Students will explore who uses tea and why, conduct firsthand interviews with real community members, and create empathy maps grounded in direct quotes and observations to understand user needs before defining their garden design challenge.

Students will synthesize their tea garden user research into clear, evidence-based problem statements that define whose needs they are designing for and why those needs matter.

Students will generate many possible solutions for their tea garden based on real user needs, explore creative design strategies, and select top concepts grounded in user evidence before moving to prototyping.

Students will build, test, and improve low- and medium-fidelity prototypes of their tea garden models and booth elements, using real user feedback and scientific reasoning to guide revisions before final presentations.

Students will validate their tea garden prototypes with new users, refine their designs based on real feedback, and present their full design journey at the Tea Culture Fair, clearly connecting user needs, science learning, math evidence, and cultural understanding.