What's New With iDo
March 2009
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 Got Duct Tape!?! On March 4, 2009 San Francisco State Universities (SFSU) Project Connect will be hosting 400 students from the San Francisco Bay Area who are in second - fifth grades. The purpose of Project Connect is to reach out to todays youth and show them what their possibility may be for a brighter and better future. Further, for the third consecutive year, iDo mentors are volunteering their knowledge and abilities to teach these same students about design and professionalism.
This years activity will teach thirty-five fourth and fifth grade students about the design process by designing and building duct tape wallets-a project that is truly enjoyed by those of all ages. For more information please visit: The Early Outreach Gallery, and stay tuned for next monts newsletter for additonal updates on these wonderful students and their wallets.
 Up Up & Away Hot on the heels of the successful completion of the Thurgood Marshall Academic High School and iDo Community Bench Project, the Industrial Design Outreach program is getting ready to deliver a second project for the 2008-09 school year at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School. While truly illustrating their vision of an interdisciplinary educational experience, iDo will be working with Anne Freeman’s AP English class for three weeks starting on March 16th and finishing on April 3rd. During these weeks, the students will finish up reading Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, which will be a major influence for their final designs.
The Kite Project will integrate the properties of graphic design and college level literature into a thoughtful, well-planned kite design-helping these kids express the important themes found within the novel. Through the process of design, which includes brainstorming, thumbnailing and prototyping, they will be able to develop a design that they can walk away with, while feeling proud of their accomplishments. During this time students will also be receiving information on such things as the anatomy of a kite, how kites fly, and how simple designs can be so bold, thus truly developing the interdisciplinary curriculum of design, literature, and science.
 Sneak Preview
Gifting Ceremony Industrial Design Outreach (iDo) and Thurgood Marshall Academic High School will gift the 2008-09 Community Bench to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's office to be put on display at City Hall. This is the second successfully created Community Bench for the Bayview-Hunters Point district high school and represents an acknowledgment of the value iDo provides to San Francisco public school students through experiential design education.
Scholarships to Be Awarded Industrial Design Outreach (iDo) is awarding two $500.00 scholarships to high school students in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point district. The scholarships reward both students' exceptional work and dedication in this year's Community Bench Project.
iDo Founding Director Recieves Community Service Award The Institute of Civic and Community Engagement is awarding iDo Founding Director Martin Linder the San Francisco State University (SFSU) faculty award for Community Service Learning. The award recognizes Linder's extraordinary work with iDo to bring design and experiential community based education back to San Francisco public schools.
 A Spotlight on SoLed SoLed is iDO’s latest venture in enhancing a child’s learning experience in the classroom. The SoLed team has spent the last few months prototyping a design-it-yourself solar powered LED lamp kit that fuses design methodology with emerging technology and renewable energy. The team has also been utilizing their design skills to develop an exciting and creative curriculum that invites students to assemble parts, manipulate materials, and brainstorm creative solutions, while cultivating their problem-solving abilities, creative thinking skills, and environmentally responsible actions.
Further, iDO believes that play is fundamental to a child’s educational growth, and the SoLed team has been using this as an important design driver in their design process. To put it simply, the SoLed lamp will be incomplete without the child adding their individual creative design to it. With this kit, we want to celebrate individual creativity, and also reign in the seemingly endless possibilities of a personalized lamp. Besides innovation and personalization, sustainable materials and renewable energy have guided our three possible solutions for the kit. With the deadline for choosing one direction around the corner, the team will spend the next week refining each prototype for a design review at iDO’s next meeting. We are pushing hard to introduce SoLed to classrooms in the Bay Area in the fall of 2009!
Martin Linder | mlinder@industrialdesignoutreach.org
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