📚Unit Plans→🗣️Design Thinking Unit→📖Lesson 3: Ideate
Years 7–8 Technology

Ideate: Generating Many Ideas

Ākonga learn to use divergent and convergent brainstorming techniques to generate a wide range of creative design solutions.

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowHook — Paperclip warm-up⏱ 5 min1 · Divergent SprintBrainstorming without limits⏱ 20 min2 · Sketching FormsVisualising form and function⏱ 20 min3 · Convergent VoteFiltering with constraints⏱ 20 min4 · Selection PitchCommitting to one concept⏱ 10 minExitSketching the concept⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

Brainstorming is a discipline, not a free-for-all. In this lesson, ākonga transition from problem definition to solution generation. They defer judgment, build on others' concepts, and generate at least 15 raw ideas before applying convergent filters. They sketch ideas to explore form and function, then evaluate concepts against user need, feasibility, specifications, and resource/community impact. Where the kura has locally authorised kaitiakitanga guidance, kaiako may add it as a distinct, attributed criterion rather than renaming generic lifecycle scoring.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Apply divergent thinking rules (deferring judgment, building on others' ideas) to generate a high volume of diverse design ideas.
  • Use sketching and labelling to explore how different forms (materials, shapes) support the intended functions of a design.
  • Evaluate and select a design concept using a criteria grid that balances user need, feasibility, specifications, and resource/community impact.

⚡ Do Now

⏱ 5 min

On the board: A simple paperclip.

  1. The challenge (2 min): In your book, list as many different uses for a paperclip as you can. Do not filter your ideas — write down everything, no matter how strange!
  2. Share and group (3 min): Share your list with a partner. Group your ideas into obvious (holding paper, bookmark) and creative (lock pick, reset button tool, clothing clip, wire stand).

Teacher: Explain that creative designs come from pushing past the first 3-4 obvious ideas. To do this, we must defer judgment — in the ideation phase, criticism is banned.

Activity 1 · The Divergent Brainstorming Sprint

⏱ 20 min

What it is: A fast-paced collaborative brainstorm where quantity is prioritised over quality to open up new design paths.

Run it

  1. The Rules (3 min): Introduce the four rules of brainstorming: (1) Defer judgment (no "that won't work"), (2) Encourage wild ideas, (3) Build on others' ideas ("Yes, and..." instead of "Yes, but..."), and (4) Go for quantity (target = 15 ideas).
  2. Divergent Sprint (12 min): In pairs, read your HMW question from Lesson 2. Write each new idea on a separate sticky note (or list them rapidly in your books). Challenge each other: "What if we had no budget?" "What if it had to be digital?" "What if it had to be made of wood?"
  3. Review (5 min): Group your ideas into clusters on a desk or board. Notice the range of approaches you came up with.

Teacher: Keep energy high. If a group gets stuck, throw in a constraint card: "What if it had to be giant?" "What if a five-year-old had to use it?"

Activity 2 · Sketching Forms and Functions

⏱ 20 min

What it is: Making ideas visible. Drawing is a technological tool that allows designers to explore and communicate how a product works.

Run it

  1. Selection (2 min): Look at your group's ideas. Each student selects their two favourite ideas to develop individually.
  2. Sketching (12 min): Draw a clear, labelled sketch of each idea in your book. Label the form (what shape is it? what materials would it use? what does it look like?) and the function (what does it do? how does the user interact with it?).
  3. Refinement (6 min): Discuss with your partner how you could refine the shapes or materials to make the product work better.

You'll need: Drawing space in student books, pencils, and rulers.

Activity 3 · Convergent Selection: Filtering the Concepts

⏱ 20 min

What it is: Converging on a decision. Ākonga use a structured grid to select the single strongest concept rather than just choosing the easiest.

Run it

  1. The Grid (5 min): Draw a matrix in your book with five columns: Concept Name · User need (Does it address the need from Lesson 1?) · Feasibility (Can we build a prototype?) · Specifications (Does it meet the Lesson 2 criteria?) · Resource/community impact (What will it protect, use, or waste?).
  2. Scoring (10 min): Score each of your four concepts (two from Student A, two from Student B) from 1 to 3 in each column. Total the scores.
  3. Check specifications (5 min): Verify that the highest-scoring concept fits the measurable specifications you wrote in Lesson 2. Adjust the concept if it fails a critical specification.

