Please join us for a weekly conversation about design thinking in K12 education. We will have a variety of moderators with a wide range and depth of design thinking experiences. Each week, we will connect the dots to the design thinking methodology and how it can and will play a bigger role in today’s K12 educational arena.
Let's do a quick round of introductions -- who ya are, what ya do & an interesting bit of learning you've experience for yourself or with others lately #dtk12chat#getthemenginesstarted
Hi #dtk12chat Dave: Director of Tech Integration from MA. I’ve got some family over so I’ll be lurking for the most part, but if @WickedDecent is running something, I’m in.
Trevor Aleo here from the DC suburbs. This week, I've been experimenting with ways to maintain my scheduling sanity in the face of otherwise welcome snow days and delays. #dtk12chat
Good evening #dtk12chat Chris from Round Rock Tx. Decided not to work tonight so I can join these awesome folks. And with @WickedDecent at the helm - it will be a WILD ride!
Chris in Atlanta. I wear several hats at MVPS, but mostly I try work to integrate DT in MS classrooms and with US students through Maker, Design, and Engineering #dtk12chat
Hi y'all. Nate from Nashville. I run an empathy-based makerspace. I learned a lot about empathy this past week from my 7-year-old son. You can read about it later.
https://t.co/HycrQVWsaY#dtk12chat
For folks playing at home, we use ye olde Q1/A1 on #dtk12chat so it's a little easier to keep track of formal questions & answers; tonight's chat will likely splinter into all sorts of interesting directions though . . so no stresses about formalities!
We will be exploring 4 content areas tonight in an endeavor to uncover ways to turn knowledge accumulation experiences into problem solving opportunities; there will be lots of brainstorming, asking #whatif & ideating #dtk12chat
Hi! I'm Angela. I'm a professional learning facilitator and some time writer. This week, a friend ordered cucumber chips instead of tortilla chips when we went out for Mexican food, and I learned that I preferred them. That count? #dtk12chat
Q1 Science STORM! What are central concepts, skills & understandings we tend to see surface in K-12 science classrooms these days? Just throw them out on to the dry erase wall of the twitter verse #dtk12chat
I can’t be on chat tonight). Actually headed to @stanforddschool 4 @k12lab event, but brewing on a social studies/US history/school tradition challenge all wrapped into one. #dtk12chat
In reply to
@WickedDecent, @stanforddschool, @k12lab
Q1 Science STORM! What are central concepts, skills & understandings we tend to see surface in K-12 science classrooms these days? Just throw them out on to the dry erase wall of the twitter verse #dtk12chat
For anyone who's been following me, I've been throwing #learningtransfer all over the place for a while now. Gleaning conceptual knowledge from academic contexts and applying it to real world problems is oh-so-#dtk12chat, so please join everyone!
A1 I need @SobloB for this, but let me see - parts & functions of cells, environmental influences on ecosystems, how to record data, the scientific method, rocks... #dtk12chat
Q1 Science STORM! What are central concepts, skills & understandings we tend to see surface in K-12 science classrooms these days? Just throw them out on to the dry erase wall of the twitter verse #dtk12chat
Just jumping in...hi #dtk12chat! Rachel here, coordinating IDEO’s @TeachersGuild in NE Ohio. Started an IDEO U course today called Insights for Innovation.
