This post is. A bit late. Fine, very late. So let’s get to it:
This was our very first exposure to the launch process. If your wondering what that is, well, keep reading…
LAUNCH Process?
Well, the launch process is a design thinking template, designed to make it easier and more simple to design a product or solution to a problem. Here is what L.A.U.N.C.H means:
L: Look, Listen, and Learn
In the first phase, students look, listen, and learn.The goal here is awareness. It might be a sense of wonder at a process or an awareness of a problem or a sense of empathy toward an audience.
A: Ask Tons of Questions
Sparked by curiosity, students move to the second phase, where they ask tons of questions.
U: Understanding the Process or Problem
This leads to understanding the process or problem through an authentic research experience. They might conduct interviews or needs assessments, research articles, watch videos, or analyze data.
N: Navigate Ideas
Students apply that newly acquired knowledge to potential solutions. In this phase, they navigate ideas. Here they not only brainstorm, but they also analyze ideas, combine ideas, and generate a concept for what they will create.
C: Create a Prototype
In this next phase, they create a prototype. It might be a digital work or a tangible product, a work of art or something they engineer. It might even be an action or an event or a system.
H: Highlight and Fix
Next, they begin to highlight what’s working and fix what’s failing. The goal here is to view this revision process as an experiment full of iterations, where every mistake takes them closer to success.
Launch To an audience!
Then, when it’s done, it’s ready to launch. In the launch phase, they send it to an authentic audience. They share their work with the world!
How we used the LAUNCH Cycle:
So for this mini-unit, we actually didn’t get an iTunes U course, but instead we got the “Launch Notebook” which was a notebook that we would fill out, and would walk us through our first time using the LAUNCH Process.
I was put in a group with, Izzy, Kyle, and Jordyn. So this was our assignment, should we choose to accept it:
(NOTE: We had no choice)
You’re going to make something amazing and you’re going to start on it today. It’s going to be something that has never existed before in the history of humanity.
You know how you typically turn in an assignment to your teacher and then you get it back and, well, that’s pretty much it. This is different. Working with your design team, you’re going to create something people will actually use!
Phase 1: Look, listen, and learn.
Our challenge was written in the notebook:
“You just received a mystery box. Inside, you find a roll of duct tape, two tennis rackets, a whiffle ball, a stack of cups, a bag of balloons, and a spool of string. Now, invent a sport using at least four of these items. Now work in a team to invent this sport. It needs to be the kind of sport that your classmates will actually want to play.”
The first activity we did was to make a survey to ask other classmates. My question was: “Do you prefer stationary or active sports?” I went around, and I got a surprising result of 2 for stationary and 16 for active. Then we had to make a graph to show our data: 
Then we put together our data in one written conclusion: “Team sport, not much waiting as competitive people aren’t very patient, make a game that is end to end like soccer or hockey, the game should always be moving, not standing still”
Now we each had to think of questions that people might have about our sport. These are mine:
Then we wrote our questions on a big piece of paper, and we went around the class to write questions on other groups papers.
This was our groups paper.
Then we looked at some perceived “fun” sports like basketball, vs “boring” sports, like golf. (Sorry Nik) And we made a chart comparing them. We also had to draw a picture of someone fully engaged in a sport, this was mine, warning, it’s scary:
Told you…
Now we actually put our ideas together. Individually, we thought of sports we could make, and at the end, we decided on one concept. Which was to make a racket with a cup on one side to catch a wiffleball, and the other side to hit the ball.
So we built the rackets, wrote the the rules, and we made a video to explain it all, which Izzy posted on her YouTube Channel, watch it below:
And that was about it!
I really liked this project because it taught us about the LAUNCH Process, which I think is actually very useful. Ever since I was little, I always had ideas and business ideas, but I always had a hard time materializing them. The launch process has even already helped me with projects outside of school, like my lemonade company, PosiLemons Lemonade Co.
So , thanks for reading, and a usual, THATS A BURRITO!