Summer registration now open! Courses begin June 12.

Designed for K-12 teachers at any grade-level and part of the Digital-Age Educator program, Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the K12 Classroom with Design Thinking will provide opportunities for educators to learn about Design Thinking and build an understanding of how to implement a Design Thinking model with their students. The rapidly changing world requires that students learn innovative thinking skills and to design their own unique solutions to authentic problems. The Design Thinking model gives teachers a structured way to support students in approaching real-world problems, to foster creative confidence, and to encourage ideation, while improving their communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity skills. Design Thinking is a powerful approach to active problem solving applicable to any subject area. By the end of the course, teachers will be able to support their students in using the Design Thinking process to identify problems, research, analyze, prototype, and test their ideas to create solutions to relevant issues.

This online course will enable teachers to

• Explore how a focus on Design Thinking in the classroom supports 21st century competencies
• Identify the essential elements of the Design Thinking process, including question-asking, ideation, development, testing, and refining
• Connect the Design Thinking process to content-area standards and curriculum
• Explore models of Design Thinking in action, including local and global competitions and collaborations
• Model the Design Thinking process in the development of a design-thinking based learning experience
• Develop a plan for fostering a design-thinking culture in the classroom
• Apply methods of scaffolding and assessing learning into Design Thinking experiences
• Identify physical and digital tools to support students’ managing and designing their products or solutions.