Overview
Stages
Design awareness
design for function
design with empathy
design for change
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overview
Stages
Design awareness
design for function
design with empathy
design for change
Team
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Design for Change
Step 3
Define Challenge

Define Problem & Ideate

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How might generating MANY different ideas for a solving a problem lead to better solutions?

30 min

Outcome(s): At the end of this lesson, learners will have experience with ideation as an initial and collaborative approach to generating multiple ideas with no wrong answers.


Materials:

  • Define Problem & Ideate Slidedeck
  • Define Problem & Ideate Poster for each Team
  • Ideate Journal Prompt
  • Student Journals
  • Pencil for each participant


1. Launch

Objective: With prompting from slides, learners will turn their narrowed down issue into a problem statement to include on their team’s poster.


2. Explore

Objective: Using the Ideate journal prompt, students will individually draw and write a brainstorm of ideas in their journals. Next, students will bring ideas to their teams to share initial brainstorms before adding collective ideas to the team’s Define Problem & Ideate poster.


3. Summarize

Objective: Learners will listen to What Do You Do with an Idea? Read aloud before having a discussion about exciting ideas that came out of today’s ideation sessions.

View Materials

Define Problem & Ideate
Slide Deck
Define Problem & Ideate
Slide Deck
Define Problem & Ideate
Journal Prompt
Define Problem & Ideate
Poster

Teacher Support

Educational Standards

K-2 ETS1-1 Engineering Design: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. 

3-5-ETS1-1 Engineering Design: Crosscutting Concept - Influence of Science, Engineering, and Technology on Society and the Natural World - People’s needs and wants change over time, as do their demands for new and improved technologies.

Level Up Opportunities
  • Care - Can you keep your potential users in mind in all of your ideas for solutions? 
  • Curious - Can you generate MANY different ideas for possible solutions? When you think you’re done, can you add even more?
  • Courageous - When you think you can’t have any more ideas, can you challenge yourself to think deeper?
  • Collaborator - Can you listen to the ideas of others? Can you make connections between your ideas and the ideas of your teammates?
  • Catalyst for a Better World - People who improve the world are resourceful. If one of your ideas requires that you find more information or ask more questions, go for it!
Journal Examples