If you’ve been enjoying this design thinking series, you might want to take a deeper dive by checking out Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student. You might also be interested in joining a Launch book club. I’m a…
A few years ago, our yard was canvased by a thick sheet of snow — well, thick for a southwestern guy who has just moved to the northwest. I’m pretty sure my friends in Michigan would have called it a “dusting.” However, my kids spent…
The term “design thinking” is often attached to maker spaces and STEM labs. However, design thinking is bigger than STEM. It begins with the premise of tapping into student curiosity and allowing them to create, test and re-create until they eventually ship what they made…
This is the first in a month-long series on design thinking. This is an elaboration of an article I wrote in 2015. My Maker Journey When I was in the eighth grade, my entire goal was to go unnoticed. Fly under the radar. Keep away…
Subscribe to YouTube Channel A few days ago, my son said something that surprised me. He said, “Dad, we have the best cafeteria lady at our school.” And I said, “Wait, what?” But then he went on to describe how this woman chose to memorize…
When my middle son was in the third grade, he volunteered to share a joke with a big audience at a family camp. As I watched him standing in the line with older kids and quite a few adults, I felt nervous. What would happen…
A.J. Juliani and I led our first ever LAUNCH Academy last week. At first, I was nervous and even overwhelmed by the epic feel of the ARC building. Seriously, this looks like something out of Hogwarts. (Picture by Autumn Elizabeth) But if the building was epic,…
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to deliver an opening keynote and closing talk for EdEx, a conference in Eindhoven (in the Netherlands). When Jochem first shared his idea of a weeklong design expedition, I imagined teachers working in a makerspace, designing a…
Last week, I stepped off the train and walked into the bustling streets of Eindhoven. I had never been to the Netherlands, much less Europe, so I became the obnoxious American taking quick snapshots, attempting to soak up the feel of the city. My first…
We want students to be makers and designers. But there’s a surprising source of inspiration for design: the natural world. This is the key idea behind biomimicry, which encourages engineers to pay close attention to nature in order to improve their designs. The following post…
I’m a professor and a maker. Sometimes I make things. Sometimes I make a difference. On a good day, I get to do both.
