Design a Chair

Last year some students from the Stanford d.School worked with me to give a design thinking presentation using Nearpod. I really liked the whole design thinking concept and plan to incorporate it frequently this year.

We started off with a chair design activity. First we looked at photos and around the classroom for different types of chairs. We talked about basic parts of all the chairs and how/why they differed. I gave small groups 3 pieces of paper and 1 foot of tape and asked them to design a chair for a specific person (a baby, an elderly person, an astronaut, a very tall person, and a person with a sore back). I saw a similar activity on the Internet somewhere, although I can't recall now where, so this was not my invention.

Students created a chair and then shared with another group. They gave each other positive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Students created a second chair with the same set of supplies (3 new pieces of paper and another foot of tape).

We shared whole class and then I asked each students to reflect in iDiary about how they helped their group in a specific way and how 1 other person in their group was helpful.