“What if we organize a Shark Tank Competition that challenges our students to improve their skills for life?” That was the question that one day crossed my mind for the next ICT project.

For seven weeks, our 7th and 8th-grade students navigated the powerful waves of Design Thinking methodology. The journey began by recognizing the Nordic Community’s needs and empathizing with the user group they selected to propose an innovative solution.

In the next tidal stages, they moved into the Define stage, crafting their problem statement. They then Ideated in the open sea, encountering lots of possible solutions. Yet, their path was oriented by “sea buoys” —the mentors they had from different fields of expertise.

Next, the waves made them sail to the Prototype stage. The goal: to transform their sketches into images of their innovative solution generated with AI tools, that we learnt in our last project.

At the end of the journey, and in front of the Sharks, they pitched their innovative solution, bringing their projects to shore. With fear, with doubts, with excitement, with joy, maybe even with resistance. But it was about daring to try and they did it.

For me as an educator, these kinds of learning experiences are the key in education because school is more than activities inside the classroom; this is about preparing for life. This project allowed students to develop essential skills like teamwork, empathy, problem-solving, risk-taking, creativity, and sense of purpose. 

What they learned on this wave, however, is best captured by them, and most importantly, their voices:

“In this competition I learned how all my team worked effectively with no one not contributing; I put the Design Thinking methodology to practice in problem-solving and it worked very well in our project». Sebastián P., 7th-grade student

“I discovered my on strengths during the project. I noticed that I am good at organizing tasks and keeping the team focused. This shoed me that I can be a leader hen necessary, and I

ill use this skill in school projects and later in my career”. Mariajose F., 8th-grade student

We successfully navigated the waves of challenge, brought our projects to shore, and are ready to set sail again.