"So, you all could have just given us a bunch of suggestions about how to make school 'better,' but, most likely, those wouldn't have been fully thought-out, and, as a result, we wouldn't have been able to make them happen. There are a lot of things to consider when solving a problem, so it's not enough to just say 'we should have less homework!'

Why do you think just saying 'have less homework' would be a problem? Why wouldn't we make that happen?"

(student thoughts, getting at outside considerations, lack of an alternative suggestion, etc.)

"So just telling us what you want without a well-thought-out solution doesn't make change happen. Instead, you need to take the time to think things through, test them out, and make a better solution for people to use. That's what we're going to talk about today."

"The first step is to brainstorm as many possible ideas as you can come up with that would potentially answer the 'How Might We' questions you came up with. You don't want to all talk and agree on something right away without coming up with a lot of options.

Why not? Because we aren't naturally very creative, so our first thoughts/solutions are usually overly simple or just copying something we've already seen - and we all have limited experience, so, most times, we haven't actually seen the best solution.

So, we'll start in your Family Groups, brainstorming as many ideas as we can in 10 minutes. Make sure to be trying to answer your 'How Might We' questions, but do not comment on or talk about any of the answers while you brainstorm - just write them down on the same piece of paper. To keep things moving, have everybody in your group write their ideas at the same time, so you all aren't waiting turns to get your ideas down.

Any questions?"

(when students are ready to go, let them start brainstorming; circulate to see how the process is going and make sure to emphasize students not commenting on each others' ideas yet)

"So now that you're done brainstorming ideas, you should probably all talk about it and choose the best one, right?

WRONG! If you all talk about it and decide on a favorite right off the bat, it's really likely that one person will take over the conversation, and the rest of you will agree without really trying to come up with the best idea.

So, instead, you're all going to choose three ideas that you think are:

1) The most interesting or different
2) The most exciting
3) The most wonderful

Don't worry about what I mean by any of those things - that's up to you. But right now - write down the three ideas off that paper (or something you came up with but didn't get to write) that fit the descriptions. Make sure to choose at least one idea that you didn't come up with yourself, and DO NOT TALK TO YOUR GROUP MEMBERS ABOUT IT YET."

(5 minutes for individuals to choose their top 3)

"Now that you have your three ideas, before talking to anybody, you will make them into a 'paper prototype.'"

"Does anybody know what a prototype is?"

(student response; looking for answers about a model to test something that isn't the final version; etc.)

"So a prototype is an early model of something that is meant to test how it works. For example, if I was trying to design a new car, I might want to know if my design was aerodynamic or not. So how might I test that without spending a ton of money and time to actually build the whole car and try it out? I'd build a prototype - maybe out of wood, or plastic, just to test out the aerodynamics. That would save me time and money. Any questions?"

"Of course, I wouldn't start with a physical prototype. Before that, I'd create a 'paper prototype' - what do you think that would look like?"

(students share thoughts; drawings, ideas, descriptions, etc.)

"So a paper prototype is drawings and explanations - on paper - that help you test out your ideas in some way - quickly, and cheaply."

"So, right now, we're going to have you all create quick 'Paper Prototypes' of your top three ideas. So you're just going to make some drawings with explanations that you could use to think through your idea a little more and show the other people in your group how your idea might work."

"The key word here is 'quick.' This should be a sketch with stick figures and bad drawings - do not try to make this look pretty, because that's a waste of time. So really think how you can use a few sketches and words to make your point."

(students begin paper prototyping - give them ~5 - 7 minutes; let them know they will get to talk and explain, so not to try to get every single detail on the paper; the key is to help them reduce stress - this is an ugly sketch to talk about, not a final product)

"So now you should have some paper prototype sketches that are ready (again - "ready" doesn't mean pretty) to share out with your group. So that's what you're going to do.

This is the 'testing' phase of this process. Just like with the prototype car, which we would need to test aerodynamics on in a wind tunnel (or something else), we need to test our paper prototypes to see if they 'work' and what we need to do to make them better.

Think of the car design - a paper prototype of the car would have been some drawings of the car look, maybe some explanations of the features. So how would we 'test' that? What would we try to do or find out?"

(student responses - moving towards 'finding out if the design makes sense', if 'people are interested in the features,' if 'people want to buy it,' 'what people like about it', etc.)

"So with a car, we would want to get feedback from people about what they thought of the car. If it was a sports car, do people think it looks cool? Fast? For a van, maybe people want it to look safe. If they tell you that it looks unsafe, then, we would go back and change it."

"This is what you will do with your paper prototypes. You will share it in your groups and get some feedback. What parts of your prototype are exciting to your classmates? What parts don't make sense? What things would you need to keep in mind to make it work? What would make it even better? And - most importantly - how does your idea solve the real problem that came up in Empathy Interviews?

"Really focus on 'how can you make this idea better' when giving feedback. The reason we are sharing more than one idea is because no idea is perfect, and we don't want to take it personal when we share. This is about ideas that we spent only a little time on, and haven't fully thought through. It should not be ready to go yet. So getting feedback helps us all get ideas about what we can improve on.

"In your groups, take turns sharing your ideas and getting feedback. Each group member will have 4 minutes to share their ideas and paper prototypes, and then 2 minutes to get feedback from the other group members. Make sure to follow the rules of giving helpful feedback when you do so, so that we can keep this positive and helpful."

(students share/get feedback in groups)

"Now that you've all shared your ideas and gotten feedback, you want to take those ideas and use it to make something better. In real life, companies make hundreds of prototypes and test them hundreds of times before ever deciding that an idea is ready to go. Scientists do hundreds of tests and trials before publishing a paper - not because they 'have to,' but because that's the only way to do something well.

One draft of a paper before you turn it in? That's not going to happen in the real world.

So - if we're going to come up with really good ideas for bettering our school, we need to improve on our prototypes and test them again.

Now, all of you will take 15 minutes, on your own, to come up with a better idea - based on your old ideas, what other people shared, and the feedback you received - to prototype and test (get feedback on). Remember that ideas are to be shared, so there's nothing wrong with taking pieces from each other's solutions to make your own better."

At the end of this 15 minutes, you should have one new, improved idea that we will share in groups. Start working."

(students work independently on their next version prototype)

"One more time - you're going to share your new, improved ideas with your group and get feedback. This time, you will have two minutes to present your idea, and two minutes to get feedback.

Remember to give useful feedback and focus on improving the ideas."

(Family Groups share and give feedback)

(if time, large group share-out, debrief of the process)