1. Teaching “Achieve Skills” Through Design Thinking

2. AGENDA PROGRAMS & APPROACH STUDENT PROFILE SUMMER SUCCESS
DESIGN THINKING: WHY & HOW
OTHER APPLICATIONS
Q & A

3. Our Programs & Approach

4. Our Model

5. STUDENT PROFILE

6. Margarita Muniz Academy
75% of youth & families identify as Latino
60% of youth & families live or attend school in Mission Hill
60% of youth are English Learners
Dearborn STEM
James P. Timilty
Mario Umana
Maurice J. Tobin
Boston International
Charlestown HS
Fenway HS
Madison Park VTHS
Margarita Muniz Academy
98% of high school participants have attended for 2+ years
45% of high schools participants began in STEAM Team

7. Skills growth is measured through, SAYO assessments, youth outcomes toolkit, and the holistic student assessment.
STUDENT SUCCESS

8. 85% of youth increased optimism for the future
90% built cultural proficiency and pride in their own culture, race or ethnic group
92% of youth increased learning skills & academic motivation
95% built a caring relationship with a trusted adult
96% of youth increased reflection skills
93% of youth increased resiliency and sense of self

9. DESIGN THINKING: Why & How

10. Do Now!
Design the ideal plan for a work space. Include seating arrangements, how someone would interact with co-workers, etc.

11. Great! What we just did was simple problem solving.
What we use in our STEAM Team & emprende programs is a “design thinking” process. We use this process to create innovative products & projects within our group sessions. But at our core we believe that by using this process young people develop a mindset that they can use in other areas of their life.
Through design thinking students are coached to think critically about a problem at hand, reach creative conclusions. And learn that the challenges & mistakes that happen are some of the most important parts of the process.
In this session we will walk through a design thinking exercise we use to introduce the basic concepts to youth in both our middle & high school STEM programs. We will also have some time to debrief & brainstorm how this process could apply to a variety of content areas & programs.

12. Step One: Empathize Understand:
who is affected? what is their experience?
PAIRS
INTERVIEW
SWITCH!
REFLECTION & INSIGHTS
So lets return to our original task: Redesigning our work space. In the design thinking process, we design not for ourselves, but for other users. In order to do this in an authentic way you must first understand their needs and their lived experience.
So lets first find a partner
Ask participants to stand up & move slightly away from their chairs/tables: Who can explain the rules of Simon Says to the group? (get consensus from the team)
Simon Says: Shake it out (shake arms)
Simon Says: Tap your left foot
Simon Says: Say “Hello Friends”
Simon Says: Touch the floor
Simon Says: Touch the wall
Simon Says: Find a partner
Okay great-- everyone sit down with your partner & bring with you the Design thinking packet you started with and turn to the second page.
We begin the design thinking process with building empathy for the other person through an interview,
Review the questions.
Tell the students to begin with these questions first, and if they have time they can ask additional questions based on their partners’ responses. Make sure to take notes in the area provided as your partner shares.
After 4 minutes we will switch roles
After both interviews are complete, ask each participant to think about what his or her partner said, and capture some thoughts in the box marked “Insights.” Give the students 1 minute to capture insights.
Reflect:
What does he/she like about the cafeteria experience? What problems does he/she face? What does he/she dislike about the cafeteria experience? What does he/she need to make the cafeteria experience better?
Record these in your insights section

13. Writing a Needs Statement:
Step Two: Define
Determine:
what is the problem? what do i want to solve?
Writing a Needs Statement:
Lydia needs a way to find a quiet space to write because she finds it hard to write in shared work space.
Now that we know a bit more about how our partner experiences their office or workspace we need to define the problem we want to solve. To do this we will write a Needs Statement
A Needs Statement is a way to synthesize what they heard in their interviews, there are three main parts of a Needs Statement: user, need, and insight. Tell the students that the need must be a verb, and the insight is something that stood out to them as something that was important to their partners with respect to their office space.

14. Step Three: Ideate Brainstorm: what are all the possible solutions?
Come up with AT LEAST 15 ideas for different ways to meet your user’s needs.
No idea is too wild! Write them individually on post-its to move quickly to the next.

15. Step Four: Prototype Build:
what can I create? how do i best represent my vision to others?
Now that you have gotten all your best, worst, and craziest ideas out, choose the one you are most excited about building for your partner.
Explain-- when using this in our classrooms the prototyping phase often lasts a whole session with students able to build a physical model of their solution-- that way both partners can interact with the solutions and truly determine if it is a viable solution.
Today, we are going to use the sketch space provided on page 4 to demonstrate your vision. Think about-- how will they experience this? how do i know they understand what i am communicating?

16. Step Five: Test
Ask: what input do other have? how do I perfect my design? did i solve the original problem?
Present your solution to your partner
What feedback to they have?
What needs to be adapted?
Begin Again.

17. Reflect 2 Minutes: Individually reflect on your experience
Pair & Share
What are your top 2 reflections?

18. OTHER APPLICATIONS/ADAPTATIONS

19. Sentence Stems to Promote Achieve Skills
Why?
Introduce students to language patterns
Provide prompts to help ELs create full sentences
Provide structure to verbal contributions
Emphasize specific skills
When
Small group discussions
Reflection at end of class

20. Evidence of Social Emotional Skill Suggested Sentence Stems
CRITICAL THINKING: the ability to analyze and evaluate information. This can involve questioning, problem solving, forming arguments, debating, comparing & contrasting
Evidence of Social Emotional Skill
Aligned Cognitive Skill
Suggested Sentence Stems
Perspective Taking
Problem Solving
Reflection
Forming Interpretations
Revising Meaning
Predicting
Analyzing
I agree with what_______ said because________
I disagree with what_______ said because _______
This reminds me of________
I wonder _______
What would happen if _______
I predict _______ because _______
How come _______ ?
I know that _______ because _______
The most challenging thing was _______
Today I asked _______
I thought _______ was_______ because_______

21. Evidence of Perseverance Aligned Cognitive Skills
PERSEVERANCE: the ability to continue with a task despite encountering obstacles and challenges.
Evidence of Perseverance
Aligned Cognitive Skills
Suggested Sentence Stems
Embracing Mistakes
Values Process of Product
Goal Setting
Monitoring
Clarifying
Recognizing Connections
Another strategy I could use could be_______
I predict if I change _______ then_______
At first I thought _______ but now I ______
Today I was successful because_______
The pattern I noticed was______
To understand better, I need to know more about__________
I want to know more about _______
My top priority is______
The next step I need to take is _________

22. Debrief & Questions

23. Contact Info:
Lydia Emmons