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Students Use Design Thinking to Build Board Games

Ranney School thrives on tradition, and one of its newer traditions is the annual, cross-divisional Board Game Project. Earlier this school year, eighth-grade art students met with their Lower School peers in the fourth grade to do some advance "market research" by playing standard board games with the students and getting to know what they like and dislike about the games. The eighth graders then spent the next few weeks using the Design Thinking process, which involves collaboration, prototyping, iteration and problem-solving, to develop and build games that they thought the fourth graders would enjoy.

This week, the classes joined together in our Innovation Lab to test out the new games. Below are some of the fourth-graders’ reactions. Student said they liked:
  • “how they personalized the games for us” - Anthony Abboud
  • “everything, especially that we got to have food at the celebration when we played our games” - Elle Brandt
  • “how the eighth graders changed the game and the design of the game after they met with us several times based on us playing the game with them” - Giancarlo Chirichillo-Casement
  • “the design of the games and the colors they used” - Caitlyn Chu
  • “that they put the time and effort into making a game just for us and for me that made playing the game fun” - Kieran Collins
  • “how they imagined a game for us” -  Matthew Dupree
  • “when they interviewed us that they thought about what we liked and how they could make a game based on what we liked” - Krishna Khetani
  • “the interviewing part because I got to know my eighth grade partner and we actually had a lot in common” - James Lawson
  • “everything - 5 stars!” - JD Leidersdorff
  • “how after several revisions they also added little bits into their projects” - Sabrina Lo
  • “how our partner took a game that we liked playing and made it into a new board game” - Cole Serrapica
  • “how they created the game from all the information that they gathered about us from interviewing and playing with us” - Lynna Wang
  • “seeing the transformation from the rough draft of the game to the final product” - Bianca Warren
Below are the eighth-graders' comments on building the games:
  • “Being able to participate in a project with younger students was a great way for me to use creativity while working on something designed for another person. I created a board game with the object of reaching the bakery with enough ingredients to bake cupcakes.” -Ava Floyd
  • “Getting a chance to get into the minds of real game developers was my favorite part in creating the board game. I created a strategy game that seems simple but is actually picks your brain and makes you think.” -Megan Yerrbaelli
  • “Having to put my own thoughts aside to build something for another kid five years younger than me proved a challenge. The game I made was a strategic game where the players moved across the board to knock down the enemies’ towers without getting their pieces knocked off the board. The project proved to be worth it when we all got to see how excited the kids were over these games we had worked on so hard. - Brooke Schmelz
  • “Creating the board games let me use my creative abilities in a different form in which I really enjoyed. My board game was a typical one where you roll a die and move a number of spaces accordingly.”-Sophia Yanney
  • “Creating the game gave me a chance to get to connect with the fourth graders and explore design thinking while having fun. My game was a standard board game with the end goal to complete your rainbow.” -Josephine Elwell
  • “Being able to make a customized project for the fourth graders was a fun way to explore the design process. We had to work hard to make sure that we were putting outside ideas aside. My game was a standard board game based on marine life in the ocean.” - Morgan Rice
  • “It was fun to be able to work on something for someone else. It was nice to improve on it not by what I thought, but by what someone else thought. Making a board game was a mix of strategy and building, but was also very fun because those things are nice to put together.” - Benjamin Sullens
 
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.