🪶 Mātauranga boundary (Kaiako guidance): Kaitiakitanga is living tikanga whose expression belongs to iwi and hapū. If your kura has locally endorsed guidance, add it as a separate named criterion and record who or what informed it. Do not label generic lifecycle scoring as “the Māori view”. Without that authority, keep the resource/community-impact column and ask where materials come from, where they go, and who carries the effects.

Teacher: Monitor the feasibility score. Ensure students don't select a concept that requires complex programming or factory manufacturing unless they can build a low-fidelity model of it in Lesson 4.

Activity 4 · The Selection Pitch

⏱ 10 min

What it is: Committing to a design concept. Ākonga practise pitching design decisions to others using evidence from their matrix.

Run it

  1. The Pitch (4 min): Student A has 1 minute to pitch their top concept to Student B, explaining its form, function, and why it won the matrix. Swap roles (Student B pitches).
  2. Confirm and Align (6 min): Agree on the single concept you will build in Lesson 4. Write a list of the basic materials (card, tape, clay, paper) you will need to construct it next lesson.

Teacher: Check that every pair has chosen one clear concept before the end of the lesson. They must leave with a plan for what materials to bring or find.

Exit · Sketching the Chosen Concept

⏱ 5 min

Draw your final chosen concept in your book and complete this sentence:

  1. We chose this concept because it solves our HMW prompt by...
  2. It meets our main specification because...

Teacher: These sketches are the blueprints for Lesson 4. Review them to ensure they represent a clear form and function before ākonga start building.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

This lesson's focus: Ākonga practise technological development by generating a wide range of ideas, using sketching to investigate forms and functions, and evaluating those ideas against constraints before selecting a concept to build.

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

"Generating a wide range of design ideas using brainstorming and sketching techniques, exploring different forms and functions, and iteratively refining concepts before selecting them for development."

📑 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 planning tools.

  • Design Briefs (Exit cards) from Lesson 2.
  • Sticky notes (1 packet per pair) or small pieces of paper.
  • Drawing pencils, erasers, and rulers for sketching.
  • Notebooks or blank A4 sheets for matrices.

No videos or external handouts are needed. The main resource is the students' own collective thinking and sketching.

📊 Assessment Framework

Assessment is formative, tracking students' capacity to generate diverse options and apply logical values to selection.

What to look for, mapped to the learning intentions

  • Divergent capability (LI 1): Can the pair defer judgment and generate at least 15 ideas? Look for variety — if all 15 ideas are slight variations of a sign, push them to change the form.
  • Form and function sketches (LI 2): Do the sketches have clear labels detailing what materials are used (form) and what each part does (function)?
  • Structured selection (LI 3): Did the students use the matrix to evaluate, or did they just pick their original favourite idea regardless of scores?
🚀 Extension Activities
  • Scamper technique: Introduce the SCAMPER brainstorming tool (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse) to help students push their top ideas into wilder, more innovative territories.
  • Material lifecycle research: Have students research the lifecycle of one material they proposed in their sketch (e.g. cardboard, plastic, or biodegradable starch) to strengthen their resource-impact evidence.
🔗 Unit Progression & Next Steps

This lesson produces the blueprint for the build. The unit progression is:

  1. Lesson 1 — Empathise: Gather insights and identify user needs.
  2. Lesson 2 — Define: Create a POV, HMW, and specifications.
  3. Lesson 3 — Ideate (this lesson): Brainstorm, sketch, and select the final concept.
  4. Lesson 4 — Prototype: Build low-fidelity models to test assumptions.
  5. Lesson 5 — Test and Iterate: Gather user feedback to refine the design.

Collect the final sketches (Exit tickets) and materials lists, as they are the direct inputs for the physical build in Lesson 4.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ I can defer judgment to generate a large volume of diverse ideas. (LI 1)
  • ✅ I can sketch and label my concepts showing their form and function. (LI 2)
  • ✅ I can use a criteria matrix to select a design using user, feasibility, specification, and resource-impact evidence. (LI 3)

Differentiation for this lesson

  • Sketching support: Allow students who struggle with drawing to use pre-cut shapes or a storyboard format to explain their concept, or focus on descriptive written labels.
  • ELL / Language Support: Brainstorming can be conducted in the student's first language; the focus is on speed and ideation, not spelling or grammar. Use images and diagrams during pitches.
  • Encouraging wild ideas: Some students are afraid of being wrong. Introduce a reward or point system for the "most unusual" or "most futuristic" idea during the brainstorm to lower anxiety.