Sketching the Future

Reflection on Guest Speaker, Michael DiTullo

6th Grade Quest Class at Del Mar Heights School

By: Sarah Raskin, Design Engineer

When Michael DiTullo was thirteen years old, he vividly remembers his parents asking him, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” His simple response, “I want to draw stuff from the future,” made a profound impact on the direction his career aspirations would take. Michael DiTullo, of DiTullo Designs, who has designed for such top companies as Nike, Google, Motorola, Hasbro, and Honda, recently visited Del Mar Heights School and introduced 84 sixth grade students to the world of Industrial Design through sketching. And whether intended or not, he drew beautiful connections between the purpose of sketching and our reimagined mission for teaching and learning in the Del Mar Union School District.

Michael began his presentation by asking the students if they had ever heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words?” As students nodded emphatically, Michael described his fascination with drawing and thinking about the future of what this or that might be from a very young age. As a thirteen year old during the holidays, instead of asking for sports equipment, or other more typical teenage gifts, he wanted a drafting table and tools, a set of Prisma markers, and drawing paper. Michael recounted a particularly poignant interaction with his high school math teacher. After being busted in the back of the class for doodling, rather than completing his math assignment, his teacher took away his drawing and crumpled it up. Like a balloon losing its air, you could see our students slowly begin to deflate. Admittedly, there were a few administrators and teachers squirming a bit in the back of the room, including myself. It is our goal in DMUSD to ignite the inner genius in our students by empowering them to apply their passions and interests into the learning experience. Had we ever proverbially “crumpled a dream?” Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. At the end of the math period, the teacher returned the crumpled drawing with the words “Rhode Island School of Design” written on the paper. And on Michael’s journey went to “draw the future.”

As these sixth grade students are currently working to design a chair for a fifth grade student with the goal of optimizing their learning experience, Michael gave a world-class demonstration of how one might draw a chair. While his artistic vision was awe-inspiring, it was the lessons that he shared about human-centered design that best exemplified our goals for learning in DMUSD. Michael shared that he practices sketching everyday. For him, sketching provides a way of visually processing his thinking and continuously refining his ideas. Sketching is his vehicle to communicate ideas that exist in his mind and push them out to the world. Most importantly, it is through the exchange of sharing his ideas with others that a feedback cycle is formed and “his ideas” start becoming “our shared ideas.” When this occurs, you create something new and you truly innovate. Michael explained that his goal is to understand the real problems and needs of his user, so as to design objects that go beyond satisfying their immediate purpose, and move toward signifying our values and progress as a culture.  

It is our goal in the Del Mar Union School District to provide opportunities for students to “sketch their future” now. When we talk about our mission to “ignite the inner genius with our students,” we are empowering students to combine their personal interests with the academic and personal skills they are acquiring to become confident, problem-solvers. We embrace opportunities for our students to consider new ways of addressing needs, communicating those thoughts to others, and collaborating with experts to refine and advance original thoughts. The cool thing is, this is happening now. Our kids are learning the skills to sketch their future now.

“Houston, We’ve Had a Problem.”

Why Design Thinking and Why Now?

Reflection on 6th Grade Design Thinking Lesson

It was 12:30 p.m. and a few seconds away from the end of the lunch period. I couldn’t wait to facilitate an introductory lesson on Design Thinking with sixth grade students at Ashley Falls. I rehearsed my introduction that I planned to share with students in my head as the TV projected an image of an eagle with the words, “Design Thinking in the Eagle’s Nest” towards the back of the classroom.

“Good afternoon, my name is Sarah Raskin and I’m a Design Engineer. It is my job to….and… Today, we will use Design Thinking to address a current student need at Ashley Falls. Design Thinking is…”

    As I continued practicing my spiel, I realized this was all wrong. In my work as a Design Engineer, it is my goal to facilitate opportunities for inquiry, deep critical thinking, problem-solving and increased student voice and choice over the learning experience. So, why am I planning to tell kids the definition of Design Thinking and what I do as a Design Engineer? 

    The bell rang and students began trickling into the classroom. Eyes shot to the screen and a few students uttered, “Design Thinking in the Eagle’s Nest?” As students settled into their seats, I introduced myself by name and position and left it to the students to fill in the rest. I continued by asking, “When you see the words Design Thinking, what comes to mind?” After a minute or so of thinking time, students were encouraged to share their ideas. Student responses included, “I think it means you think about how you would design something like a house,” and “It means to think outside of the box.” Intrigued by this last comment, I asked the student to explain what it means to “think outside of the box?” The student elaborated, “This means you think of new ways to do something. New possibilities.” As the student spoke, memories of scenes from the film, “Apollo 13” filled my mind, and I briefly described the events of the the mission to the class.

“After nearly 56 hours in space, Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the NASA program, until tragedy struck. Following a routine inspection of equipment aboard the module, the No. 2 oxygen tank ruptured, and shortly after, the No.1 tank also failed. The command module’s normal supply of electricity, light, and water were lost, and the crew was about 200,000 miles from Earth. With limited time and supplies, the only hope of saving the lives of the astronauts aboard the lunar module rested in the hands of NASA scientists at home in Houston. They had to think outside of the box.”

