Student Solutions
When we make space for students to create change, amazing things can happen! See what students are capable of in our Spotlight Solutions.
Equitable Communities
In Construct’s Equitable Schools Challenge, we ask students, “How Might We Improve School Experiences for Black, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and Immigrant Students?” We connect your students to real people working to equitably redesign schools: from DEI experts to Designers, from school leaders to community activists. Your students will then design solutions to equity-based challenges in their own schools.
Below are some spotlight solutions that students have designed…
Unseen Path
Problem Explored: White students and staff don’t understand the experiences of Black students (positive and negative aspects of experience). Experiencing something is the best way to learn about it.
Solution: An empathy experience for non-Black students and educators at the school to build understanding of the complexities of the Black Experience and build more informed and inspired allyship at the school.
Safe Reporting System
Problem Explored: Because micro-aggressions can be subtle but persistent, they have the potential to cause a lot of harm but are hard to address in any official way. Students and staff alike need more resources and training on issues related to equity.
Solution: The Gladstone design team created a restorative justice reporting system aimed at: capturing data about students’ experience of racism, creating a system for accountability and lastly, to genuinely help “perpetrators” understand the origin and effects of their words/ actions—not blame and expose them.
The Green House
Problem Explored: Many low-income people needing affordable housing also need to boost their income, and access to healthier food.
Solution: A building to combine a farmers market on bottom, green house on top, and affordable housing in the middle.
Healthy Earth
In Construct’s Health Earth Challenge, we ask students, “How Might We Create a Cleaner, Greener, Healthier Planet?” We connect your students with real people working on climate change initiatives: from policy-makers to farmers; from green builders to electric vehicle manufacturers.
Below are some spotlight solutions that students have designed…
Ride Rewards
Problem Explored: EV transportation reduces carbon emissions, but is an expensive investment for individuals.
Solution: We wanted to design a way to make EV ownership a reward for daily public transportation commuters. By creating a partnership between the state of Oregon, Tri-Met and Utility providing adults and young people could use a unifying app called Ride Rewards, tied to their public transit pass (Hop in PDX) to track their miles and fares over the years, and earning them rewards towards eventual EV purchases, EV loan interest rate reduction, and opportunities for EV prizes.
PHOTO CREDIT
Portland General Electric
Kim Oanh Nguyen/photosbyKim
Ugly! Jam
Problem Explored: The US wastes 40% of its Food - and farmers routinely discard produce that grocers consider cosmetically unfit for display.
Solution: Ugly Fruit Jam, is a fruit spread made from blemished but perfectly good apples, pears, and other fruit. The product is designed to reduce waste and benefit growers, brokers, merchandisers, and consumers alike. Creating a jam from fruit that would have been wasted is also hoping to change the mindset of consumers - who will see that a great jam created from fruit that would have been rejected by them. Student designers worked with New Seasons to take the product to market - a. initial meeting b. select b-grade fruit supplier c. work on "flavor profiles" in New Seasons' test kitchen with the help of their executive chef and food innovation director.
Eco-lution
Problem Explored: This "last mile" delivery of consumer packages to people's houses (from Amazon, FedEx, UPS) is extremely inefficient for delivery companies, and contributes to massive amounts of carbon emissions in the environment.
Solution: A localized delivery system to address the emissions from the “last mile” of deliveries, designed to reduce the travel distance of delivery trucks within neighborhoods. Delivery trucks leave packages at a centralized neighborhood drop-off center, from which location a green delivery method - bikes, electric carts - complete the last mile. Impact: Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 19,235g per year/54.6% reduction in truck miles driven ; creates local jobs; saves companies money.
Make Space for Students to Lead Change
How might we improve school experiences for Black students?
A group of students from David Douglas High School - Black Student Union designed an empathy experience (Micro-Agression Mansion) and a course on Black History for their school.
How might we Inspire increased usage of electric vehicles?
In this Design Challenge, 180 students across 6 Oregon Middle Schools designed solutions to increase EV usage, create Equitable Access to electric vehicles, and utilize electric vehicles in new and creative ways.