Catapult into Design Thinking

Written by Stacie Witton, STEM/Science Coordinator, Korumburra Secondary College

Remote learning has been hard on everyone but with a little creativity I turned it into an engaging opportunity that I thought I would share with you. My students Catapulted into Design Thinking…..literally.

As a part of our simple machine unit, I set up a design thinking challenge for students to create the most effective catapults for achieving distance and accuracy.

Step 1 Empathy: We looked at the history of the catapult, who used them and for what purpose. Students found the historical aspects of catapults very interesting and with a few funny catapult catastrophe videos they were hooked and ready to move on.

Step 2 Define: Students then defined the problem they wanted to solve by creating a, ‘How might we…?..’ question.

‘How might we build a catapult that will launch a projectile the furthest distance and with the most accuracy?’

Step 3 Ideate: My students then completed a Brain Bust. In a Brain Bust, students are encouraged to explode with ideas. Everything that bursts out of their brains is scribbled down onto a page. Nothing is too weird or wacky, they are not limited by reality or contained to the here and now.

I then synthesised their thinking further and led them to a point of future direction, utilising their Brain Bust to complete a SCAMPER.

Stage 4 Prototype: The students selected an idea that they wanted to move forward with. The reality of home resources did dictate the build direction but students also designed how they were going to test their catapult for distance and accuracy using a scientific method. (Yes it all comes back to Science for me as I’m a Science teacher)

Step 5 Test: They scientifically tested their catapults, assessing them for their distance capabilities. Students made modifications to their catapults in an attempt to improve the distance a projectile could travel. They gathered data on their final design. My students then applied their learning from the distance experiment to modify their catapults and test for accuracy.

Students reflected on their catapult construction and received feedback from their peers. Their design thinking process was not linear with many students returning to ideate and to the prototype stage.

So what did I learn from this experience? Design thinking can be very easily used in remote learning, making the learning hands on, challenging the students and keeping them engaged. It was a first for me to deliver design thinking remotely. I encourage everyone to experience design thinking for the first time. Once you’ve given it a go, I promise, you’ll be hooked!