    This brief vignette built a sense of urgency for our work, and with that, we launched into our Design Scenario: “How might we, the student leaders at Ashley Falls, anticipate potential hazards during recess and P.E. periods to ensure the safety of all students?” Using observational data collected by the students, they identified a list of concerns and hazards that can cause student injuries. After analyzing this list for patterns, the students selected three concerns from which to brainstorm solutions, design prototypes representing their solutions, and share their prototypes with classmates to gain feedback. With only 20 minutes provided to design a solution for one identified problem, the students relied on their personal strengths and interests to demonstrate their ingenious ideas. Some chose to work individually, while others worked in groups. Some used straws, craft sticks, and cardboard to engineer physical models to represent their ideas, while others relied on their artistic and technological talents to draft 2D drawings in Google Draw or on a blank piece of paper. But all students, ignited their genius within to bring awareness to an authentic student need and develop plausible solutions.

    As we wrapped up the lesson, it was time for students to reflect on their experience. Through a class discussion, I asked, “What is one thing you learned from this experience?” A deeply reflective student shared, “I learned that there are many problems, but I can fix them!” It was a drop the mic moment and I proudly shared, “You have unlocked the purpose for Design Thinking and you are all Design Engineers.” 

    Of course, I couldn’t get off that easily, as the kids wanted to know if Apollo 13 ever arrived safely back to Earth. In sharing the good news, my mind wandered off to my favorite scene from the film. Who could forget when James Lovell’s mother heard the news of the accident aboard the module, and looking at her scared granddaughter, confidently proclaimed, “If they can get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy can land it!”

    You see, we don’t lead this work because it is the educational buzzword du jour, or to “innovate” for the sake of doing so. We believe it is our societal imperative to empower our students with the applied skills and dispositions to be problem-seekers and problem-solvers. We need our Jimmys and our Janes prepared to find solutions to problems that we can’t begin to predict.

Food for Thought

Why Our Future Leaders Need Inventive Resilience:

A Reflection on Alison Berman’s Article: “Automation is Eating Jobs”

The garage door flung open just as the oven timer buzzed; it was dinnertime at the Raskin house. As my family settled in around the kitchen table and bowls of food were passed from hand to hand, the conversation began to flow. Being the “nosy” mom that I am, I couldn’t wait to hear all about Ella’s first day of sixth grade. After the usual exchange of questions like, “How was your day?” and “What did you learn?”-to which I typically receive one-word responses like “fine” and “not much,” Ella expressed her concern over whether or not she received a good score on the math placement test she took during the day. Worried that my daughter was already under stress after one day of school, I reassured her that giving her best effort is what matters and that the rest will take care of itself. With a roll of her eyes, Ella brushed off my motherly wisdom and melodramatically proclaimed, “If I don’t do well on that test, I won’t be placed in the ‘top’ math class, then I won’t get into Honors Math in middle school, and there goes Stanford.”

Tempted to laugh, but being very aware of how real “pre-teen-o-centria” really is, I passed the baton to my husband. Nate, who typically uses humor to maneuver around such hurdles, pragmatically added, “Strong math and science skills are important.” Excellent, we are almost there, I thought to myself. With Ella listening intently, Nate elaborated, “After all, you will need those skills for your career as a doctor. You really should be a doctor. Right?” And there it was, the epic FAIL!

While this sounded like a typical conversation from my childhood with a caring Dad reinforcing skills learned in school and directly correlating these skills to a valued career that will provide for a lifetime of prosperity, we must recognize that the times have changed! We know that the pace of change is accelerating at a rate that we can’t even imagine. Data collected in a 2013 study by two researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that only 27% of college graduates will have a job that relates to their major and that on average these graduates will have seven different careers, not jobs, but careers during their lifetime. It’s like moving from the Stone age to Starbucks in ten years! With the advancement of technology, automation, and artificial intelligence, we can anticipate disruption in such traditionally stable career industries as accountancy, pharmaceutical, and the medical field. So, this begs the question, while our students will always need a strong foundation in such core competencies as literacy and numeracy, what additional skills will our children need to remain relevant in a world of rapid change?

To answer this question, we must realize that we are entering an age of inventive resilience. Durable skills such as the ability to communicate effectively, collaborate with others, think critically, demonstrate cultural intelligence, problem-solve effectively, and demonstrate empathy for others are every bit as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic. In fact, they are the skills that matter most! Providing opportunities for students to solve human-centered, interdisciplinary, and real-world problems will support them in becoming flexible thinkers and engaged citizens. Perhaps, we need to reframe our question from, “What would you like to be when you grow up?” to “What is your unique contribution that you can give the world, and how will it adapt over time?” After all, once we understand our value to society, we can imagine our probable and possible futures and bridge the gap between.

In an effort to demonstrate my own inventive resilience as a parent, I shifted my paradigm from viewing our previous conversation with Ella as an epic “FAIL” to our “First Attempt In Learning” and committed to try again. After redirecting how I confronted the math class drama, and reframing the questions I asked, the discussion sounded much different.

I began by asking Ella, “How do you add value to the world?” She responded with a list of durable traits, “I am kind, responsible, strong, and confident.” I then asked, “If you had to describe your purpose in this world in one word, what would it be?” She shared, “Empathetic.” Finally, I questioned, “How will being empathetic add value to the world now and in the future?” In my proud mama moment, she quoted a famous line from Dr. Seuss’ book, The Lorax, and shared, “It is like the line from the book, The Lorax, 'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.'”

    Something tells me that no matter what career field Ella will enter one day, her ability to demonstrate empathy, will not only allow her to adapt with the times, but also contribute to making our world better. Isn’t that our greatest hope as parents?