Students will launch the tessellation identity project by generating rapid spirit-animal-inspired pattern ideas, practicing interpretation talk with peers, and establishing respectful norms for symbolism, audience, and feedback. They will leave Phase 1 with initial sketches, documented peer responses, and a clear understanding of the essential question, project products, and expectations for human-centered design.

Students will gather audience evidence about how tessellations and symbols are interpreted, test assumptions about identity-based imagery, and draft a respectful personal direction for a spirit-animal tessellation using direct feedback from peers and a community partner.

Students will turn empathy findings into a design brief and How Might We statement, generate multiple tessellation concepts tied to spirit-animal traits, test low-fidelity prototypes with peers and an outside adult perspective, and complete two documented revision cycles before selecting one direction to carry into refinement.

Students will turn tested tessellation prototypes into polished artworks, validate clarity of symbolism with fresh viewers, revise using evidence, and prepare mounted pieces plus artist statements for the Symbol Circle Showcase.

Students will present their mounted tessellations and artist statements in the Symbol Circle Showcase, engage an authentic audience in interpretation and critique, and complete a final performance-based reflection on how feedback, symbolism, confidence, and collaboration shaped their work.