OUR PROBLEM-SOLVING CURRICULUM

CALLING ALL TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS!

Our curriculum features 13 modules that focus on building the relevant skills and knowledge for effective problem solving. We cover a wide variety of areas including problem identification, assumption reduction, and solution development.

Our team is currently looking for teachers who are able to participate in a 2-week professional development training to teach our curriculum within their classroom. Usually, teachers who teach design courses or Project Lead the Way courses have the flexibility of using our problem-solving framework / cycle as an integral part of their lesson plan. Each of our modules have accompanying hands-on projects that are ready to use but can be substituted with any problem-oriented project you have in mind.

If there are any teachers interested, we would love to hear from you! If you are teaching a more traditional class but find some of our modules useful, we would love to discuss with you to create a customized lesson plan that works for you and your students. Contact us today to learn more.

Intro to

Problem Solving

Intro to problem-solving strategies, thought-provoking case studies, and problem-solving in history

Research and

Surveying

How to perform relevant research, collect data, and survey. Various forms of bias in data.

Communication

Teamwork

The value of diversity in thought and perspective. Learn methods of communication and conflict de-escalation. Building effective-problem-solving environments.

Evaluation &

Ethics

General guides for evaluating solutions. Learn to perform ethical evaluations (four virtues, ethics checklist, five P’s)

Problem ID

Strategies

Overview of "What's the real problem?", Statement Restatement Techniques, Duncker Diagrams, and more

Assumption

Reduction

Determining all the assumptions both within the problem and within the solution. Performing assumption reduction based on limited resources

Scaling, Testing,

Risk Reduction

Perform risk reduction testing by identifying weak points in assumptions. How scaling affects assumptions and how to make meaningful reflection on data.

Mental Blocks,

Creative Thinking

Metacognitive approach to understanding and overcoming mental blocks. Strategies for promoting creativity.

Solution

Implementation

Persuasion, planning, resource management, coordination, deployment. Systems thinking strategies for deployment.

Problem

Reframing

Problem reframing strategies to explore in and outside of problem-space. Solving a different problem to achieve the same desired outcome.

Solution

Development

Convergent-Divergent thinking, vertical and lateral thinking, futuring, cross-ferterilization, TRIZ

Troubleshooting

Strategies

Troubleshooting process and heuristics using KT Analysis. SYL Problem ID Matrix.

Unintended

Consequences

Solution in the intended operating environment and systems thinking strategies. Developing high leverage point solutions via causal loops.