

Wallet Project- Each student builds a wallet for their partner
Ramen Project - An immersive multi-day design thinking project
Back to KG???!!! - Middle-school students rediscover the fun they had in kindergarten
Welcome to Middle School- Students role play how to make transition to middle school easier
Car Maintenance redesign - Students redesign the car maintenance experience based on video interviews
The Special Olympics - Students develop a sense of empathy for people in the Special Olympics
The Classroom Redesign Project - Students redesign a classroom

The Morning Routine - Students redesign their morning routine

Native American Culture Design Challenge

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Dive In Water Curriculum - From Stanford Design School

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Dive In Water Curriculum - From Stanford Design School

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Find & Design for a Friend (interview + design)

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Find & Design for a Friend (interview + design)

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Find & Design for a Friend (interview + design)

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Find & Design for a Friend (interview + design)

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Create a Difference - Live to Give with Compassionate Makers Program

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Our school celebrates the 7 mindsets within our learning community and so I often wonder as a library media specialist how I can support our teachers and students with this particular curriculum....

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Although I was super excited about the makerspace movement, my enthusiasm quickly faded as I realized expectations and reality can be very different. What started as a $50,000 educational shopping spree (thanks, TeacherPreneur Grant), had all but ended with two broken 3D printers I'm taking home over the summer to hopefully repair. Left with the remnants of a once-promising makerspace, I needed a way to make these broken, half-missing, moveable parts into something awesome (or even something kind-of-okay-for-now would do).

Randomly clicking school library-related content, I found our game changer: The MakerCare space. I'm sure there are many different types of MakerCare programs, but the one I found inspiring is led by Gina Seymour. I've always been especially inspired by community service and activism, and with a MakerCare program we can really bring those ideals into our library while revitalizing our ghost town of a makerspace.

First, I took stock of our makerspace. While everyone was praising makerspaces and sharing how their admins had finally gotten on board with the movement, I came in like a wrecking ball. Tossing, sorting, rehoming, and rearranging the contents of our makerspace. I let go of feeling like a makerspace failure. I finally started redefining the space, and developing a deeper understanding of makerspaces.

Once I had a better idea of what I had, I realized what I didn't have: a project or community service goal. I thought about letting students decide, but ultimately opted to make a judgement call for the first somewhat experimental MakerCare project. Earlier this school year the library sponsored fundraisers for a local pet shelter and a petting zoo. We received so much positive feedback from students and teachers telling us how happy everyone was to help these animals.

Based on this, I decided our first project could be building and distributing DIY winter cat shelters. To accomplish this goal, I made a long-range plan to use the second semester to work out some details and implement the plan in the 2018-2019 school year.

Before going all in on DIY Cat Shelters, I contacted a local cat rescue, which was very helpful and provided some information regarding what types of shelters are best. I also created an activity where my students did some research into community service and DIY Cat Shelters. Part of their work was creating a supply list, a chart comparing items, and doing a mini cost analysis for building the cat shelter. Students were definitely intrigued by this plan. Even the ones who said they didn't particularly like cats were interested in the actual construction of the shelters, while others were motivated by compassion. Students discussed and debated responsibility to our communities and what that responsibility looks like in real life.

We're still working out the details for next year, but so far the response to MakerCare has been positive, and our makerspace is no longer languishing in the corner. Ultimately, the makerspace philosophy of creating, inventing, and learning is at the core of our redesigned program. The "stuff" didn't change, but our perspectives did. Has anyone else launched a MakerCare program?

Author: Mica Johnson

I'm a school librarian at Farragut Middle. I like the lib to be loud, messy, and full of student activity. I love tech stuff as much as I love books, and I'm part of an awesome rotating maker space.

Categories: Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Makerspaces/Learning Commons, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: collaborative culture, makerspace

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Developing a MakerCare Program | Knowledge Quest

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Although I was super excited about the makerspace movement, my enthusiasm quickly faded as I realized expectations and reality can be very different. What started as a $50,000 educational shopping spree (thanks, TeacherPreneur Grant), had all but ended with two... Read More ›

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Foster and develop maker activists among children and teens who wish to take action in their community through engaged self-expression by exploring societal themes, such as compassion, empathy, and…

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People dedicated to making "unstuck" accessible for every person and moment; the 5-question tool that's emerged; and resources and stories to share.

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Design Thinking for Educators with John Spencer

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Design Thinking for Educators with John Spencer

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What Is Design Thinking?

Every day, I ask my kids, "What did you make in school today?" Too often, they can't give me an answer. But on the days that they do, their eyes light up and they passionately describe their projects. It's in those moments that I am reminded that making is magic.

But here's the thing: this is hard to pull off. We all have curriculum maps and limited resources and standards we have to teach. We don't always have fancy maker spaces or high-tech gadgetry. Our time is limited and so creativity is often a lofty ideal that rarely becomes a reality.

This is what I love about design thinking. It works within the standards in every subject. It's a flexible approach that you can use with limited resources. It isn't something new that you add to your crowded schedule. Instead, it's an innovative approach to the work you are already doing - a process designed specifically to boost creativity and bring out the maker in every student.

