Design thinking students claim national honors

SANDPOINT — In a round-robin session beneath the canopy of a big shade tree Monday, a group of Washington Elementary School students related a story of perseverance that defined their fifth-grade year, and in the process, helped to develop their awareness, both of themselves and of others.

Teacher Ann Dickinson's class began a new project in September of the current school year. She originally researched graphic design courses with the intent of introducing the subject to her fifth-graders, but discovered that teaching design thinking would give them a broader foundation for further studies and even for future careers.

"(Design thinking) is not problem-focused, it’s solution-focused and action-oriented towards creating a preferred future. Design thinking seeks to build ideas up, unlike critical thinking, which breaks them down. Design thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities of what could be, and to create desired outcomes," according to Creativity at Work.

Thus, the students' first step was identifying a problem to be solved, based on their chosen theme: perseverance and grit. They interviewed other students and members of the community to see if these desirable traits posed problems for people.

"We interviewed kids and they said they were persevering and using grit, but when we interviewed teachers, they said they weren’t using enough of it," said Ashley, one of Dickinson's students.

"Kids didn't know what perseverance and grit really are," said Emily, another student.

So, the class decided to solve that problem for their design thinking project. First, though, they had to make sure they knew what those words meant themselves.

"Before the project, we didn’t know what (perseverance and grit) were, but as we started using the words more, they made an impact on our lives," said Margo.

"We learned about a fixed mindset and a growth mindset — they’re basically opposites. A growth mindset is knowing you can try harder to do what you need to do," said Joseph. 

They planned outreach activities that would show younger and older students alike the importance of being tough and to keep trying until they succeed. Dickinson's students did everything from putting on skits in other classrooms to making and posting YouTube videos.

"We knew that the media was very important ... we wanted to do anything that would get the point across," said Sterling.

The students learned to design their skits and videos to suit their audience. For example, a performance of Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare" fable engaged younger students, teaching them to persevere, while a rap video was more likely to draw the attention of older students.

"We found out we had to put some humor in our videos to make them more interesting," said Emily.

The classmates also found out about copyrights that prevented them from using some of the music they picked out. They learned to edit their work and distinguish between an effective video and one that just wasn't working, they said.

At the beginning of the school year, the perseverance and grit project was something they worked on a couple times a week, but as it gained momentum, they found themselves devoting more time and thought to it. The watershed moment came about halfway through the year, when Dickinson revealed what they had been working on was part of a contest.

“At first we didn’t know about the contest. Then, when we found out about it, we started trying even harder, knowing it was for an international contest," a student recalled.

The Design for Change contest seeks to empower children to bring about positive change in their schools, communities and the world at large. Any group of children in grades K-8 with an adult mentor is eligible to enter. Throughout the year, as they worked on their project, Dickinson's students gained a wealth of new knowledge.

"We met our ELA standards and some of our math standards" while working on the Design for Change project, said Dickinson. By the time she obtained permission to make design thinking a curriculum unit, her students were working cooperatively with little need for instruction. They had also begun to do extra work at home. Two students wrote a rap song over spring break that the class later recorded for YouTube.

The final step of the contest process was preparing a presentation about the entire project for judging. Once all their materials were submitted and the entry deadline passed, though, they didn't slow their efforts in perseverance and grit education. Every student played a critical role in the class effort.

"We would work with each others’ skills, so if you’re good at talking, you would talk, and if you’re good at acting, you would act; we each had a part that we would do,” said Margo.

“I feel like it really changed how our year was going to be. We learned to use perseverance and grit in everything we did. It was almost like something new to our school,” said Sterling, summing up the thoughts of many of his classmates. "“We took a year on it, we showed perseverance and grit, and we took third place out of 1,000 entries.”

For Dickinson's class that was just the icing on the cake of a banner fifth-grade year. Design for Change singled out the perseverance and grit project as one of the very best nationwide.

"It was really neck and neck and a matter of just a few points," wrote contest official Sanjli Gidwaney. "The judges were truly impressed by the thoughtfulness your students displayed."

"I've never had a class that has cared about each other as much," said Dickinson. "They really were aware of each other and caring for each other in a way I haven’t seen in all my years of teaching."

She hopes to keep the momentum going next year, when she will move with her students into the sixth grade. 

"It's wonderful knowing how big an impact we’ve already made and that it is going to grow," said Joseph, soon-to-be sixth-grader.