Making Connections with STEM Fall 2021 Cohort 8: Week 4

Week 4

Engineering is Problem Solving

Read:

Reflect: Post your response to the prompt below by Monday morning.

As you saw in this week’s reading, Design Thinking is a set of steps used to solve specific problems. How are students taught to solve problems in your classroom or content area, and what parallels might exist between those steps and Design Thinking? How might an understanding of Design Thinking benefit students beyond the school day?

Interact: On Monday, read your colleagues' reflections and respond to at least one other post by sharing a comment, insight, or interesting possibility by next Thursday.

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Ashleigh Rocco (TSD) · 181 weeks ago

As I teach 2nd grade our approach to teaching problem solving tends to be a very guided experience. While we do try to foster finding solutions in different ways, I am not sure that I am doing a wonderful job at developing my students’ ability to adapt and be flexible thinkers throughout the day, especially to start the year when they are very dependent learners. We do a lot of scientific process within our curriculum, but that does not necessarily promote the “out of the box” approach that design thinking recommends. Often, especially with curriculum guiding me, I find myself defining the questions for my students rather than having them be active participants in that process. I do see a lot of parallels between the scientific process and design thinking, particularly when students are able to design and test their ideas. However, I believe my approach could be more student-centered to develop their problem-solving skills. I would love to see some examples of this being implemented into a primary classroom because I have some wonderings about how this is done with such a constraint on time and resources. This approach would benefit them beyond their day to adapt to different challenges as our world, and their environment is constantly changing. Problems are not linear and this process can help students challenge the usual way of thinking and perhaps find better and more effective solutions to real life problems.

2 replies · active 178 weeks ago

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Katelyn V. (ISD) 12p · 180 weeks ago

I love that we both thought of this as problem solving and that its a very hands on approach for teachers (and paras!)

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MeganMitchellSVSD 14p · 178 weeks ago

I totally agree that teaching the curriculum with fidelity, often takes away from creating opportunities for students to be active participants or have student led experiences. I feel like the only time this is possible is when I stray from the curriculum for a lesson or make extra time, and I think that’s very unfortunate.

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Katelyn V. (ISD) 12p · 180 weeks ago

As a recess paraprofessional and BASC staff, I am not in classrooms when content is being taught. That being said, the steps empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test can be used in behavioral problem solving at recess and in the BASC program. For example, if a student is having a disagreement with another student the would need to empathize with the other person, define the current issue, ideate new (or old) solutions to fix the problem, prototype a solution to try, and then test that solution to see if it works. If not they start over and try again. This parallels into the real world with any problem solving and gives these children a great place to practice these skills.

2 replies · active 178 weeks ago

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Ashleigh Rocco (TSD) · 178 weeks ago

I wasn't even thinking about how this is applicable on the playground. What a unique perspective. I love the idea of having students working through this process during conflicts. I would love to see this happening more here on our playground. However I know the paraprofessional staff is managing a lot of students outside. What a great idea!

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JanineG (ISD) · 178 weeks ago

First of all, thank you for being a para...you are so valuable in our schools! I also wasn't thinking about how this would be applicable on the playground and in all areas of the school day! I can definitely see how the steps taken would be beneficail in problem solving the everyday conflicts and situations that arise! It sure does parallel into the real world!

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JanineG · 179 weeks ago

I teach first grade and I agree with what Ashleigh and Katelyn both say in the previous comments. In the primary grades a lot of what we spend time on is socialization skills (especially this year with trying to be as pre-COVID 'normal' as possible. So, problem solving has taken a front seat where we use the steps of empathize,defining the issue, etc. I feel that our new science curriculum in the ISD leads the conversation and learning in a way that there are some hands-on activities, but a lot of it is teacher-driven. I do feel that if my incoming first graders had had a 'normal' year last year, I can imagine that they would be able to think more critically and problem solve better than they are able to now.

1 reply · active 178 weeks ago

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flaggna 34p · 178 weeks ago

This is an interesting topic. I agree that socialization skills are more needed than ever. However, I am finding that there is a lack of understanding districtwide on how to truly use design theory within the classrooms. It would be create to have more training and supports with this idea.

