Design Lab

The Story of Design Lab! A new and evolving middle school level course was developed to combine various creative disciplines and to support students in advancing their creative pursuits. Our Story Jean Fitzgerald and Anna Szymczak, teachers at a suburban Chicago middle school, wanted to find a way to expand their respective curricula. Jean Fitzgerald had taught Art and Digital Media courses (Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Ceramics, Photoshop, etc.)while Anna Szymczak had taught Food and Consumer Science courses (Cooking and Sewing). It might be useful to use the Design Thinking Model to describe our story. 1. Empathize, 2. Define, 3. Ideate, 4. Prototype, 5. Test, and 6. Refine. EMPATHIZE: Students were not getting their 1st or 2nd choice elective courses due to scheduling constraints. Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Szymczak wanted to offer students more choices even if their schedules weren't allowing them to take their top elective courses. Students were not following their passi