In the Design Lab, our goal is to build a learning process that grows with each student. Iteration means revisiting ideas, testing understanding, reflecting on results, and making improvements. As PBLWorks explains, “Students give, receive, and apply feedback to improve their process and products.” This process begins with experiences that spark curiosity. In Year 2, learning to use a multimeter is exciting and new: students start by testing batteries, building skills they can later apply to circuit investigations. Through repeated opportunities to practise and extend this learning, a Year 6 student can draw on these foundations to pursue a project of their own choosing with greater confidence and independence. Each experience builds knowledge, capability, and ownership, helping students become thoughtful, resourceful learners who can continue learning throughout their lives.

Years 2–3: Wonder, make, and share

1. Watch & Wonder — I do: Watch a skill. What do you notice?

2. Find Out — We do: Look, read, and ask. Draw your discoveries.

3. Imagine & Plan — We do: Sketch ideas. Use what you found out.

4. Make & Try — You do: Build a model. Show what happens.

5. Change & Try Again — You do: Improve it. Explain what changed.

6. Share & Explain — You do: Share your creation: “I found out… so I…”

Design journal: Question → Discovery → Choice → Result

Years 5–6: Research, design, and justify

1. Connect & Learn — I do: Learn key skills. See how evidence guides a decision.

2. Research & Define — We do: Compare sources. Ask users. Set success criteria.

3. Design & Justify — We do: Compare solutions. Annotate your choices.

4. Prototype & Test — You do: Build and test. Record results and feedback.

5. Analyse & Refine — You do: Use evidence to improve. Test again, and research further when needed.

6. Present & Defend — You do: Explain your findings, limitations, and next steps.

Design journal: Question → Evidence → Decision → Result

Socratic Seminar Guidelines

Our Socratic circle is a space to ask questions, share ideas, and deepen our thinking together.

• Ask thoughtful questions. Be curious and seek to understand different perspectives.

• Take time to think. Pause and reflect before responding.

• Share your thinking. Explain your ideas and support them with evidence or examples.

• Listen actively. Give others your attention and build on their contributions.

• Use your classmates’ names. When you speak, acknowledge the last speaker by name and connect to their contribution. For example: “Mia, your idea made me think…” or “Building on what Noah said…”

• Speak with respect. Disagree thoughtfully, focus on ideas, and make space for every voice.

• Stay open to growth. Let questions and new perspectives expand or change your thinking.

• Set goals and reflect. Choose a goal for your participation, take steps toward it, and reflect on your progress.

The Design Lab is a creative space for hands-on learning, grounded in the NSW syllabus and our Christian commitment to service and care. Gold Standard Project-Based Learning underpins our projects, supported by explicit teaching, design thinking, collaborative dialogue, and reflection.

1. Gold Standard Project-Based Learning — our project foundation
   Projects centre on meaningful problems and sustained inquiry. Students research, exercise voice and choice, reflect, respond to critique, revise their work, and share outcomes with an authentic audience.
   Key reference: PBLWorks, Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements.

2. Design Thinking — informed by Stanford d.school training
   Professional learning undertaken with Stanford d.school has informed our approach to understanding people’s needs, defining problems, generating ideas, prototyping, and testing. Students use research and feedback to justify and improve their designs.
   Key reference: Stanford d.school, Get Started With Design.

3. Creative, hands-on learning — constructivism and constructionism
   Students build understanding by connecting prior knowledge with practical experiences, discussion, testing, and reflection. Constructionism adds a particularly relevant emphasis: developing understanding through making meaningful, shareable creations. Our tools, materials, and technologies make these approaches possible; purposeful questions and reflection turn activity into learning.
   Key reference: Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991), Situating Constructionism.

4. Exploration, Expression, and Exposition — learning from Brightworks
   Learning from visiting Brightworks has shaped our emphasis on exploring a theme deeply, developing personally meaningful responses, and explaining learning to a community. We value the creative process, including setbacks and revisions, alongside the finished product.
   Key reference: Brightworks, The Arc.

5. Talking circles — Paideia and Socratic seminars
   Our talking circles draw on collaborative intellectual dialogue: students explore a shared text, image, object, or design through open-ended questions. They practise listening, supporting interpretations with evidence, questioning assumptions, and building on others’ ideas.
   Key reference: National Paideia Centre, Paideia Seminar.

6. Visible Thinking and learner agency — Harvard Project Zero
   Project Zero resources and our ongoing Harvard-related professional learning inform activities that make students’ thinking visible. Routines such as See, Think, Wonder support inquiry, while Agency by Design encourages students to look closely, explore complexity, and identify opportunities for change.
   Key references: Harvard Project Zero, Thinking Routines Toolbox and Agency by Design.

7. Team building and connection — Mark Collard and playmeo
   Our connection with playmeo informs purposeful group activities that develop relationships, participation, communication, and cooperation. Reflection helps students transfer learning from these activities into collaborative design work.
   Key references: playmeo and Mark Collard — founder, author, and experiential trainer.

8. Explicit instruction — building confidence and competence
   Teachers model essential knowledge, techniques, and thinking before guiding practice and releasing responsibility. The “I do, we do, you do” approach includes checks for understanding and responsive support throughout projects.
   Key reference: Australian Education Research Organisation (2023), Explicit instruction optimises learning.

9. NSW syllabus — our curriculum foundation
   Design Lab projects are planned around relevant syllabus outcomes and content. Research, design journals, practical demonstrations, testing, and presentations provide evidence of individual learning across connected subject areas.
   Key reference: NSW Education Standards Authority, NSW Curriculum.

10. Christian identity — servant leadership and care
    Our Christian identity shapes how we learn and work together: valuing every student, serving others, sharing responsibility, and designing with compassion. Projects create opportunities to consider whose needs we meet and how our work contributes to others’ wellbeing.
    Foundational biblical references: Mark 10:45 — service; John 13:34–35 — love for others; Philippians 2:3–4 — humility and concern for others.

SWAFFORD - 2026