We are a European initiative that wants to empower children to contribute to the design of a better future. We believe that we can support children’s imagination, self-esteem, and ability to contribute by letting them experience Design Thinking and Maker Education activities at a young age. Therefore, we aim to create materials that support teachers with implementing Design Thinking and Maker Education practices in their schools.
Design Futures is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The project’s partners are: TU/Eindhoven, Designathon Works, PACO Design Collaborative, Stimmuli, All Grow, Aristotelio College of Thessaloniki.
For more information send an e-mail to:
The Netherlands: a.h.m.veldhuis@tue.nl ; emer@designathon.nl Greece: ioanna.garefi@stimmuli.eu ; georgiasafouri@yahoo.com Italy: silvia@pacollaborative.com Romania: info@allgrowconsulting.com
Reports & Research Papers
State–of–the–Art report on Design Thinking and Maker Education
The main aim of Intellectual Output 1 is capturing and analyzing existing formal, informal, non-formal practices, which include a Design Thinking and/or a Maker Education approach within educational activities. This output is comprised of three interlinked sections starting with the theoretical foundations around Design Thinking and Maker Education pedagogies and the difficulties that exist with embedding such practices into lessons and curricula. We, then, continue with the analysis of twenty-eight (28) educational practices and conclude with discussing the results of the analysis by highlighting the underlying relations of the characteristics, connecting the insights of the analysis to educational theory, and reflecting on their implications for the design of the DESIGN FUTURES training materials and curriculum.
Needs Analysis Report of Teachers and Students
The needs assessment process started in January 2020 and lasted till April 2020. The aim of the report is to provide contextual and cross-country insights about the training needs of the two main target groups: schools staff and students. The report provides a piece of original research with new data collected in four participating countries, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, and Romania with added comparative analysis between different national context. It offers a detailed and comprehensive report of participants’ needs in terms of both subject content and pedagogy due to its highly participative nature, hence the capacity to involve participants in the co-design of the project, more specifically student curriculum and teachers training.
Project’s timeline
Feb-April 2020
Understanding teachers and students needsInterviews and workshops are organised to identify gaps in integrating Design Thinking and Makers Education in student’s curriculum.
November 2020
Teacher Training workshopTeachers from different schools in Europe attend a full immersion training course on Design Futures method.
Jan-Mar 2021
Iterative testing of the activities in schoolsTeachers implement and test the methods and the Design Future curriculum learned during the training, in their everyday classes.
April 2021
Maker fairs in Romania, Italy, Greece and the NetherlandsA series of events dedicated to celebrate the outcomes of the students during the pilot testing are organised in each partner’s country
May-June 2021
Impact evaluation of the methodEvaluation of the student’s self-efficacy and creative development, and the teachers’ experience during the piloting phase.
August 2021
Final Event in AmsterdamAt the celebratory final event in the Netherlands we will share the work with a wide audience in in a playful way and ‘maker’ way.