Innovation Nation: Teaching middle school students to be design thinkers

Abstract

Our purpose was to provide a model for a middle school design thinking program supported by a university-school partnership and to investigate potential benefits of teaching middle school students to be design thinkers. Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade girls (N = 80) participated in the Innovation Nation program. Over three days, students engaged in workshops and collaborated in teams to learn the five phases of design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) and applied the methodology to an authentic human-centered innovation challenge. Student teams showcased prototypes of their solutions at a final exhibition attended by parents and the school community. Results showed that participants dramatically increased their understanding of design thinking and its steps as a result of the Innovation Nation experience. Notably, there were also important gains beyond design thinking knowledge, including increases in self-efficacy for creativity, design, and problem-solving, and better attitudes about group work. There was also evidence that skills learned in Innovation Nation transferred, as students showed an increased tendency to seek critical feedback and revise work based on feedback in a novel design task following the program. We hope to encourage middle school educators to bring design thinking into the curriculum, as students who learn design thinking also develop important habits of mind and 21^st century skills.

This We Believe Characteristics

Keywords:

• 21^st century skills
• design thinking
• middle school girls

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ There is some inconsistency in the literature on the use of STEM vs. STEAM, reflecting an evolution.

over time to include more emphasis on art and architecture. In this paper, we use STEAM except where we are citing authors who have specified STEM.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Allison G. Butler

Allison G. Butler, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Innovation and Design Experience for All (IDEA) Program at Bryant University. E-mail: [email protected]

Heather P. Lacey

Heather P. Lacey, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Bryant University. E-mail: [email protected]

Michael A. Roberto

Michael A. Roberto, D.B.A., is a Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University. E-mail: [email protected]

Deborah Hanney

Deborah Hanney, M.A.T., is the Middle School Director at Lincoln School in Providence, RI. E-mail: [email protected]

Nina Luiggi

Nina Luiggi, is formerly a student at Bryant University. E-mail: [email protected]