Cultivating Curiosity event to celebrate UCLA Education Alumna and Design-Based Learning Project Founding Director, Doreen Gehry Nelson featured in the department’s online newsletter The Latest by Laura Lindberg.
Creative Thinking by Design
Design-Based Learning at Center X
Our Partners
Center for City Building Education
Southeast DREAMS Magnet (LAUSD)
San Gabriel Unified School District
UCLA Lab School
About Design-Based Learning
The Design-Based Learning at Center X Project applies and builds upon the Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning ™. Successfully taught in K–12 classrooms since 1971, this student-centered teaching methodology engages students in seeking and solving curriculum-based problems as they build a city or other small, contextual model in the classroom.
Design-Based Learning is structured around Essential Questions described in the standard K–12 curricula content. Encompassing all subject areas, Design-Based Learning is an interdisciplinary methodology that ignites creativity and motivates civic engagement to teach critical thinking and problem solving.
What Makes It Unique & Effective?
In a Design-Based Learning classroom, the teacher acts as a facilitator, observer, and guide. Students learn that their opinions count. They gain confidence in explaining and justifying their thinking as they try out ideas in a safe environment and find that there are many right answers and perspectives.
Design-Based Learning is a research-based methodology integrating civics and life skills to deliver the required K–12 curricula. Teachers have the flexibility to determine how and when to use a comprehensive sequence of connected, curriculum-related Design Challenges to teach the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, Visual and Performing Arts Standards, English Language Development Standards, California History-Social Science Standards Framework, etc.
The Design-Based Learning Project is proud to announce the publication of Cultivating Curiosity: Teaching and Learning Reimagined, written by distinguished educator, author, and Founding Director of the Design-Based Learning Project, Doreen Gehry Nelson. The book includes explanations of the methodology’s 6 ½ Steps of Backwards Thinking™ process as well as discussions on how to launch creative and critical thinking in students and the personal experiences of K-12 educators who practice Design-Based Learning in their classrooms.
2022 Nevada STEAM Conference Keynote
2022 Nevada STEAM conference Keynote with Design-Based Learning Project Founding Director, Doreen Gehry Nelson, and Design-Based Learning Project Director, Jessica Heim.
Not only does DBL allow my kids to think creatively on a consistent basis, it allows them to take a subject like math that seems abstract and foreign to them, and turn it into something they’re actually building.”
Del Mar High School, SGUSD
The students are analyzing, thinking about what works best, and taking their learning seriously. I have never found anything that works better to engage learning than this methodology.”
4th Grade Teacher, Roosevelt Elementary, SGUSD