Design Thinking

On Friday my students and I were lucky enough to have 2 students from the Stanford Design School visit. We ran through a Nearpod Design Thinking presentation they had created.

I was a little unsure ahead of time about how the concepts would go over with my students. I wasn't sure how easily they would be able to relate to the college students in the videos and the real world problems of third world countries that are so far removed from Silicon Valley life.

However, the lesson was quite successful. The Nearpod presentation has been put together in easy to understand chunks. There was a good mix of text, videos, and response slides. Even though they're 1st and 2nd graders my students were able to relate to concepts dealt with in design thinking. For example, we could relate empathy to life on the playground and Project Cornerstone. Observation is something we talk about frequently during science experiments. Sharing stories is something they love to do all the time! Perseverance happens during math centers when I won't tell them the solution to a tangram puzzle. Creativity is a skill during writing and art.

It was also a perfect time to talk about design thinking because closer to the end of the month we will have several periods of "passion" time when students will think about something they enjoy, relate that to a problem and work on creative solutions.

1st Graders Popplet Character's Feelings

As part of a response to Mo Willem's Knufflebunny and Knufflebunny Too, students thought about Trixie and different feelings she experienced. They created a Popplet that listed 4 different feelings she experienced and explained the circumstances in which she had that feeling.

1st Graders Choose a Career

Students are studying different careers. After reading and discussing careers, students picked the career they would most want to do from those we studied. Pairs of students who chose the same career created an Educreations, Sonic Pics, or 30 Hands video explaining why they liked that career and what they would do as part of their job in that career.

Educreations

2nd Graders Create Word Problems with Missing Addend

Students created scenes using the Farmyard app. They brought 3 different scenes into Educreations and narrated 3 word problems, all with one addend as the unknown.

Educreations

2nd Grade US Symbols

As with last year, 2nd grade students studied US symbols. Pairs each chose 1 of the 8 symbols we studied and created a presentation to teach//remind the rest of the class about what we had learned. Presentations were created with either Educreations, My Story, or Pic Collage.