I fell in love with Design Thinking on the first day of Engs 12. After finishing the class, I went to the DALI Lab to continue working on creative design. After my time in the DALI Lab, I returned to Engs 12 as a teaching assistant (TA) to help develop students' creative confidence and get better myself at the skills I had learned in the class by teaching it to others.
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Engs 12 is a 10 week course (like all Dartmouth courses) and each week the students work on a different project to develop some aspect of creative design. The first week is an exercise in lateral thinking: create as many variations of a black square by cutting it into 4 equal parts and retaining the essence of the square. It sounds simple, but the possibilities are functionally limitless. After breaking through the mental barrier of "I just can't think of anything else!" the students realize that they have much more latent creativity than they once thought.
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The rest of the course builds off of that realization, delving into projects like constructing foam core roller coasters, reframing a popular idea using photoshop, designing a futuristic digital experience to improve human lives, improving the way we carry things, and finally improving Dartmouth as we know it.
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My job as a TA is to help facilitate group activity and remind students that their ideas are valuable while pushing them to think beyond the ordinary. Most students need a push forward, but every once in a while someone goes so far beyond that we need to remind them that constraints are one of the most important tools in a designer's arsenal.
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I was honored to receive a citation for outstanding work during my first term as a TA. The citation can be seen to the right.
