OuiSi · Design thinking

What is happening here

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Grades 2–5 Teaching 40 min Plus 3 to set out, 3 to clear Class any size Set any Prep paper and drawing materials

set out 3′ What is happening 8′ Who does it affect 10′ Design something that helps 17′ One question each 5′ clear 3′

Goal: Children invent the situation inside a picture, work out who it affects, and design something that would help. Problem-finding before problem-solving.
Materials: One OuiSi Photo-Card set. One card per group of four. Paper and drawing materials.

Grades 2–3: One round of who else. Keep the design concrete — the full 40 min
Grades 4–5: Design for two people whose needs conflict — the full 40 min

1 · What is happening

8 min

One card per group, face up. Nothing is explained to them first.

Something is happening in this picture. What is it?

There is no situation in the card — they are inventing one from visual evidence. Accept any answer that points at something in the image.

Then push once.

What can you see that makes you say so?

2 · Who does it affect

10 min

Who is affected by what is happening here?

Take the first answers, then widen it twice.

Who else? Someone you cannot see in the picture.

And who is affected much later, long after this?

The second and third rounds are where this becomes design thinking rather than storytelling. Children reach surprisingly far — downstream, next season, the people who come after.

3 · Design something that helps

17 min

Pick one of those people or creatures. Design something that would help them.

Draw it, label it, and write one sentence about who it is for.

Walk round with one question. Ask it at every group.

Who is this for, and how do you know they would want it?

The second half of that question is the discipline. Designing for someone you have imagined is easy, and checking what they would actually want is the part worth teaching.

4 · One question each

5 min

Groups hold up their design. The room asks one question, not several.

Ask them about who it is for.

Watch for

Jumping to the solution. Groups want to design in the first five minutes. Steps one and two are the lesson, and a design built before anyone asked who it helps is the thing being corrected.
Only the obvious person. If step two stops at the first answer, the design will be shallow. Ask who else twice, every time.
Inventions with no user. It is a robot that does everything. Who is it for, and how do you know, every time.
Sorting by object in step one — all the animals. Redirect to what is happening, not what is pictured.

Adapt

Multilingual learners — drawing carries step three entirely. The sentence can be one line.
Autistic children — a literal, practical design is a strong design. Do not push for whimsy.
Want it harder — ask what their design breaks. Everything that helps someone costs someone else something.
Tie to a unit — choose cards connected to the topic and the designs land inside the content.

Curriculum links. Inferring a situation from visual evidence · Identifying who is affected, including people not pictured and people affected later · Designing for a named user · Justifying that a design meets a real need · Asking one focused question about somebody else's work.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.

Screen-free. No codes and no devices. Works with any OuiSi Photo-Card set.
Pairs well with Connection networks, which maps who is linked to whom without the designing.