In this immersive Deep Dive, participants will solve a real problem for an actual Chilliwack community partner, experiencing firsthand the power of authentic learning. This is not a simulation - participants will work with real stakeholders facing real challenges, using design thinking and place-based exploration to develop tangible solutions.
What Participants Will Experience: • Morning: Meet community partners (local businesses, nonprofits, or organizations) who present genuine challenges they're facing. Participants engage in empathy interviews and observation, practicing the art of understanding before solving. It would be great if we could do this at partner offices or off site, but we could bring them to us, if necessary. • Midday: Take the problem outdoors to a natural area in Chilliwack. Use nature as both metaphor and method—exploring how natural systems solve similar problems, engaging in reflective wandering, and allowing ideas to emerge through movement and connection to place. • Afternoon: Return to rapid ideation and prototyping using design thinking protocols. Community partners remain engaged throughout, providing real feedback and co-designing solutions with participants. This creates authentic iteration and demonstrates learning with real stakes. • Exhibition: Participants present their prototyped solutions to stakeholders AND reflect on their metacognitive journey. They will ask questions of themselves like, "What did we have to learn? What disciplines emerged? How did authentic learning change our engagement?"
What Participants Will Learn: Participants will directly experience the three Deeper Learning Competencies: • Integrated Disciplines: Real problems demand multiple ways of knowing like biology, systems thinking, communication, design, empathy, and more naturally emerge when solving for real people. • Collaborative Care: Working with actual community stakeholders builds authentic relationships, empathy, and accountability. Co-design with partners models true collaboration. • Inspired Authentic Learning: When learning has real consequences and real audiences, engagement transforms. Participants feel the difference between simulated and authentic work.
What Participants Will Take Away: Educators will leave with: • Direct experience of being the learner in an authentic, high-stakes scenario • Understanding of how to build community partnerships for real problem-solving • Protocols for design thinking in educational contexts • Insight into place-based learning that integrates outdoor environments • Metacognitive awareness of how authentic learning feels different from traditional approaches • Confidence to replicate this model with their own students and communities
This Deep Dive models exactly what participants can create for students: learning experiences where the work matters beyond the classroom, where community members are partners, and where students become "solutioneers" for real challenges.
Adam Haigler is a Design Thinking facilitator, consultant, and coach, and the founder of WIELD, an agency that works across sector to solve problems that impact people and planet. With over 15 years of experience in experiential education, Adam specializes in helping organizations... Read More →
