The design thinking process

Here at Kid Lab, we celebrate the tinkering process— you probably know it well. The agh!-this-doesn’t-quite-work-right puzzling phase that leads to brilliant EUREKA! moments that make you want to jump up and down. It’s often a meandering process that’s hard to predict, but when kids are given the space and time to work through designs through ideating and rapid prototyping, they learn to problem solve in real-time.

When tinkering leads to solving problems, the results can be thrilling! When we design programs and experiences for kids, we like to leave plenty of room for this hands-on, project based learning. We find it’s a great way for kids to not only increase their creativity, but also gain confidence, build resilience and in the best case scenarios, champion others to do the same.

We’re so excited to be expanding our community programs this year to include working with small groups like Girl Scouts and Y Guides. As we do, we plan to introduce kids, teachers and their caregivers to more of this tinkering process (often referred to as the Design-Thinking process) and can’t wait to see the brilliant creativity that will come of it!

We’ve created a visual chart to help define this process. We hope it’s a helpful resource to those of you wishing to replicate the Kid Lab fun at home, school or wherever you are!