Automotive Education

Alex P., Theodore, Henry, Claire, Thatcher, Ethan L.

How Might We assist new drivers in having the confidence and knowledge to operate and maintain their vehicle safely and independently? After many empathy experiences and ideation sessions, the Automotive Education Design Lab team identified that many drivers, especially novices, need more educational opportunities. Even if you don’t have your own vehicle, you can still gain the confidence and knowledge allowing you to maintain a vehicle. The Automotive Education Team ideated on how they could get information out into the public, with an emphasis on newer drivers. Their ideas ranged from a class for novice drivers to learn all about their vehicles to a car meet where professionals and new drivers could gather to talk. The team’s 51st idea was an instructional pamphlet, inspired by the Ikea manuals, outlining emergency maintenance on your vehicle (i.e. how to change your tire, jump a car, check your oil, etc). These pamphlets would remain in driver's glove boxes so they could be accessible at any time while out on the road. During Peeps on the Street, a peep told the team that this product would be very useful for them. They wished that automotive maintenance education was taught in driving schools. The team tested prototypes of their three manuals; after each test, the team collected feedback from participants. The team's implementation was a workshop in the form of a competition where participants needed to complete tasks using the team’s manuals. The Automotive Education team’s manuals aim to help novice drivers perform basic emergency maintenance skills, and foster a sense of automotive autonomy. The Automotive Education team aims to keep people rolling on the road rather than on the side waiting for help.

Messy Beds. Messy Heads.

Mark, Leo, Ethan F. (not pictured)

The MBMH (Messy Beds. Messy Heads.) Design Lab team was a project based on the idea that mental health can affect a person’s environment and vice versa. They discovered that a messy space can cause feelings of disappointment and decreases in motivation, which can make existing mental health issues worse. Their end-users were people who struggled with their mental health, but on a lesser level than those who experienced severe mental illness. The team chose this issue because mental health is not talked about enough in public. Initially, the planned topic was Police and Mental Health, which changed into Cleaning and Mental Health after a few interviews and some research. If this project can help people struggling with their mental health to build better habits around cleaning their space, then they’ll have better mental health. The project could help people struggling with their mental health to develop better habits around cleaning. The first HMW statement that they settled on was “How Might We assist people experiencing crisis/mental health issues by means of sanitary habits?” Later in the project, that changed into “How Might We introduce small but effective habits to those struggling to clean their homes?” The team interviewed the Boise Police Department’s Behavioral Response Team, and then a member of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (Later on, the team arranged interviews with the Catch and New Path programs), who answered a lot of mental health and crisis-related questions. The team gained some helpful insights from them. To assist with ideas for creating a product, MBMH used ideation tools from the One Stone website such as Crazy 8’s. One solution to this issue that the team came up with was to create a virtual meet called the Cleaning Extravaganza. People were to join it to clean areas of their living space with some guidance, and some neutral music to help with motivation. The team chose this idea over an in-person cleaning service because it is a lot less stressful than a group of people coming into your house to clean. MBMH ended up with a total of two official prototypes that they tried: A meeting open to anyone who wanted to join with no strings attached, and a meet that people signed up for and bought into to encourage participation. Upon joining, you are asked to fill out a survey where you talk about what area you are cleaning, and how messy it is on a scale of 1-10. You’re also asked to rate your mental health on a scale of 1-10, and then a slideshow pops up as the host plays music. The Cleaning Extravaganza was prototyped a total of four times.

Project Cobalt

Siena, Toki, Dannin

During design thinking, the Project Cobalt team has been working to spread awareness about cobalt and the risks cobalt mining causes to the environment. At the beginning of this design thinking challenge, the team had a hard time staying motivated and focused, causing a lack of progress on the project. Later on, they began to notice the repercussions of not working on our project and began to work on the project more consistently. While hard, they began to see the difference. After significant amounts of research on our topic they sent out multiple emails to companies including the mining company itself and conducted 15 empathy interviews in the process. Then, during Peeps on the Street they had one of the community members suggest additional organizations to reach out to, one of which was Idaho Rivers United. This fostered a connection with Tess at Idaho Rivers United, and with her support as a community partner they created a plan to spread awareness and take action against the proposed cobalt mine in Idaho. Their plan is to be posted on the IRU social media platforms, as well as have a blog and petition on their website and to be featured in their June monthly newsletter. They have created an amazing connection with Tess that they hope to keep through work in the summer as well. Through extensive research, they have found out so much about the risks of the mine, the damage it will cause, as well as the positive impacts that proponents of the mine hope it will create. Even with their hardships the team had ended with a project they are proud of.

RNBW

Charlie, James Sullivan, Vick, Regan, Griffin

The problem the RNBW (Resources Necessary in Building Wholeness) Design Lab team was looking to solve was the disconnect between young queer people and their peers in the workplace, and how they may feel less valued or unsafe with the lack of education surrounding LGBTQ+ issues. However, after ideating with Under the Table and Add the Words Idaho, the team found that the problem of a perceived lack of safe spaces for queer Idahoans was an issue they could tackle more readily. They had learned about a former project that Add The Words had been working on, which involved creating a database of queer friendly spaces and support groups. They decided to expand on the project by making it a free public resource. Their HMW is: How Might We create a database for queer Idahoans looking for support, knowing that there isn't a preexisting and accessible resource? After they had defined a How Might We statement they all were passionate to solve, they began going through sponsors of the Boise Pride Parade, local allied organizations, and businesses that advocate for queer issues. After they had a collection of places and resources, they started to code all of them into a system that allowed their end users to easily find the resources they needed. The team then implemented with their community partner and got the feedback necessary to finalize their code. Their community partner also gave them a resource to go a step further with their implementation and reach more people. The team’s end users were all excited about the product and commented on the multitude of uses for it. The final product boasts 180 lines of code and 28 resources around Idaho for community, health, legal aid, and more.

