Cardboard Challenge: Empathy Fueled Making to Start Your Year

Dan Ryder
Dan Ryder
Aug 24, 2017 · 3 min read

Caine’s Arcade captured our collective imaginations. How might we evolve days of meaningful play into moments of visible empathy?


After participating in several years of the Imagination.org’s Global Cardboard Challenge, witnessing students make everything from Jango Fett armor to life-size Rock ’Em, Sock ’Em Robots, the time felt right to push to the next level. Talking with my colleague and good buddy, Travis Tierney, we found our kids spending extraordinary amounts of time collecting up materials — and ourselves spending extraordinary amounts of time cleaning up materials — and making a bunch of neat, yet somewhat predictable, things.

In all cases, we ended up with either showpieces for display or fodder for the dumpster.

Kids with access to resources and support beyond the school walls would make huge constructs and virtual works of art in cardboard, duct tape and paint. Kids without would make what they could during class and perhaps have a moment of profound accomplishment, but generally feel dissatisfied with what they made. In all cases, we ended up with either showpieces for display or fodder for the dumpster.

A pivot was in order — at least for our students.

Don’t get me wrong; making for making’s sake is a worthy endeavor unto itself. Taking time to create and to delve into the whimsical “what if” has cognitive and emotional benefits. However, for under-motivated adolescents who may not see value in school, period, unstructured exploration bound by concrete walls oft presents a paradox resolved by apathy and entropy.

Borrowing from my patent-pending joy challenge — more on that in an upcoming post — I fashioned this broad, yet accessible, design challenge based on the creative constraints Travis and I agreed upon:

How might we bring another joy using only two, 18x24 sheets of cardboard?

Rather than focusing solely on one’s imagination to drive the making, students had to focus on the needs, interests and desires of another. I amplified things further by having my ninth grade English students design for an adjacent eleventh grade chemistry class, conducted by extraordinary educator, Maria Howett.

empathy interviews with ninth graders designing for upperclassmen
affinity sorting w sketchnotes post-empathy interviews
Using a modified GV design sprint “Crazy 8's” method to ideate

After rounds of empathy interviews, follow ups, low res prototypes in oaktag and an iteration cycle or two, my students delivered working prototypes to their users. Beginning to end: 10–12 70-minute class periods, give or take. Two to three weeks of DEEPdt familiarity with a design process we would be using throughout the year for increasingly ambitious and content-driven experiences. Two to three weeks of developing our design thinking, empathy fueled problem solving oriented mindsets and postures.

Click here to find a photo album of several designs being shared with the users.

For many designers, it was their first time witnessing authentic appreciation for their classroom efforts. For many users, it was their first time feeling like they had truly been heard in school — and by a peer no less.

Click here to go to a classroom blog recap from the middle of the process. It provides an outline of where we had been and where we were going and should provide an adaptable framework should you choose to try this out for yourselves.


To uncover more on design thinking, critical creativity, and evolving education, connect with me on Twitter & Instagram @wickeddecent, www.danryder207.com and www.wickeddecentlearning.com And check out my new book with Amy Burvall, Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom from EdTechTeam.

)

Dan Ryder

Written by

Dan Ryder

Educator, design thinker, improviser, Dan Ryder (http://DanRyder207.com) Apple Distinguished Educator 2017 #dtk12chat #EdChatME #makered

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade