Where to Find a Challenge?

1. The digital Atom Model is based on challenge-based learning. That means that the core of this work is to find a challenge. It can be done by the teachers before the lessons, or it can be done co-creative together with the students. The inspiration for the challenge – can come from a lot of different places.

2. Suggestions for a challenge could come from any of the following – this list is not exhaustive:

• An external organization which wants to collaborate with students on a challenge (some of them available at https://www.demind.eu/ and https://www.foremlink.com).
• The project group’s knowledge, experience and skills gained from an internship.
• A societal issue that demands new solutions.
• An everyday problem that students identify. (See activity 0.4)

3. If the teachers choose to have the students as part of deciding the challenge. The project group ‘thought-shower’ their ideas for a challenge and write on a shared Virtual whiteboard. They group any similar challenges together.

4. The project group then considers possible skills and limitations that they have. They should write each one on a separated digital post-it and place it beside the appropriate challenge suggestion on the digital white board. The teacher explains that the challenge should be substantive and follow the criteria for selecting a challenge (Focusing on the Challenge Formation Activity: 0.3).

5. The students write down the criteria and then discuss where they should be placed on the wall.

6. The students should then be able to clearly identify a substantive challenge.

7. If the teacher chooses for the students to have a shared challenge in the class, the teacher can decide, or the students can vote which challenges they want. If the teacher want the students to have different challenges to solve in the class, the teacher can let the students write their names on the challenges they want to work with and make project-groups from this information.