ParKINGS

Roman, James Silveria, Caden, Ethan W.

During the beginning of their design thinking process, the ParKINGS were looking at how cluttered and difficult parking was in Boise. But after talking to folks downtown and interviewing service workers, they came to realize that there isn’t necessarily a lack of parking spaces, but the real issue for many is the lack of affordable spaces for long periods of time. This problem was very relevant to their main end user, service workers, because many of them have to spend a chunk of their earnings just to park at work. They then came up with the question: “How Might We create a simple way for people who park long term downtown to find affordable parking?” After empathizing with their end users, the team also noticed that the current parking apps for downtown are not user-friendly and received poor ratings on the App Store, so they decided to create an easy-to-use app to combat the issue. This was originally designed to be an almost “all-in-one” solution, allowing users to reserve parking garage spots inside the app. It would allow them to find a spot within their budget with ease. The app also would include many other features such as being able to pay for everything within the app, a live parking structure capacity count, and a carpooling system for other users. But eventually, the team had to pivot to a more rational solution. Introducing Kurbsi, an app that simplifies parking downtown by becoming that first place to go. Once you’ve easily found the parking spot that best fits your needs within the app, Kurbsi redirects you to the official links of parking garages, acting as a resource aggregator. The team of four with only one coder know the potential Kurbsi has, and are considering working with other developers in order to make the user experience as simple as they first intended. Kurbsi is set to launch on May 18th and is still under construction, but the core idea remains: the first place you go for your long term downtown parking needs, providing a headache-free user experience.

Passion Labs

Will, Ronan, Nick, Mayahuel, Kellan C., Kellan R.

In Fall of 2021, a group of high schoolers from Lab51 set out to solve the broad problem of education accessibility, hoping to get more high school students into college to pursue a higher education. They spent multiple weeks watching documentaries and researching various reasons why students can’t go to college, or why they may not want to do so. The team eventually organized multiple interviews in which they learned about an issue facing many people, primarily in the Hispanic community – parents put pressure on their children to get jobs right out of high school. After spending much time learning about the topic through various interviews and research, they eventually scheduled an interview with Lisa Fisher, Lab51 College Admissions Director, and Anna Almerico, Director of the Idaho Out of School Network. These two interviews completely changed the course of their Design Lab. Lisa told the team about the importance of passion in education, and how knowing more about yourself will allow you to apply to a college that is more suited to you. She also said it needs to start at a younger age than you might expect, and middle schoolers often have a lack of passion that can hurt their higher education later on. Anna told the group about the lack of after school activities in rural areas, and the problems this causes. With this in mind, the team then got to work designing something to do with these kids. Inspired by these interviews, the team’s project was guided by this sentence: How Might We help 6th and 7th graders in rural areas to explore passions/interests to create new opportunities in higher education?

Autonomy Intertwined

Lila, Mac, Gabby, Eleanor, Ivy, Ava

Through pivots, why-finding, and a lot of shared passion, the Autonomy Intertwined team set out on a mission to combat the lack of consent education for young students in their community. After intense empathy work with professionals in sex education and over a hundred high school students, they came to a founding conclusion: one must have a strong foundation of self love in order to navigate situations related to consent in a healthy way. The team also learned from their empathy and research that guiding students through these topics when they are in middle school would result in the most long-term impact on how they deal with situations now and for the rest of their life. With the team's challenge and end user solidified, they were able to define their HMW Statement: “How Might We guide middle school students to foster bodily autonomy and a respect for consent in themselves and others?” The Autonomy Intertwined team put their passion towards action and implemented a multi-day curriculum with 40 sixth graders at Future Public School. The team’s impact spanned students and teachers, even getting praise from schools from out of state. The team made a big impact with their program, with post-surveys showing that 85% of students showing early proficiency or proficiency in the topics addressed in their curriculum. One student that was impacted by this curriculum said that “Self love and consent are related because to believe that you deserve the ability to consent, you need self love.”

The Rootsters

Lizzie, Ian, Ella, Raya, Natalie, Mwajuma

The Rootsters were formed in February of 2022. The problem they have been working to solve is food waste and food sustainability in our community. The kids of today will be dealing with the consequences of our wasteful and unsustainable habits unless they are empowered to make changes. The team's end users are summer camp guides and summer camp campers since they have noticed there is a great opportunity to reduce waste and educate on food waste in these camps. The team started by doing an empathy interview with Lea Rainey, owner and founder of Roots Zero Waste Market, and that was when they were first inspired to work on food waste for their design project. They then met with her again after more empathy and ideating where they presented their favorite ideas. Lea gave them helpful and constructive feedback that left them feeling a little stuck in the process but ultimately would lead The Rootsters to an idea they were all really excited about. Through lots of hard work and planning, the team has been prototyping what can be implemented at Tinker, a One Stone STEM camp, this June and are so excited to keep working on this stage. They are creating sustainable lunches and fun science-based activities to empower kids to want to learn about sustainability and food waste. By doing this, they hope that kids can take these fun memorable experiences into the future to create their own habits. The Rootsters still have some things to figure out, but are optimistic that they will have a big impact.