Studio School

Ritz Korrnell

Discipline:

Education

Location:

Taichung, Taiwan

Year:

2021-2022

Description:

Why
Studio School tackles the challenge of sparking structured creativity in Taiwanese elementary students, blending design thinking with hands-on learning to build problem-solving and communication skills, inspired by their need for real-world creative tools.

Brief
This hands-on program, crafted for bilingual students, introduces a clear design methodology through workshops and original resources. It aims to guide kids from challenge to presentation, fostering design fluency and English confidence.

Approach
We developed immersive workshops and resources—workbooks, digital modules—merging structured steps with exploratory freedom. Students analyze, iterate, and document, learning to refine ideas and present them boldly in English.

Outcome
Studio School transforms students into confident designers, yielding projects that showcase their full creative journey. It’s a dynamic blend of structure and imagination, proving young minds can tackle real problems with flair.

Challenges
Balancing rigid methodology with creative play was tough—early workshops stifled some ideas, pushing us to tweak guidance so structure empowered rather than limited their bilingual efforts.

Insights
Assuming kids would grasp abstract design fast overestimated their starting point—I’d scaffold concepts more next time. The struggle highlighted how documentation and peer collaboration amplify learning and confidence.

Product Details
Student Websites: Students designed personal sites on school, home, or interests, starting with wireframes, iterating through feedback, and presenting refined versions. Collaboration sharpened their skills and confidence.
Experiments: Students built STEM prototypes—mechanical or interactive—via brainstorming, testing, and iteration, enhancing functionality and presentation through a guided process.

Process

The Studio School design process kicks off by diving into the challenge, framing it through observation and curiosity to define a real-world problem worth tackling. It sets a sharp, meaningful goal to guide the work.

Ideation unleashes imagination within a light framework. Ideas spark—think wireframes for Student Websites or concepts for Experiments—blending free exploration with collaborative input to shape focused possibilities.

Prototyping turns those ideas into tangible forms. It’s hands-on—students built websites and physical STEM experiments, testing early and leaning on quick peer feedback to drive progress over polish.

Iteration hones the prototypes through persistent tweaks. Analyzing flaws, like clunky site navigation or shaky experiment designs, each round sharpens the result, with documentation capturing the evolution.

Presentation caps it, spotlighting the key projects—Student Websites and Experiments. Students presented both, weaving confident stories of their process and choices in English, tying intent to outcome with clarity and grit.

The process weaves structure with flexibility, treating stumbles as growth. Early rigid steps morphed to fit these standout projects, fostering young designers who solve, adapt, and shine through presentation.