Design Thinking Planning Guide for STEAM/Makerspace

This includes two versions of a general design thinking planning guide for older elementary students-middle school to fill out for guided or student-led making and innovation. It is designed to encourage students to think before designing, and incorporates check-ins (collaboration) steps, curiosity, critical thinking, & reflection. Meant for use in STEAM Labs, makerspaces, classrooms, and after/out of school programs, this guide allows students to become comfortable using design thinking.

I’ve adapted kid-friendly terms to describe the design thinking process (the “C”s) that you can see in these materials, as well incorporating conservation of resources.

In this resource:

~~Introduction

~~Teacher Prompts

~~Design Thinking process diagram

~~Blank design guides (2 versions for different grades)

~~Example completed design guide