5 Minute Design (A warm up game)

 I’ve completely made it up and it definitely needs some tweaking, but the rules are essentially this:

The whole class is introduced to the method of the game. The point of the game is to increase ideation fluency, collaboration, risk taking and communication skills. To get them thinking on their feet quickly, I project the descriptions of the steps on the screen and just watch the clock and tell them when to move to the next step. If you are comfortable with using a timer, that might be nice too. It’s not really “design thinking” as much as it forces them to get moving fast. If you teach adolescents in the morning, you might understand the need this game is providing. :) So far, it’s been a warm up the kids have liked (middle school). The students work in groups of four – six. Sometimes they work by table and sometimes I break the group up into different configurations so they work with new people.

I try to pick objects for them to redesign that they already feel comfortable with and use on a nearly daily basis, and something I have in my classroom for them to look at as they think. Examples: backpack, flashlight, pencil case, etc

A crayon picture I made for an assessment workshop, just so this post wouldn't be visually boring. You're welcome.

1 minute – kids quietly and independently list everything they know about that particular object in their sketchbooks
1 minute – team makes a pro/con list about the object they are redesigning. They need to list all of the good things worth keeping and the problems they have had with that object. Ex backpack "pro" is that you can find it in many colors/patterns and a backpack "con" could be that the zippers can break.
2 minutes – team makes sketches and plans to enhance the "pros" and repair the "cons". Like they say at IDEO, “All ideas are good ideas” and for this game money and practicality are not obstacles. 
1 minute – team plans a creative presentation. I require my students to at least stand up front with their team, even if they choose not to be the one speaking. As the marking period goes on, I find that they gain a little more courage, and eventually, most kids will speak at some point. Now that we have crossed the halfway marker of the marking period, the presentations have actually gotten pretty good, despite the one minute planning time for them. They usually involve some sort of physical interaction with said object and jet packs or invisibility cloaks. 

We spend about 5 – 10 minutes watching the team presentations with time for clapping/cheering and questions/comments in between groups. If you wanted to extend this, you could have the kids ask questions and then ask the teams to go back and redesign their work and re – present. I haven’t tried that yet, but it’s an idea.