Just got an engineering box from @JDF James Dyson Foundation. Really awesome opportunity for Ss to jump in and experience it. https://t.co/OpCXEni4NN#dtk12chat
A1 Some hallmarks of science courses at Mt Blue Campus: cell structures & functions; plate tectonics; Newton's laws of motion; habitats & ecosystems; circuits #dtk12chat
A1 For the intermediate grades we see a lot of Earth science (water and rock cycles along with environmental science), simple machines, chemistry, and energy. #dtk12chat
Q1 Science STORM! What are central concepts, skills & understandings we tend to see surface in K-12 science classrooms these days? Just throw them out on to the dry erase wall of the twitter verse #dtk12chat
A1: I'm an ELA guy, so bear with me, but I feel like "systems" are a recurring concept within the sciences. It also has the most potential for #learningtransfer, considering the indelible role systems play in our daily lives. #dtk12chat
Q2 Now, take a look at those oft studied science concepts: cell structures & functions, laws of motion, biomimicry, etc & propose some #whatif statements that suggest ways to leverage that knowledge in the service of solving local problems #dtk12chat
"The Law of Conservation of Fun: Fun can be neither made nor destroyed, by ordinary means." An annoying thing I used to say in high school when accused by a certain friend of "making fun." #dtk12chat
A2 #WhatIf students worked with accessibility & universal design advocates & action organizations to design access points for users of wheelchairs & other mobility devices based on understanding of laws of motion? #dtk12chat#STEM#empathyengines
A2 #whatif the environmental concepts HAD to be studied outside of a classroom & in service of a local state or national park #dtk12chat I don't know enough to say what problem they'd work on, but I bet there's a few
Q2 Now, take a look at those oft studied science concepts: cell structures & functions, laws of motion, biomimicry, etc & propose some #whatif statements that suggest ways to leverage that knowledge in the service of solving local problems #dtk12chat
Q2 Now, take a look at those oft studied science concepts: cell structures & functions, laws of motion, biomimicry, etc & propose some #whatif statements that suggest ways to leverage that knowledge in the service of solving local problems #dtk12chat
A2: What if the system that created my local problem and the one that is working to solve it are one and the same? #WhatIf we are the problem and the solution? #dtk12chat
#dtk12chat Q2 What if we embraced a more indigenous mindset about our relationship to the earth? What if we had a slower lifestyle with less dependence on convenience and the extreme waste it produces?
OK #dtk12chat, here goes with science; what if: a cell wall has prolonged exposure to nicotine? the temperature of the ocean increases .5 degrees? an invasive species goes unchecked?
A2 #WhatIf the water cycle were interrupted? What would that mean for coastal communities? Where would we go for answers? Who might we talk to and how might we gather data? #scichat#dtk12chat
OK #dtk12chat here goes with science; what if: a cell wall has prolonged exposure to nicotine? the temperature of the ocean increases .5 degrees? an invasive species goes unchecked?
LOVE this and #whatif the local parks department/service provided a list of problems they are currently facing the relate to #environmentalscience & Ss had to unpack the standards to see which they needed to focus on in order to help solve the problem? #dtk12chat#STEM
A2: What if the cause of the large amount of food waste at our school and how might we implement better opportunities to reduce organic food waste? #dtk12chat
Yes! And #whatif there were simple machines available in every MARTA station to improve the lives of riders? #whatif student riders identified pain points, designed solutions w #creativeconstraints that solution must use at least 2 simple machines? #STEM#dtk12chat
LOVE this and #whatif the local parks department/service provided a list of problems they are currently facing the relate to #environmentalscience & Ss had to unpack the standards to see which they needed to focus on in order to help solve the problem? #dtk12chat#STEM
A2 What if in studying systems we could reach out to the community to find out ways to improve how those systems affect our neighborhoods or specific groups of community members? #dtk12chat
A2: What if we partnered any of the aforementioned concepts with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals to bring relevance and purpose to the why behind studying these concepts. #dtk12chat
Thanks for the kind words; #whatif it was less churn & more burn? #whatif those solutions & perspectives were well developed, prototyped, implemented, published etc. rather than just dumpster projects that exist for a grading period? #dtk12chat#appleeduchat
Q3 Let's do another content area brainstorm -- what are commonly explored concepts, skills, understandings in mathematics K-12! I know it's broad AND there are some regularly featured players, I reckon #dtk12chat#STEM
I love this idea. There is a young woman, currently a student at Stanford that founded TGIF, which turns used vegetable oil into renewable energy to provide heating sources for the homeless. #dtk12chat
A2: There are a lot of naturally occurring structures and patterns that could help us innovate our complex systems. How can we better organize our living, travel, and work spaces to better align with the natural world? #dtk12chat
Q3 Let's do another content area brainstorm -- what are commonly explored concepts, skills, understandings in mathematics K-12! I know it's broad AND there are some regularly featured players, I reckon #dtk12chat#STEM
A3: Considering we're living in a #posttruth vortex of #fakenews, deep fakes, bot farms, etc. what can proofs and logic teach us about how to separate fact from fiction in our own lives? Our communities? The media? #dtk12chat
A3 For the elem set: place value, algorithms of major operations, number sense, graphing, geometry, fractions, time, measurement, money, and communicating mathematical understanding. #dtk12chat
Q4 Now, just as we did w science -- to great aplomb -- a few moments ago, how might students learn those essential skills, understandings, concepts of mathematics in the service of problem solving in their communities? #dtk12chat#STEM#empathyengines
What is great about math is that it can be brought into EVERY and ANY problem or project. Do you have to measure? Do you have to use statistics? Do you have to have numeracy? Bring it into E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G #dtk12chat
#dtk12chat A4) Startup an #EdCorp and then determine how to equally share your profits among the X amount of charities you have committed to supporting.
