The Project: Sharing, Implementing, and Sustaining Design for Change in Baltimore City Classrooms

This project began from Jade Shih’s desire to use her experience in MICA’s Social Design Master’s program in a way that would both be inspired by and support the work of Design for Change. Design for Change is a global movement founded on the concept that children Can create change, and they can start today. Design for Change teaches students the “I Can” mindset by involving them in change making projects using the framework: Feel, Imagine, Do, Share. Please visit their website to read more about what they do, and the impact teachers and students have created around the world.

In order to both support and spread the valuable work of DFC, Jade and I hope to explore how we might support Baltimore teachers in learning about and ultimately implementing design practices in their own classrooms in a sustainable way.

Helpful Terms and Process Info:

• Social Design—As defined by MICA’s Social Design program itself, “Social Design is a creative practice dedicated to understanding social problems and supporting positive social change.”
• Human Centered Design (HCD)—Simply put, Human Centered Design is the process of designing with the people/community members that the design itself is meant to serve.
• Human Centered Design Process as Defined and Taught at MICA:
  • The HCD process that Jade and I will be following throughout this project follows the framework presented in MICA’s Social Design program, which lays out six phases we work through throughout each project. These phases are:
    • Frame and Plan: “Organize existing scientific data and research associated with the problem. Facilitate discussions to better understand key data and research and to appropriately scope the engagement.”
    • Research: “Understand the culture and context of the problem by understanding the culture and context of the people involved. Talk to, observe, and learn from stakeholders to locate needs and assets to support.”
    • Synthesize: “Compile observations and research findings and look for common themes and insights. Embrace unexpected insight, ideas and inspiration. Find appropriate opportunities for intervention.”
    • Ideate: “Generate as many ideas as possible and defer judgment (no bad ideas). Be visual with idea generation and share openly.  Draw concepts, not outcomes. Document the process and routinely combine and refine ideas.”
    • Prototype: “Make tangible representations of ideas and give them form. Prototype with people to better test assumptions, lower risk, align partners and stakeholders, and reveal potential problems early.”
    • Implement and Iterate: “Test, iterate and develop prototypes in context. Document and collect feedback to inform strategies and interventions that are more likely to be adopted and align with target outcomes.”