Obstacle Course Makes a Splash: County Fair by Design

During the last few weeks, the 7th grade has experienced some smooth sailing as they took up the challenge of refining and designing elements for their County Fair activity to fit this year’s theme of “Under the Sea.” As part of the grade’s year-long interdisciplinary design project, the class used design thinking to conceive of and construct the elements for their booth—the fourth iteration of their Obstacle Course.

We began our work by looking at all the data the class of 2024 gathered last year following their own successful version of the course. Students determined which elements ought to stay in the lineup, which needed some modifications and which to drop from the activity. Students analyzed each element to determine who it aimed to attract and the skills it challenged. They then imagined “users” whose needs that particular course did not meet, trying to make sure the course would appeal to as many students as possible. They made “pitch” commercials for the finalist obstacle ideas before voting as a class on which would eventually appear at this year’s County Fair. After tallying the votes, students designed, prototyped, gathered materials, built, tested, revised and tested again, until they finally constructed the course. New obstacles included the “Reef Tunnel” and “Underwater Ring Toss,” with the addition of a slide to the perennially popular climbing wall.

The teachers provided navigation assistance during this process as the 7th graders took a deep dive into the project. Students worked in English class to analyze the data from last year’s course. Math teacher Chris Stader piloted the ship during the empathy phase, helping the students make sure they understood who they were constructing the course for. Technology Facilitator Steve Files, Assistant teacher Jasmine Hart, history teacher Anthony Shaker and Sheila Rintels of Learning Resources all lent their creative and technical know-how in helping students bring their aquatic ideas to life. New to Parker and the 7th grade is Spanish teacher Edinson Lopez Flores, who creatively collaborated with a team of students to give the climbing wall a new look with its exciting design innovation and oversaw the final build of all the obstacles.

Data collected by last year’s 7th graders was integral to designing this year’s course, and data gathered during County Fair 2019 will provide a basis for the next iteration of the obstacle course. This project is the first design thinking challenge the 7th grade has worked on this year, and it asks them to deliver their designs from brainstorming to reality. The team is already looking forward to the next phase in this sixth iteration of our year-long interdisciplinary project, Design for Parker.