Teaching New York City high schoolers
Second-year students Katie Koch and Carmen Dukes co-founded Project: Interaction, a 10-week after school program that teaches high schoolers to use design to change their communities:
They will learn valuable skills in storytelling, communication, creative thinking and problem solving while being exposed to interaction design as a potential career opportunity. Using New York City as a catalyst for creative thought and exploration, we will challenge students to approach problems using a variety of design methods. Students will be encouraged to tackle issues that matter to them with the prospect of creating viable solutions.
From a recent article profiling the co-founders in The Daily News:
“Our classes cross dimensions,” [Koch] said. “There is a bit of psychology. We covered business strategy, as in how a business decides what to build. We covered proto-typing, how someone gets an idea and develops it to see if it works or not.” Koch said every class had some business consideration. “They had to know not only how to design things but also who would use what they designed.”
The pair just completed the inaugural 10-week curriculum at New York’s Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women, a remarkable feat itself. More remarkable, they did it alongside of their already demanding graduate work. Learn more about the project and week-to-week activities.
