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How 8th Graders Used Design Thinking to Imagine an Award-Winning App
Most recent #GirlTalk Blog by Jill Pieritz '97, Computer Science Department Chair
Every year, people forward me an email announcing the Verizon Innovative Learning App Challenge. As chair of the Computer Science Department at GPS, people know that encouraging girls to code is a part of my everyday life and a driving force in my teaching.
This year, I decided to build the App Challenge contest into my 8th grade classes’ coursework. The only real parameter was that the app concept must seek to solve a problem in the students’ community. The challenge was figuring out how to involve the 38 girls from two sections of the Digital Makers class in a collaborative, productive process. The contest called for groups of 5-7 students to work together on an app prototype. The girls were apprehensive about working with so many people, but they easily divided into groups of 6 and 7. We then followed the Design Thinking process to develop submissions for the contest.
In Design Thinking, first one must diverge and problematize. In our classes, this looked like groups of girls with pads of Post-It notes scrawling down every idea that came to mind when it came to problems they perceived in their community.
The next step in Design Thinking was incredibly important. The ideas were read aloud with no judgment. Every idea was considered fair game and worthy of being categorized. From there, the groups narrowed down which direction they’d like to explore and within that category, which one problem they’d like to address.
After identifying the problem, they continued to the ideation phase of the Design Thinking process. They diverged to solve the problem and listed as many solutions as they could see that an app would be able to accomplish. Then they converged and combined ideas to land on one cohesive way to fix the community problem with an app.
Once each group landed on the solution they wanted their app concepts to offer, the real work of entering the contest began. The groups first worked together to flesh out their ideas for their solution, plan how to pitch their app concept in short movie, and film video for their movie. A contest rule from Verizon stipulated that all team members had to appear in the movie. They then divided and conquered the tasks of writing essay questions and editing their movie submissions. They swapped tasks and everyone got the chance to edit both the essays and movie.
When one group’s app concept, Ripple, won best in state, we were all so excited. I thought the idea of a mental health app for young people was unique and timely. There aren’t enough resources of this kind for youth in Chattanooga, and this idea could also scale to serve people across the world. However, the other groups came up with equally thoughtful and compelling ideas, too, including app concepts that addressed community service, study habits, parking in Chattanooga, and pet adoption.
We are all rallying around the Ripple app concept to win the Fan Favorite contest, which is a national recognition. But even if they do not advance further than Best in State, I am proud of each girl who participated.
The most amazing thing to me is that each girl in the class embraced every step of the process. There wasn’t a single group that slacked off. Despite their initial reluctance to work in a large group, each student found her place in the process and was able to make great contributions. I was particularly impressed that so many groups took the time to find and read the scoring rubrics provided on the app challenge website so that they could make sure their contest submissions covered each aspect being judged. I suspect that having to submit their homework to a national competition upped the ante. Still, the girls were invested in the whole experience and had a great sense of accomplishment even before the state winners were announced.
Once each group landed on the solution they wanted their app concepts to offer, the real work of entering the contest began. The groups first worked together to flesh out their ideas for their solution, plan how to pitch their app concept in short movie, and film video for their movie. A contest rule from Verizon stipulated that all team members had to appear in the movie. They then divided and conquered the tasks of writing essay questions and editing their movie submissions. They swapped tasks and everyone got the chance to edit both the essays and movie.
When one group’s app concept, Ripple, won best in state, we were all so excited. I thought the idea of a mental health app for young people was unique and timely. There aren’t enough resources of this kind for youth in Chattanooga, and this idea could also scale to serve people across the world. However, the other groups came up with equally thoughtful and compelling ideas, too, including app concepts that addressed community service, study habits, parking in Chattanooga, and pet adoption.
We are all rallying around the Ripple app concept to win the Fan Favorite contest, which is a national recognition. But even if they do not advance further than Best in State, I am proud of each girl who participated.
The most amazing thing to me is that each girl in the class embraced every step of the process. There wasn’t a single group that slacked off. Despite their initial reluctance to work in a large group, each student found her place in the process and was able to make great contributions. I was particularly impressed that so many groups took the time to find and read the scoring rubrics provided on the app challenge website so that they could make sure their contest submissions covered each aspect being judged. I suspect that having to submit their homework to a national competition upped the ante. Still, the girls were invested in the whole experience and had a great sense of accomplishment even before the state winners were announced.
The final step of the Design Thinking process is evolution: having tried something, one seeks to evolve what was learned. I hope each of the 38 students who participated in this year’s app challenge are able to take this experience and apply the collaboration skills and Design Thinking process to the next group assignment they encounter in any class. Additionally, our hope is that Ripple will have the opportunity to evolve their app to its actualization.
There is plenty of research out there that show girls learn best when there’s a context for it. The Verizon Foundation Innovative Learning App Challenge provides one more means where middle school girls can find context and work collaboratively to do great work--and possibly change the world.
Jill Pieritz is Chair of the Computer Science Department at GPS.