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Rachael S (ISD) · 178 weeks ago

I teacher kindergarten and problem solving is a big part of my classroom. We have to teacher students how to solve both interpersonal and academic problems. Students at this age are used to relying on adults to provide them solutions. I love to give my class a problem and ask for their “help” arriving at a solution. I had a class meeting yesterday where we discussed the problem of the art center always being dirty. The students shared ideas for how we could all take responsibility to clean this center. With kindergarten problems things are pretty well defined and we don’t have to make too many assumptions about the about the problem and users needs. This week’s topic made me want to give my students more open ended problems to tackle. It seems to me that deign thinking is almost a mindset that can help students be open to new and unconventional ideas. We often think of “gifted” students as the ones who think creatively, but in our new 21st century world all careers are looking for some level of creative thinking in their employees. This flexibility in thinking also seems like it would help students be more open to new people and experiences in our diverse society.

2 replies · active 178 weeks ago

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Erin K. (TSD) · 178 weeks ago

Rachael,
I appreciate your intentional efforts to center the locus of control on your students in the problem-solving process, rather than presenting solutions for your students' approval or without their input at all. Often, I feel we, as educators, default to solutions we feel are best based on our professional experience in teaching and classroom management. In reality, the best ideas stem from our students themselves. When we provide opportunities for our students to drive the conversation and fully participate in every stage of the Design Thinking process, particularly in the "define" and "ideate" stages, then the solutions we come to are more likely to be accepted and enforced by our students. This minimizes the need to re-teach expectations or to begin the problem-solving process over again. While you guide these conversations, it is your students who ultimately lead themselves to a solution. Likely, these solutions are more effective and realistic than the solutions we develop on our own. Thank you for sharing a primary perspective on Design Thinking in real-time!

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Stephen Elms · 178 weeks ago

I love your asking the kindergartners for help in problem solving the library area problem. Starting in kindergarten to take on the shared responsibility of keeping the area clean is wonderful. I think you could easily go back too and have that conversation of the users needs in the library - maybe some do need to have library books spread out to make their choice, or others need everything in ABC order. Might be fun to have them have that conversation regarding needs - I'm going to use this discussion with my students in our 5th grade classroom now thanks to what you did!

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Erin K. (TSD) · 178 weeks ago

As a fifth-grade hi-cap teacher, my students' limbic system is significantly underdeveloped compared to their cognitive abilities. While they can master new, advanced academic concepts with ease, their capacity to empathize and relate to another person is an ongoing struggle. My students are highly emotional for their age and often find difficulty communicating their feelings and contextualizing situations. Dam and Siang's article highlighted one of the most critical concepts of Desing Thinking as, "re-framing the problem in human-centric ways". Often, I feel my students struggle to see the human impact of their words and actions and often position themselves as the victim. During a recent problem-solving meeting with several students, I found that one of my students could not muster a full apology, despite his paramount role in instigating a physical fight in the classroom. His apology was circular, in that he, in the act of "apologizing", continued to place blame on another student. If my student had been able to empathize with the perspective of the others involved and define his actual role in the situation, then we may have come to a more efficient solution. This student, new to our district this year, had not participated in a formal problem-solving session before. He shared that his family often solved problems at home by placing the blame on others or through physical confrontation with his older sister. Dam and Siang noted, "Humans naturally develop patterns of thinking modeled on repetitive activities". To guide this student toward an empathetic lens of problem-solving, it was necessary we work to break this negative cycle of response and reaction and equip him with the tools and strategies to effectively reason and ideate with others.
Instances such as these have led me to plan and implement opportunities for intentional teaching around problem-solving with special emphasis on the empathy stage. This has been done in both small groups, with individual students, and in the whole class setting. Throughout their fifth-grade year and beyond, my students benefit from the maturation of their emotion management and capacity to accurately identify and understand the context of difficult situations through the Design Thinking process. By resisting the tendency to default to anger or other less productive methods of crafting solutions, my students become far more flexible thinkers and innovators both inside and outside of the classroom.

