Human Centered Design of Biotechnology

Rationale

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam once said, “If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means First Attempt in Learning and End is not the end, in fact E.N.D. means Effort Never Dies.”² First Attempt in Learning should be the prevailing mantra for all learners because first attempt implies that there will be more attempts, hopefully many more. The fifth through eighth grade middle school students I teach at Tilden have struggled with persevering in the face of challenges and difficulties, especially when it comes to academics. They are more resilient in other arenas of their lives because they must be in order to survive in the hostile environment in which they live. They give up quickly at school because they are easily frustrated when faced with material outside of their experience, comfort zone, and perception of their own ability. This is particularly true when students do not see the relevance of what they are learning and how it will help them to be successful. Teaching students to reframe their thinking will open the door for them to begin to think outside the box and explore alternate options when they are not successful the first few times. The goal is for them to persist in trying to find solutions to problems by applying the tenets of Design Thinking and collaborative problem-solving to every task they face. This curriculum unit will teach the principles and process of Design Thinking and provide opportunities for students to attempt challenges that will be met with failure at first for them to learn and grow. Students will learn that failure is to be expected when attempting anything in life, but that they must persevere and persist until they find a way to accomplish their goal. Students will also learn that while these challenges can be solved while working alone, working collaboratively will increase the likelihood that solutions will be reached more quickly and efficiently. This is how innovation is born.

So, what exactly is Design Thinking? According to Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”³ It is a way of thinking that considers the needs of people as a central focus when designing or creating solutions for those needs. It also considers whether those solutions are accessible and sustainable. The five principles of design thinking are Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. These principles were condensed to three E’s—Empathy, Expansive Thinking, and Experimentation by Frederik G. Pferdt in his article, “Design thinking in 3 steps: How to Build a Culture of Innovation.”⁴ The three-step model basically condenses the steps of “Define, Ideate, and Prototype” into one step—Expansive Thinking. Even though this process may be thought of as a business or engineering model, all students are creative and can express their creativity in unique ways when given the opportunity to do so. No matter what subject a student is learning in school or what career they may be preparing for, a change in mindset will open many more doors for students to take ownership of their education and explore areas they may have never even considered.

This shift in thinking is equally important for all educators to embrace, even amidst the constraints and expectations of the traditional classroom. Both educators and students can benefit from creating the space for students to expand their horizons and look at every challenge that they face as an opportunity to discover something new. This curriculum will challenge students to tackle every activity with the understanding that everyone will not reach the same conclusions, that there is no one right answer, that each suggestion presents itself as a possibility, and that each time a new attempt is made, something new is learned, or discovered, or created. Every new thing learned forms the foundation for something else to be built upon, and if students can truly learn to engage in collaboration, rather than competition, they can reach their destinations sooner and perhaps discover something new in the process.

Because these concepts of Design Thinking are new to me, I am excited about creating a new learning experience for my students whereby they can all become explorers and creators. There is something very liberating about accomplishing a task that moments before seemed impossible to undertake, and when students begin to experience this feeling of success repeatedly, they become better innovators. A. J. Juliani has a few activities that he uses called “10 Design Thinking Activities to Get Your Group Creating.”⁵ These activities can be used with students of all ages and adults as well and this unit will explore a few of them. This unit will also compile many S.T.E.M. and problem-solving activities that will engage students and help them to develop a Design Thinking approach to every challenge they encounter. They will learn the principles of Design Thinking by “doing” them, by engaging in trial-and-error processes.