Two times a year—in between each of our comprehensive project-based units—students pursue Independent (or “Passion”) Projects for a period of three weeks. The goal of these 3 weeks is for each child, from Kindergarten to middle school, to practice the skills of conceiving an idea and working towards implementing it. This is an extremely hard thing to do. (Even for adults!). David Kelley (founder of IDEO and Stanford’s Design School) and Tom Kelley (partner at IDEO) coined a term for this, “creative confidence,” the natural ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out.
The Kelleys’ claim, “Most people are born creative, but over time, because of socialization and formal education, a lot of us start to stifle those [creative] impulses. Our Job isn’t to teach them [the students at the Design School] creativity. It’s to help them rediscover their creative confidence.” In some ways, our job at Portfolio is easier than the instructors at the Design School. Our students haven’t yet stifled those creative impulses.
So how do we design these 3 weeks of Independent Projects to work most effectively in school? There are many aspects to it. Our framework is based on Stanford’s design thinking methodology.
Here I want to highlight a few high level aspects of the independent projects that address the challenges of honing the skills of creative confidence.
Breaking down the solution
Imagine you have an idea. Something you’re passionate about or some solution you think will help people deal with a problem. The next step is to figure out how you’re going to implement it. And that can be daunting. Everyone thinks of the final product and gets excited. But how and where do you start? The big idea here is to break down your solution into small steps. What’s the first step you’re going to take and what’s the next step after that until you have a plan for how you’re going to implement the whole solution. This breakdown does two things. First, it helps you get a good idea of where the challenges are in building your solution, and second, success at each step gives you a feeling of accomplishment and propels you forward.
This is a messy process also. Especially at the elementary age level. Students start with a plan but realize that most of the time it's not detailed enough. Steps are missing and things go sideways. Here is an example of how it might really pan out.
Let’s imagine a student who wants to make a stuffed animal. Armed with a picture in their mind, a drawing in their hand, and a list of materials and steps that they’ll need (all the ground work they’ve done till now), they now get to go to the fabric and sewing makerspace and look around. “Hmmm…where do I begin?” So they take out a few different materials to see what they will use to make the body of the stuffy. Maybe something woolly? Something silky? A lot of options. They finally decide on something and they make their first cut? “What do I do first? Should I cut an ear? Should I make the torso?” Their teacher comes in and they discuss, and figure out what would be the best next step. And then they start to do it. From there onwards, it's a series of these loops of work that they have to do. Each one taking them forward in small and big ways. And sometimes backwards. Something fails, something doesn’t work out the way they thought it would. Something breaks and it has to be redone. It's a constant push to get it done.
Check out this video of one student describing how she designed and made shoes:
The End Result
What you conceive in your mind and what you build are two very different things. In your mind, a stuffed animal would look like something you might buy from a store. Beautiful and just perfect in every way. But when you have to build it yourself, from scratch, it will not come out as you first pictured it in your mind. It looks very different. And that’s ok. In fact that’s how the whole exercise is designed to be. For them to experience the challenges and incrementally getting better at the creative process.
See how one student describes her process of making a stuffed animal:
Feedback
Feedback is a hard skill and has two components that are tightly linked to each other: being able to receive feedback and being able to give it. Independent projects is a time where we have the students work on both aspects, learning how to both ask for feedback and give it to their peers.
Of course, when we approach feedback with empathy (putting ourselves in another’s shoes), when we give a peer feedback, we are also able to better understand how we ourselves would want to receive similar feedback. We all know it’s difficult to be judged, but when we approach feedback in a positive way, where it’s about helping another person to improve their work and not personal, we then are able to receive feedback in the same vain. It’s not about me, but rather, my peer is seeing something (that I don’t) about how I can improve my work. And we all want this information!
Presenting your work
Presenting and showcasing your work is extremely important. However, this process of articulation is difficult. Just because you made something doesn’t mean you can explain it yet. This requires a separate set of skills (self-reflection, communication, etc) that have to be developed. That’s why exhibitions are important. It's a way for our students to learn how to talk about their work and showcase it.
Watch one of our students, Nico, who’s gone through many of these presentations at the school, is now very comfortable talking about his work.
Independent projects is a very exciting time at Portfolio. You can feel this excitement when students are working on their ideas, bringing them to life and building their creative confidence.