Course Description
Teaches design thinking skills, including creative and critical thinking, in order to address complex social problems (wicked problems) such as climate change, public health, migration, or sustainable development. Through a semester-long project, students tackle a challenging human-centered problem through collaborative processes and experiential learning by researching human behavior and social structures, developing possible interventions, and evaluating solutions.
Athena Title
Design Thinking Social Change
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Explore current research in brain science and define design thinking skill sets. 2. Research and describe the social structures, institutions, and individual behaviors at play in a complex social problem. 3. Develop strategies and tactics for expanding possibilities and narrowing choices when investigating a social issue. 4. Demonstrate a variety of collaboration skills to communicate ideas within individual and group project settings. 5. Evaluate specific facets of the wicked problem through the creation and analysis of new data sets or synthesis of current data, leading to evidence-based ideas and solutions. 6. Apply the steps in the design process in order to offer new perspectives and approaches for identifying, deciphering, and intervening within the complex social problem. 7. Employ validation schemes and progress objectives for the human-centered problem explored in class. 8. Analyze a design intervention in terms of the systems in which it operates: human interactions, cultural and political contexts, and potential economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
Topical Outline
Topics include but are not limited to: 1. What is design thinking? a. Current research on how the brain works b. Introduction to design thinking skill sets using short individual and group exercises 2. What are wicked problems? a. An overview of social theory: relationships between social systems, social structures, institutions, and individual agency b. Systems theory: social systems, socio-ecological systems, and adaptive management 3. Application of design thinking skills to the semester-long group project a. Problem-finding: discovery of multi-faceted nature of human-centered issues b. Research: synthesize data gathered by students through human-centered design methods such as interviews, behavior observation, and focus groups, or from current data sets applicable to the problem c. Generate the problem statement: an intervention within social systems d. Design and test possibilities e. Develop a proposal f. Present the proposal