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Tell Me about it: What is Design? Creating a Design Workshop (Part 2)
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Title:
Tell Me about it: What is Design? Creating a Design Workshop (Part 2)
Posted by:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Date:
9/24/2007
Grade Level:
High School
Category:
Other
Subject Area:
Arts
Language Arts
Lesson Time:
Two fifty-minute class periods
Introduction:
What role does design play in everyday life? In the second part of this two-part lesson, students will apply what they have learned about the design process by creating a design workshop for elementary school students.
State Standards:
No State Standards available.
National Standards:
Reading
Standard 7. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts
Level IV. 1. Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g., textbooks, biographical sketches, letters, diaries, directions, procedures, magazines, essays, primary source historical documents, editorials, news stories, periodicals, catalogs, job-related materials, schedules, speeches, memoranda, public documents, maps)
Writing
Standard 1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
Level IV. 5. Uses strategies to address writing to different audiences (e.g., includes explanations and definitions according to the audience's background, age, or knowledge of the topic, adjusts formality of style, considers interests of potential readers)
Visual Arts: Artistic Expression & Communication
Standard 1. Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes related to the visual arts
Level IV. Benchmark 1. Applies media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that one’s intentions are carried out in artworks
Working With Others
Standard 1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group
Objectives:

Students will:

  • analyze the components of the design process
  • view and analyze design videos
  • respond to journal prompts
  • participate in small-group and large-group discussion
  • work collaboratively in small groups
  • create a design workshop
Resources:
  • “Design Workshop” handout (attached)
  • Internet Web sites
Materials:
  • Computer with Internet access
Vocabulary:
Students in this age group should be familiar with all words used.
Procedures:
Building Background
Activity One: Introducing Design Concepts
The purpose of this activity is to provide students with an understanding of basic design concepts by viewing two videos.

1. Review the following steps of the design process with your class:
• STEP ONE: Identify the problem. Brainstorm ideas.
• STEP TWO: Analyze the elements you will need to solve the problem.
• STEP THREE: Create your design plan and presentation.
• STEP FOUR: Evaluate your design. Share your design and ask for feedback. Discuss how you might make changes and improvements to your design.
• STEP FIVE: Communicate. Share your design plan. 
 
2. As a class, watch the video entitled “Quick Peek: Paper Bridge Challenge” at
https://ditc.missouri.edu/designTasks/paperBridge/index.html.
Ask your students what they learned about design from this video.

3. Watch the following video entitled “Scrambled or Over Easy?” and think about how you can incorporate it into your workshop
https://www.cooperhewitt.org/EDU/av_edu.asp?v=1.
Ask your students what they learned about design from this video.

4. Lead a class discussion comparing the information in the two video clips.

Activity Two: Reflecting On Design
The purpose of this activity is to help students reflect on their understanding of the ways design is defined.

1. Ask your students to respond to the following quotations in a writing journal:

• “Design is both a verb and a noun.”

• “Design allows us both to respond and invent.”
“The act of designing is carried out in many different ways, from the personal choices we make when we set the table or plant a garden, to the collective decisions made in the marketplace or at city hall.”

• 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, hands-on activities, visual communication and presentation, and critique.

2. Invite students to share their responses to each of the quotations. Compare, analyze, and discuss students’ thoughts.


Steps for Learning
Creating a Design Workshop
The purpose of this activity is to give students an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned about design.
1. Divide the class into small groups and give each group a copy of the “Design Workshop” handout (attached). Tell the students that they are going to create a workshop for elementary school students to help them learn about design. Remind the students to use the background information on design that they learned in the first part of this two-part lesson.
2. Have students share their design plan with the class.
Assessment:

Create a class rubric to evaluate the students’ workshop design. Use the following guidelines to help create the rubric.

  • Rate the effectiveness of your workshop in conveying information about design concepts.
  • Rate the effectiveness of your overviews of five fields of design
  • Rate how effectively your workshop incorporates the People’s Design Award Web site as a tool for learning about design.
  • Rate the effectiveness of your hands-on design activity.
  • Rate the effectiveness of your group’s brainstorming in generating ideas.
  • Rate how effectively you analyze the information you used to identify your problem.
  • Rate the effectiveness of your solution.
  • Rate how clearly you communicate your solution.
  • Rate your creativity.
  • Rate how well your group is able to collaborate.
Enrichment
Extension Activities:
Activity One: City of Neighborhoods
Ask your students to investigate the design process further by learning about the City of Neighborhoods project. Use the Web sites below as resources:

• https://www.cityofneighborhoods.org/
• https://www.cityofneighborhoods.org/about.html

Activity Two: Reflections on Design Education
Ask your students to respond in writing journals to the following prompt:

• The most important component of design education is instilling in students the ability to see themselves as designers.

Teacher Reflection:
N/A.
Related
Files:
Design Workshop handout.doc ("Design Workshop" handout)
 
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