LAUNCH: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student Kindle Edition

Teacher JOY!Students begging to be given MORE time to work on a project during the last week of school. This was our classroom reality due entirely to my year of being brave AND this book, LAUNCH . One week after getting the book and one of the authors, Juliani, generously giving me the videos that most have to pay for, I went for it!Closed set of boxes at the front of class with a sign that stated, DO NOT OPEN, was the first step - my idea to get the students energerized to keep on learning and growing to the very last moment. It was out for a day and the students were chomping at the bit. On Day 1 we completed the first four steps and got started on the fifth part of the LAUNCH cycle.Each student got a packet and then we watched the Super Hero City video - the Look, Listen, and Learn part of the cycle. The Seat Selector (yes, that is one of our classroom jobs I got from Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz (#LearnLAP). There were oohhs and ahhs during the video and then hands shot up because their imagination engine had been ignited. Next came the Ask Tons of Questions phase - there were a ton and usually my answer was, "It's your Super Hero City, you decide." As predicted the students were anxious to begin building, but first each individually begin thinking about their Super Hero City - what was it going to look like, who were their super heroes, what were their powers, who were their arch-enemy. I always use a timer because it builds in focus.Then they shared their ideas as a group with one person facilitating the discussion, so that all got an opportunity (Another wonderful idea from #LearnLAP). EVERYONE shared, trust me, this project is a sure-fire winner in student engagement. At this time they were fluctuating between the Understanding the Process and Navigating Ideas.Now is was time to open the box to actually begin see how they would use the materials - it was time for Create a Prototype ON PAPER, though most started to see how they could manipulate the materials. What I loved about this phase is that the students all were contributing to the creation, there was so much collaborative discussion - asking questions of one another, when a solution couldn't be reached than Rock-Paper-Scissoring, but most importantly they were respectful of each others' opinion and knew that a consensus had to be reached within the group. During this time, I looked over each prototype - asked the purpose of the buildings, name of the city, kinds of super heroes - really just checking in.Day 2 was all about using their materials and actually Creating a Prototype of their Super Hero City and at the end an individual and then a group reflection - the Highlight and Fix part of the cycle. Of everything that is awesome in this kind of teaching, it is the reflection that the students found the most beneficial. The many design failures causes the students to focus on what was working while fixing what wasn't working, YET. Some ideas were scrapped, but most were revised with lots of additions.Day 3 was the last day of creation. Some finished early and designed super heroes, others discussed their super heroes and/or villians' personas and abilities/weaknesses.Day 4 was the Launch to an Audience phase - due to time constraints it was an in class presentation. I created a rubric of what they needed to review in their presentation and ensured that all would be speaking about at least one phase of the project.At the conclusion of the presentation, each student completed a self-evaluation reflection and then we discussed a a class what worked, what had to be worked through, the value they found in this project (all wanted to know why we hadn't done something like this before), the problems that had to be worked through in all aspects and a few even mentioned that they were glad that they had had to practice collaborative discourse throughout the year. ALL mentioned the need for PATIENCE.Though I'm moving up to middle school and will be teaching Social Studies, I plan on using this design thinking methodology when my students are creating projects. The most powerful take-away of this book, LAUNCH by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani was the built in reflection piece throughout the design-thinking phases.

Although the book is essentially a combination of many different familiar design thinking books, the ideas are scaffolded effectively. There are lesson plans in the back of the book as a resource. I read many of these books and I'm easily bored. On one 2 hour plane ride, I read the entire book and found it engaging and particularly applicable for middle school teaching. The L A U N C H acronym, however, is not effective.

This book really solidified my understanding of helping students own their learning and encouraging adventures far beyond what I could have come up with on my own. Great book for educators investigating or right in the middle of project-based or expeditionary learning.

Great resource! As a tinkerer, learner, teacher of middle school students, this book was so useful to our latest educational endeavors. As PBL evolves into performance assessments, all wrapped in the design process, it all can get messy. Launch is so practical. Spencer keeps it real, keeps it simple, helping us to embrace our inner maker without fear of getting lost in the messy business of creativity. Highly recommend it, the book and getting lost in the messy business of creativity with students :)

I purchased this book because I am implementing more Problem Based Learning into my science classes to match the NGSS standards. I had heard about LAUNCH Book on Twitter. Even though I have been practicing PBL in my own classroom for a couple of years now, I still was able to get a lot of new ideas, information, and resources from this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to add more creative thinking into their classroom.

This is a great book for all educators who want to see their students use their knowledge and skills to create. I appreciate how the authors have created a framework that is realistic and easy to follow. They helped me to understand that creativity is in all of us and being innovative isn't reserved for the few.

What an outstanding resource for effectively utilizing design thinking in our schools! With equal parts inspiration and implementation, the reader is given a wealth of amazing tools to immediately begin the process. The ideas in this book can be applied to classrooms of all age levels and content. "Our impact is not always what we say or what we do, but instead what we EMPOWER our students to say and do while they are in our classrooms--so they can make a dent in the universe right now and always." I'm ready to take the pledge to LAUNCH with my students! Thank you so much to John Spencer and A.J. Juliani for sharing your story so that we can all be better for our students!

A great back and forth on the topic of design thinking. I really enjoyed this work and it inspired me in my own approaches to design thinking in my classroom.

Only really useful if you teach to a classroom

So you've decided to give your students some "Google time" or do some project based learning. Strangely many students find it hard to adapt to making their own decisions.This book provinces lots of useful questions and ways to help them narrow down their interests and ideas.Well worth reading.

Good book

the cover page and the content of the book is totally different.

Intéressant et accessible. Permet une réflexion approfondie de notre rôle dans une classe.