Challenge Academy

Design challenge made easy for teachers.

 

Design Challenges are structured and curated learning experiences that foster empathy, agency, curiosity, creativity, and leadership. 

How it Works

 

Step 1

Join a ChangeMaker Challenge Competition

We will show you everything you need to know! Start by participating in a Construct-led Design Challenge Competition to see how it is done. Let us do the planning and bring the tools you need to coach students through one of our guided challenges. 

We have two Design Challenge Topic Areas: 

  • Healthy Earth Challenge 

  • Equitable Communities Challenge 

(See: ChangeMaker Challenges for more information)

  • EXAMPLES of these challenges

Step 2

Grow your Career

Access our Challenge Academy e-learning modules (receive continuing education credit) and work at your own speed to master each or the 5 steps of the design challenge learning experience. (Discover, Analyze/Define, Generate Ideas, Prototype/Test, and Pitch)  Take a closer look at one of our Design Toolkits.


Step 3

Join the Community

Adapt and adopt design challenge methods into your classroom join our learning community to accelerate new strategies.

 Big Picture

Solving problems in the community (Design Challenges) helps students learn about themselves, how to work and communicate with others,  while they build confidence in their ability to make a difference in the world.


Day to Day in the Classroom

Design Challenges help students:

  • Communicate their ideas effectively

  • Use empathy interviews to investigate and research a problem

  • Synthesize and analyze data sets

  • Build confidence that their ideas and their voice matter

  • Learn how to work in teams and meet a deadline

  • Learn how to iterate and improve their work with feedback

In Challenge Academy, we will show teachers how to…

  1. Run a Design Challenge

  2. Coach student innovation projects

  3. Build a design challenge around problems that matter to your subject and your community

Featured Courses

  • Discover/ Analyze/ Generate Ideas

  • Prototyping

  • How to coach student innovation projects.