Recently I conducted Design Thinking workshop for senior students of 11th and 12th graders of Rajendra Public School in Punab,India. It is a very important need to educate students on the concept of Design Thinking at school level and contribute towards bringing the change in our education system wherein we work to design the thinking of students to solve problems creatively and make them future ready. As per the World Economic Forum, complex problem solving is one of the top most needed skills by 2020.
It was important to make a connection with my audience i.e. students so I conversed with them in their mother tongue Punjabi and also used Hindi along with English to make them feel comfortable.
Today students have aspirations towards diverse career paths. The central thought was, how do we shape their thinking to start moving towards their aspirations and plan their exploration now to see if that is the path that really interest them that some students would have already identified and some might be still thinking.
Why not design a challenge which would entice the current mind-set of the students, since all of them are getting ready to venture into career building areas. Why not we start thinking and exploring about “how to inspire our friend to pursue his goal?”
Students from diverse educational areas were brought together (Biology, Arts, Commerce and Science) to have that creative blend and fusion for problem solving.
I still remember the creative confidence the students exhibited while demonstrating their prototypes and this experience in return gave me more confidence to facilitate such workshops again and again and continue to plan and contribute towards the transformation changes needed in our society.
“I feel good to design a prototype which would help my friend to learn by doing by designing her room for experimenting designing diagrams with structures by being empathetic” Mandeep Kaur, 12th Grader.
“My super magic book would make it easy for my friend to understand formulas and solve numerical” Sandeep, 11th Grader.
“11th and 12th Students of Rajindera Public School were inspired and motivated by Design Thinking and innovation expert Gauri Mohan ‘s workshop where they were learning and creating solutions from creatives ideas for solving a challenge which their friends our facing in a very creative way”, Meenakshi, Chemistry Teacher.
Gauri Mohan 