Tech Talks: Design Challenge Workshop with Estes Park Middle School

On March 7th and 8th we hosted Estes Park Middle School STEM students in a design challenge workshop at our Innovation Center in Longmont.  One of our Student Designers, Gillian Marsh, created a challenge for the visiting Estes Park Middle School STEM Students.  Gillian created an event in which the students would have to work in teams to identify an event at their school or in their community they wanted to improve.

The students were challenged to utilize the Design Thinking process in order to discover the issue and then create a solution.  The students were challenged in their groups to come up with an idea that they as a team could decide was the challenge they wanted to solve.  

The teams were then divided in half.  Half of the team designed a logo to represent their idea and the other half of the team was challenged to create a ‘radio’ pitch.  

The students utilized several forms of technology in order to create their ‘pitch’ presentation.  The teams utilized paper and pens to create their designs for the logo challenge.  The logos were then scanned into the computer and the designs were printed on dog tags and on a plaque for them to take back to Estes Park.  The ‘radio pitch’ teams created and scripted their pitches before they recorded into audio clips.  

The teams then used computer editing software to do fine tune their productions for their final pitch process.  The teams then pitched their ideas to the other teams showing their finished logos and playing their radio clips to support their idea. Each team then was challenged to meet with leaders in their community to discuss their ideas in order to become involved and hopefully help make a positive difference.

This was a great event for us at the Innovation Center and hopefully a wonderful learning experience for our guests from Estes Park.  Thanks to other Innovation Center Student Designers who helped during the workshop:  Steven Lamp, Hannah Schineller and Megan Little!

Host:  Steven Lamp; Senior at Skyline HS, Guests: Estes Park Middle School Students.

Tech Talks is produced by students at the Innovation Center in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont. You can hear it on Friday mornings at 8.25am.