The paper presents an investigation of middle school students’ naïve ideas about design and designers and details of the trial of design-related activities aimed at sensitizing students to issues of design. Twenty five students studying in class 7 participated in the study conducted over a period of 5 days. A questionnaire was administered to all students at two occasions, pre and post intervention and a few students (eight) were interviewed in the pre-intervention stage. The activities ranged from analyzing familiar and unfamiliar artefacts to designing artefacts. Preliminary analysis of the survey revealed students’ intuitive ideas about design and designer. Most students stated that animals are also designers and referred to nest and home building activities. However, when referring to humans they focused mainly on aesthetic aspects of design. In the designing activity students generated various creative solutions to a given reallife problem. The present study would provide opportunities to develop and try out more and different activities with students and even with teachers.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | review research on Science, TEchnology and Mathematics Education |
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| Pages | 94-100 |
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| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
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