Classes

d.school classes strive to make our students more confident in their design process, to give them the skills to collaborate across both disciplinary and cultural boundaries, and to have an impact in the world. In the past few years, faculty from multiple academic disciplines have worked with interdisciplinary student teams on a variety of projects in the field of education.

d.school classes typically last 10 or 20 weeks and often consist of 10-40 students, with 2-5 members on the teaching team, plus coaches and industry and non-profit partners. They are loosely organized into themes or initiatives and are forums where participants get to tackle real world projects in order to learn more about design thinking and practice innovating together. Students who have completed classes are confident in their personal innovation process and able to collaborate on multidisciplinary teams. Big ideas that impact the world may emerge from a class, but our primary focus is on shaping students who go out in the world and have an impact.

No Teacher Left Behind: Spring 2009
Rethinking the Traditional Teaching Career

This course provides a series of immersive experiences and real world projects focused around some of the most pressing issues facing the teaching profession: teacher recruitment/induction, teacher sharing, and teacher retention. The d.school and NewSchools Venture Fund are co-producing this class. The d.school will provide the design thinking experiences, and NewSchools Venture Fund will provide access to some of the organizations and leaders who are taking on these challenges.

Designing to Learn: Winter and Spring 08

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford offers a course through the K-12 Lab for motivated individuals who are interested in learning more about design and its applications to K-12 contexts. Students have the opportunity to work directly with middle school students in EPA and Hillsborough. The course provides a forum for students to discuss with fellow students and educational leaders on the potential for design and design thinking in education.

K-12 Learning Lab Independent Projects: ongoing
Applying design thinking directly to K-12 education contexts.

The K-12 Learning Lab has major projects with the Nueva School, East Palo Alto Academy Charter School, and the Henry Ford Learning Institute. We're building spaces, courses, and partnerships to bring design thinking to young people. We are looking for students who want to bite off parts of the projects and work on them independently. The overall team will meet together every other week to share learning and prototypes.
Times and Units: Flexible
Email: dschoolk12info@lists.stanford.edu
Lab Director: Rich Crandall, d.school