Lesson 1: Designing With Empathy

Getting Started with Code.org: Consider watching our Getting Started with Code.org video series for an overview of how to navigate lesson plans, setup a classroom section, and other important features of the Code.org platform. Each video also has a support article if you'd prefer to read or print instructions - click here to learn more.

Setup a Classroom Section: You can use a class section in Code.org to manage your students, view their progress, and assign specific curriculum - click here to learn more.

If you are using a learning management system, there may be additional steps to sync your classes with Code.org:

• Click here for steps to setup your classes with Google Classroom
• Click Here for steps to setup your classes with Clever

Become a Verified Teacher: Lesson plans and levels have additional resources and answer keys for Verified Teachers, which is quick process that verifies your position at an educational institution. Click here to complete a form and you should have access to verified teacher resources in ~1 business day. Verified teachers also have access to the "Teacher's Lounge" section of the forums.

Get Inspired: Consider watching our Teacher Tips video playlist, featuring current CS Discoveries teachers.

Technical Requirements: For the very best experience with all Code.org content, we recommend consulting with your school or district's IT department to ensure specific sites are allowed and are not blocked. Click here to see a list of sites to unblock.

You can also find mobile and tablet support details, hardware recommendation information such as minimum Internet connection speed, smallest screen size supported, and other hardware recommendations, as well as a list of supported browsers and platforms at the same technical requirements website.

Display: Show the Problem Solving Process graphic, which includes an Empathize section in the background of the entire process.

Journal

Prompt: This graphic represents the Problem Solving Process and its four steps: Define, Prepare, Try, and Reflect. In this unit, we will be using this process but we’re also adding a new element: Empathize. What does it mean to empathize? Where else have you heard this term before?

Discuss: Students should write their responses in their journal first, then share their ideas with a partner before discussing as a full class. Eventually, direct conversation towards the fact that to empathize with other people means to consider their wants, needs, or concerns.

Discussion Goal: This discussion can be fairly free-flowing and open-ended. While you want to eventually arrive at a shared understanding of what it means to empathize, students will be working on their understanding of the word over the entire unit. There's no need to settle on a single fixed definition, so treat this discussion as an introduction to a theme of the unit.

Vocabulary: Display the following vocabulary as a transition to the main activity:

• Empathy - In design, paying attention to a user's feelings and needs when designing a product
• User - Someone who uses an object, including software and hardware

This unit we are going to start thinking a lot more about designing for other people. This is still largely a problem solving process, but we will now need to think a lot more closely about the needs of our users. In other words, empathy will be an important theme as we learn more about design.

Question of the Day: How can we choose products based on the needs of a user?

Distribute: Hand out copies of the Determine the User Activity Guide.

Reducing Printed Materials

Unit 4 contains a lot of printed materials. Classrooms with limited ability to print can choose one of the following options instead.

Option 1: Online Activity Guides

All of our activity guides are available in editable Google Doc and Microsoft Doc formats. Classrooms using Google or Microsoft products can distribute digital copies to students, who can complete most of the activity guides entirely online.

Option 2: Student Journals

Many of the activity guides can be converted into journal activities. Teachers can project the instructions and prompts or allow students to view them online, then complete the activity itself in a journal.

Look for teaching tips on relevant lessons to indicate when you may avoid printing by using one of these options.

Designing with Empathy

Determine the User

Overview: Have students read through the Determine the User section of the activity guide. The first part of this activity asks students to match different shoes with the most likely user. Have students work through this activity in pairs, encouraging discussion about why exactly they are choosing to make each connection. This is a great place to discuss the design of shoes and the needs of users.

Circulate: Monitor students as they complete the first page of the activity guide, asking students to justify some of the decisions that they made. It’s okay if students disagree about a particular shoe choice. There are no right or wrong answers here - the discussion and ability to reasonably justify a decision are what matter.

Answer Keys & Exemplars: An answer key or exemplar is provided for verified teachers as part of the resources in this lesson plan. If you do not see an answer key or exemplar listed as a resource, follow these steps to become a verified teacher.

Share Out: Have students discuss the following questions in small groups before bringing to a full class discussion:

• Which users were the easiest to find matches for?
• Which users were the hardest to find matches for?

Based on your observations while circulating, you should also identify a few specific users to ask the class to discuss, especially users where multiple students chose different shoes. Encourage students to hear different justifications for their choices, emphasizing that the rationale is more important than the choice itself.

As students discuss their reasoning for their choices, check to ensure that they are identifying the particular user's needs and characteristics, rather than general reasons to prefer a certain shoe. You may want to challenge students to distinguish their own needs and preferences from those of the described users.

We're now going to learn how to give feedback on a design. We’re going to give our opinion about the good and bad parts of these shoes. It's important to give feedback that acts as a positive step towards improvement, rather than feedback that is negative and judgemental that doesn’t help make the product better.

Design Feedback: Have students read the Design Feedback section of the activity guide on the second page. This second activity gives students an opportunity to provide feedback on four of the shoes. The structure of this page reflects the general approach we will be using for feedback, using the three statements:

• I Like... (a strength)
• I Wish... (a weakness)
• What if... (a suggestion)

Circulate: Monitor students as they complete this activity, ensuring that students are giving actionable feedback that can lead to improvements rather than generic or unhelpful feedback that feels more like a judgement than a suggestion.

The first step towards creating a design that can be effectively used by many people is to understand that not everyone thinks the same, or looks at an object or design in the same way. This is the first exercise in the students thinking outside of themselves and at how others may perceive items in the world

Share Out: Have students discuss the following questions in small groups before bringing them to a full class discussion:

• Which shoe was your favorite? Why?
• Which of these shoes do you think would be the favorite for someone in your family? Why?

Encourage students to think about both themselves and other people in their lives, such as a family member. This helps emphasize that designing means thinking about more than just your own needs and desires, but considering how other people will react to a product as well.

An important part of this activity is thinking about how different products are made for different people, and how there’s always room to improve a product so it is helpful to more users. Throughout this unit, we’ll continue to think about how different people use objects for different reasons so that we can design apps for as many users as possible!

Prompt: Pick one or two of the objects you analyzed today. What could you change to make this object more usable for you? Feel free to use words, pictures, or a combination of both

Code Studio: Have students answer 5 quick survey questions at the beginning of this unit. Once at least 5 students have completed the survey you will be able to view the anonymized results in the Teacher Dashboard. Some of these questions will be asked again at the end of the first project, which can be helpful in seeing student growth and shifts in attitudes throughout the unit.