This lesson introduces students to the Design Thinking process, a process used by engineers and designers to help them problem solve. It focuses on empathy and has students think about what someone might need and why they might need it.
This would be a great lesson to schedule before our Engineering Design Process and Reverse Engineering lessons.
(Most appropriate for grade levels 4-8.)
Lesson Time: 60-90 minutes
Student Activity 1: Earth has sent a group of travelers to create a new city on a new planet. These Citizens began to build their city and they’be started to identify social problems that stand in the way of building a thriving city. They are coming across some challenges relating to health, safety, communication, transportation, and more—problems that they need help to solve. Our young designers will invent solutions to these problems and help create a successful city.
Group work: Please decide if you would rather have your students work on their own or in small groups of 2 or 3. In order to save time, teachers are asked to create the groups before our Wizard arrives.
Science Standards:
3. Please see the Nature of Science document on our Lesson Standards page.