Sparking Creativity in STEM Education with Design Thinking
Humanity is facing ever changing problems including climate change, black swan events like COVID — 19, energy crisis, water crisis, poverty, high inflation rates, poor heath care and droughts etc. It’s our choice to solve these problems or live with them.
Fortunately , science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) creates the backbone to problem solving and innovation. STEM inventions have been positively driving socio-economic shifts for several decades. Even the top 10 biggest companies in the world is dominated by STEM companies.
However, the African education system is failing to spark creativity and cultivate innovation through STEM for Africans to solve their own challenges.
Statistically, USA has 605+ unicorns, China — 300+, Israel — 92+ Africa — 7 and Zimbabwe has 0 (CB Insights). This innovation gap needs to be closed and we have the answer!
The Significance of Design Thinking in STEM Education
We believe that incorporating Design Thinking approaches to STEM education can elevate creativity of students in problem solving. Design Thinking is a human-centered and iterative approach to problem solving.
Firstly, as a teaching method, we use Design Thinking to enable teachers and learners to approach STEM topics from realistic problems. Setting up projects to solve these problems spark students’ curiosity in understanding problem contexts, enabling inquiry and discovery of relevant solutions.
Secondly, we encourage students to engage in rapid prototyping. It is a Design Thinking concept that enables students to convert their ideas into physical mock-ups. This helps them to visualize and suggest improvements on solution features whilst using cheap material. Visualization plays an important role in enhancing learning and sparking creativity in the classroom.
Thirdly, we encourage STEM students to apply Design Thinking in exploring, experimenting and engineering solutions that satisfy human needs in a technically feasible and commercially viable way. We encourage empathy and putting people at the centre of solution design.
Fourth, applying Design Thinking enable students to practice collaborative thinking in problem-solving. This is an important skill STEM students can apply in real life, at work and home.
Our Deliverables
- For STEM Students:
Mator Design train STEM students problem-solving skills through Design Thinking to improve their creativity. This helps them to develop critical-thinking skills that are required in the industry apart from theoretical knowledge they accumulate in an abstract way.
2. For STEM Teachers:
We partner with schools to offer training and consultancy services for STEM teachers and help them to incorporate Design Thinking approaches in their teaching methods.
Discover more about us | Mator Design Brochure
If you want to learn more about Design Thinking or want to implement it at your school, contact us at:
Email: upenyu@mator.co.zw
Cell: +263 777 445 768 or +263 7 77375310
