![]() ![]() Indeed, when the chicken egg problem appeared, Ms. In addition, the school had recently contracted with a design thinking expert at a nearby university to regularly consult with teachers and provide professional development related to design thinking throughout the school year. She had recently been trained in design thinking by members of the Stanford d.school’s K–12 Lab. Jody, was in a position to facilitate the use of design thinking to solve the problem. If they failed to solve the problem, they could lose the chance of participating in the project altogether.įortunately for the students, their teacher, Ms. The students recognized that the burden of solving the problem rested on their shoulders. Equally as important, the stakes were high. ![]() Importantly, the problem was situated in a highly anticipated project and was therefore highly relevant to every fourth-grade participant. In order to salvage the project and save the business, students found they had to solve a problem: Find a way to increase chicken egg production. The result was that the eggs were difficult to collect and many were cracked or broken and therefore could not be sold. Instead, some chickens laid their eggs on the concrete floor and others laid their eggs under an overhang in the barnyard outside the henhouse. Early in the school year, students found that few chickens laid their eggs in the henhouse’s dedicated nesting boxes. ![]() However, with the new henhouse came an unexpected problem. Prior to the start of the school year during which this project occurred, the school constructed a barn complete with a brand-new henhouse to shelter the chickens. In this article, we report on a design thinking project that took place across approximately nine 30-minute classes over the first three weeks of instruction. The project serves as a culminating and transformative experience for fourth graders as it is one of the final classwide activities that they participate in during their time at the school. Many of the eggs that students collect and package are purchased by parents in the car line before and after school. This complex effort sets the stage for authentic learning experiences because students must take on leadership roles (e.g., president, vice-president), participate on committees to craft agendas and make schedules, and do the work of business owners (e.g., create egg-collection crews care for chickens by giving them food and water and collect, wash, package, and sell eggs). Specifically, the project calls for fourth graders to create and run a business to sell the eggs produced by the school’s flock of chickens, an endeavor that spans the course of the entire school year. For nearly 50 years, each fourth-grade class at the school has participated in an interdisciplinary project designed to promote students exploring the risks and returns of private enterprise, the consequences and outcomes of choice, and the demands and rewards of accountability. The design thinking project we describe here took place at an independent co-educational day school for students in grades preK–4. Participating in this process allowed students to think critically, build creative confidence, and engage in science and engineering learning. In a unique turn of events, students used the principles of design thinking to solve a chicken-related problem rather than a human-related problem. In this article, we describe a project in which fourth-graders used design thinking to solve an unexpected issue related to a much-anticipated class project. The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Chickens in School: Ī Guide to Raising Chickens in District School Gardens: ĭesign thinking-a human-centered approach to problem solving-is a process by which K–12 teachers engage students in solving relevant issues that occur in their schools ( Carroll et al. ![]() For more information on raising chickens in schools, including safety requirements, see these Resources: We’ve had an established chicken program at our school for 51 years, so our students were well versed in the safety routine (e.g., hand washing, shoe covers, etc.). ![]()
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