Students will launch the Climate & Crops project by engaging in a hands-on Local Agri Quest Adventure, interact directly with a visiting extension agent to understand how environmental conditions influence crop selection, and conduct structured interviews to create evidence-based empathy maps grounded in real user perspectives.

Students will synthesize their interview notes and empathy maps from farmers, extension agents, environmental scientists, and food bank partners to identify patterns, define a focused user-centered problem, and craft a clear How Might We statement grounded in evidence about local environmental conditions and crop selection.

Students will generate a wide range of climate-responsive farm solutions grounded in real user needs, evaluate ideas against evidence from their empathy research, and produce annotated concept sketches that serve as blueprints for rapid prototyping.

Students will build, test, and refine low- and medium-fidelity prototypes of their climate-responsive farm simulations, documenting how user feedback from peers and an environmental scientist shapes design improvements before the final presentation phase.

Students will conduct a final validation round of their climate-responsive farm simulations with authentic users, analyze feedback to identify remaining gaps, and present their full design journey—from user research through iteration—to community stakeholders at a Climate & Crops Expo.