On Saturday the 27th of February 2022, roughly 20 facilitators set out to impact design thinking skills on students of the State school for the deaf in Accra. The event commenced at 11:30am and was a Design Thinking Empowerment Session, in partnership with the Leo Club and Sign Language Club. It is the third and hence the final in a series of three empowerment sessions for the physically challenged.
On arrival, we were welcomed by the headmaster of the school, followed by an introduction by Petra Abosi. The introduction captured the number of clubs that were embarking on the project, the purpose of the project as well as the university we were coming from. This was followed by an interesting and educative empowerment session by Mr. Sapey. He encouraged the students to dream and work towards their dreams. He told the students that they can be anything they want to be provided they set their mind on it and work towards it. He elaborated on all the various professionals students can aspire to be. This was followed by a group picture with Mr. Sapey, the students, and the clubs.
Before the design thinking session began, there was an ice breaker where students were asked to fill in the names of countries and animals which started with a given letter as well as a male and female name. this was led by Anita and Eugene.
DESIGN THINKING PROCESS
The key concepts for the day were the building blocks of design thinking which are as follows: Empathize. Define, Ideate, Prototype to help in solving human-centered problems. The students were made to understand the process first. Students were taken through the first three steps, in belief that the ideas developed will be revisited and prototyped in the near future. The students were divided into groups and each group (8 students) had one facilitator that helped the students in the process.
The design Lab provided a list of problems areas which include; War, Hunger, Poverty, Education, Health, Pollution, Technology, just to mention but a few. Students were asked to focus on one of these problem areas they were interested in and empathize with the people experiencing problems in this area. They were then provided with ideation tools such as tree diagrams, cardboard, paper, pens, sticky notes, to define and ideate on a narrowed down problem with the guidance of the facilitators. After breaking down the problem, one sub-problem was chosen by the students to solve using the design thinking concept that was taught. Using these tools, they mapped possible root causes, effects, stakeholders, and solutions were developed.
These were translated on the cardboards which the students presented to judges for evaluation. The students were given snacks during the ideation process. This was followed by group presentations and group pictures with facilitators to signal the end of the design thinking activity.
AWARD SESSION
Students who answered questions and were active during the session were awarded books and pencils. The overall winner from the group presentations was gifted Ashesi branded t-shirts, journals, and books (Each member of the winning team received the gift). All the other participants were awarded certificates of participation. What followed was a photo session with the facilitators and the students. The session was concluded at 4:00pm.
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