Every year, Cranbrook Schools Seniors participate in an experience called Senior May (SM). This experience “endeavors to provide opportunities for qualified Seniors to participate in experiential projects that promote the in-depth development of long-standing skills and interests, serious exploration of possible career choices, or the acquisition of technical proficiency in a new field.” Senior May students work at their host company for 3 full weeks in an intern capacity. This year Cranbrook Horizons-Upward Bound (HUB) tasked two seniors with continuing to develop the online learning management system (Canvas by Instructure) used to support the Blended Learning for Achievement in Mathematics (BLAM) initiative for HUB. I had the pleasure of coordinating this project and proposed to utilize the design thinking process—partly due to Cranbrook’s recent educational collaboration with MIT which has encouraged teachers to incorporate design thinking into their curriculum, and because of my personal experience in seeing the value of this process during the work Challenge Detroit fellows engage in.

SM students first learned about design thinking and were given background information on the HUB program. To gain a better understanding of design thinking, I had them attend the final Challenge Detroit presentation and a Detroit StartUp Week session titled, “Innovation Needs Diversity,” which covered various forms of diversity (thought, gender, ethnicity, profession, etc.), stressed the importance of understanding clients’ needs (via empathy), and the value of design thinking and similar processes in the business/entrepreneurship realm.

Two @cranbrookedu 12th graders who are doing their Senior May project with @cranbrookhub came to @challengedetroit to learn more about the #designthinking process by listening to our presentations regarding our work with @techtowndetroit #SWOTcity and @swsoldetroit @prosperusdetroit. Excited to see what these students come up with!

A post shared by Paulette B. (@pbowlofpho) on May 19, 2017 at 4:25pm PDT

Checking out #detroitstartupweek with @cranbrook_schools Senior May students. #detsw17

A post shared by Paulette B. (@pbowlofpho) on May 23, 2017 at 8:57am PDT

During the empathy stage, the SM students interviewed HUB students from three different high schools to gain insights into their needs, barriers, and motivations. SM students also interviewed HUB, Cranbrook and Detroit teachers to better understand the challenges they face, best practices, and the deficits they have observed in their students.

Visiting @cranbrookhub students attending Western International with @cranbrookedu Senior May students who are working on a project for HUB using #designthinking! HUB students were also able to learn about the design thinking process! #empathize #empathy

A post shared by Paulette B. (@pbowlofpho) on May 23, 2017 at 7:46am PDT

Visited and interviewed @cranbrookhub students attending MLK High School today with @cranbrookedu Senior May students. #designthinking #empathy

A post shared by Paulette B. (@pbowlofpho) on May 24, 2017 at 7:58am PDT

Armed with a wealth of information, and a process, SM students were able to redesign and improve upon the previous iteration of the BLAM online resource. They will present their findings, recommendations, and final prototype on Friday, June 2^nd to Cranbrook’s Upper School Head, HUB’s Director, Director of Development, and Academic Dean, HUB and Cranbrook Math teachers, Senior May advisors, and other stakeholders.

Related:

Cranbrook Senior May Students Present at InstructureCon: BLAM