Our Year 8 (MYP 3) students embarked on a two-day challenge as part of the MYP Interdisciplinary Unit. This project was both exploratory and participatory, where teams explored critical questions such as: What challenges or opportunities might society face in the future? Combining the principles of Design Thinking with Futures Literacy, students were challenged to envision future scenarios and create artifacts from the future.
Day 1: Exploring and Ideating
The first day focused on human-centred design through empathy-driven research. Students conducted interviews, made observations, and gathered insights to understand and address real human needs and challenges. They explored various strategic foresight tools and frameworks, which helped them envision multiple future scenarios and plan strategically for sustainable outcomes. The emphasis was on sustainable, future-oriented design, encouraging students to think about the long-term impacts of their designs on the planet and society.
Individual teams worked together by brainstorming a plethora of ideas, thinking expansively about potential solutions. This stage fostered creativity and critical thinking, allowing students to dive deep into the complexities of the modern world and anticipate future trends and challenges.
Day 2: Prototyping and Presenting
The second day was all about bringing the future to life! Teams turned their ideas into tangible prototypes, enabling them to test the desirability, feasibility, and sustainability of each future artefact. This hands-on approach was crucial in helping students understand the practical aspects of their theoretical knowledge.
To conclude the session, each team presented their innovative human-centred design solutions while highlighting multiple visions of the future. These presentations showcased their ability to integrate empathy-driven research with strategic foresight, resulting in designs that are not only innovative but also sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Highlights of the Challenge
- Human-Centred Design: Empathy-driven research to understand real human needs and challenges.
- Strategic Foresight: Exploring various futures tools and frameworks to envision possible future scenarios.
- Sustainable Design: Focusing on long-term impacts and creating environmentally friendly solutions.
- Hands-On Prototyping: Building tangible prototypes to test and iterate on their ideas. Innovative Presentations: Showcasing multiple visions of the future with practical, sustainable solutions.
Once again, the interdisciplinary approach of these inquiry units, which blend two or more subjects, has helped students go beyond the boundaries between disciplines, making them aware that knowledge is interconnected and not confined within isolated boxes. By using the future as a scenario, it has helped them make strategic decisions to seek solutions that anticipate challenges still to come.
