Design Thinking is a creative and iterative, but also human-centered way of approaching problems! By creating a Design Thinking Club at your high school near you, students will have the chance to work together to tackle real-world challenges. The Design Thinking Club will provide opportunities for students to build their critical thinking skills, work collaboratively, and also build their own leadership competencies; skills they can carry forward into any career! Whether you've got a passion for social good, technology, or even startups, a Design Thinking Club will provide an experiential way for students to try their hand at creating solutions, while making a positive difference in their community and developing essential 21st-century competencies.
1. Understand the Design Thinking Framework
Design Thinking involves five basic steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Before launching the club you want to learn about DT to better understand the stages (for example, look at IDEO or Stanford d.school). Knowledge of design thinking will allow you to facilitate activities within the club and support members in building a problem-solving mindset. You need to know how design thinking is distinct from general brainstorming—it focuses on human-centered design, ongoing iteration, and creative risk-taking based on the needs of real users.
2. Get Faculty Support and Club Approval
Find a teacher or counselor to be your club advisor. They will help you to maneuver through administrative requirements and will be a helpful mentor. You should put together a short proposal outlining your club's purpose, activities, and how it benefits students. In your proposal, illustrate how it connects to 21st century skills, ties back to interdisciplinary learning, and fulfills many of the Ontario Curriculum learning expectations. Once the club is approved you can meet with your advisor to pick dates and times, find a classroom to meet in, and let the school community know about the club.
3. Recruit a Diverse Group of Members
Design Thinking relies on a variety of perspectives, so try to recruit students from different grades, backgrounds, and interests. Advertise your club everywhere! Use posters, announcements, or social media. Remind students how the design thinking club provides creative problem solving experience, a chance to learn from collaborative leadership, and the possibility to impact the community. Use some example, short sample activities to remind students that it is fun and hands-on! Find a time to host an info session, or a design challenge day, to get excitement generated, and also collect interested students.
4. Set Clear Goals and Club Structure
Clarify the mission of the club followed by identifying specific goals (e.g., addressing school-based challenges; entering design contests). Make some decisions on the structure of club leadership and responsibilities (e.g., president, secretary, project lead, outreach coordinator). Decide how often the club will meet, including the agenda for each meeting (i.e., workshops, projects, guest speakers, etc.). Clear direction and assignment of responsibility will foster ownership and commitment from your members — organization and clarity will also continue to allow for impact and effectiveness throughout the year.
5. Organize Design Thinking Workshops
Conduct introductory workshops in order to teach the Design Thinking process. Use fun and relatable problems to practice each phase of the process - each phase will include an exercise. For the empathy phase, students can build empathy through interviews or surveys. Conduct exercises that use brainstorming, sketching ideas, and rapid prototyping, while showcasing other tools and strategies. The experience of conducting these workshops will: build confidence, create a shared understanding of the process and the necessary phases, and prepare the students and community for addressing larger real-world problems together.
6. Launch a School or Community Project
Using what you learned, take action to solve a real problem in your school or community. Start with empathy- interview students or teachers to reveal common pain points. Write a problem statement, develop a variety of ideas, create low-fidelity prototypes to test. This project should be student-led and iterative. Whether it's facilitating recycling, redesigning classroom furniture, or assisting a local NGO, these projects show impact and provide students with concrete things they can be proud of.
7. Document and Reflect on Progress
Keep a project journal or digital log, whereby teams record investigations, sketches, responses, and findings. Reflection is a method of reinforcing learning to help refine your process over time. Members share their work through blog posts, short shooting video discussions, or social media posts. Documenting also allows one to prepare presentations for an assembly, develop portfolios, and build a case for funding or entry into competitions. This sharing, among others, increases visibility and pride in the work done.
8. Collaborate with External Partners
Connect with local organizations, social enterprises, start-up companies, or universities and present real world design challenges to your club. Have guest speakers from the field of design or social innovation to act as mentors. Cross could entail reaching out to NGOs for potential collaboration around community-based issues. All these partnerships offer students a more in-depth exposure to professional problem solving and also provide the students with a larger scope of work. Partnerships are also an excellent networking opportunity for students who are applying for college or internships.
9. Participate in Competitions and Events
Be on the lookout for any design challenges or hackathons specifically for high school students. Participating as a member in these events allows you to practice your skills under stress, receive some outside feedback when working with designers in the field, and build connections with peers around the world. Check out Design for Change, Future Design School, and MIT's LaunchX, to see what opportunities are available to you. Competing adds a level of excitement, can be an effective way to validate your ideas, and is a great way to gain awards or recognition - keeping your team and club motivated and raising your profile at your school.
10. Ensure Sustainability and Growth
As founding members leave for post-secondary school, plan for an easy transition. Train junior members and assign an easy transition as a shadow role for members moving up to advance to. Write a club handbook that describes your structure, activities, and some of the interesting projects you’ve done in the past. It may even be worth implementing a mentoring system where longer serving members support new members. If you can create an environment where inclusivity, curiosity, and a sense of purpose are part of your Design Thinking Club’s culture, it will thrive long after you have gone on to do great things.
A Design Thinking Club in high school is a great way to get students engaged in their creative capacity to make an impact on the world. Empowering the will to create while using empathy, collaboration, and innovation into practical solutions cultivates valuable life skills while also making a difference. When driven by inspiration and rooted in purpose, the impact of the Design Thinking Club can live beyond the classroom walls.
FAQs
Q1: Do I need to be a designer or coder to join this club?
A.No! Design Thinking is for everyone - it’s less about technical skills, and more about solving a problem creatively.
Q2: How often should the club meet?
A. Once a week or bi-weekly is best to keep up the momentum while juggling with schoolwork.
Q3: What projects can we do?
A. You can do anything from improving the cafeteria system to helping local shelters – just try to address a real problem in your school or community.
Q4: Will this help for college applications?
A. Definitely. This shows leadership, initiative, and critical thinking to admissions officers!
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