There are not that many Design Thinking project examples for students on the web. Most design thinking project examples are aimed at working professionals i.e. engineers, marketing, business people, and are not really great project examples for K-12 and college students to grasp how the process works. Nor is it easy to understand how they apply to your particular problem or passion.
Not all students who study Design Thinking are going to become professional designers, many will continue on into businesses in a variety of different functions from CEO to project management and customer service. The problems that school students want to solve are not necessarily the same type of problem as an adult in business may want to solve, nor should they be.
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If you are a K-12 student, read on!
5 Design Thinking project examples for K-12 students:
1. Partner with a local non-profit to help them solve a problem and help them become more effective. Download and read this great article about setting up Design Thinking projects for K-12 Students from the website Design Thinking 4 Teens (DT4T). All non-profits could use support helping them solve the difficult problems they are set up to try to tackle and the students will get a lot of satisfaction from the participation in trying to solve difficult real life issues.
2. Set a project question related to the students environment. Something they would find beneficial to solve such as "How might we use empty lot's in our neighborhood?" What do our residents need. How can we make these eyesores useful spaces and cool places to be. Who knows if that encouraged revenue generation it may even be a solution for the owners as well!
3. How might we support people who drop out from school? Hint: It's about creating supportive environments. N one likes to see a friend fall by the wayside. This is a great way to help friends in need directly or indirectly.
4. Design Thinking in the Elementary Classroom: the Power of Empathy. This story helps provide a strong reason and guidelines as to what type of problem to chose - something close to your students that they can relate to. Like the problem of messy bathrooms.
5. Design a useful and meaningful gift for a family member. In this exercise K-5 teacher, Maddie, introduces and explores the technique of empathy (seeing the world from another persons point of view). Maddie also has a lot of useful information on her site besides the great description of how she implemented this project. While this project is really about the development of a design thinking skill, we included it here as we are sure that it is a project that would engage all kids!
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6 ideas to help you develop your design thinking skills:
1. What is Design Thinking and How do we Apply it?
A good concise article describing the process with clear descriptions of what happens in each phase and some ideas on how to apply it. Once you have this basic idea, go to the next video for a more in-depth lecture on the process.
Co Barry does an excellent job in this TEDtalk Video to explain the power of Design Thinking in the K-12 education system.
2. Stanford.school Design Thinking Workshop lecture
One of the best Design Thinking project examples for students is shown in this Stanford Design Thinking Workshop demonstration by Justin Ferrell. From this you will get a very clear idea of how the process works in reality. You should be able to run your own design thinking workshop with your fellow students after watching this video.
3. Design Thinking - Improving School Experiences and Helping Teachers.
These four design thinking project example projects for students from 3rd to 5th graders give a good idea of the type of problems tackled and the solutions presented. It's not strong on process, but a great example of the type of problems students can tackle.
4. Design Thinking project examples for Teenage Students
If you love the Design Thinking process and enjoy the results that you have produced using this problem solving process, then why not think about joining a community of like minded teens across the USA? Oliver Greenwald has been design thinking since he was 10 and has created a formal community of teen design thinkers from a Google for Education grant he won.
5. The Design Thinking Association Case Studies Index
You should also refer to the Design Thinking Case Studies Index where all of our case studies are categorized per industry or market vertical. We add to it every week, so keep coming back to the index to see the new case studies.
6. 5 Fun activities to get your students started with design thinking
...and some solid advice for those who are running design thinking projects to help get students in a creative mindset.
Need more?
1. Read the book
The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning, by Trung Le a principal education designer at Cannon Design. There is also a website for this book with some really valuable resources, such as:
- A downloadable list of the 79 ideas
- A downloadable excerpt from the book including an interview with sir Ken Robinson
- 79 Ideas flash Cards
2. Design Thinking Lessons from the classroom
Design thinking, a dynamic, creative and collaborative approach to problem solving, presents a unique model for educators who wish to facilitate from within the class, rather than impart knowledge to it.
One from the first day of school, one from a High school classroom and one from an elementary school classroom.
4. 5 Fun Activities To Get Your Students Started With Design Thinking
In this article Julie Mason describes some great starting points to get your students creative juices flowing.
5. Read our follow up article, More Design Thinking Examples for Students
If you have or find design thinking project examples for students that you think we should add, please contact us and we will get them posted for you.