Last year over 40,000 students and 450 schools from 5 continents participated in the very first Global Day of Design.

The hashtag went viral as students and teachers shared and launched their creative projects all day long around the globe. This year, we are doing it again, and we can’t wait to see what students design, build, and make!

Already we have over 60,000 students signed up to participate from 600+ schools, in over 12 countries and four different continents!

The 2017 Global Day of Design will be held on May 2nd!

Go to the GlobalDayOfDesign.com and get access to 20+ FREE design challenges that you can use or tweak/modify. Enter your details into the form at the bottom of this post and receive a Design Challenge for FREE.

You can also fill out this Google Form to include your class/school and students in the official count for The Global Day of Design.

Students will be able to use the design challenges and maker projects onGlobalDayOfDesign.com to create all kinds of things. Here are some of the design challenges:

How Do I Share What My Students Are Doing on the Global Day of Design?

This year the Global Day of Design will take place on 5/2/17. We will be sharing students designing, building, making, and tinkering on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtag #GDD17!

Use the Hashtag #GDD17 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Live stream if you can!

*Note: If your school can’t participate on 5/2 pick a date that works for you and still use the hashtag to share out!

What is Design Thinking?

Maybe you’ve heard the term before or even read some articles on Design Thinking. Here’s my description of Design Thinking from a K-12 viewpoint:

The term “design thinking” is often attached to maker spaces and STEM labs. However, design thinking is bigger than STEM. It begins with the premise of tapping into student curiosity and allowing them to create, test and re-create until they eventually ship what they made to a real audience (sometimes global but often local). Design thinking isn’t a subject or a topic or a class. It’s more of way of solving problems that encourages risk-taking and creativity.

Here is The LAUNCH Cycle video we created to explain Design Thinking to K-12 Students (watch it, you’ll love it!):

Where did Design Thinking originate?

So, it’s debate where design thinking originated. Some claim that it started in the sixties with The Sciences of the Artificial. Others point to Design Thinking, which focussed more on urban planning and architecture. Still, others point to Robert McKim’s work in Experiences in Visual Thinking. My guess is that, like all great ideas, it has been an evolution, influenced by thousands of people. We know that our work around Design Thinking has been influenced by people like Tom and David Kelley, Tim Brown, John Maeda, Peter Rowe (as well as organizations like Stanford d.school and IDEO). Our goal is to continue to read some of these texts in-depth and watch the evolution of the idea.