Design Thinking
Think: Inventors, engineers and other people who design things face many different problems when they are attempting to design new objects. Many times, people will have to start by thinking of a problem that needs to be solved.
Make: After thinking of a problem, people usually start to think of something that can help solve their problem. They may conduct draw sketches and diagrams of their designs and write notes to keep track of their thinking. After that, they start to create their solution to the problem. You shouldn’t expect it to be perfect right away, perfecting your creation will take time.
Improve: After you test your creation, you will see what parts of it worked well and what needed to be adjusted. Depending on how things worked out, you may find that you need to make major changes or small adjustments.
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Fix: Part of improving your creation is fixing things that went wrong. You may find that something didn’t work as expected and you need to change it so that your idea works correctly. You shouldn’t be upset about this, it is a great discovery that you have made and you have learned something new about your design!
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Make Better: If you design works as expected it is ok to be excited but that does NOT mean that your work is over! There are always ways to improve working creations. Think of cars as an example. People have used cars for years and years but car companies haven’t stopped trying to improve their designs. Each year they try to make their engines better and their parts stronger.
Repeat: When you have reached this point, it is time to repeat the process! Go back to thinking about the problem you need to solve and ways to solve it. When you think about this for a second time, you may find that you have a new solution that will work better. You may also think of a new way to make your existing creation better.