Driving Question: How might we increase the number of green roofs and walls across Sydney?
Year 11 students from across South West Sydney have just completed 10 days in the U@Uni Summer School working with staff from our Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and UTS Startups to design and create accessible green spaces for people in Sydney. They researched how green spaces might be used, how they could make this idea become more attractive to businesses and industry and how they could make ideas that would support the local community.
Listen to Albert Ong, the Creative Intelligence Summer School Coordinator and Murray Henstock, our Summer School Adviser (and amazing science teacher from Wiley Park Girls School) explain the task that students were given and what they believe students gained from the experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4c_EhFIyjY
Murray Henstock, Science Teacher, Wiley Park Girls School and Summer School Adviser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1er7-4l5cpY&t=2s
Albert Ong, UTS U@Uni Creative Intelligence Summer School Coordinator.
Students were guided through the design thinking process (empathy, define, ideate, prototype, test) to build human centered ideas and test their products. This is not a linear process and often you need to go back a few steps in order to move forward with an effective product or solution. Below is an outline of how the students used design thinking and some of the activities they took part in to assist them in coming up with effective products.
Empathy: Empathy helps design thinkers to set aside their own learning, culture, knowledge, opinions, and worldview in order to gain insight into their users and their needs.This is crucial in order to build human centered design solutions. In order to create a sense of empathy for our end users (citizens of Sydney), students walked through the following activities.
- Empathy walks: Students explored different ways to interact with the environment and people. They gathered data in order to develop and learn about different perspectives.
- Perspective relay: Students investigated a space from different view points.
- Algorithmic walk: Students Explored an environment they have not been to before.
- Empathy mapping: This process brings together empathy data collected through the above activities. This is a framing activity and students were asked to use the data to create a map that showed what the end user thinks, feels, says and does
Define: This included research of the problem space and associated location. It also included a client brief session and redefining sessions once initial ideas were presented.
Ideate: In this stage students generate a wide variety of potential answers and solutions.There are a range of activities you can use to help you think outside the box. Here is what the students did in the Creative Intelligence Summer School and some links to find out more!
- Yes, and… (more here: https://www.dramanotebook.com/drama-games/yes-and/)
- Crazy 8’s (more on how here: https://thoughtbot.com/product-design-sprint/guide/diverge/crazy-eights)
- Rapid Fire
- Best In World (Creative Exercise)
- Creative Journey
Prototype: Students looked at ways to use Drones, VR/AR and mixed media to assist with ideation and prototyping.
Test/Learn/Validate: Students took part in informal feedback and reflection sessions throughout the two weeks to get further feedback and to help them redefine the scope of their work. There was a formal pitching session with the client and UTS Startup entrepreneurs at the end where students outlined their ideas and were given feedback.
Here are some of the finished prototypes:
What did the students think, learn and take away? Diya Mustafa from Wiley Park Girls High School and Muhammad Hamid from Granville Boys High School explain their experience and what they learnt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h5DFYU779c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st_HkVPNj3w
So what can you take from this? We hope that you are inspired to work in a similar space. Murray Henstock tells us what he has taken into his teaching practice from this experience. Maybe you could give it a go too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btZ0lHBBYoE
Want to hear more about the U@Uni Summer School? Check out this link: https://www.uts.edu.au/future-students/undergraduate/resources-teachers/uuni-outreach-program/outreach-activities/summer
Or contact Emlyn Dodd, the program manager at Emlyn.Dodd@uts.edu.au.