History Class in D-Lab
5th Grade History: Time Machines & Story Preservation
Inspiration: 5th grade Social Studies unit on caves and early man.
Challenge: "How might we share stories with people 5000 years in the future? "
Process: Students used this customized design thinking template to:
- empathize with a partner's needs & desires (what story would they like preserved?)
- identify and define a problem worth solving
- ideate (brainstorm)
- prototype (build)
- get feedback and revise
Examples:
"Sofia loves art and would like a way to tell people 5000 years in the future about the role of art on earth."
"Rory needs a way to tell people in the future that we used cars but like people, cars come in different shapes and sizes."
Pre-Design Challenge: Based on cave art drawings studies studied in Social Studies and prompted with brief instruction about visual notetaking techniques to show flow and hierarchy of information, students drew personal story maps that portrayed the chronological story of their life and their value systems on one sheet of paper.
It's a cycle! Prototyping was intentionally rapid so designers could get quick feedback about their ideas without having to undo something they spent a lot of time on.
Students were not limited to the materials they used from the room, but we did eventually make a hot glue budget!
Share, reflect...Designers wrote inventor statements (like an artist's statement) and we went on a "gallery walk," providing written feedback in the form of:
- "I like..."
- "I wonder.."
- "What if...?"
6th grade History: Redesigning the Gift-Giving Experience
Inspiration: A recurring concept explored in Mr. Glazick's class that gift-giving traditions in ancient civilizations provide insight into value systems and social systems.
Challenge: "Redesign the Gift Giving Experience"
Process: 6 Redesign the Gift-Giving Experience using design thinking framework.
Prototypes Come in All Shapes and Sizes
A prototype is a physical representation of an idea and can come in all degrees of "resolution," from recycled materials like cardboard and bottle caps to models created in 3D software (we use Tinkercad.com) and printed on 3D printers.
For these 4-day design units in 5th and 6th grades, students prototyped quickly, to get their ideas into each other's hands so the process of feedback can begin
Communicate, Explain
After you've designed your concept, it's critical that you explain it clearly to people. There are many ways to "sell" an idea, including making annotated graphics. Students labeled images of their prototypes in Google Drawing with explanations about what functions each physical features represented.