A4 #WhatIf students applied functions & computational thinking to better determine lunch shift rotations (which classes should go when & based on what variables) and/or helped to determine menus based on math logic & patterns of behavior? #dtk12chat
A4: How might we furnish our classroom, library etc. to better meet the needs of a our learning community? and what if that community is growing each year? or shrinking? #dtk12chat
A4 #Whatif we monitored water consumption at home and at school, generating graphic representations of use in volume. Then we can see ways we could conserve thus connecting to our science question. PSAs. #dtk12chat
And had a budget and materials to build had a cost to them; and a size constraint; and that you had to mark the guaranteed hole in one spot proven through angles #dtk12chat
A4: what if you could build a tiny house on a piece of shared property for a 2nd family to offset the tax increase in a community going through gentrification #dtk12chat#notsureIsaidthatRight
A4 #WhatIf HS students designed commuter routes to and from school that maximized vehicle efficiency while minimizing gas costs & distributed those routes for all student drivers and families to use? #dtk12chat#STEM
Ooohh... I like this. What if we empower students to reallocate time during the day (schedule redesign) to meet our non-negotiables and maximize our driving priorities? #dtk12chat
A4: #Whatif our students could learn something important about data collection and analysis by learning more about what's happening in the wake of this local disaster? #dtk12chat
A4 what if you could design a vehicle that provides a service to your community? Ss use area, volume, etc. to design the vehicle and empathy to give it a purpose #dtk12chat
Q4: I'd love to see math used to help figure out the student debt crisis somehow.. or at least draw attention to predatory lending practices #dtk12chat
Just wait -- soon self-driving cars will drop us off and school and go home to park for the day, then come back to pick us up after work... redesign your campus if you no longer need parking lots! #dtk12chat
or food waste and converted to energy wasted from fuel, production, packaging... or packaging waste - volume of product vs volume of packaging and recycle vs landfill #dtk12chat
a4 #WhatIf students had to design 4 visualizations of data sets collected with regards to incidents of bullying & intolerance on campus as well as recorded incidents of random acts of kindness ? #dtk12chat#STEM
That Star-Bellied Neecha is the world-champion theorist of the smudgy line between true and false. Postmodern waaaay before pomo came to town. #dtk12chat
What I love about all these ideas is that so many of them have ppl working on solutions. FB, LinkedIn, YouTube have great videos showing innovative concepts #dtk12chat
A4 #whatif Ss took ANY problem in community & presented the problem & possible solutions using ONLY math - as in, no narratives, no "maybes" - just cold hard numbers charted, documented, & manipulated in various ways - would it change proposals/thinking? #dtk12chat
I think it is interesting that none of the things brought up under the "Math" umbrella need to be labeled as Math. These are problems where math is used but it does not need to be the focus of the design problem. #lovemath#dtk12chat
...continuing with the riff...
