PenDragon - the official magazine of Lyford Cay International School PenDragon Vol 2, Spring 2016 | Page 7

There are several points in the design cycle where
students subject their ideas to the evaluation of their
classmates. Students make annotated sketches of
their design specifications. They choose one solution
to develop more fully and then plan how to execute
their solution before finally creating their product.
Lastly, they eva luate their product by testing it and
reflect on the process. Grade 12 student Michael
Mindorff has said that the benefits of the structured
approach to design thinking is a clear advantage of the
course: “Last year in the Build a Bridge competition,
we researched and then experimented with different
bridge construction strategies to build three different
prototypes. This process taught us very useful skills.”
This spring, Grade 10 Design students were
confronted with the challenge of writing graphic
novels to broaden the audience that engages
with historical information. Their teacher, Mr Paul
Matheson, taught the students the features of the
graphic novel medium and they each produced
a graphic novel about World War I supported by
primary sources analysed in humanities class. Grade
10 student Julie Bussinger particularly enjoyed this
unit: “Creating a graphic novel has helped me reach
a deeper understanding of what interdisciplinary
units are all about and has helped me link my artistic
skills, my writing skills and my artistic knowledge. It
really has opened my eyes to how simple it can be to
have the disciplines mix. The act of creating a graphic
novel, using a specific software to create it, to tell a
historically accurate story, is a perfect example of
interdisciplinary work. This unit has also helped me
to convey a story through images, text and colours.”
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