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d.loft Curriculum Units

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The d.loft STEM curriculum units provide an integrated approach to building STEM knowledge and skills while engaging students in both identifying and solving real-world problems using a design thinking approach.

Tip: Need help figuring out what you'll need to help your students engage in the design challenges in these curriculum units? Try our Creation Station materials list to get you started.

Built to Learn! Shelter Curriculum

BUILT TO LEARN! Redesigning Shelter: An Integrated Design Thinking/STEM Curriculum is a four-week program, in which students explore shelter-based design thinking challenges and STEM activities related to shelter. The curriculum focuses on the intersection between design thinking, STEM, and shelter. The foundation of the curriculum is an enduring understanding: students will develop the creative confidence to fail forward by building successful shelters using both STEM concepts and the empathy-driven design thinking process. David Kelley, the founder of IDEO and Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) describes creative confidence as “having the courage to take creative risks (and fail) and the knowledge that all of the ideas you create have value.” Likewise, a “fail forward” mentality refers to “the never-give-up attitude of being willing to fail early and often in order to learn as much as possible to produce the best possible solution through real experience.”

Download curriculum document (pdf) | Download supplementary presentation slides (ppt)

Published 2014

Ignite! Energy Curriculum

IGNITE! Redesigning Energy: An Integrated Design Thinking/STEM Curriculum is a four-week program, in which students explore energy-based design thinking challenges and STEM activities related to energy production and conservation. The curriculum is divided into three modules, each expected to last roughly one week (five two-hour periods), along with additional standalone activities at the end of the curriculum.

Download curriculum document (doc) | Download supplementary presentation slides (pdf)

Published 2013

Dive In! Water Curriculum

 

DIVE IN! Redesigning Water: An Integrated Design Thinking/STEM Curriculum is a four-week program, in which students explore energy-based design thinking challenges and STEM activities related to water access and use. For first-time teachers or teachers who would prefer to dive straight in, the lessons in this curriculum are laid out in such a way that they form a cohesive curriculum when taught in the order they are presented – just keep turning the page. For those who prefer to customize their lessons, or feel that the current order doesn’t fit the needs of the class, feel free to mix it up and perhaps substitute some of the additional activities we’ve included. We’ve also included three activities designed to expose students to the exciting possibilities of careers in STEM fields.

Download curriculum document (pdf) | Download "I Can't Eat That" activity guide (pdf) | Download Water Conservation Challenge activity guide (pdf)

Published 2012