I started the day with a plan, finish designing a set of chess pieces and make a chess board out of vinyl and cardboard. The chess pieces were to be 3D printed and the board would be made by creating a decal using the vinyl cutter and sticking it onto cardboard. I quickly finished designing the chess pieces and got permission to print two complete sides, one blue and one red. While working on the vinyl decal, the director, Lindsey, said to me, "why don't you etch the chess board on wood instead?" Seems like I can't go a day without using the laser cutter here. After removing the chess board, my 12" by 12" piece of vinyl had a lot of extra room. So of course I learned how to transfer Banksy's graffiti images into Adobe Illustrator, clean them up, and them make them into vinyl decals. And I still had plenty of time to create a chess board image and choose the color of plexiglass (staying true to one material for my chess project) that I would etch it into using the laser cutter.
Design is not a linear process. It has eddies, places where your path turns back on itself and times when your plan needs to be rewritten. My adventure today would not have been complete without the turns it took, and all Lindsey had to do was ask me a question. I've long tried to be the kind of teacher who provides more questions than answers. Kids find it frustrating at times. But I'm trying to empower them to think through the details themselves. I'm afraid that teachers will complain that there is no room for design thinking because the curriculum is already too full. But what if problem solving and design thinking were the curriculum. The other stuff, language, history, math, or science, what if those subjects simply provided a context to frame a problem. What if students learned the resilience to iterate through several solutions before they found a (not the) right one. What if they were then challenged to find a better solution than the one that already works. An engineer turned teacher can dream.
At the end of the day the OES contingent met to discuss the EC3 Design Center. We talked about our guiding principles and how to tie the design process to the Essential Competencies of OES. Here is my initial shot at a solution (the challenge is to make it better in the next iteration):
1. EXPLORE ideas
What is the problem? What is the goal?
What are the constraints?
2. CREATE a solution
Is it authentic? Are you being intentional?
Is it new? Did you innovate?
Did you do your best work with your highest level of craftsmanship?
3. CONNECT your solution to other people
Does your solution work? Do people like it?
Were your goals and constraints met?
Were they the correct goals and constraints?
4. COMMIT to improvement
How can you make your solution better?
Does your solution work for all types of people without discrimination?
Is your solution sustainable?
Design is not a linear process. It has eddies, places where your path turns back on itself and times when your plan needs to be rewritten. My adventure today would not have been complete without the turns it took, and all Lindsey had to do was ask me a question. I've long tried to be the kind of teacher who provides more questions than answers. Kids find it frustrating at times. But I'm trying to empower them to think through the details themselves. I'm afraid that teachers will complain that there is no room for design thinking because the curriculum is already too full. But what if problem solving and design thinking were the curriculum. The other stuff, language, history, math, or science, what if those subjects simply provided a context to frame a problem. What if students learned the resilience to iterate through several solutions before they found a (not the) right one. What if they were then challenged to find a better solution than the one that already works. An engineer turned teacher can dream.
At the end of the day the OES contingent met to discuss the EC3 Design Center. We talked about our guiding principles and how to tie the design process to the Essential Competencies of OES. Here is my initial shot at a solution (the challenge is to make it better in the next iteration):
1. EXPLORE ideas
What is the problem? What is the goal?
What are the constraints?
2. CREATE a solution
Is it authentic? Are you being intentional?
Is it new? Did you innovate?
Did you do your best work with your highest level of craftsmanship?
3. CONNECT your solution to other people
Does your solution work? Do people like it?
Were your goals and constraints met?
Were they the correct goals and constraints?
4. COMMIT to improvement
How can you make your solution better?
Does your solution work for all types of people without discrimination?
Is your solution sustainable?
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