Covid-19: DESIGN CHALLENGE

I've seen a lot of MYP Design teachers stressing out online and wondering how their students will work at home. For our Grade 8s we are postponing our animation unit, and instead doing a unit all about the current Coronavirus. In this unit students have to identify a problem with being locked in - this could be anything from not getting enough exercise, to running out of fresh food. Students will have to use the resources available to them to make their solution.

This is a very real design situation and problem, and I am excited to see what they come up with.

Some additional things: Students will be encouraged to use their family as their target audience, but could also text/email/call of other people locked in (their friends). At the end they will be encouraged to take action by sharing their ideas/plans online.

Some things to note:

• We are doing this with Grade 8s. There is already some anxiety about the current situation, so I've put in light-hearted suggested for problems, including: 
  • Finding it difficult to do physical activity in a small apartment
  • Getting easily annoyed with the family I am stuck indoors with this
  • Struggling to find a quiet place to do online learning.
• With older students, or students who have already been on lockdown, you could get them to think about bigger problems, or problems which might happen if this situation escalates.
• The presentation is quite bland - mostly just text. My students are familiar with the design cycle, so this just guides them through each step.
• This activity will go through every strand in the MYP Design Cycle.
• We will be doing a lot of face to face online learning, so my students will be chatting with me on Microsoft Teams, and will use this to share their ideas with peers. They will also use Jamboard and Padlet, and we will do little fun, warm-up activities too.
• I created a worksheet for my lovely Grade 8s, but don't worry I made some available for you too, regardless of if you are teaching this to 11 year olds or 16 year olds
  • Worksheet for MYP 1 / Grade 6
  • Worksheet for MYP 2-3 / Grade 7-8
  • Worksheet for MYP 4-5 / Grade 9-10

Here's a link to the presentation too.

How wonderful would it be if our young designers used this global problem to really innovate and come up with solutions? I would love for other schools to also run this project - then we can maybe one place where we can share examples of student ideas? Let me know if this is something you might use!