When introducing Design Thinking to children, it’s important to include the “empathy” part of the process. Sometimes, it is easier for students to practice this with fictional characters before they begin applying it to real people. I’ve curated a collection of both free (green) and paid (purple) resources that offer character cards you can print out to distribute to students so that when they are designing they have a “client” in mind. If you would like some suggestions for books and videos to help teach empathy, Joelle Trayers has several blog posts that address this topic.
- Younger students will enjoy these Adorable free printable from Krissy Venosdale of literary characters
- The City X Toolkit includes dozens of fictional character cards that can be printed out for free. (For more information about City X, you can read my blog post here.)
- Jackie Gerstein created a “Maker Education Card Game” that you can view and use for free here.
- The Extraordinaires series has different kits at several price points. You can read more about it in my post here.
- Disruptus is a game that includes a set of cards with different pictures and a cube to roll. Each side of the cube posits a different type of creative thinking challenge. My full review of the game is here.
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image from Wikimedia Commons
Thanks for the shout-out Terri! Can’t wait to check out these resources!
Love the resources and the specific application for teaching children; thank you