Designathon Works is looking for Fab Labs that would be interested in hosting the Global Children’s Designathon in 2019. The event is held in November. Next year will be the 5th year of the event.
On November 3rd, 30 cities around the world participated in the event. Children discussed and ideated around the Life On Land issues, a U.N. Sustainable Development Goal. SDG 15 addresses issues such as how to grow food, the needs of wildlife, deforestation, desertification, and biodiversity.
Children imagined and designed sustainable solutions around these issues, built prototypes, and presented them to each other and the facilitators.
A Designathon is a structured workshop in which children (ages 7 - 12 years) invent, build and present their self-devised solutions to a social or environmental issue around the Sustainable Development Goals. A workshop lasts four to six hours and is facilitated by education and engineering. professionals.
The experience helps children become future ready through learning to design and use technology. The Designathon method combines aspects of Design Thinking and Maker Education, both approaches that are gaining ground in education systems around the world.
Fab Labs are a great venue to host the event. My Lab, Clearwater’s Fabrication Lab at Saint Paul’s School, has hosted the event for the U.S. for two years. It is a wonderful event for the community. To see some photos and video of the event, please visit the Designathon Works Florida Facebook page.
If your lab is interested in hosting the Global Children’s Designathon next year, please respond to me.
Cheers,
Paul Haberstroh