Teaching social good innovation to kids and teens

Pactful is a social good innovation platform and curriculum used by educators and teens who want to build a better world

Pactful is an online social good learning platform used by educators and teens who want to build a better world. The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education had a unique vision for a curriculum that teaches design thinking, closes the opportunity gap in innovation, and connects students to the global community.

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In just ten weeks, we transformed a curriculum concept into a unique online learning experience that teaches kids how to become social good innovators in order to build a better world.

Planning and Kickoff

A key challenge in this project was ensuring that our team of two developers could actually build the web app in time for a summer pilot program. Because of the tight timeline, we needed to quickly define a clear vision, scope and strategy for the product.

To do this, my team planned a series of workshops on product and brand strategy. Outcomes included included high-level user flow diagrams, projects objectives, a brand style brief and ‘How might we’ questions. The workshops were fun to lead, and reminded me how much I enjoy facilitation and co-design sessions.

Diagram of student and teacher experiences and key features

Summary of workshop sessions for brand and product strategy

Brand style guide with custom spot illustrations and reusable card components

Project Objectives

Increase the diversity of student innovators to capture Lost Einstein’s

Create a lightweight digital tool to be piloted in 3 months

Teach students about the principles of design thinking through team projects

Incorporate the U.N. Global Sustainability Goals to increase funding opportunities for the curriculum

Student experience

For students, we created a collaborative learning experience that emphasizes exploration, creativity and teamwork. Students are onboarded quickly using Google OAuth and a short class code. They choose a problem in their community and complete exercises on brainstorming, ideating and prototyping to develop solutions.

Easy log in with Google for Education accounts

Class gallery encourages students to get inspiration from their peers

Students move through three phases of the curriculum. They're are encouraged to return to earlier phases since invention is never a straightforward path.

To meet funding requirements, we incorporated the name and icons of U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

Educator experience

We avoided formal grading, since this is a supplemental curriculum and we wanted to give educators lots of flexibility on how to use it. The lack of grades also helps to differentiate Pactful from a traditional learning management system like Canva. But teachers still need an efficient and simple way to review work and give advice.

Content Management

Finally I worked closely with a developer and a curriculum writer to ensure we had an effective content management system (CMS). Most content would be completed after design and development was finished, so we needed a smart modular system rather than overly customized pages.

I also provided guidance on best practices to match content style with the brand style we developed.

Outcomes

In 3 months we created a pilot-ready web application to teach students about innovation through interactive project work. After a successful summer pilot, the curriculum has been used in 24 U.S. states and 10 countries.

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Some of my favorite student projects include the OriFlair solar charger, the Stop Asian Hate app concept and the PhytoAttack shelfish protection system.

Completed at Substantial in close collaboration with Brit Zerbo.