E-learning | Design Thinking Educator Resources

A Few More Words About These Resources

Henry Ford Learning Institute brings their design thinking expertise to an introductory series of activities and mini-lessons for the K-12 educator. Generously funded by Ford Motor Company Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Skillman Foundation, these resources will help students adopt and grow the methods and mindsets of a Design Thinker.

Activities, mini-lessons and deep-dive design challenges were developed to align with Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards and National Visual Arts Standards.

Inside you will find:
• Planning resources to implement Design Thinking in your classroom, school & community
• Learning outcomes charts
• Presentations, worksheets and activities to facilitate Design Thinking
• Grade level specific Design Challenges
• Much more!

Planning Tools and Guides
These tools and guides will help you prepare to bring design thinking to your students, school and community.

Grade Level Outcomes Sequences
These overviews and recommended scope and sequences will help you implement the entire design thinking process.

Worksheets and Handouts
Supporting worksheets and handouts can be found here. They are also embedded in the design thinking challenges and methods.

Empathy
Empathy enables us to build an informed understanding of another person or context so that we can better connect to their experiences, feelings and perspectives. Empathy is the core of human-centered design. The included resources provide many different ways for students to learn about and from other people.

Define
Define occurs when we focus on a specific portion of a complex problem or challenge in order to address a root cause or manageable element of the larger situation. These resources will help students synthesize and analyze important findings, identify a specific person’s point of view and their needs, and lay a foundation for creative thinking.

Ideate
To Ideate requires students to think critically and generate many ideas in order to find one that they feel will strongly respond to their challenge. Included here are multiple resources to support students working individually and collaboratively in order to generate a large set of creative and responsive options.

Prototype
A Prototype is a tangible representation of a possible solution created to strengthen the development of our idea by showing it to others for targeted feedback, working it out by building successive versions, and/or through formal testing. Included resources provide a structured approach to building a variety of prototypes depending on the design challenge.

Feedback
Feedback supports a strong design process when it uses a structured approach in which the users are “the expert” and provide their input on the developing solution idea. Resources here provide tools and methods for students to use in a variety of settings.

Reflect
Reflect resources provide a way for students to consider each step of their design work in order to make essential adjustments along the way, learn and build their own skills and mindsets, and develop their resilience as life-long, independent learners. These resources provide a number of activities and approaches that engage students in reflective thinking, writing and discussion.

Methods Mini-Lessons
Mini-lessons can be used to teach design thinking methods. They are also great refresher lessons.

Rapid Cycles
These immersive activities give students a chance to practice the full design thinking process in the shortest amount of time possible.

Design Challenges Grades K-5
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenge Grade 6 #1
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenge Grade 6 #2
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenge Grade 6 #3
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenge Grade 6 #4
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenge Grade 7 #1
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenges Grade 8
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Design Challenges Grades 9-11
Full design challenges take students through the design thinking process. There are four challenges aligned to each grade level. Mini-lessons can be used to support the learning.

Videos