Product Design 

Teacher: Giulia Mauri

Why did you decide to become a Product Design teacher?

I decided to teach design, first of all, because I love it as a subject. And then secondly, I think design teaches students to think creatively and essential critical thinking skills that can only be developed through, um, a set of projects throughout the year. We give students lots of different projects to work on and they can input their own creativity and learn new processes, learn about materials, and this helps 'em to solve problems in unique and innovative ways.

Can you explain the main units of the subject?

For this year?

Yeah.

Usually in MYP4, we have an introductory unit where we teach students the basics of design. So this is sketching, uh, perspective studies, the use of color, different ways to use color, and we give kind of the basics to the students. After that, we move on to kind of digital sketching. This is computer-aided design, also known as CAD.

We do a project-based, connected to the first unit.

Where students, um, learn this new skill and associated with that, we then teach them how to either 3D print or laser cut or both. This again, is one of the essential skills that students will need in MYP5 and in DP and in the third unit is really where all of these skills learned come together and the student can really be super creative, without having to worry about the how to because they already learned it before.

What are the features you like most about the subject? The things you like more?

What do I like the most?

Yeah.

I like seeing students' creativity and their progress over time. So seeing them improving. It's really rewarding when a student takes on the feedback and then works to make that work better. I really enjoy the classes I run.

There is usually a very relaxed atmosphere. Sometimes we have music, so that's really nice and I get to know the students on a more personal level, maybe compared to other academic subjects because there is a more practical approach and it's just really fun.

The biggest project you're working on right now?

What? Like personally or-

No no no, in the subject

In MYP4 now?

Yeah

This doesn't apply because we are just doing an introductory unit right now.

Okay. And you know what will be the biggest this year?

The last unit will be like the biggest project because students will kind of put all of these skills to learn together and develop something that they decide completely. Well, now I have given you a task to do a bench. You'll have more freedom, I still will give you a context to work with.

Do you think that product design can be a helpful thing or skill for students?

For sure. There's a lot of transferable skills that you learn in design and then you can apply them in other subjects as well.

Do you think the skills you learn here can also be applied in the future?

Absolutely. Yeah. I think even if, if you study design at school, like at this age and you learn critical thinking and creative thinking, you can use these ATLs in all the other subjects and like practically in the workplace, because you'll be able to solve problems when people are like stuck. You'll be solving problems and bring creative ideas. In design is really important to work as a team. So that's what we build in MYP, being able to work as a team, which then helps you when you get to DP and you do like the Group four project is the science project that you work collaboratively with other people.

We teach you all the basics of how to do research. This is really good for internal assessment. Extended essays and research are really the basics. In any project, like anywhere, you will need to do research before you start. So all the skills you learn during these classes will help you in the future.

And what do you think students should choose this plus course?

Because it's probably the best one. 

<laughs>

Student: Lorenzo Comin 

Can you explain the main things you do in this subject?

In this subject we draw a lot, we started from watching a real life object and learn how to draw it from different perspectives, once we learned that we started by drawing five possible benches to put in the school considering the material, the usage and how sustainable it is. Now we decided one of those benches and we are drawing it from five different perspectives. 

What is the bigger project you're developing at the moment?

The biggest project we're doing is to draw this bench with an app that is called Shapr3D where we can draw what we want and move it where we want; in this app, we can also put the material that we want to that object. 

What are the features you like most about this subject?

The features that I like the most about this subject are: the fact that we can use the computer to draw in 3D what we want and that we can see it with different backgrounds and different materials. I also like the fact that we can draw what we want and learn how to see different perspectives.

Do you think that this subject can be a helpful thing or skill that can be useful in the future? If yes, why do you think it is important?

In my opinion Product Design can be helpful since you learn how to build and design things with the 3D printer.

Why do you think other students, apart from you, should choose this course?

With the things we have done now, I can say that students should choose this class because it's very interesting to see how different softwares work and how you learn to draw perspectives in a very short time.