design-challenge – Page 2 – Taking Making Resources

March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 23: Eco-smart Recreation Facility

Developers are becoming increasingly interested in designing structures that are properly suited for their environments. Structures that are not designed this way are prone to damage from catastrophic environmental events such as flooding. According to the Alberta Provincial Flood Damage Assessment Study (https://www.alberta.ca/albertacode/images/pfdas-alberta-main.pdf), damage from flooding in Alberta has cost billions of dollars over the last decade. Without proper mitigation, cities must repeatedly repair and rebuild structures in flood areas at great expense.

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March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 22: Developing Historical Empathy

The study of a country’s history and evolution requires more than the memorization of dates, names and facts. Historians need to develop a deep understanding of the confounding circumstances of events, including people, places, cultures, politics, and many other factors. Coming to know why things happened the way they did is as important as knowing what happened and when. As Jill Lepore said, “The study of our history requires investigation, imagination, empathy and respect,” (The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History, 2010).

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March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 21: Growth Mindset – Electricity – A Resource for Teachers

Because of children’s natural curiosity, they begin to explore electricity by watching thunderstorms, flipping light switches on and off, and other exploratory and potentially dangerous ways. Electricity is everywhere and absolutely useful, but it also can be very dangerous and electrical accidents may occur.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 20: Displaced Students

The population boom, immigration, and rural families continuing to move into urban centres have taxed the capacity of schools to accommodate students in their immediate area. Not so many years ago, children walked or rode their bikes to their neighbourhood schools. However, increasingly urban centres are building large community schools to accommodate students being bussed or driven from multiple neighbourhoods. As a result, more and more students feel alienated and isolated, like strangers in their schools. A challenge becomes how to create initial and ongoing experiences for new students so they can increasingly feel welcomed; build relationships with their fellow students, teachers, and staff; find their place; and gradually become active members of their school communities.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 19: Apathy to Empathy

Thanks to social media and an almost continuous news cycle (e.g. television, radio, newspapers, etc.), we are provided many glimpses into global events, both happy and tragic, on a daily basis.
Some suggest social media has made our society apathetic to the world around us. Others propose that we are merely sympathetic to tragedies in a superficial, short-term way because another tragedy is always being reported. Initiatives like Fight Apathy and Me to We attempt to mobilize youth to make a difference and move from apathy to sympathy to empathy.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 18: Defining the Components of Society Using Artist Trading Cards

Society is typically defined as a group of people living together in the same geographical and social territory. Historically, the word society comes from the Latin word societas, which means friend or ally. This connection suggests many societies were formed for protection and strength. In Canada, we pride ourselves in creating a multicultural society built through immigration.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 17: Waste Management

Consider the impact landfills have on society and what alternatives might be. Globally, the world’s cities are struggling with what to do with their daily trash. In 2014, it was reported that 3 billion of the world’s 7 billion population live in cities, producing more than 1.3 billion metric tons of sold waste per year. As you look through the pictures on the website Trash Cities: The World’s Worst Garbage Problems, try to identify the types of trash and how it might have found its way into those settings. The trash illustrated in the pictures does not just make the environment look unattractive, it is potentially dangerous to us all!

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 16: Integrative Learning / Integrative Living – A Resource for Teachers

When educators create rich learning experiences for their students, they engage in the complex act of curricular interpretation and planning. The act of moving from curriculum as written to curriculum as embodied through learning requires thoughtful consideration and continuous design, iteration and revision. Research informed by the learning sciences (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse, & Feder, 2009), growth mindset (Dweck, 2012), and PISA results (Programme for International Student Assessment, 2012) has shown that what we know about learning and how students learn has changed. As well, the needs of Canadian society, especially in terms of what constitutes a skilled workforce, have changed over the last few decades. These changes require educators to reconsider how students might engage differently with mandated curricular intentions, suggesting a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted approach to instructional delivery focused on active learning and problem finding and problem solving situated in real world contexts is appropriate.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 15: Classroom Furniture

The classroom furniture may help or hinder collaborative learning. The ability to move furniture easily, quickly, and safety is important in classrooms wanting to create and support collaborative learning. When students are using digital technologies such as tablets or laptops, they need to be able to move around, connect to electricity, work in ever-changing groups, and use a variety of materials and resources. Also, recent studies suggest that sitting is the new smoking. From Smith Systems website: “movement can contribute to … concentration and is considered beneficial to
physical health”.

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March 26, 2019March 26, 2019

Design Challenge 14: Agricultural Automation

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. In Canada, agriculture is often a business that operates on a large or small scale. Increasingly, agricultural operations have some aspect of their work that is automated in some way, regardless of the size of the operation.

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