Why Design in your classroom?
Are you looking for new ideas and methods to engage your students? Design makes any subject immediately relevant to students by directly relating to their real-life experience. How can architecture, environment, product, graphic, and media design enhance the teaching of any subject, including mathematics, science, environmental studies, language arts, history, and art? Design-based learning allows you to easily incorporate diverse learning styles.
Cooper-Hewitt’s Educators’ Resource Center provides you with the resources you need to engage in the design process and use it effectively in your classroom.
Incorporating Design Thinking into your classroom reinforces and refines these skill sets:
- inquiry and project-based learning
- critical thinking skills
- experimentation with multiple ways of problem solving
- visual literacy
- innovation and invention
- team building and collaboration
- identifying authentic real-world tasks and challenges
What is Design Education?
Design Education encourages your students to see themselves as designers in their own right as they engage in the design process through active observation, critical discussion, the act of making, visual communication and presentation, and critique. The project-based focus of design is a great method of reinforcing teamwork and collaboration. Design also allows for multiple methods of problem solving—a seamless way to differentiate instruction.
How do you use Design?
Design can be integrated in your classroom through themes relating to Space & Place, Graphic & Visual Communication, and Products and Things.
Space & Place incorporates the built environment from inside and out, including architecture, the design of homes and schools, and interior design.
Graphic & Visual Communication uses two-dimensional and multimedia to convey ideas and opinions, including advertising, packaging, print and graphic design and technology design.
Products and Things are the things we use, ranging from toothbrushes and clothes to furniture and airplanes.
What is Design Thinking?
The principles of Design Thinking include several essential elements that integrate project-based, experiential learning into any existing curriculum.
- Observation Learning to look through the eyes of a designer
- Research Using objects, primary source documents, maps and other materials
- Creative Solutions Through the process of making something- a model, an object or a poster
- Presentation and Critique Includes a verbal presentation by the designers followed by analysis and evaluation which helps to improve the design