D&I Overview

Design and Innovation, D&I, is a class designed to connect all the subjects together, and make kids THINK BIG!

What we aim to do is allow students to use what they are learning in homeroom and explore more deeply through critical thinking, and by developing a hands-on solution to a problem.

Nothing.

While we certainly do a lot of building in D&I, the goal is to identify a problem and develop creative solutions.

Projects might range from awareness posters, to TikTok videos, websites, or more tangible things like rockets and machinery.

What we make, depends on the problem the students have to solve.

The Design Thinking Process is a non-linear method that enables anyone to solve any problem. The DT process lets people focus on finding solutions. testing ideas, and reevaluating the outcomes.

EMPATHY:

The process usually starts with "empathy work". Basically this just means that we do research and find out what people are experiencing from their point of view. When we know what they need, we can more easily design solutions!

DEFINE:

The define stage is where we look at our empathy research and remove what we don't need. We set a specific problem to work on and write a problem statement which basically tells us what we will be working on.

IDEATE:

Ideate is a nice work for brainstorming. Brainstorming is about QUANTITY over quality. The more ideas we have, the more tools we have to work with when designing a prototype.

PROTOTYPE:

In this stage we reflect on our brainstorms. We look for what is "helpful, realistic (doable), and unique". We look at the feedback we got from peers on our brainstorms and choose what will work best. Then we draft a blueprint which is a plan the clearly lays out what needs to be built.

TEST:

Testing requires a test plan. Basically we look back at the define stage to determine what we need to do to see if our prototype is a success. We test our prototype several times and record the outcomes. Regardless if it works or fails, we analyze our observations and develop ways to further improve our product.

Students in D&I must learn to dive deep. They must learn that failure is only an opportunity to learn and grow even more!

Brainstorming is the heart of D&I. The more ideas they come up with the better!