Dear IDSA Design Educators, NAEA Educators, and Respective Chapter Members, The primary purpose of the IDSA Design Learning Challenge 2012 is to expose young students to design thinking and create an active awareness of the discipline of industrial design as a career option before students leave high school. College design students all over the United States will be challenged to co-create innovative and participatory design learning experiences with art students in grades 6-12, anchored in design thinking and learning skills. Embracing a Learn.Think.Do approach, each Design Learning Challenge 2012 Team will focus on one of the three submission categories: Design Day Event, Targeted Design Project or Industrial Design Awareness Campaign.
The focus of this year’s challenge is anchored in a recent research survey regarding the discovery process of the discipline of industrial design. We captured the voice of 250 practitioners, students and educators regarding how and when they realized industrial design was the discipline for them. Most telling of our findings revealed insight into how and when students discovered the discipline. Data indicates 40 percent of the respondents knew of the discipline prior to high school graduation, whereas 40 percent did not discover the field until they had been enrolled in higher education for at least 1-3 years. Of those who were aware prior to high school graduation, 46 percent reported to have been motivated (in respective order) by a relative, art teacher, friend or school counselor. The survey findings offer much welcomed perceptive into what resonates within college design students and practitioners today, words that invite one to ponder the global and economic imperatives we face in the 21st Century. The essential question, how can we as a design society effectively invest in our youth? As representative findings, the quotes toward the end of this page help to paint the big picture along with emerging patterns. How Can We as Educators and Practitioners Become Involved with the Design Learning Challenge 2012? Mentor Fundraising Event Design Dialogue Conferences The Voice of Design Students Who Discovered Industrial Design Prior to High School Graduation
The Voice of Design Practitioners Who Discovered Industrial Design After Entering College
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