In the last couple of years I've tried to move beyond simply offering "color by numbers" programming lessons. Rather, a number of the programming and digital making lessons in my classes are now centered around solving a real problem or designing for a "user".
Some background on design thinking...
Design thinking is an iterative and creative problem solving method that has been in play in the business world for several decades and has really been made popular in recent decades by IDEO and the Stanford d.School. It's only been in about the last 10 years (if that) that design thinking has made it's way into education and K-12 classrooms.CSI design model |
The design model that we created for, and use at, CSI is the Seek, Learn, Lead circular model. Using this model, we challenge our students to become opportunity seekers, innovators and reflective designers and makers.
My 1st design + programming project
I've always been a fan of project-based programming lessons, but during the 2017-18 school year I wanted to up the ante a bit. So I partnered with talented art teacher, Kimiyo Cordero, and my creative TOSA colleague at the time, Misty Kluesner, to develop a project that challenged a group of middle school art students to learn some programming with the goal of creating a piece of art for an authentic audience. We asked students how they might create a statement piece about the environment for an audience of their peers and families by simulating the aurora with recycled materials and LEDs. (more details about the Aurora Borealis project available here)Most of the students had zero experience coding and couldn't fathom the relationship between programming and art. But knowing that the plan was to make something unique for an authentic audience, they hesitantly agreed to give it a try. Over the course of about 5 class periods I introduced our group of 7th and 8th graders to physical computing using the Raspberry Pi, Sense HAT and lots and lots of loose LEDs. It didn't take long for students to begin experimenting with their programs to create more interesting lighting effects to potentially use in their sculptures and paintings.
Knowing they were creating their work for someone other than their teachers inspired them to invest more thought and energy into learning and making, and inspired me to develop more design-focused computer science content in order to bring empathy and meaning to our project-based programming lessons.
Learning CS through the design process
1. CS lessons are designed around opportunities/problems
2nd grade design brainstorm |
For example, one of the NGSS 2nd grade performance expectations is for students to make observations of plants and animals in different habitats, and my grade level team thought, 'wouldn't it be fun to find a way to authentically observe nature in our local urban habitat?' A perfect opportunity to incorporate some digital making with our Raspberry Pi computers! Unfortunately, this was not a question that students had posed as of yet, so we led a little guided brainstorm session during which we asked students to help us come up with ideas for safely and respectfully observing urban wildlife on campus. As students built on each others' ideas, we, as a class, eventually landed on trying to build and program a camera that would take pictures of animals as they set off a motion sensor nearby.
Touch sensor wildlife camera with Pibrella and MakeyMakey |
2. Projects are empathy-based
The heart of design thinking is empathy. Design thinking helps students develop a mindset of innovating for the purpose of improving the lives of, and helping, others. Approaching computer science instruction through the lens of design thinking has inspired many of my young students to want to learn even more about programming and digital making as they discover just what you can create once you learn some basic electronics, coding and computer science skills. While they have fun playing games to learn on Code.org, it's when they are challenged to create for someone else that my students really push their thinking.Auto pet feeder prototype with motor & ExplorerHAT |
Thinking empathetically in design also transfers into other areas of their lives. Once students begin to develop a mindset for understanding other people, their motivations and their needs, they begin to think that way more often in their social lives as well. Giving them specific skills for understanding others in design means they also now have those specific skills to draw from when communicating with friends, settling conflicts or learning to understand someone else's unique characteristics or abilities.
Watch rapid prototype |
3. Rapid prototyping & personalized learning through "authentic" builds
Students are highly engaged in computer science through design thinking because they are learning programming while creating authentic artifacts. Even my 2nd graders, with their introductory skills in programming and digital making can at least create "rapid prototypes" that mimic what their final device would look like. Rapid prototyping is the process of quickly creating a physical mock up of the design solution that you've envisioned. Sometimes my students come up with some really great ideas-- like the wallet scanner that a student wanted to build for his dad so that he'd never again be surprised that it was time for a trip to the ATM-- but don't yet have the skills (and, often, neither do I) to build a working model. However, students can create a rapid digital prototype that showcases what it is that their invention would do.Google Classroom for personalized resources |
4. Reflect, Iterate & Develop Patience
Early in the school year, during last year's primary election season, we studied government with our 2nd graders and talked about the importance of voting. We also read an article about how slow it can be for votes to be counted and the effect that has on the election process. Students then brainstormed ideas for "speeding up" the vote counting process and decided on creating a voting app because it could automatically calculate votes as people submitted.
At the start of the school year, most of our 2nd graders had little to no coding experience, so the work we started in Scratch at this point was complicated and at times frustrating. That being said, not a single student gave up on the project. They worked with each other to learn and fix their bugs, several made creative changes to their projects that made them unique from our class project, and some spent the entire school year continuing to iterate and improve upon their app as they learn more programming during the year. This kind of commitment to improving a project is unlike anything I'd ever seen before in my 10 years of teaching! For me, this was a testament to the impact that design thinking has on not just computer science instruction, but on learning in general.
Nice Blog, Thanks for sharing this information among us. Keep Sharing!!
ReplyDeleteAre you looking for the best institute for Design Thinking Course in Noida, Delhi?
Join Design Thinking Course