📚Unit Plans→🗣️Design Thinking Unit→📖Lesson 1: Empathise
Years 7–8 Technology

Empathise: Understanding Needs

Ākonga learn that design begins with empathy — listening deeply to others to understand their real experiences, needs, and environments.

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowHook — Redesigning the classroom⏱ 5 min1 · Innovation CaseMāori innovation in context⏱ 20 min2 · Empathy InterviewsAsking why in pairs⏱ 20 min3 · Empathy MappingSorting observations⏱ 20 min4 · Finding NeedsSynthesis of insights⏱ 10 minExitReflecting on listening⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

Ākonga first study evidence from Māori kūmara innovation as a knowledge tradition shaped by place, community need, and technical expertise. The case study is not treated as an early version of the Stanford-derived Empathise phase. Ākonga then begin that modern design process: they choose a community challenge, interview a peer to understand their lived experience, and build an empathy map to sort observations and identify core needs. They learn to separate user needs from their own preconceptions.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Explain why understanding people and their environment is the essential first step of any design framework.
  • Conduct empathy interviews to uncover another person's experiences, challenges, and feelings related to a design task.
  • Organise interview insights into an Empathy Map to identify underlying user needs rather than immediate solutions.

⚡ Do Now

⏱ 5 min

On the board: Imagine a door that has a prominent metal bar across it. Naturally, you push it, but it swings toward you instead — it was a pull door. In your book, answer these two prompts:

  1. The design error (2 min): Write down why this door is frustrating. Who did the designer forget to think about?
  2. User focus (3 min): If the designer had watched someone carry heavy boxes try to open the door, how would the design change?

Teacher: Briefly discuss the answers. Highlight that bad designs happen when designers sit in a room and guess, rather than going out to understand how people, environments, and systems actually interact.

Activity 1 · Māori Innovation in Context

⏱ 20 min

What it is: Before using a modern design framework, ākonga study Māori innovation in Aotearoa on its own terms. They examine how place, collective need, observation, and technical expertise shaped kūmara cultivation and storage.

Run it

  1. Read together (8 min): Read the case study of pre-colonial Māori innovation in kūmara cultivation from the handout Pre-Colonial Māori Innovation. Focus on how Māori modified soil (using gravel and charcoal) and created underground storehouses (rua kūmara) to adapt a tropical crop to cooler climates.
  2. Study the evidence (7 min): Ask in pairs: What environmental conditions and community needs did the innovators have to understand? Cite details from the handout about soil, drainage, seasonal cold, and storage.
  3. Name the knowledge boundary (5 min): Share one evidence-based conclusion about Māori innovation, then record this distinction: the case study belongs to its own knowledge tradition; the empathy interview used next is a separate, modern design-research tool. If local sources use concepts such as whakarongo or manaakitanga, follow those sources rather than assigning a universal definition.

Teacher: Make the distinction explicit: the kūmara case is evidence of Māori innovation in its own tradition, not the foundation or precursor of the Stanford-derived Empathise phase. Transition now to the empathy interview as a separate design-research method.

Activity 2 · Empathy Interviews

⏱ 20 min

What it is: Ākonga practise the core research tool of design thinking: the empathy interview. They learn to ask open questions and listen to stories.

Run it

  1. Pick a challenge (3 min): Each pair selects one design challenge from this list: How might we make the first day less stressful for new students? or How might we reduce waste in our school cafeteria?
  2. Interview Round 1 (7 min): Student A interviews Student B about their real experience. If it's the school entrance, Student A asks: "Tell me about when you first arrived at school. What did you see? How did you find your way? How did you feel?" Student A takes brief notes, focusing on stories and feelings, not just facts. Do not suggest solutions!
  3. Interview Round 2 (7 min): Swap roles. Student B interviews Student A using the same open-ended questions.
  4. Reflect (3 min): In pairs, discuss: What was the hardest part about interviewing? (Usually, refraining from giving advice or sharing your own opinion).

🪶 Relationship and consent (Kaiako guidance): Treat personal stories as entrusted kōrero, not data to extract. Ask permission to record, allow the speaker to withhold or correct details, and represent their words honestly. Where your kura has locally authorised guidance for whanaungatanga, use and name that source rather than presenting a single pan-Māori interview protocol.

Teacher: Write prompt questions on the board to support ākonga: "Can you tell me a story about...?" "Why do you think that was?" "How did that make you feel?"

Activity 3 · Empathy Mapping

⏱ 20 min

What it is: A visual framework to organise qualitative data and help students see the user's worldview clearly.

Run it

  1. Set up the map (3 min): Fold an A4 page into four quadrants. Label them: SAY (quotes, words), DO (behaviours, actions), THINK (beliefs, values, unspoken thoughts), and FEEL (emotions).
  2. Map the interview (12 min): Working individually, each student maps the interview they conducted. Write down quotes in SAY (e.g. "I was lost for ten minutes"), actions in DO (e.g. "Asked a teacher for help"), what you think they believed in THINK (e.g. "Thought everyone else knew where to go"), and feelings in FEEL (e.g. "Anxious, embarrassed").
  3. Share and compare (5 min): In your pair, share your maps. Spot any contradictions (e.g. they SAID "it was fine" but they FELT "stressed"). Contradictions are where the best design insights live!

