Deeper Learning 2023

Project Invent is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering middle and high school students to embrace their identities as changemakers to design technology for social good. We firmly believe that real-world problem-solving cannot happen without real people, so our approach to design education isn’t based on hypotheticals, but instead is rooted in the concept of community partnership. Our educators begin each year by presenting a challenge to their students: invent something that makes our community better. Students are trained in design thinking, needfinding, and prototyping as they travel from big ideas to big impact. While developing these 21st century skills through inventing, we challenge educators and students to design with Community Partners, rather than for. Why? It can be easy to assume the challenges in a community without interacting with stakeholders, but in order to create with intention and develop compassion, we must connect. Educators can forge a path to leave comfortable behind as teams step back to question, listen, and learn. In these environments, students develop mindsets such as curiosity, agency, and empathy. In this session, members of the Project Invent team will provide tools and strategies for participants to infuse authentic community exploration into their classrooms. We will highlight a Project Invent Fellow and their students in a panel discussion about the value of community partnership in their design experience. In the final activity, participants will engage in strategic planning exercises that will challenge their own assumptions, identify needs, and brainstorm solutions/prototypes to showcase their ideas. We hope to showcase that when students tackle real problems in partnership with their communities, they see themselves authentically making an impact and become confident problem solvers, ready to take on any challenge.