Be inspired by these true stories of students, educators and parents leveraging design thinking to create solutions for everyday challenges and problems they have witnessed in their schools and communities.
What is Learning by Design?
Learning by Design is about nurturing our future generation to be changemakers – creative and resilient youths who can ride the future waves of change. Students, educators and parents can look forward to programmes that will help them develop transferrable skills and flex their creative muscles through design. Our programmes are relevant to students from the primary, secondary, and junior college/ pre-university levels, as well as their educators and parents.
We are working with schools and industry partners to expose students, educators and parents to design thinking as a way of thinking and doing. Through our programmes, students can develop confidence in applying design to real world issues, while educators and parents can gain a deeper understanding of the power of design in problem-solving.
Primary School Stories
Creativity Can Save the World (Chongfu School)
To encourage students to adopt design thinking and learn about sustainability, EYEYAH! and Chongfu School collaborated to help a group of Primary 4 students develop their creative muscles through visually-led acitivites and augmented reality.
Secondary School Stories
Into the Brave New World (Commonwealth Secondary School)
Commonwealth Secondary School students, teachers, and parents collaborated with the Bank of Singapore in a Learning by Design initiative, addressing sustainability challenges. This immersive 5-session programme, empowered participants to work on real-life challenges alongside Bank of Singapore’s design thinking practitioners, fostering creativity and innovation in education. The programme concluded with teams pitching ideas to a professional panel, promoting a desire for continuous improvement and real-world relevance in education.
UnSTUCK your mind! (Bedok South Secondary School)
Can complaining be a source of inspiration? In a school-based designathon developed by STUCK Design and Bedok South Secondary School, students picked up design thinking and creative problem-solving skills through constructive complaining.
Umbrella for Uncle Soh (Cedar Girls’ Secondary School)
A group of students from Cedar Girls’ Secondary School explored ways to help the elderly carry out their daily chores more easily. They decided to find a solution for Uncle Soh who had walking difficulties. Find out how they transformed an umbrella into a trendy walking aid for him.
A new D&T Lab (Commonwealth Secondary School)
How can a dark and dingy workroom be transformed into a bright and welcoming space where ideas come to life? Just ask Commonwealth Secondary School’s teachers as they underwent a design thinking exercise to redesign their Design & Technology Lab. More importantly, they kept the students – the users of the space – at the core of their design process.
Tilda (Nanyang Girls’ High School)
Having empathy is the first step to addressing a problem, and Nanyang Girls’ High School wants their students to understand that. Some of their students even explored unfamiliar solutions to help a special needs person regain some independence and dignity.
Raiz-Up! (Broadrick Secondary School)
Watch how Broadrick Secondary School’s students solved a problem for the school cleaners who had trouble picking up heavy trash bags. This ingenious confluence of science, technology and the design thinking methodology is a recipe for success!
Everyone can be creative! (Fairfield Methodist School)
Watch how VIVITA Singapore worked with a group of Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) students to bring about this mindset change and help them overcome their reliance on seeking validation through a single correct answer by engaging students in ‘thinking through making’.
Junior College/ Pre-University Stories
Up, Up and Away! (Jurong Pioneer Junior College)
With the help of mentors from Design Exchange, students from Jurong Pioneer Junior College made use of professional design tools to create design concepts for the SUTD X SIA Upcycling Challenge 2021/2022 – Giving New Life to Parts from Retired Aircraft. Through this experience, they developed fresh perspectives and learnt how to think like a designer.
Multi-school level stories
Design Thinking Workshops by School of X (Schools from Primary to Secondary)
Challenge: How might we support the mental well-being of youths as they are starting their journey to independence online and in real life? Together with their parents and educators, students from 4 schools came together to address the challenge and felt a greater sense of creative confidence at the design table. Their sense of wonder and energy also encouraged the adults to be more creative at the workshops run by School of X!
What’s Next
If you have been inspired by the videos and want to be a part of the Learning by Design community, check out our open calls now!
- Hop over to our Design Education page and check out all the programmes and resources available for you to embark on your own design journey
- Check out the many stories and case studies of everyday folks making a difference with design
We are constantly on a look out for good stories on design in education. If you are an educator or student who has been using design thinking to create solutions for everyday challenges and problems, we’ll love to hear from you too! You can also drop us an email at learningbydesign@designsingapore.org and we’ll be happy to assist you with your enquiries.