You'll need: One sheet of A4 paper per student and coloured pens or sticky notes if available.

Activity 4 · Finding Needs: The Designer's Insight

⏱ 10 min

What it is: Learning to synthesise observations into design criteria. A user need is an action or emotional requirement, not a product.

Run it

  1. Identify the needs (6 min): Look at your Empathy Map. Write down 2–3 needs for your user. Use this structure: "My partner needs to feel..." or "My partner needs a way to...".
  2. The constraint rule (4 min): Test your needs against the rule: A need cannot mention a specific solution. (e.g. "needs a map" is wrong — that's a solution. "needs a way to find classrooms independently" is a need). Adjust your statements to fit the rule.

Teacher: Walk the room to check that ākonga are not writing solutions. Need statements like "needs an app" or "needs a sign" must be reframed to describe the human experience or function they seek.

Exit · Reflecting on Listening

⏱ 5 min

Answer these two questions in your book before you leave:

  1. What was one surprising thing you learned about your partner's experience that you wouldn't have guessed?
  2. Why must we understand the relationships between people, systems, and environments before we design a technological outcome?

Teacher: Collect or review these to ensure ākonga have shifted from self-centred ideas to user-centred empathy. This is the entry gate for Lesson 2.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

This lesson's focus: Ākonga learn that technological design frameworks must begin with understanding the interactions between people, systems, and environments, using ethical research and active listening rather than designer guesswork.

Technology — Core Connection (Phase 3 | Years 7–8)

"Clarity of purpose and relevance derive from stakeholder values, historical influences, and cultural contexts."

📑 See the full verified curriculum companion → — Technology · Design, Make, and Innovate · Phase 3 · Years 7–8 (statement pulled verbatim from the live Te Mātaiaho curriculum).

📦 Materials & Resources

This lesson uses basic classroom supplies and references the pre-colonial Māori innovation resources.

  • Pre-Colonial Māori Innovation handout: Available in unit resources (1 printed copy per pair or digital access).
  • Empathy Map template: A4 paper, one per student (can be hand-drawn).
  • Student notebooks for the Do Now and exit ticket.

There are no video resources in this lesson. The active stimulus is the structured kōrero between peers. If you wish to use a visual aid, show images of traditional kūmara storage pits (rua kūmara) or waka carvings to illustrate design elements.

📊 Assessment Framework

Assessment in this introductory lesson is formative, focused on active listening skills and the transition from solution-focused thinking to empathy-focused thinking.

What to look for, mapped to the learning intentions

  • Understanding design frameworks (LI 1): Can students explain in the Do Now and Exit ticket why designers must study user interactions rather than guess?
  • Empathy interview practice (LI 2): During Activity 2, are students asking open questions and listening without interrupting to suggest their own ideas?
  • Synthesising with Empathy Maps (LI 3): In Activity 4, are the identified needs focused on human experience and feelings, completely free of predefined solutions?
🚀 Extension Activities
  • Interview an adult stakeholder: Ask students to interview a teacher, school leader, or caretaker about the chosen design challenge (e.g. interviewing the caretaker about school rubbish). This introduces systemic stakeholders.
  • Evidence comparison: Use the sourced kūmara case to trace how each design choice responded to soil, drainage, temperature, and storage conditions. Compare those documented choices with the lifecycle of one modern packaging material without claiming the case represents all Māori design.
🔗 Unit Progression & Next Steps

This lesson establishes the user needs that the next phases depend on. The five-lesson sequence develops as follows:

  1. Lesson 1 — Empathise (this lesson): Gather insights and identify user needs.
  2. Lesson 2 — Define: Create a point-of-view and a "How might we...?" problem statement.
  3. Lesson 3 — Ideate: Brainstorm solutions to the problem statement.
  4. Lesson 4 — Prototype: Build low-fidelity physical models to test assumptions.
  5. Lesson 5 — Test and Iterate: Gather user feedback to refine the design.

Ensure students save their need statements and empathy maps in their books, as they are the direct inputs for defining the problem brief in Lesson 2.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ I can explain why understanding user needs is the start of design. (LI 1)
  • ✅ I can run an empathy interview and note stories and feelings. (LI 2)
  • ✅ I can fill an Empathy Map and write need statements without mentioning solutions. (LI 3)

Differentiation for this lesson

  • Scaffolding interviews: Provide a printed interview guide with pre-written follow-up prompts ("Tell me more about that," "How did that feel?") for students who find open discussion challenging.
  • ELL / Language Support: Allow bilingual students to conduct interviews and write their empathy maps in their first language before translating key needs to English. Use visual icons on the empathy map quadrants.
  • Culturally Safe space: In the pre-colonial innovation discussion, highlight that Māori technologies are built on highly sophisticated engineering and environmental sciences, countering historical deficits.