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flaggna 34p · 178 weeks ago

One thing resonated with me. We are creatures of habit, and humans often draw on thier stored knowledge to function. This brings us to the impact that puts upon our students. Our students are in a constantly evolving world, especially where technology is concerns. With the current COVID-19, we have been blocked from the ability to constantly fall back on our comfort/background knowledge. Our students have also been put into scenarios where they have to think in new and creative ways in order to maintain friendships and learn at school. Students must be taught to solve problems in new and creative ways in order to keep up the constant demands of society and technologies. In my classroom, I find that students are quite useful problem solvers and those problems can be solved using design thinking. For example, I teach small groups to first graders. I was recently becoming frustated by students were asking to use the bathroom during my 30 minute small group. Instead of becoming frustrated by this (because I already was), I presented by problem to my first graders.
I let them know that we didn't have time for a game because all of the students needed to take turns using the bathroom. I asked them to solve the problem for me. At first the students said I should just let them know the can't go. They were empathizing with me. I let them know that first graders need to use the bathroom and that it's not healthy to hold it in. The students when back to the drawing board and came up the a new solution. When I pick up students, I should ask if then need to use the bathroom. They can go while I'm picking everyone up and I they will wait for me at the end of the hallway; if they don't have to use the bathroom at that moment, then they have to wait until the end of group. I said that was a better idea. The following small group time, we tested the idea. I only had one student use the restroom and not one student asked asked to use the bathroom during group. They got to play a game and had a great time. At the end of group, we reflected on the solution. Everyone agreed that the solution worked and we should continue. Understanding and using Design Thinking is critical in solving problems. It benefits students beyond the school day, because they just practice, in real time, an effective way to solve a problem. I look forward to continuing this form on problem solving in the future.

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MeganMitchellSVSD 14p · 178 weeks ago

In my second grade classroom I regularly encourage my students to “think outside the box” and to try different strategies to solve problems, encouraging the idea, that there isn’t one solution. I always think it’s interesting that even as early as second grade, students really struggle to move outside the box of problem solving. They get easily frustrated with problem solving, thinking that their may be only one correct answer or way of getting there. While I think I promote this type of thinking enthusiastically, I’m not sure even I’ve considered that taking an empathetic lens to problem solving and human need as a major component of the design thinking process. I also like that while there are suggested steps in the design thinking process, they are non linear and take on many interpretations.

1 reply · active 178 weeks ago

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Hannah J (ISD) 35p · 178 weeks ago

Hi Mitchell,

I agree, a lot of my students were hesitant to "think outside the box" at the beginning of the year. I wonder where this belief of "one solution" stems from? I know often times in math curriculum, students are pushed to solve a problem in a specific way, even in Kindergarten. I am wondering how we can encourage students, at a young age, that they can solve in various ways. I also enjoyed hearing that the Design Thinking process isn't linear and that it offers for various interpretations. By using this process of thinking, it allows for everyone to participate and bring in their own outside knowledge. I am excited to try and push myself and my students, to think about problem solving from an empathetic lens. Thank you for sharing!

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Stephen Elms · 178 weeks ago

As an older teacher, seeing the continued emergence and emphasis on SEL practices over the last even 5 years has been so wonderful to put into practice, and to see the students embrace it and run and grow from the experiences is incredible. One quote that made me think quite a bit was, "Educators can weave elements of SEL development into lessons within almost any curricular subject. They can use these learning experiences to promote the development of character traits. Plus, since STEM learning is largely hands-on, they can have students focus on skills like collaboration, creativity, curiosity, and community." This seems to be particularly more important this year more than ever as we see the effects that the COVID "break" has wreaked upon our students and their sense of collaboration and perseverance during tasks. What a lot of teachers are seeing this year so far is what one of the articles stated as "soft skills" - those interpersonal, collaborative skills that students so desperately need if they are to work not only collaboratively in the classroom but also in STEM careers, and during this traumatic time we have all endured, students were more than ever -- "Constantly immersing themselves in devices also hurts the social and emotional development of children. They’re often less proficient at the most important soft skills, like communication, recognizing and interpreting emotions, and resolving conflicts. So, even though they might be learning some SEL and science skills, they’re not always fully developing if the soft skill development is not there. I think one of the areas we can and should work most heavily on this year should be in developing those SEL skills in concert while working in STEM.

