Empowering Students to Change the Game as Innovative Designers at Augustus F. Hawkins High School
By Jacqueline Paredes, Computer Science CTE Teacher, & Matthew Piwowarczyk, Instructional Technology Facilitator
Augustus F. Hawkins High School, South Mid-City Community of Schools, Local District West, Board District 1
But how did Atani and her classmates synthesize their learning across content areas in order to create a playable video game that made a powerful statement about colonization? Guided by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Innovative Designer Standard for Students (1.4.a.), the Hawkins teachers collaborating on this project knew their students had to be able to “use a deliberate design process for generating ideas” and “testing theories.” To meet that standard, they introduced students to the d.school at Stanford University’s Design Thinking Process.
The Design Thinking Process was developed by the d.school at Stanford University as a creative approach to problem-solving. As students prepared for the Game Fair, they used this very same process to design and develop their game. The Design Thinking Process is composed of five modes: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
- Problem-solvers begin with the Empathize mode, during which they are getting to know the audience for which they are designing. Essentially, they are observing, engaging, watching and listening in order to best understand the problem.
- Following the Empathize mode is the Define mode, during which problem-solvers are synthesizing what they learned about their audience to write an actionable problem statement.
- The Define mode is followed by the Ideate mode. During ideation, you brainstorm ways that you might be able to solve your problem. Such brainstorming can consist of, but is not limited to, mindmapping, sketching, and building, all of which is done using one's imagination and without judgment or evaluation of one's ideas.
- A natural transition from the Ideate mode is the Prototype mode, a time when problem-solvers are building anything that can be tested and that moves them closer towards a final solution. It is important to note that prototypes should be created with inexpensive materials and not much time should be spent on creating them.
- Lastly, the Testing mode can go hand-in-hand with the Prototype, and is ultimately a time to receive feedback from your users. When prototyping, several prototypes should be provided to the user to test. It is important not to tell the user everything about how to use a prototype, and observing the user's experience is key.
As mentioned previously, students were guided by the Design Thinking Process to create their game. While empathizing, students learned about imperialism in their history class and learned about its impact on indigenious people. Students were not asked to write a problem statement because the problem was defined in their game prompt. The problem statement frontloaded to students was: What does it look like to explore without colonizing? Students were guided by this question throughout each mode of the design process.
Throughout ideation, students brainstormed possible game stories, game characters, game scenes, and game mechanics, and they did so in their English class while also learning how to create a Game Design Document. In their physics class, they also ideated the specifications needed for a spacecraft that could travel to different parts of the universe all while learning about astronomy and space travel. Furthermore, when they were ready to begin the prototyping and testing, they created rough sketches and gameplay storyboards. They would share these with their classmates and computer science teacher to receive feedback. Lastly, students took on different game development roles within their teams to complete the various components needed to create a game. Some students took on the role of creating their game scenes, others created their game characters, while others animated those characters or programmed the game mechanics.
The Design Thinking Process is a powerful tool educators can use to nurture a growth mindset in students. As Yoda says to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, “the greatest teacher, failure is.” When we ask students to push their learning past “I’m finished” and into “how can this be better?” we prepare them to lead and collaborate in the real world. As one of our design and gaming industry partners and founder of HomeTeam GameDev, Chris DeLeon, put it, “it’s so valuable to not just be doing anything unreflectively and just leave it done, but to have to be able to describe what changed about it, why it came out this way, and what you are trying to achieve with it in ways that helps inform future projects.” This speaks to the importance of testing and refining “prototypes as part of a cyclical design process” as outlined in the ISTE Standard for Students 1.4.c. Innovative Designer. The Design Thinking Process is an excellent tool for students to be present and future innovative designers.
