As a 7th-grade science teacher, I love doing inquiry-based activities with my students. Some of these activities are typical examples of project work, which are a quick way for me to assess what students have learned. But if I have the time for my students to be creative and innovative, I extend a traditional project into a design thinking project.

How are they different?

A project is an individual or collaborative activity that is carefully planned to achieve a particular objective and has an alternative form of assessment. This is often a task where I provide explicit, detailed instructions. I list the required materials and may even give a closed, finite list of resources for limited research. Generally, I know the answers they will reach. I don’t necessarily want them to spend a lot of class time on it. I use projects as a quick, no-fuss way for the students to show me that they can look at the information I have given them and reproduce it in a prescribed visual format. On occasion, depending on time demands or curriculum requirements, this type of project is an effective way to assess content acquisition. However, sometimes I want to challenge…