2 replies · active 177 weeks ago

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Rachael S (ISD) · 178 weeks ago

Hi Stephen, I totally agree with you that the soft skills are both missing and hugely important in the current job market. I know many consultants who came out of business school and found their interviews focused on critical thinking, making smart assumptions, reading people well, and managing people. These skills can't be taught with lectures, students need to practice and explore them on their own. Online teaching had many positives and negatives that we now must shift away from. Making STEM and Design Thinking a part of the classroom experience is one efficient way to push students to use their "soft skills" on a daily basis.

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Meg H · 177 weeks ago

I agree! This year the older students who have not been in school for a year and a half missed out on so many team building, collaboration skills and training. I can see how involving students in more problem solving could help in a variety of ways.

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Hannah J (ISD) 35p · 178 weeks ago

In my classroom I often push my students to "think outside the box" or try other strategies to either solve the problem or support their findings. At the beginning of the year, I think a lot of my students got hung up on this, and felt that they could only solve a given problem in on way. Now my students come up with lots of different problems and talk with one another about the differences in their problem solving. I think there are a lot of parallels between the steps in my classroom and Design Thinking such as ideate and prototype. After looking more at the graphic from Interaction Design Foundation, it made me think more about the other areas of Design Thinking such as empathize and define. I feel like this is something I can definitely work on with my students, so that they see the connection behind the solutions that they are creating. Design Thinking would benefit students outside the classroom because, it would help them to ask questions, "think outside the box" and solve real world problems. In addition, it would help students to see other people's perspectives and become more empathetic towards others.

1 reply · active 178 weeks ago

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Danielle S. (SVSD) · 178 weeks ago

I love that you push students to "think outside the box." Often there are so many ways to come to the same conclusion, it's fun to see where their creative minds take them. I also love that it would allow students to see and understand other's perspectives as that is incredibly important now more than ever. Empathy is something we are constantly trying to teach students.

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Danielle S. (SVSD) · 178 weeks ago

As a Kindergarten teacher our problems are generally more of a gradual release model. I do, we do , you do. A lot of the "you do" is even guided and modeled or done in small groups with a teacher or para to lessen the amount of time they would have to make mistakes. It takes us a while to get to the point where we can involve them into the discussion rather than directing them through it. That being said, SEL is an incredibly large part of Kinder teaching and is integrated within every aspect of what we do. As the article stated, "Humans naturally develop patterns of thinking modeled on repetitive activities". This speaks to what we do in Kinder with repeated and modeled ways of various activities. It takes much repetition until they are independent enough to complete tasks on their own successfully. I like that the Design Thinking is open ended and allows for interpretations as Kinder is often a different world. We are just starting all of these steps and are creating successful students in the process. It's November and because of behaviors and various things I am just now feeling like we can have more open ended discussions and allow for their voice and thoughts to come through. It's a very exciting time in Kinder!

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Meg H · 177 weeks ago

I had an epithany reading the article and the example of looking at things in a simpler way. Like when they let the air out of the tires to get the truck out. Often times, it is the student with common sense who can see the whole picture better. I just observed this in a lesson involving the Harris Burdict Mysteries. The students that were most successful did not try to analyize and dig deeper but they the ones who looked at the big picture got the most correct. It allowed different students to be leaders.
It is also a powerful way to look at students behaviors and empathize, respond instead of reacting,

1 reply · active 176 weeks ago

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Eric Richards · 176 weeks ago

Meg, I would love to know more about this lesson. Harris Burdict is a book I love to use for story prompts, but I have never seen it used like you are describing. That would be so cool to see how it created different leaders, and helped them analyze differently.

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Eric Richards · 176 weeks ago

Hello,

One of my favorite problem solving materials I have ever come across is Teacher to Teacher back in my old Federal Way days. It was a fantastic curriculum supplement we got that created innovation and creativity (design thinking). Teachers were shown how to not ever respond to a student with "correct" or "incorrect", but to choose words specifically to push thinking and look for different approaches. This was so ahead of its times and I wish I could find it and bring it back. It would fit in today with our approach of supporting mathematical thinking and how to get kids to look at problems different and understand them better.

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