Teach, Learn, Design

January 25, 2019

Teach, Learn, Design is a blog documenting the Independent Study project of Jade Shih and Sarah Dunn. Through this platform, we hope to explain and share the process of our work as we move through the Human Centered Design process (to be defined later in this post). We hope this blog will exist as both a documentation tool as well as a resource to potential community partners, teachers, students, designers, and anyone wanting to explore the intersection of public-school classrooms, empowerment, and design.

Before jumping into the description of this work, we would like to offer some background information about ourselves, along with explanations of terms we will most-likely be using a lot throughout this project.

First, I’m Sarah. My background is in Fine Art with a concentration in Printmaking and Photography. I’m currently a graduate student in the Social Design program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. I am passionate about applying design strategies to address and dismantle systemic social injustice and am especially interested in introducing the tools of Human Centered Design to K-12 students to support work in making social change and self-empowerment possible at an early age. 

Jade Shih, the person who developed the proposal for this work, has a background in Sociology and had a four-year long career with Design for Change Taiwan before moving to Baltimore, MD to join MICA’s Social Design program. Jade continues to be inspired by the creativity of the children she worked with while with DFC Taiwan and hopes to integrate her Social Design experience with DFC practice here in Baltimore.