Getting Started with

Design Thinking

A presentation deck for training educators on the Project MASH design thinking process90-minute version

Today’s explorations

Gain an in-depth understanding of design thinking.

Discuss how you can use this activity (and other related design thinking experiences) in your classroom.

Experience design thinking first-hand through the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, an activity from Project MASH.

What is design thinking?

How Design Thinking Can Empower Young Peoplefrom Is School Enough? A video series on Edutopia

Design thinking is a creative and collaborative process for identifying problems and their innovative solutions.

Design thinking is one of several teaching strategies that inform the educational content and experiences available on Project MASH, a social network for learning.

Design thinking engages students in an active, meaningful process that connects core content to the real world..

Design thinking facilitates project-based learning. It is naturally interdisciplinary and provides relevant opportunities to improve verbal, written, and visual communication skills.

Design thinking is civically charged.

The design thinking process

The design thinking process

The design thinking process

The design thinking process

Ready to Dream & Design It?Explore the first phase in the design thinking process with an activity from Project MASH.

You’ve walked through this school hundreds of times, but you’ll never look at it the same after today.

During this activity you will:

Explore your school in a critical and creative way

Conduct critical research and analyze the data

The Good, the Bad, & the UglyA Design Thinking Activity from Project MASH

TIME

GOAL

2O minutes

Explore the campus using your smartphone. Take pictures of the good, bad, and ugly—use your thumb in each picture to indicate which category it fits.

STEP Discover

TIME

GOAL

10 minutes

Analyze your images.

What patterns emerge? Are there more good, bad, or ugly

photos? What opportunities do you see in

the “bad” or “ugly” areas?

STEP Dig Deeper

TIME

GOAL

10 minutes

Choose one of the opportunities you identified, then brainstorm all the possible solutions with your team.

Embrace wild & wacky ideas. List as many possibilities as

possible. Choose your best solution and

create a quick sketch illustrating it for the group.

STEP Brainstorm

Project Share

What are your general findings from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly activity? Summarize these.

What opportunity did you identify?

How might you address the opportunity?

Create a sketch of your best idea.

TIME 5 minutes

Reflection & Discussion

How else might you use the Good, the Bad, the Ugly activity?

What skills and content did you cover today? If this was adapted to your subject area, what skills/ content could you cover using this approach?

What role does technology play? How is this role distinct from the simple notion of “technology integration”?

TIME 1O minutes

What connections do you see between design thinking and the skills identified in the Common Core State Standards?

What connections do you see between design thinking and the knowledge foci supported by the Common Core State Standards?

TIME 5 minutes

Common Core Connections

Design thinking is an approach to teaching and learning at the heart of Project MASH, a social network for educators, students, and the organizations that serve them.

Visit www.projectmash.org for student activities and projects that rely on design thinking and other unique teaching strategies.