Curiosity, Design Thinking

Curiosity (3:42) How curious are you about the world around us? Perhaps you’re mostly interested in learning about other people. What’s life like for them? How do they accomplish what they do? Or, maybe your inquisitive nature is about plants, animals, minerals, dinosaurs, medicine, language... Our guest today on Worlds Awaiting, Elizabeth MacLeod has a deeply curious nature which, she says, has propelled her to write non-fiction books for kids of all ages on any number of subjects – from biographies to cookbooks, from science to the animal kingdom. Even though she never took a writing course during her four years at the University of Toronto, she loves to write and is successful doing it. MacLeod’s background is primarily in science – and her training has come in handy for researching and writing children's information books, including Why Do Horses Have Manes? And What Did Dinosaurs Eat?  MacLeod has also created books to fascinate and involve kids including the series Kids Can Do It and Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Design Thinking (13:54) Up next, Rachel visits with Dr. Richard West, professor in the BYU Instructional Psychology and Technology Department. He talks about Design Thinking – a process of creating a product or service that begins with trying to understand the people you want to serve. “Walking in their shoes,” so to speak, so that the final product will meet their needs. Dr. Richard West researches how to teach group creativity and design thinking, and is co-chair of the BYU Creativity, Innovation, and Design group (see http://innovation.byu.edu). In his personal life, he’s an avid reader across multiple genres, with a compelling desire to use literature to help his children become awesome adults.  Kids on Books (25:22) Finally let’s hear about kids books from the kids themselves. Cole Wissinger of the Worlds Awaiting team asked a group about their interactions with reading, starting with their all-time favorite books