Teaching: Sustainability Design Thinking (Part 1)

May 2, 2023 9:54 pm
Categories: Activity, Ideas, Lessons, Planning

I have been invited to be co-instructor for the course CEE 176G/276G Sustainability Design Thinking in Summer Term 2023 at Stanford. This is not a new connection, but I will have greater-than-before involvement with instruction this time. I thought I would write three ideas for my part of this course.

  1. Engagement of the EQ (awareness and action) senses in design thinking projects with sustainability in mind.
  2. The concept of nudging into sustainability at an angle to be persuasive and human behavior changing will be explored.
  3. The Art of Environmental Sustainability Communication. Using the idea of “Sustainability has a PR Problem,” we can get students to practice communicating ideas over various modes. Perhaps we could use the YCISL DezignBläst framework for students to practice writing proposals for sustainability products, spaces & services.

These components will involve creativity where we will hope and expect that students can advance through rapid prototyping and brainstorming, and develop their design thinking skillset.