Design thinking in Middle School drama

October 2021

By Jenny Estill, Middle School drama teacher

This year, another group of brave Lakeside faculty and staff members will sport bespoke Halloween costumes, designed and created for them by the members of the Drama 7 classes. This intensive design-thinking project begins just a few weeks into the school year, when 7th grade drama students are put in groups and assigned a “client” from among their teachers and advisors. Their first design challenge was to come up with a name and logo for their newly formed fashion house!

Examples of logos.

Imani G., Sophia S., and Anastasia P. interview Middle School digital life teacher Chris Richter.

Then, students created interview questions that would help them get to know their client as a person and learn about their costume preferences and needs. The students then created vision boards and sketches of three different costume ideas and presented them to their clients. With a mutually agreed-upon concept in mind and a $10 budget, the students set about creating a first “draft” of their client’s costume. 

Chris’s initial fitting in his Hobbes costume. 

One of the things I love about running this project is that I can never predict at the outset how a costume will get made or turn out. It gives me a great opportunity to model the flexibility, resilience, and creativity needed to solve truly unstructured problems. Many of the students end up learning how to sew or use a glue gun, not because I’ve designed a lesson on those skills, but because it’s what they need to do in order to manifest their vision. 

Adi D., Alex L., and Shiwen H. use the Middle School Makerspace to construct their costume.

After multiple rounds of fittings and feedback from clients, the completed costumes were delivered to their (hopefully) satisfied customers on Wednesday, Oct. 27. Students presented on their process and showed off their costumes to the student body during Friday’s assembly. I hope they feel as proud of their collaboration and problem-solving as I am!