On the front of their notecard, they made a short list of words or ideas describing the problem, its causes, who it affects, and what it looks like in real life.

On the back, they created a drawing or symbol to show the problem, helping others see their unique perspective before moving into brainstorming solutions.

One way we practiced this was by having the students play an Employability and “Bugs and Wishes” Jenga Bingo game to build strong teams, discussing how they would handle different STEM situations while practicing collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity within their groups.

The goal is for students to design a legacy project to use what they’ve learned throughout their time in STEM, including 3D printing, coding, Spheros, LEGO robotics, and the Engineering Design Process, to create something that teaches and inspires others.

They then used the Crazy 8s protocol, sketching eight different possible solutions in eight minutes to quickly explore a wide range of creative ways to solve the problem.

It wasn’t perfect at the start, some groups had a tough time working together, staying focused, or thinking outside the box but those struggles actually turned into some of the biggest growth in collaboration and communication. The best part was seeing how proud they were when they shared their final ideas with an authentic audience of 5th graders and administration. Overall, the project really strengthened their STEM mindset, problem-solving, and ownership of learning.

Next year, I’d streamline the observation and creative sequence since we spent a bit too long on it. I would probably just pick one protocol from each stage and leave more time for team collaboration and iteration.

I learned how to come up with ideas by combining games or features. We thought of a few games that we liked and we put them together. We took come features from each of the games we chose and put them together to form the environment, abilities, and the main features of a game.

-Lincoln (6th Grade)

I believe the crazy 8 game improved my ideas the most in this project. When I was told to think of WACKY ideas it made me think creativity and not worry about little details.

Averiegh (6th Grade)

I liked when we did elevator pitches and shared our ideas with our classmates and they gave us 2 stars and 1 wish. It helped us to understand what features we explained clearly and we were able to use the feedback to improve how we explain the design during our final presentation.

Claire (6th Grade)

Aspyn (6th Grade)