Maker Projects: Bridges Into Design Thinking

The purpose of this ETP is to provide physics teachers a bite-sized approach to begin implementing design thinking into their scope and sequence. This ETP simultaneously recognizes the value of design thinking as “a way for learners to become creative problem-solvers” and also the challenges that teachers face with implementing design thinking with fidelity. These challenges may include unfamiliarity with design thinking, lack of technology, and/or little flexibility to incorporate design thinking into their scope and sequence due to their school/district’s requirement of adhering to a strict curriculum and alignment to high-stakes testing. This ETP aims to serve as a solution to these challenges by giving teachers and students choices around short-term “maker projects” from a choice board that can be done either as one-off activities or in a recurring series like “Maker Mondays”. Ultimately, these maker projects are intended to orient students to the overall design thinking process but focusing on just a few select steps. The choice board contains 9 choices for maker projects. This ETP spotlights the first choice called “Circle of Pong” for high school physics.