OSLN Ohio Space Challenge Hoffman Trails: Design the Personal Quarters for Multiple Astronauts

Hoffman Trails Elementary had a team of fifth grade students, Leila Agbemebia,. Eliza Penzone, Nora Spouse, and Reese Woods were selected to participate in the Ohio Learning STEM Network State Showcase. The entire fifth grade team participated in this engaging and inspiring design thinking.
The selected team represent Hoffman Trails Elementary in Hilliard City Schools from Hilliard, Ohio
participated in one of the four challenges designed to improve the physical and mental health of astronauts in space. The students began with empathy to define and analyze, then ideation and developing ideas, then creating a prototype(s), and modeling a solution and getting peer feedback.
Design challenges are activities or competitions that students participate in to solve real-world problems. Through the challenge, students engage in creative solution-seeking, encouraging skills like collaboration and resilience.
Each year, the Ohio STEM Learning Network hosts a design challenge where students collaborate to create a solution to key issues facing our world. Any school in Ohio can participate in the challenge.
Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-based.
This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the problem itself.
For this challenge, the focus is on the astronauts and how the solutions will impact them.