Students will investigate local conflicts by engaging directly with community stakeholders, grounding their understanding in historical case studies of domestic and international conflict. Through structured interviews, field observations, and empathy mapping, they will gather firsthand evidence that connects Civil War-era conflicts and debates over freedom, geography, and equality to present-day disputes in Corolla and Edenton. By the end of the phase, each student will produce a documented empathy artifact based on at least two real users, forming the evidence base for defining a meaningful problem statement in Phase 2.

Students will synthesize stakeholder interviews and field research into clear, evidence-based problem definitions that connect historical conflict patterns to present-day local disputes. Through structured analysis, peer critique, and revision, they will produce a grounded "How Might We" statement and rationale that will guide ideation in the next phase.

Students will generate a wide range of historically informed solution concepts to address their selected local conflict, move from divergent to convergent thinking using structured design protocols, and produce annotated concept sketches that clearly connect proposed features to documented user needs and historical parallels.

Students will translate their historically grounded "How Might We" statements into tangible, testable prototypes that address real stakeholder needs in the Corolla Wild Horse and Edenton memorial conflicts. Through rapid low-fidelity builds, structured user testing, and documented iteration, students will refine their solutions using direct feedback while continuously connecting design decisions to historical conflict analysis and the essential question.

Students will validate their refined conflict-resolution prototypes with new users, revise based on documented feedback, and present their design journey to community stakeholders, explicitly connecting historical conflict analysis to contemporary local disputes.