For nine weeks this fall, a team of five students worked through the many steps of the Design Thinking Process. "Let's build a rocket!" "No, I think we should build a nuclear power plant." "Let's make things that explode!" The five students of the first I-Lab Academy were full of big ideas as they entered the Innovation Lab.

Nicknamed the "Exploders" because that often seemed to be the first idea suggested, this cohesive group of students worked diligently to synthesize their Research/Deep Dive to identify a single area to Focus their efforts. "How might we meet the needs of 4th-6th graders who don't want to carry their school supplies in a heavy backpack?" (Focus)

The students brainstormed ideas and began prototyping their concepts. The importance of sketching their ideas in a notebook, which we called an "Idea Playground," was emphasized (Generating Ideas). The students met as a team and decided to focus their efforts on prototyping one of the designs. With a surprise visit from David Kelley, founder of IDEO and the d.school at Stanford, the students learned how to construct prototypes extremely quickly to test their design decisions (Prototyping Cycle).

"Should we use two wheels or four wheels? Let's make a prototype of each!" "Should we pull it by string or by a handle? I know, let's try both!"

Students gleefully tested out their "random-access" school supply carriers all around the Plaza, remarking that the "drift" was a great unexpected feature and one that should be kept in the final product. In fact, these students were so hooked by this experience that they now come in on I-Lab Mondays to transform their improved prototype into a final product. Watch out as they come drifting by!