What is Design Thinking and How Does It Fit into K-12 STEM Education
Corporations have been using design thinking for well over a decade to inject creativity into the development of new products and services that address unmet needs of their consumers. The adoption of design thinking in the K-12 education space, however, is not widespread… yet. At WhyMaker, we want to change that!
What is design thinking?
In its simplest form, design thinking is a process for creative problem solving. It is an innovative approach to coming up with solutions for problems that are not well-defined.
The Interactive Design Foundation describes design thinking as “a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.”
IDEO, a global design and consulting firm, defines design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit.” IDEO is often credited with coining the term “design thinking.” Though they didn’t invent design thinking, they are a guiding force behind the revolutionary movement.
Get started with The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Maker Ed today. Access now!
What role does design thinking play in K-12 STEM education?
The practice of design thinking shouldn’t start at the corporate level. To nurture our youth into successful innovators of our future, design thinking must start in K-12 education. And STEM education is the perfect entry point.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, “If we want a nation where our future leaders, neighbors, and workers can understand and solve some of the complex challenges of today and tomorrow, and to meet the demands of the dynamic and evolving workforce, building students' skills, content knowledge, and literacy in STEM fields is essential.”
When employed in the K-12 classroom, design thinking in STEM education fosters engagement, excitement, and those “aha” moments every educator seeks from their students. It gives students a foundation on which to build—a foundation that will set students up for success when they are trying to make it on their own out in the real world.
How is design thinking put into practice in K-12 STEM Education?
At its core, design thinking drives problem solvers to focus on the people they are designing for—to formulate solutions that address the specific needs of an individual or group of people. This leads to better products, better services, and better processes for our world.
When using design thinking in STEM education, students must think about the desired end state (the solution), whether the solution is technically feasible (can they actually build it?), and whether it is economically viable (do they have all the supplies they need?).
In design thinking for STEM, students combine desirability, feasibility, and viability to determine the best solution to a problem.
What are the stages of design thinking in STEM education?
With the WhyMaker Way in K-12 STEM education, we use a 7-stage process for design thinking
1.Discover: students explore the world around them and define the problem.
2.Empathize: students gain an empathic understanding of the problem (our empathy workbook is a great place to start with students).
3.Brainstorm: students get creative and come up with tons of ideas for solutions.
4.Ideate: students plan their final solution with a lot of details and the teacher checks to make sure their plan makes sense.
5.Prototype: students produce an inexpensive, scaled-down model of the solution.
6.Evaluate: students rigorously test their prototype and determine if it solves their original problem.
7.Redesign: students list out all of the ways they would redesign or iterate their final solution in order to improve it.
This 7-stage process was crafted at WhyMaker through action research and best teaching practices — it is designed specifically for the K-12 classroom and is structured just right for teachers and all of their students. Other design thinking processes use traditional engineering design and are not practical for K-12 classroom environments.
Keep in mind that in the corporate world, this process is not always linear. The stages may not always be sequential and sometimes stages may even be parallel. In the K-12 classroom, however, the WhyMaker Way encourages students to redesign on the fly during the build phase and then asks students to reflect and think about ideas for redesign instead of sending students back through the whole process in the time constrained class schedule.
Getting Started with Design Thinking in STEM Education
For K-12 educators and administrators alike, seeing the value in incorporating design thinking into STEM curriculum is the easy part. It’s typically the “how to incorporate” part that causes hesitation. WhyMaker makes the “how” doable… and fun! With resources like The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Maker Ed online course as well as the project planner & teaching guide and student portfolio, we equip you with the tools you need to put design thinking into action in your STEM teachings.
Get Started with Design Thinking