This short exercise introduces teachers and students to design thinking. Students are challenged to design a watering system for a school garden that can be sustained with minimal human intervention during summer break. Students will gain an understanding of the needs of various stakeholder groups through empathic interviewing.
In this activity, students are challenged to design a prototype machine or tool that is capable of restoring balance to Earth’s damaged ecosystems. Teachers should build prior knowledge related to the concepts of sustainability and ecosystems before the design day.
Teachers and students at Richmond elementary schools, including Lord Byng and Tomekichi Homma, have been examining how mathematics can be experienced in the community, and connecting with stories of place. Inspired by the book Tluuwaay Waadluxan Mathematical Adventures, created by Elders, educators, community members, and students in Haida Gwaii, the Richmond teachers and students have looked for mathematics in their community and posed and solved problems of interest to them.
This learning activity shows an example of cross-curricular teaching in which students have an opportunity to be innovators and constructors of their own learning. In focusing on designing and marketing a product, this learning activity mirrors the interdisciplinary nature of the world: to be successful in business it is important to have creative ideas, good communication skills, and a solid understanding of financial matters. Therefore, it felt natural and realistic to combine Math, Applied Design, and Language Arts in this activity.
Through this Makerspace activity, students come to know that Arts Education/Design and Science share a common process that involves the development and testing of hypotheses through direct investigation. Makerspaces incorporate thinking, inquiry, making and hands-on experiential learning through active engagement within small groups.
One of the key understandings that this project elicited was that the visual arts can be a really powerful way for students to share their learning in a way that may not be possible in other disciplines.