Dogs make just about any assignment more appealing, but a recent project at Northern Trails ⅚ school blew the woof off the design thinking process.
Fifth graders were challenged to develop works of art that could be printed on a product and sold at the Raise the Woof event on Nov. 22 to benefit Hearts of Hope dog rescue of Grand Rapids.
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Students formed groups of three to six, then researched what products might sell best by interviewing Janelle McFarlane, Hearts of Hope founder. Next, they completed cost-profit analyses to determine which products would yield a good return on investment.
“We were going to do ornaments but those were pretty expensive,” said Anna Shaarda.
Channah Burgoyne explained her group’s choice to put their designs on a ball cap: “We thought it stood out because everybody else was doing stuff like mugs and bottles,” she said.
Ethan Han on the return on investment of his group’s magnet designs: “We’re selling them for $4 each but they only cost like $2 to make, so the profit’s like, double.”
Each group created mock-ups of their products and a pitch to present to four judges: McFarlane; Northern Trails Principal Susan Gutierrez; Matt Dowdy, art director for the Gilmore Collection; and Gerry Verwey, design thinking coordinator at Kent ISD.
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‘Incredible Soft Skills’
Last summer, art teacher Stephanie Cionca attended a workshop at Kent ISD called “Design Thinking: Teachers In Industry,” where she learned how to engage students in the process while partnering with community leaders and area businesses to solve real-world problems.
Gutierrez applauded the use of design thinking in the classroom, adding, “what’s key is to study and examine the needs of the end user. Working as a team and integrating art into the design thinking, there are incredible soft skills our students have gained.”
Said Verwey: “It was a wonderful exercise for (Cionca’s) students to practice building empathy, defining a problem, ideating and going through prototypes with feedback, all for the benefit of an excited community partner.”