The Designing Student

Kelsie, Nick and Nouelle

Designing Superpower Summary

Students need the skill of designing and solving for the challenges they will be
faced with in their own lives.
They must be active participants in their learning.
They must be creators, rather than simply consumers.
By teaching students to engage with and change their worlds, teachers can
create learning experiences that are relevant to their lives. Training them to
be people who can change the world.
They need to identify what is missing and how to go about fixing it.

Connecting the Standards

As this instructional journey and
superpower are closely linked to
engineering design, The focus standard
come from the National Curriculum for
Social Studies.
National Council for Social Studies Website

People have wants that often exceed the

limited resources Available to them
The unequal distribution of resources necessitates a system of
exchange, including trade, to improve the well-being of the
economy, while the role of government in economic policy
making varies over time and from place to place. Increasingly,
economic decisions are global in scope and require a systematic
study of an interdependent world economy and the role of
technology in economic growth.

4 Fundamental Questions
What is to be produced?
How is the production to be organized?
How are goods and services to be distributed? and to
whom?
What is the most effective allocation of the factors of
production? (land, Labor, capital, and entrepreneurship)

Exploring this Theme

Students confront questions such as:
What factors influence decision making on
production, distribution, and consumption
of goods?

Exploring this Theme cont.

What are the best ways to deal with Market
failures?
How does the interdependence brought on
by globalization impact local economies
and social systems?

Connections to other Standards

Common Core State Standards for Reading,
Writing, and Speaking and Listening

What Standards?
W.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose and audience.
SL.1- Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse partners,
building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly
and persuasively

What standards?
SL.2- Integrate and evaluate information presented in
diverse media and formats, including visually,
quantitatively and orally.
SL.3- Evaluate a Speakers point of view, reasoning, and
use of evidence and rhetoric
SL.5- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions with diverse partners on topics and texts.

Formative Assessment and Tracking Student

Progress Toward Goals:
After each lesson students should self-assess their progress. The
formative tracking sheet is a great way for the students to assess their
work. The arrow continuum allows students to self-evaluate their work
using a yellow crayon. Once the students assess themselves a teacher
can also use this tracking sheet but use a blue crayon. The light green
color will show the students how much you agree with their assessment
or how much they need to work on.

Final Assessment: have your goals been achieved?

Design A School Bus- The final assessment in this journey is where
students create a school bus. They apply what they have learned to
interview, empathize, design and test their ideas. This is normally done in
design group.

Student friendly prompt- The design challenge is to build a school bus

prototype for kindergarteners. Riding on the bus will allow interviews of the
kindergarteners and find out their needs. In the end you design an amazing
bus which will be tested.
Differentiation: Meeting the needs of all learners

This journey can include many different learners. There are multiple
articles and websites about different designs that can be used for different
learners.