Our Upper School unveiled a new "House System" this year, which would provide time for students to meet in small groups with advisors on a regular basis. The Houses have allowed for students to engage in important conversations and discussions, discuss school business, and also experience new concepts... like design thinking.
In early November, student house leaders were given an overview of design thinking and then they engaged in a "learning by doing" exercise where they were facilitated through the exact process that they would lead their peers through. In essence, house leaders would help their peers tackle a specific design challenge using the design thinking process.
The Challenge? Create the ultimate student life center. Due to time constraints, we broke the experience into two segments. In November, students would work on noticing, focusing, and brainstorming, while they would move into designing, creating, and testing in December.
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| House leaders think about the ultimate student life center |
The house leaders readily stepped up to the challenge. During their instruction session, the leaders were engaged and willing participants. During the lesson day itself, I walked around and found that while many house groups may have adapted the flow of the steps, all students were engaging in creative brainstorming about what they have noticed about popular "hangout" locations at Parker, what they felt a student life center should have in it, and what they liked about other hangout locations at home or out in the community. The brainstorming was incredibly invigorating to witness and some of the ideas were really, really fun.
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| Students post up their big ideas from their brainstorming |
December will bring the houses into the designing and creating phase - I can hardly wait to see what they come up with!
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| Windows of sticky notes result from the brainstorming |
