DESIGN THINKING SERIES 3: Finding a Compelling Story and Understanding the Issue

Ms. Anne Sharkey, American High School Teacher and PYLP Training Facilitator

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“Think about what is being done, what do people want to have done, what works, what doesn’t work.”

Ms. Anne

Who is the presenter?

Anne Sharkey is a teacher at Huntley High School, specializing in World History, Global Citizenship, and Sustainable Development. Anne has been working with the Huntley High School Global Academy since 2016, focusing on developing student leaders and creating awareness on issues of climate, food insecurity, refugees, and other issues in the Sustainable Development Goals. Working with high school students to apply levels of design thinking to create sustainable projects has been a passion of Anne’s through the Huntley High School Global Academy and the Illinois Global Scholar program.

What is the Presentation About?

In this presentation, students will gain an understanding of design thinking and learn how to create a compelling story to address a problem. Through the process of design thinking, you will learn to go through the KWL Process – to recognize what you KNOW about the issue and identify what you WANT to know about the issues you are passionate about, and to explore ways to LEARN more about what others have been done and what you need to do about the issues at hand.

To do the tasks below and accomplish the learning outcomes, please watch this video presentation or watch via YouTube.

What are your tasks and the learning outcomes?

  1. On Your Own: To recognize the components of design thinking in leading community projects
  2. With A Team: To identify a community issue and create a plan to collect compelling stories
  3. With Your Community: To gather stories related to the issue from the community by interviewing people from different backgrounds