What is Design Thinking?

School should be a campus for our imagination. A place where the creative sensibilities that drive great discoveries of our age are combined with deep content, relevant skills and innovative finesse. We would see a landscape where discovery was everywhere.

Design thinking addresses a problem by creating an object, an environment, an experience, a system, a service or a communication. Sometimes the problem is contrived and simply serves as a test of skills.  You give students a sheet of paper and brick and tell them to design something that will support the brick 1-inch from the ground.

But in its truest form, the problem concerns human need. We address meaningful problems in our community. We use empathy to guide research. We know that access to drinking water is a problem for homeless people in Washington, D.C., especially during the summer, so we look to design a solution to this problem. What would you need in order to solve this problem? What skills would it draw on? How would it challenge you? Does it seem daunting?

Welcome to St. Andrew’s Design Thinking and Innovation program. From age 2 through grade 12, we develop empathetic students who, with grit and resiliency, find creative solutions to meaningful problems. In short, we create innovators.

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