Innovation

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a solution-based process through which
students develop new answers to problems big and small.

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Early Childhood Center

Preschool students explore structural design by devising gates to support baby pumpkins. In senior kindergarten, students create body vests that map out their hearts, lungs, stomachs and kidneys.
Lower School

Students in Grade 2 devise hot air balloons to accompany their book reviews. Grade 3 students learn to map ice floe faults through Skype with a scientist in Antarctica.
Upper School

Grade 6 students tackle how to improve the quality of Lake Michigan water by developing water filtration systems they then test in LFCDS' outdoor Lab.

Design thinking is a solution-based process that uses both analysis and synthesis. This method employs divergent thinking as a way to ensure that as many solutions as can be imagined are explored from the outset, and then incorporates convergent thinking as a way to narrow these ideas down to a final solution. Divergent thinking is the ability to offer different, unique, or variant ideas surrounding one theme, while convergent thinking is the ability to find the “correct” solution to a given problem. Design Thinking asks students to approach problems by considering WHO you are solving for, WHAT their needs are, and HOW you will solve those needs.

How Do We Use Design Thinking

At Lake Forest Country Day School, the principles of Design Thinking are embedded throughout the curriculum and across all grade levels. We encourage solving problems through creative action, employing a strategy based on the following steps:

Why is Design Thinking Important?

It provides a new way to tackle problems. In today’s global world, innovation and creative problem solving are required across all industries and professions. The ability to take what appears to be an insurmountable task, and break it into manageable pieces is a skill all successful students must possess. Members of today’s workforce must have the ability to think empathetically as well as critically, work both as a team member and independently, and persevere in resolving problems while embracing unsuccessful attempts as an opportunity for growth and learning.

Four Principles of Design Thinking

The human rule – all design activity is ultimately social in nature
The ambiguity rule – design thinkers must preserve ambiguity
The re-design rule – all design is re-design
The tangibility rule – making ideas tangible always facilitates communication

A co-educational independent private school for students age 2 through Grade 8.
Graduating students of strong character with a passion for learning since 1888.
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