This is why A.J. Juliani and I developed the LAUNCH Cycle. It's a design thinking framework specifically tailored to K-12 classrooms that you can use at any grade level. Think of it this way. Making is the mindset. Design thinking is the process. The LAUNCH Cycle is the framework.

The Student-Friendly LAUNCH Cycle

For the last 15 years, I've used design thinking. As a teacher, I used it for everything from coding projects to service projects to documentaries to engineering challenges. As startup co-founder, we used the design thinking cycle for product development. As an author, it's a framework I use for publishing. However, as a teacher, I realized that design thinking needed to be relevant, developmentally-appropriate, and simple enough that any child could use it.

A.J. Juliani and I realized the need for a student-friendly design thinking framework tailored specifically for a K-12 environment. We both had spent over a decade using design thinking and we had each added a few innovations, including an inquiry phase, a research phase, and a launch phase. After testing this out in multiple classrooms, we finalized the LAUNCH Cycle.

You can read all about it in our book Launch: Using the Design Thinking Process to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every

We created an acronym to help make it easier to remember:

L: Look, Listen, and Learn
In the first phase, students look, listen, and learn.The goal here is awareness. It might be a sense of wonder at a process or an awareness of a problem or a sense of empathy toward an audience.

A: Ask Tons of Questions
Sparked by curiosity, students move to the second phase, where they ask tons of questions.

U: Understanding the Process or Problem
This leads to understanding the process or problem through an authentic research experience. They might conduct interviews or needs assessments, research articles, watch videos, or analyze data.

N: Navigate Ideas
Students apply that newly acquired knowledge to potential solutions. In this phase, they navigate ideas. Here they not only brainstorm, but they also analyze ideas, combine ideas, and generate a concept for what they will create.

C: Create a Prototype
In this next phase, they create a prototype. It might be a digital work or a tangible product, a work of art or something they engineer. It might even be an action or an event or a system.

H: Highlight and Fix
Next, they begin to highlight what's working and fix what's failing. The goal here is to view this revision process as an experiment full of iterations, where every mistake takes them closer to success.

Launch to an Audience
Then, when it's done, it's ready to launch. In the launch phase, they send it to an authentic audience. They share their work with the world!

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Design thinking is a flexible process for getting the most out of the creative process. It is used in the arts, in engineering, in the corporate world, at universities, and in social and civic spaces. You can use it in every subject with every age group.

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Thinking at IDEO - Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play

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IDEO is a global design company. We believe a better future is for all of us to design. Explore thinking, Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play.

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Have you found yourself asking, "what is design?" Sometimes the best way to understand design is to just dive in and experience it! We've pulled together this collection to help you get started on your design journey. Scroll down to see our NEW introductory online workshop, a library of FAQs about how design works, and some goto tools.

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We've pulled together this collection to help you get started doing design work. Inside you'll find a NEW introductory online workshop, a library of FAQs about how design works, and a couple of handy tools.

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Unjudge someone - The Human Library Organization

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The Human Library® is, a library of people. We host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations.

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Sign up for a daily creativity challenge

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" At the d.school we endeavor to enable our students in eight core design abilities so that they might develop their own creative confidence and also inspire others, take risks, and persevere through tough projects throughout their lives."

- Carissa Carter, d.school Director of Teaching and Learning, "Let's Stop Talking about THE Design Process"

Navigating ambiguity as a meta-ability within the 8 design abilities. Abilities posters designed and illustrated by Jason Munn.

For now, let's talk about just one of those eight abilities, the super ability - navigating ambiguity. This essential ability involves recognizing and stewing in the discomfort of not knowing, leveraging and embracing parallel possibilities, and resolving or emerging from ambiguity as needed. Navigating ambiguity is essential for both problem-finding and problem-solving.

Designers are already fearless explorers of uncertainty. Projects, process, and people are inherently ambiguous but designers find patterns in information. They re-frame problems, examine possibility, and make meaning. Ambiguity makes creative work extremely challenging to do well but can also lead to the greatest opportunities.

So how do you know when you're deep in the woods with no map and navigating ambiguity?

You feel comfortable holding multiple directions of a project in parallel

You ask or surface more questions than answers

You identify and explore opposing tensions (and potential outcomes) for your work

You navigate the steps in your project based on where you are and where you've been (vs. adhering to a specific process or "plan")

You reframe the nature of a problem and pivot in the course of a project if necessary

You let go of a predetermined solution at the outset of a project

Navigating ambiguity - super ability though it is - is still just one of the eight core design abilities. In the past few years, we've made a concerted effort to empower students with flexible ways of thinking that build on process and focus on abilities. We have tools and activities to introduce students to the whole family of abilities on our Introduction to Design Abilities Suite resource page. Together, these eight abilities encourage learners to take the ingredients they've been given and craft their own recipes. Bon appétit!

Read more about the other Design Abilities.

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Navigating Ambiguity | Library of Ambiguity | d.school Public Library

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" At the d.school we endeavor to enable our students in eight core design abilities so that they might develop their own creative confidence and also inspire others, take risks, and persevere through tough projects throughout their lives."