A group of dedicated subject matter experts from Eke Panuku Development Auckland, Auckland Council and the Takapuna Beach Business Association recently attended a class at Westlake Girls to provide mentoring and support on community projects that the students are working on as part of their STEAM programme.
Introducing students to the design process is an important part of the STEAM programme. Students connect with stakeholders in the community to identify their needs and create prototypes of their designs, journaling their process as they go. They research and dig deep into community needs to truly understand the issue from their perspective. Through empathy with others, they better define the problem. They then collect feedback from the stakeholders and reflect on whether it is suitable for them or not and what changes would need to be made if they were going to go through the process again.
The mentoring team advised students on how to consider issues such as transport, waste, drought, stormwater, supporting local business, and homelessness when designing their projects.
The next stage of the programme will see the students develop a prototype that could help solve or minimise these issues in their community.