The week before our Introduction to STEM Workshops, there is a rush of staff, volunteers, curriculum designers and graphic designers all working together to provide the best learning environment for our students.
With every new workshop, we are applying the design thinking process:
Empathize: We closely observe the problems of the students. We also explore the teaching challenges the teachers are facing and better understand the goals of the school management committee and the principals for their student’s learning outcomes. For this need assessment process, interviews, surveys and classroom observations are conducted.
Ideate: We tweak our workshop curriculum based on the level of students and incorporate contextual examples in our local technology-based model-making sessions. Our curriculum designers explore and research the best way to implement these ideas.
Prototype: Volunteers and staff come together to go through the workshop plan and conduct any necessary mock teaching or training. They provide and receive feedback.
Execute: Our team deploys the workshop. Facilitators provide real-time feedback as well as share their observations at the end-of-the-day reflections.
Share and Reflect: Finally, after each workshop, the execution team sits together to discuss what went well (WWW: what went well ) and what could be better (EBI: or even better if). A report is created to refer to when planning the next workshop or program. Similarly, each workshop is evaluated through pre and post evaluations, observations and student feedback.
Iterate: The team is now off planning the next workshop and incorporating key learning areas from the previous workshop aiming for higher learning outcomes among the students.
In this way, our team not only introduces this process to students and teachers, but also incorporates it in our day-to-day planning, designing and organizing process.