SXSW EDU 2025

DBL Founder Joins Education Leaders in SXSW EDU 2025 Panel

At this moment, public education faces numerous challenges –the impending closure of the Department of Education, an ongoing student engagement and mental health crisis, and widespread teacher burnout, to name a few. There are several movers and shakers in the education space questioning how things are done and tackling these complex issues head on. 

This March, at SXSW EDU, Doreen Gehry Nelson, creator of Design-Based Learning, joined education leaders for a dynamic discussion on the future of education. Liz Willen, Executive Editor at The Hechinger Report, moderated the conversation between ​Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, ​Dr. Leah Austin, president & CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute, and Doreen. The discussion ranged from the shortcomings of standardized testing to the safe use of AI in the classroom to the best ways to keep students engaged in their learning

What is the value of curiosity in education? And how can we effectively develop to foster the growth of healthier, more engaged children?

“Public education is wonderful. In the 1900s, John Dewey started it, and he had a philosophy, he had a way of thinking. He was concerned  about kids' anxiety and believed that developing their curiosity could help ease it. How do you develop curiosity? Curiosity is directly linked to creativity. When you're curious,you want to do something, make something, think about something, wonder about something, and hope for something.” – Doreen Gehry Nelson

How do we improve public education in the U.S.?

“The key message that I would share is that any effort to improve public education or reimagine public education has to be centered on a key question, and that key question is “How are we affirming and expanding every child”? That affirmation and expansion happens in some key and crucial ways. Culturally relevant curriculum, pedagogy, experiences, and culture do not create  a divisive education. Instead,  they provide students with an affirming and expanding environment, and it's not just black students; it's not just brown students; it's all students.” – Dr. Leah Austin

What message would you give to people feeling pessimistic about the future of public education?

“If we believe that there is a future for democracy; if we believe that there is a future for pluralism; if we believe that there is a future where kids have knowledge and can dream their dreams but also achieve them; if we believe that kids and families should have broad-based prosperity; if we believe in any or all of those things, then we're gonna fight with everything we got.” – Randi Weingarten

The full recording of the panel discussion is available below. 

Engaging Students Online, Applying the Doreen Nelson Method of Design-Based Learning, Backwards Thinking™ in a 4th Grade Classroom in the San Gabriel Unified School District

by Jessica Heim

As I entered the Zoom classroom at 9 a.m. on a Friday morning in November, 2020, I was surprised by the nearly 40 smiling, Roosevelt Elementary 4th graders that greeted me through my computer screen. Not one camera was turned off and by the looks on their faces, every student seemed highly engaged and ready to learn. Their teacher, Ms. Georgia Singleton, greeted her students warmly. What she said next had me intrigued and wishing I was in the 4th grade again.

“Class,” she exclaimed, “we have a message from our City’s Avatars! We are in the dark! You have learned about different types of energy. Please help! We need to decide together what kind of energy to have in our City so our Avatars can survive!”

The students had been assuming leadership roles as Avatars for the small, 3-D City of the Future that they were collaboratively imagining and building online as the yearlong context for the subject matter they were being taught. For the past week, during Ms. Singleton’s Guided Lessons, the class had learned about clean energy through various textbook readings, research, and videos on the different forms of clean energy, including wind, solar, hydroelectricity, geothermal, biomass, and tidal energy. (Instead of assigning quizzes or worksheets to assess student learning, Ms. Singleton connected learning back to the 3-D City of the Future to promote higher-level thinking skills, creativity, collaboration, and communication, while still teaching the required grade level content area standards.)

Now the class was learning how to run a government for their City. By using a government structure for the student-built City, Ms. Singleton was having her students role play governance to promote social responsibility and teach concepts related to social justice and civics, while also employing classroom management strategies and the division of labor among students.

“Now that we’ve learned about clean energy, we are going to meet in our Council Districts,” Ms. Singleton said, “to determine what the best energy source for our City is and to prepare for a Town Meeting.”

Ms. Singleton instructed the students to go to Breakout Rooms representing each Council District, choose a leader, a recorder, and a timekeeper, discuss their research, then decide on their District’s clean energy choice. Listening to the teacher ask if there were any questions, I saw that the students’ interest and excitement were palpable. I was struck by how efficiently the 9- and 10-year-olds moved to their online Breakout Rooms and once there, were able to manage their time and stay on task. The student leaders immediately called on their Council District members to share their ideas while a recorder wrote down each response. The timekeeper made sure that each student’s voice was heard. I was impressed by the high level of communication among the students as they listened to one another, asked meaningful questions, and justified their reasoning with facts and findings.

After about ten minutes in the Breakout Rooms, the whole class came back together and the Mayor called the Town Meeting to order. The Council District leaders took turns sharing their choices for the best energy source, citing their research. After every Council District made its presentation, a vote was taken and solar energy was the winning energy source for the City.

When I asked students what they liked about meeting in Council Districts to discuss ideas and make decisions about their City, one student shared that she “felt happy because her voice was being heard.” Another student stated that she felt “comfortable sharing.” One student shouted out, “I’ve never felt better!”

When I asked students what they liked about Design-Based Learning, one student said, “I love using my imagination. It is so fun.”

Starter City of the Future Guidebook

The Design-Based Learning Project created a Starter City Guidebook to show teachers how to build a city in their classroom, one of the cornerstones of the Design-Based Learning Project.

This K-12 Guidebook provides:

  • A step-by-step plan for getting students ready to build a Starter City of the Future with criteria to set limits for assessment

  • A description of how building a Starter City of the Future connects to required lessons organized around Themes/Big Topics and Essential Questions named in the K-12 State Standards (Community, Sustainability, Protection, Energy, and Climate Change, etc.)

  • Ways to use a Starter City of the Future to engage students in practicing back-and-forth questioning and higher-level thinking skills

  • Examples of practical basic and advanced K-12 Guided Lessons across subject content areas, connecting a student-built City to required curriculum

  • A brief history of Doreen Gehry Nelson and a description of her Backwards Thinking Design-Based Learning time tested methodology.

Access the Starter City of the Future Guidebook HERE