2026 MDC Rosy Mound Winter Academy Template PBL JOURNEY by

Solution Description

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Please include a brief description and picture of each team's final idea.

REFLECTION

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Take time to reflect on what went well. What will you change for next year? What feedback did you get from students, the business partner, the authentic audience that can help make this project even better?

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, to reflect on the authentic audience, the pitch, the final product. Include any information/pictures from your community partner.

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work to reflect how your students came up with multiple ideas.

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of works to reflect on how students narrowed their ideas, determined their best solution, and developed the solution.

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work to reflect on the check ins done throughout the project. How did students reflect throughout the process? How did student critique and revise?

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, and written documentation to reflect how teams were built, how students uncovered and understood the driving question, the standards covered, and the launch into the project.

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, links to reflect how your students built empathy, determined Need to Knows, and uncovered important information to solve their driving question.

QUOTES/CONTACTS

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Please add quotes from students, parents, authentic audience, and any business/community members you utilized. Please use first names only.

Business Connections

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Please list speakers and business partners you encountered throughout your journey.

Team Photo

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Our Driving Question

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Create a furniture concept that provides individuals with unique needs, or for use in various environments (public spaces, private spaces, natural environments, business spaces, industrial spaces).

futureprepd2 — 2025-10-22 14:34:30 UTC

Entry Event

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-12 14:51:00 UTC

For our entry event, we learned the history behind Grand Rapids/West Michigan was named "Furniture City, USA." The students did a lot of investigating and found many fun facts

HOPES/FEARS/NORMS

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-12 14:52:01 UTC

Students wanted to make sure we were all on the same page with our expectations so we created a HOPES/FEARS/NORMS chart

BUG LIST

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-12 14:55:13 UTC

Our team crafted a bug list around challenges in furniture and then sorted their thinking to look for trending ideas.

Some things were talked about:

-Comfort/rigidity

-portability

-location

-texture

EMPATHY MAPS

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-12 14:56:18 UTC

To gain empathy for our stakeholders, we took stakeholders and created empathy maps around them. This created great conversation in groups around struggles and problems for each stakeholder related to the driving question. As we discussed, students started thinking about what questions they might want to ask stakeholders to investigate further.

STAKEHOLDER MAPS

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-16 15:08:25 UTC

After our need to know list, we created a stakeholders map based on our list.

This helped frame the beginning of our investigation stage as students thought about who was involved in this driving question and where we might start to investigate.

SPEEDBOAT

scottprzystas1 — 2026-01-16 15:11:29 UTC

Interview

2026-01-27 15:04:04 UTC

We had a local engineer come in for an interview. He gave us a lot of great insights into how engineers think and problem solve.

Solution #1

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 20:34:16 UTC

TRUBA-the TRUBA is a robotic trash/recycling compactor with an arm and off road track. It detects trash/recycling with its camera but can also act as a stand alone machine.

Solution #2

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 20:57:36 UTC

IV Seasons bench is a sitting area that can be found in parks or at bus stops. It has coils in the bench to heat/cool, depending on the season. There is also a water fountain to fill up water bottles to stay hydrated. The panel at the top protects users from snow/wind/rain.

Solution #3

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 21:00:20 UTC

The Cool Chair is a portable raft made for pools that allows the user to be on/near the water without getting wet. There is a suction cup that sticks to the bottom of the pool so they can stay in one place. The umbrella keeps the user shaded and there is a speaker and cup holder that can accommodate the user as needed.

Validation

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 21:05:19 UTC

Students presented to an authentic audience including parents and administrators

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 21:06:01 UTC

scottprzystas1 — 2026-02-26 21:07:39 UTC

Students presented their ideas to students at the CTC and got some very valuable feedback