George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Design Thinking

Find and share resources to help students engage in innovative processes for tackling complex real-world problems in human-centered ways.

  • The Science Classroom Makerspace

    In freshman biology, lab work and design thinking come together through maker education.
    Michael Ralph

  • Designing a Public School From Scratch

    On a mission to reimagine traditional schooling, a K–8 school in San Diego puts teachers and students at the center.
    Nora Fleming

  • Design Thinking: A Problem Solving Framework

    Students learn to empathize with others around the globe while solving real-world problems.

  • Flexible Seating and Student-Centered Classroom Redesign

    How a visit to Starbucks inspired a change to flexible seating—and then some changes in teaching philosophy.
    Kayla Dornfeld

  • Birmingham Covington: Building a Student-Centered School

    Educators take on the role of guides and motivate students to direct their own learning.
    Holly Korbey

  • Designed for Engagement

    A school district uses monthly missions in its design studios to increase student and teacher engagement and foster self-directed learning.
    Chad Flexon

  • Resources for STEAM

    Discover information, examples, and tools related to incorporating aspects of the arts, design, and the humanities into STEM-based school activities.

  • Empowering Students With Design Thinking

    A school in India founded on design thinking principles encourages students to be active agents in their own learning.

  • Arts Integration: Resource Roundup

    All points of arts integration -- from benefits and implementation to linking the arts with core curriculum -- are covered in this roundup of useful Edutopia blog posts, articles, and videos.

  • Design Thinking and the Deskless Classroom

    Use design thinking (brainstorming, prototyping, testing, building, and reflecting) to co-create your classroom environment with the students who will be learning in it.
    Tracy Evans

  • Elementary Classroom Hacks: Big Ideas at Little Cost

    With things like old keyboards, inexpensive aprons, free paint store supplies, and a little imagination, you can creatively customize your classroom environment to maximize learning.
    Samantha McBurney

  • Teaching Empathy Through Design Thinking

    While empathy is the first step in the design thinking process, keep your students focused on this necessary element as they move through definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
    Rusul Alrubail

  • Building Products for Real-World Clients

    Students in India in grades pre-K to 12 use design thinking to create products that address real needs.

  • Design Thinking in Education: Empathy, Challenge, Discovery, and Sharing

    <p>As a model for reframing methods and outcomes, design thinking reconnects educators to their creativity and aspirations for helping students develop as deep thinkers and doers.</p> <br> &nbsp;
    Susie Wise

  • Design Thinking and PBL

    Design thinking and PBL can bridge what we know and how we innovate. Try combining these two practices as an instructional framework for teaching 21st-century skills.
    Beth Holland