Students will build empathy by interacting with real community helpers, observing their neighborhood, and documenting what different community members need in order to feel safe, healthy, and connected. Through interviews, movement-based observation, and empathy mapping, students will gather user research that will guide later problem-solving for their Community Garden and problem-solving booth.

Students will synthesize what they learned from firefighters, healthcare workers, and community observations to clearly define a real community problem. They will organize their research into empathy maps, identify patterns about urban community needs, and write a simple, actionable problem statement that will guide their garden and booth design in the next phase.

Students will generate and refine multiple solution ideas for improving their urban community through a Community Garden and problem-solving booth. Using brainstorming, sketching, role-play, and structured peer feedback, students will move from many ideas to one strong team concept grounded in user needs from firefighters, healthcare workers, families, and neighbors.

Students will build and refine testable prototypes of their Community Garden model and booklet pages, using feedback from peers to improve how their designs support real community members such as firefighters, healthcare workers, and neighbors.

Students will test their Community Garden prototypes and individual booklets with authentic users, gather feedback from families and community partners during the Community Carnival, revise their work, and present solutions in a mock community meeting that demonstrates how diverse roles help an urban community function and grow.