Project: Interaction

While looking for ideas for a skate park re-brand, I came across Project: Interaction, a project to invent, design and change. Project: Interaction is a ten week program that helps high school students use design to change their community. Each week students take on a new lesson to help them improve storytelling, communication, creative thinking, and problem solving skills. Here is a re-cap of each lesson:

1 - Look at Times Square: How does design work, how do people interact with design?

2 – High Line: Take a look at reinvention, how can something be completely transformed?

3 – Union Square: How does the design of a space meet the needs of those who use it?

4 – Into the Wild: Students visit a design studio to see how the concepts they learned play out in the working world.

5 – Did you Check in Here: Check out the app Foursquare and see how it relates to the city setting.

6 – How to Find Info in NYC: What is the difference between a good and a service?

7 – Green Buildings: Examine what designers have done to make buildings more environmentally friendly.

8 & 9 – Final Project: Students work on their final project and have one last lecture from a guest speaker.

10 – Reflection: Students informally present their work and discuss the solutions they came up with.

While programs of this sort are popping up in large cities all over the place, small towns are still missing design in the classroom. Maybe by the time I have my own family; design will be available more readily in the classroom setting. Maybe I’ll be the one teaching it?