23 Feb 2023
We're designing something amazing!
Yesterday, was the first Design Day for the Design, Make, Innovate (DMI) program. The 2023 design theme is "Shrinking our Footprint."
DMI’s ‘Shrinking Our Footprint’ is a mathematics-based design and technology challenge involving Year 5 and 6 students from partner primary schools working with Year 9 Northern Beaches Secondary College (NBSC students).
Primary students work in groups of 4 / 5 using key mathematical concepts and Design Thinking to find a solution to the question, “How can we use data to reduce our families’ impact on the environment?”
Primary students gather data on their family’s use of resources, making graphical representations and inferences about their family’s carbon footprint. From this, teams work through the design thinking process to make a prototype for a product or technology, based on one of the resources measured, that will assist in reducing their/the communities carbon footprint.
Shrinking Our Footprint is ideal for transitioning students into high school by fostering relationships through collaborative learning and mentorship. Students develop their skills in Futures Learning through the use of high impact teaching strategies. It is also a worthwhile extension project and an avenue to engage parents in their child's learning.
Thank you to Nick Pye and the Stage 3 teachers for facilitating this great educational opportunity!