• I adapted this lesson from a Design Thinking Bootcamp I attended at Stanford in 2017. The learning sequence was implemented over a 2 week period to accommodate school schedule.

• Younger students needed greater scaffolding around interviewing vs. adults. The most intense coaching was needed to craft the needs statement — They tended to frame the statement with a solution already in mind.

• Students reported they find the process interesting, and enjoy interacting with one another. Rapid prototyping was both stressful and exciting. Students expressed strong interest in continuing beyond the rapid prototype phase.

This activity was originally made for a 6th grade Life Science class. The typical biomes teaching activity is a “jigsaw” where groups each learn about a biome, fill in information in a chart, then share. I transformed this into a Design Thinking activity by asking students to consider people going camping in their biome and designing a way to help them survive. In the most recent iteration of this lesson, students read blog posts and listen to interviews with real people who have gone camping in different biomes to build empathy.