Design with DEEDS

Build projects and skills that matter.

The DEEDS Design Tool creates meaningful learning journeys rooted in relevant community topics, student voice, career skills and real-world problem-solving.

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Recent Designs

Fables Reloaded: Ancient Lessons, Modern Lives

Grade Level(s): 8th Grade

Initial ideas

I want to make kids analyze aesop's fables and make them relate to modern world

Character Quest: Overcoming Obstacles, Achieving Goals

Grade Level(s): 7th Grade

Initial ideas

Write an informative essay discussing what it takes for a character to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.

Roots to Routes: Black Resistance, Organizing, and Change

Grade Level(s): 11th Grade, 12th Grade, High School

Initial ideas

Challenge Question: How can we create a practical tool that helps organizers draw on Black resistance traditions to navigate challenges in organizing today? Challenge: Organizers today must make difficult decisions about how to build trust, connect people across communities, protect participants, sustain momentum, respond to opposition, and turn collective action into lasting change. Black communities have confronted related challenges through maroon communities, abolitionist movements, the Underground Railroad, Black political organizing, self-emancipation, and other forms of collective resistance. Students will work with organizers to identify a real need and create a useful tool that translates lessons from these traditions without oversimplifying their distinct historical contexts. What Students Will Make and Do: Students will collaborate with organizers to design, test, and refine a practical organizing resource grounded in Black resistance history. Depending on the partner’s needs and students’ design decisions, the final product might be: An app or interactive website A strategy card deck A decision-making or reflection tool A facilitation guide or workshop A network-mapping toolkit A digital or print field guide Another accessible resource designed for a specific organizing need Students will: Interview or consult with organizers to identify a meaningful current challenge. Research historical examples of Black collective resistance and political organizing. Analyze the goals, strategies, networks, constraints, risks, and outcomes associated with each example. Identify strategic principles that may help organizers think through present-day dilemmas. Develop historically accurate case studies, strategy profiles, or planning prompts. Generate and evaluate multiple possible solutions before selecting a format. Create a prototype and test it with intended users. Gather feedback on its usefulness, clarity, accessibility, historical accuracy, and ethical design. Revise the resource and share or hand it off to the partner. The tool should help organizers examine possibilities and make informed decisions, rather than prescribe a single strategy or suggest that historical and contemporary conditions are interchangeable. Key Content: Unit 2B Topics and Themes Maroon communities and the creation of autonomous spaces Individual and collective resistance to enslavement Abolitionist movements, arguments, publications, and organizing strategies The Underground Railroad as a network of communication, movement, shelter, and collective risk Black political thought about freedom, citizenship, equality, abolition, and self-determination Organizing networks within and across Black communities The roles of speeches, newspapers, conventions, churches, relationships, and community institutions Black participation, resistance, and self-emancipation during the Civil War The relationship among Black collective action, the Civil War, and emancipation Juneteenth as a history of emancipation, delayed enforcement, memory, and continuing struggle Continuity and change in Black resistance strategies Skills: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C Potential Partners: Grassroots Organizers Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100): byp100.org The Brotherhood Sister Sol (BroSis): brotherhood-sistersol.org Equality for Flatbush (E4F): equalityforflatbush.org Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM): freethelandmxgm.org Historical & Cultural Experts The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: nypl.org/locations/schomburg Weeksville Heritage Center: weeksvillesociety.org Black Gotham Experience (BGX): blackgotham.com Civic Design & Tech Mentors The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP): welcometocup.org BetaNYC: beta.nyc

Phone Rules on Trial: Rights, Reasons, and Rhetoric

Grade Level(s): 8th Grade

Initial ideas

My students have strong opinions about school phone rules. I want to use that interest for a mock trial that connects student rights, evidence-based arguments, and public speaking. Teams could explore different perspectives and explain their decisions.

Simple Machines: Speedy Motion Makers

Grade Level(s): 4th Grade

Initial ideas

simple machines

Mathfia: The Algebra Underworld

Grade Level(s): 9th Grade

Initial ideas

mafia math

Power to the Podcast

Grade Level(s): 8th Grade

Initial ideas

You live in a democracy shaped by ideas from ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, British constitutional traditions, and Enlightenment thinkers, yet those influences are often difficult to recognize in modern debates about voting, rights, representation, and limits on power. When you cannot trace how principles such as rule of law, civic participation, separation of powers, and the common good developed over time, it becomes harder to evaluate government decisions and civic responsibilities with historical accuracy. Use the attachments on the enlightenment, Hobbes, Locke, Macchiavelli, Rousseau, Franklin, Blackstone and others to create a meaningful studio, where students will create a podcats to show mastery. However, students will submit the work associated with each packet as checkins for understanding.

Identity Remix Collage Challenge

Grade Level(s): High School

Initial ideas

I want to have students create a collage that explains who they are. The can draw, take pictures, cut out objects make a digital or 3D compilation. They will see examples of collages, have convesations about Identity and spend time creating with support form others. At one pint they will share their ideas with another person and get feedback.

Why DEEDS Works

Responsive

Powered by Inkwire's cutting-edge AI model, educators & learners can now create comprehensive project-based learning at the push of a button.

Relevant

Rooted in YOUR community's context! Teaching and learning can focus on relevant issues and/or local or global business needs. Learning has never been more impactful.

Results-Driven

DEEDS integrates standards and researched-backed practices into the learning journey for improved academic outcomes and enhanced professional skills.

DEEDS Lab Site soars with academic outcomes

At LEAD 359, a K-8 Public School in Bronx, New York, students were more than twice as likely to meet grade-level standards.

LEAD 359 Students Twice as Likely to Outperform District and State

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