DESIGN WORKSHOPS FOR SCHOOLS

So far, we have been able to inspire more than 20,000 children, adolescents and educators with our cultural and educational initiative. The interdisciplinary research journey undertaken by the German Design Museum Foundation is at home anywhere people are enthusiastic about and are involved in design.

Discover Design

A strong movement, a strong leitmotif: "Discover Design" is our nationwide education and cultural initiative for children and young people. It provides a sound basis for developing new teaching methods for imparting the theory and practise of design. Practical workshop programmes invite people to discover the world of design and to incorporate newly-acquired knowledge into their own designs.

— The aesthetic-didactical approach and the individual theme in question are coordinated based on age, the type of school, time frame, the current learning content of the (project) subjects and the learning interest or participants' developmental potential.
— All students have the opportunity to learn new content and to gather new experience in their own authentic learning context. The workshops are held locally and facilitate research without third-party involvement, such as an excursion to a museum.
— A learning-based approach combining design theory with the development of participants' own ideas and their implementation leads to a practise-oriented focus that enables creative and cognitive abilities to be measured.

Workshop-Topics

Workshop Topics

Interdisciplinary workshops raise awareness of design in everyday life and develop creative potential, focusing on the design process. A practical concept creates and intensifies knowledge, inspires people to invent new things and fosters sound judgement and the capacity to act. Under the guidance of renowned designers, each type of school, comparable educational institutions or museums employ an age-appropriate, jointly developed concept ranging from day-long workshops to project weeks and on to programmes of measures lasting several months.

Children and young people between the age of 6 and 18 discover the joys of design in an ever more digital, complex world and learn to translate and express this into their own individual designs. Appropriate documentation is collected to round off each workshop.

Mathemagie

— Introduction to the topic of design in general
— Description of the design process — from idea to prototype -
— Research and analysis
— Design – idea development, drawing, model construction
— Presentation
— Feedback round and evaluation

Modules

30 students max., 1 designer, 1 teacher

— Module 1: 1 day (3-4 hours)
— Module 2: 2 days (3-4 hours each)
— Module 3: 5 days (project week, course, 3-4 hours each)
— Module 4: Summer academies or annual programmes subject to individual agreement

There are special further education and advanced training measures available for young adults and teachers.

Further training for educators

Partners & a steadily growing network

Strong partners: We all pull together! Qualified designers, regional and national companies, public authorities, institutions and other foundations from the whole of Germany are involved. Together, we are raising awareness of the cultural, social and ecological dimensions of design and involve young people from the very outset.