This document discusses the solution design process for challenge-based learning projects. It explains that students enjoy the creative process of ideating, prototyping, testing and iterating solutions. It emphasizes that students must understand the employer's success criteria before designing solutions. The ideation process involves brainstorming and developing potential solutions. Prototyping allows students to receive feedback on their ideas from employers. Testing and refining designs is an iterative process that teaches students to try, fail, learn and improve continuously.

1. Module 5
Facilitating Challenge Case
Exploration
Section 5
Lecture 2: Solution Design
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2. Solution Design
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This is usually the part students enjoy most! This is where they get to
be creative and innovative - thinking in new ways, getting hands-on,
and developing their own ideas for feedback. CBL uses a design
thinking process to ideating, prototyping, testing, and iterating solutions
- one that is undoubtedly already well known to any engineering and
manufacturing teacher.

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4. Employer Success Criteria
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Before they dive into the creative
process, your team needs to
ensure all students on the design
team are familiar with the
employer’s success criteria. These
are the measures the employer will
use to determine if the solution is a
good one. It doesn’t matter how
creative or well-designed the
solution is if the employer can’t use
it!

5. Ideation
Ideation is the process by
which students can come up
with design ideas. This is not
the time to self-censor - it’s
the time to think big, think
wild, and imagine possibilities.
This step includes
brainstorming and
development of “How Might
We” statements.
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6. Brainstorming
• There are lots of brainstorming processes available; as a
coach, you want to make sure teams spend adequate time for
students to generate lots and lots of ideas. This will make it
easier when it comes time to identify promising ideas to
develop.
• Review the helpful resources within the lecture to learn more
about brainstorming.
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7. • Students at Level 3 have already had some experience with
designing and prototyping ideas. The main difference here is the
employer success criteria, and the length of time students can
devote to prototyping and testing. As discussed in Section 1,
adequate time needs to be given to both the solution design and
time for students to gather - and act on - feedback from employers
to make their designs better.
• Review the helpful resources within the lecture to learn more about
prototyping.
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Prototyping

8. This essential step in the prototyping process is where students get
formative feedback from the employer partner and staff. This can
happen by inviting staff to the school for a day or more; by having
students visit the employer’s organization for focus group meetings; or
(less ideally) by having a virtual “show and tell” session where students
post ideas and have employers respond at a different time. (This
approach is less ideal because students can’t practice asking follow-up
questions, observing body language, or watching how their prototypes
are being used and understood by the employer. However, in cases
where it is difficult for the employer to come in or invite students, this
can provide one means for gathering feedback.)
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Testing

9. • Solution design is an iterative process. Students learn to try, test, get
feedback, and refine - knowing that the design they start with is not the
design they will end up with. It also promotes a growth mindset - it’s okay to
try, fail, learn, and try again. This is an invaluable skill in college, career, and
life after high school - that trying once is almost never enough. It also
models continuous improvement in a very practical and immediate way.
Students can make connections between their testing and refinement
process, and their own self-reflection on progress towards skill and
competency development.
• Testing also provides a great opportunity to reinforce students’ skills in
active listening, interviewing, and note-taking. It can be hard for students to
practice listening instead of speaking particularly when they want to be able
to explain their ideas - but they will need to listen more than talk, write more
than show, and generally practice having a “learning and listening stance.”
• Review the helpful resources within the lecture to learn more about making
connections.
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Making Connections