Operation Ideation is a summer program for students entering grades 6, 7 and 8 in the fall of 2018. Students are learning and will practice the process of design thinking. Once students have mastered the five parts, they will have many chances to apply their learning to a variety of problems, with the last week being authentic and relevant problems around space travel.
On Monday, students began the journey, learning the five foundational steps of design thinking. They read about each step, then in teams, designed creative posters interpreting the significance of each step. The hope is that students will begin considering how Human-Centered Design might be relevant to their lives.
Tuesday, students learned how to Define the Need, specific to a particular problem, then wrote need statements, based on various scenarios. Students then began the fun of Ideating, where they were encouraged to generate all sorts of divergent ideas.
Students closed out the week by going through the full cycle. They designed a writing utensil for a specific client.