Flintridge Prep 7th Grade Design Thinking Class is a First Step To Exciting Personal Endeavors

For many Flintridge Prep students, the 7th grade Design Thinking class is a first step toward exciting personal endeavors. The class teaches the principles of iterative design and familiarizes students with the numerous fabrication tools available in the Dongyun Zhang Family Makerspace.

Victoria has carried over her experience in Design Thinking to her 8th grade Community Impact Project. “We were learning about an organization called the Othakarhaka Foundation [dedicated to offering opportunities to marginalized, needy, and vulnerable individuals in the rural communities of Malawi], and in history class, we were learning about water filtration, so I figured I could help with water filtration and make filters.”

Makerspace Coordinator Erin Goodwin put Victoria in contact with algebra teacher Heba Allen, who was teaching about water scarcity as an interdisciplinary tie-in with the distance formula, calculating the distance between communities and their nearest source of clean water. Working with Mrs. Allen, Victoria used the makerspace to teach the algebra students how to make water filters, producing 16 for the foundation.

Read Flintridge Prep’s article “Design Thinking: First Steps in the Makerspace” in the first issue of Perspectives or online at https://buff.ly/3TJR1no.

Flintridge Preparatory School, 4543 Crown Ave., La Cañada Flintridge, (818) 790-1178 or visit www.flintridgeprep.org.