Fostering Problem Solvers of the Future
By Aaron Patching
Today’s modern world is plagued with problems such as climate change, water scarcity, growing mental health concerns, global energy crisis, human migration and not to mention the ability to find a lid that fits the Tupperware container I’ve just picked out of the cupboard. With all this in mind, we, as a general population, are still left with the biggest problem of them all… who is going to fix it?
That’s the question we ask ourselves at Inventor Club all the time, and funnily enough we think we know who it will be. Simply put, it will be the problem solvers of the world. The people who are not afraid to fail, to iterate or challenge the status quo.
Where do we find these magical people, I hear you cry?
Unfortunately, these types of people are not found, they are made. The most effective way of developing critical thinkers is through direct experience. They are made from their experiences and the problems they have already overcome or the situations they have found themselves in. I believe that as design and technology educators it is our job to provide those experiences and challenges to strengthen our student’s resilience, creativity and resolve, to create these magical problem solvers of the future.
Don’t panic, I am not suggesting for one second that teachers should be aiming to scaffold their students to the answer for cold fusion (please feel free to tackle the Tupperware debacle though!). We should, however, be posing open ended and difficult scenarios where the outcome is uncertain. The problem should be something manageable for their age, ability, and knowledge, in my experience the more whimsical the better!
I know that contextual learning is nothing new, especially to D&T teachers but to be truly contextual and similar to real world scenarios, the outcome cannot already be known. It’s very hard to get students to explore an issue if the teacher has already told them they are making a line bent phone holder and provided a booklet that guides them all to the same conclusion. It’s pretty much the same thing as trying not to think about a pink elephant after somebody just told you to not think about the pink elephant!
This is something we do every Tuesday night at our Inventor Club sessions in Swindon. It starts with a theme, for instance “Air”. We then discuss what we mean by air and guide the conversation around its uses to us; a way to clean (Hoovers), a way to travel (aeroplane) a way to propel (canons). We then summarise our thoughts as a group and decide upon a problem to solve, in our case this term it was to:
“Create a paper airplane launcher for my grandma, so she can compete at the paper airplane world championships.”
Now students are sent off to ideate, test, evaluate and repeat. In our clubs we extensively stick to modelling materials because we want the focus to be on the problem solving. To do that you need to test and iterate as quickly as possible, so we try to remove as many barriers as possible. Plus, cardboard is awesome! If you don’t believe me, watch the video above!
This doesn’t mean that learning is shallow or superficial. With one group, we had various outcomes that were both mechanical and electrical. To get to that point we had to talk about forces, trajectories, friction, weight distribution… the list goes on. The main point being, that every single student had been through a successful cycle of the design process, several times and was able to act upon their own designs
To ensure success, it is vital that the utmost consideration is given to the problem that is posed to your students and this can sometimes be the hardest part. You need challenges that are engaging and challenging but not so much to stifle creativity due to a lack of knowledge or skill. Therefore, we are giving away with this article a copy of a problem from our soon to be released “Problem of the Week” initiative which will be completely free to schools.
This will be a collection of 52 real world problems for students to solve, not just in lessons but in their own time or when they are at their most creative. Each problem will come as two sheets with the problem, some research prompts, inspiration, and ways to test their solution.
The problem below, is the very first problem that gave birth to Inventor Club and started our journey as entrepreneurs. This is free to download for all readers.
