PRAXIS PROGRAM - DESIGN THINKING

David Lee

David Lee is currently a STEAM Specialist at Singapore American School in Singapore. His responsibility at the school is to facilitate educators in integrating STEAM subject areas meaningfully and purposefully into their curriculum to increase learner engagement and achievement, provide learners with real world experiences, develop their 21st century skills, promote creativity and innovation, and teach digital literacies. He models/teaches the design thinking methodology to students to equip them with a creative, problem-solving toolkit that they use to bring positive change to people's lives. David was the former elementary STEM Coordinator at Korea International School (KIS) in Seongnam, Korea. As the STEM Coordinator, he contributed to the vision and execution of the school's STEM program (KoLABoration), a program where students used design thinking and maker mindsets to develop innovative solutions to authentic contexts. He worked collaboratively with all stakeholders (administrators, teachers, students, parents, & community), assisted in the development and delivery of transdisciplinary STEM professional development, and attended grade-levels meetings to move all teachers towards independence in the delivery of transdisciplinary instruction and curriculum. He created meaningful connections between disciplines, planned and executed opportunities for students to showcase their work within the school and community (i.e. fairs, exhibitions, etc.). As the design specialist, he engaged learners in open-ended inquiry-based learning experiences in the KoLAB spaces by modeling and teaching the design thinking process. He wrote a book about his experience in developing his students' design thinking mindsets called Design Thinking in the Classroom.