4th Grade: Skill Building Mini Lessons

As the school year began, we wanted to not only directly teach specific elements of the Design Thinking process but also intentionally develop associated skills that would allow students to more effectively engage with the our Design Thinking Model here at Parker. Some of those associated skills include: Collaboration and Effective Communication skills along with developing empathy as it is the primary driver of Design Thinking. We intentionally develop these skills because it is those skills that will allow students to more effectively use the design thinking process to solve various problems and challenges presented to them in the variety of disciplines throughout their school year.

    The use of mini lessons to teach these skills and concepts can be viewed as building blocks, strengthening the students abilities to apply this knowledge in a variety of ways. One of our first mini lessons involved students practicing collaborative and effective communication skills by working in small groups to solve a problem presented to them with a variety of constraints and boundaries. Students were asked to build bridges from one of our classroom workbenches to another workbench. During this one-hour work period, students were given time limits on brainstorming periods, designing periods, and building periods. To highlight the importance of having a well designed plan and staying focused even in difficult or stressful situations we periodically presented distractions such as playing music or implementing a “no-talking period” which allowed for some very insightful reflections at the conclusion of the design challenge.

We used another mini lesson used to directly teach empathy, which involved students again working in groups, using their newly acquired collaboration and communication skills to build products based on the needs of other students. Each group was first asked to write a short description of a product without specifically naming the product that would help meet a need of the group. The groups were then given 10-15 minutes at each table where they read over other groups descriptions and built a product based on the needs of the other groups. Each group placed their product in a box and moved onto the next groups description. By the end of the work period, each group had three products in their box, made by other groups based on the short description they earlier wrote. As each group opened their box, they noticed that some of products were similar and some were very different. This allowed for students to discuss why they made their product in that specific way based on descriptions provided while also highlighting that people view things in different ways and that to show empathy you must be able to view things from the perspective of others. Each group then selected the product that best met their need and the winning group was able to explain how they came to that design. The biggest take away for the students based on their reflections was that the most successful groups in this mini lesson were those that were able to think like the other groups, viewing the need from anothers perspective and showing empathy.

Design Thinking? I've got a book for that!

When you ask a children's librarian to contribute to a blog, chances are you are going to get a story.  Well, today is no exception.  You are going to get several, in fact.  In the library, there are very few opportunities for students to engage in a complete Design Thinking activity, so we use literature to teach mini lessons highlighting the various elements of the Design Thinking process.  These stories show great examples of the "design, create, test" loop, offer opportunities to teach brainstorming techniques,  show the importance of empathy in the design process, and highlight the importance of collaboration and persistence.  Most importantly, however, they are all excellent and engaging read aloud stories that exemplify the Design Thinking process in a kid friendly way.

Here are some of my favorites...

 Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Wheelan

Poor Queen Victoria! She loves to swim, but can't quite figure out how to get to the water without her devoted subjects glimpsing her swimming suit. (Because, of course, such a sight would compromise her regal dignity.) Fortunately for the water-loving monarch, it's Prince Albert to the rescue with an invention fit for a queen! 

What Floats in a Moat?  by Lynne Berry

Archie the Goat has a delivery to make. He has several barrels of buttermilk that the queen needs, but in order to get them to her, he needs to cross the moat.  Testing several different theories to find out what will float and what will sink, Archie and his friend Skinny the Hen don't succeed at first, but they do try, try, try again (and again). And with reason and persistence, they'll get that buttermilk where it needs to be!

Spic-and-Span!  Lillian Gilbreth's Wonder Kitchen by Monica Kulling 

Born into a life of privilege in 1878, Lillian Moller Gilbreth put her pampered life aside for one of adventure and challenge. She and her husband, Frank, became efficiency experts by studying the actions of factory workers. They ran their home efficiently, too. When Frank suddenly died, Lillian was left to her own devices to raise their eleven children. Eventually, she was hired by the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company to improve kitchen design, which was only the beginning.

Pop!  The invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy 

Gum. It's been around for centuries—from the ancient Greeks to the American Indians, everyone's chewed it. But the best kind of gum—bubble gum!—wasn't invented until 1928, when an enterprising young accountant at Fleer Gum and Candy used his spare time to experiment with different recipes.

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires 

A little girl has a wonderful idea. With the help of her canine assistant, she is going to make the most magnificent thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. But making the most magnificent thing turns out to be harder than she thinks. 

Twenty-Two Cents : Muhammad Yunus and the Village Bank by Paula Yoo

A biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who from a young age was determined to make difference in the world and eventually revolutionized global antipoverty efforts by developing the innovative economic concept of micro-lending.

What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yamada

This is the story of one brilliant idea and the child who helps bring it into the world

 Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

Rosie may seem quiet during the day, but at night she's a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets who dreams of becoming a great engineer. When her great-great-aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) comes for a visit and mentions her one unfinished goal--to fly--Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her aunt's dream come true. But when her contraption doesn't fly but rather hovers for a moment and then crashes, Rosie deems the invention a failure. On the contrary, Aunt Rose insists that Rosie's contraption was a raging success: you can only truly fail, she explains, if you quit.