#whatif we gathered the data on packaging vs product and used it to begin communicating with manufacturers and communities to cast light on an environmental threat. HMW change the way products are sold? #dtk12chat
A5 Now . . I see the hour is getting late so I don't want us to spend ALL the time in STEM land . . .let's combine Social Studies & ELA for our purposes tonight as #Humanities: what are some common concepts in the Humanities Ss are expected to know? #dtk12chat#empathyengines
Our 4th gr Ss last year presented their erosion bluff control prototypes to city council since our beaches are actively eroding. It's powerful to see them engaged #dtk12chat
Agreed, and agree with earlier point that math touches it all! I struggle getting math teachers to use DT or PBL in the classroom though for exactly this reason! It's not the focus, so they don't feel they have the time to dedicate the other stuff to tuck in the math #dtk12chat
A5: Huzzah! Now we're talking. The ideas of chaos, order, and power come up frequently in literature and throughout history. Understanding the interplay of those concepts can do a lot to help us design balanced systems and communities. #dtk12chat
oh yeah! Or at least compared similar products so families/kids could make informed choices about which one to buy. Once upon I time I showed the power of bulk purchase and putting in own reuseable container vs single serve; kids were shocked at $ dff #dtk12chat
It really comes down to is there a human centered problem being solved or is there just a computation being figured out that has no actual purpose or use #dtk12chat#stem
A5 Decoding skills, literary devices, page and plot formats, characterization, persuasive writing, memoir, narrative, poetry, cultural investigations, industrial revolution, and on and on. #dtk12chat
I'm on a citizens science board that is eager to begin bringing this kind of learning to our local kids. I don't consult locally, and this isn't my wheelhouse, but I'm hopeful and eager to volunteer and help. #dtk12chat
In reply to
@LSpencerEdD, @CDMdreamers, @SarahZRaskin
A6 And now lets finish it off with some #Humanities#WhatIfs -- how might help students to learn humanities related content in the service of solving problems in their communities? #dtk12chat#empathyengines
a5: circle of viewpoints, systems thinking and order of events, historical distancing, and a holistic approach to literacy (thinking Barthes sign and mythologies here) #dtk12chat
A5: The humanities are all about storytelling. How can we teach Ss to use narrative as a heuristic to understand history? Then how can we empower them to take that knowledge to better understand our current political reality? Finally, how stories can FIX that reality. #dtk12chat
A5: The humanities are all about storytelling. How can we teach Ss to use narrative as a heuristic to understand history? Then how can we empower them to take that knowledge to better understand our current political reality? Finally, how stories can FIX that reality. #dtk12chat
Have students write open letters to the antagonists of their lives. #dtk12chat Then have them switch papers with other students and have them compose responses--from the POV of the antagonist.
A6 Something we did do as we studied historical & current issues around immigration was to interview immigrants. Turned their stories into articles & then talked about how we might make the transition into our communities easier. HMW develop a system/tool to help? #dtk12chat
a6: systems thinking, moving context to back and forth between local and global, like a powers of 10 exercise, defining the problem in the immediate environment in order to approach the larger issue #dtk12chat
My challenge to my #dtk12chat family & friends: as folks get overwhelmed by the notion of transforming schools into human centered problem solving engines at a large scale, help them find ways to explore at the classroom level -- the lesson, the unit #appleeduchat
… or, this quote I was playing with a few days ago…. "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe” - John Muir #dtk12chat
This was a fun chat. Thanks @WickedDecent for the idea. And thanks to everyone who shared awesome ideas that I'm going to curate and use at work! #dtk12chat
#dtk12chat#stem I may be missing something, but istm that you still need student design. S's tcan compute the carbon footprint of a car with a lower % gas consumption. But if I ask them to Design an algorithm for comparing cars' impact including multiple factors, that's design.
communication is key across all topic areas & so important for telling others their discoveries & ideas; but also that sharing is different from reflection; being able to document what was learned is equally vital #dtk12chat
A6: what if we collected regional "sayings" as a way to map our own immigration stories (or songs sung to us as children or prayers shared at home) #dtk12chat
