Design Thinking & Experiential Learning for High School Students
A resource for anyone helping high school students learn and grow through powerful, real-world projects. Design thinking, project-based learning, experiential learning — delivered in a classroom, a nonprofit program, a camp, a family, or by students themselves.
The best projects don't end when you hand them in. They end when you teach someone else.
The projects on this site share one thing. They go public. Students don't just produce work for a grade — they perform it, present it, pitch it, or teach it to real people with real stakes. A team pitches a community solution to real stakeholders. A student presents their life vision to the adults who care most about their future. A group performs original work for an audience that never expected to be moved.
This moment of going public is where the learning becomes permanent.
Darin Eich's 2008 study — "A Grounded Theory of High Quality Leadership Programs" (Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, cited 500+ times) — found three things that make learning and leadership programs actually work. Every project on this site reflects all three.
Students practice, reflect, apply, and discover through doing — not passive instruction. The challenge is real. The making is real. The experience is owned. When the stakes are genuine, engagement follows naturally.
The best projects don't happen alone. Students collaborate, challenge each other, and learn from each other's work. Going public creates a shared experience that becomes part of a group's story — one they'll tell for years.
Experiences without reflection are just events. Reflection is what converts doing into learning and learning into identity. The best projects build reflection in at every stage — not as an add-on, but as the core.
Research: Eich, D. (2008). A grounded theory of high quality leadership programs. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 15(2). Cited 500+ times.
These projects and frameworks work in a school classroom, a nonprofit youth program, a summer camp, a leadership organization, a family, or entirely student-driven. Whoever is facilitating — there's something here for you.
Teachers, nonprofit staff, camp counselors, youth program facilitators — anyone designing learning experiences for high school students.
Explore resources →Adults outside formal programs who want to create meaningful experiences for the young people in their lives — no lesson plan required.
Read more →You can propose a project, start one on your own, work with peers, or use these frameworks to design your own future. You don't need a classroom to do something real.
Start here →These aren't just assignments. They're experiences — where the learning becomes real by being shared.
Students research someone remarkable, become them, and teach strangers.
Students select a historical figure or innovator, research deeply, build a costume or visual representation — then "come to life" for visitors who come to their museum. Real strangers ask real questions.
Identify a real local problem. Design a real solution. Present it to people who can act on it.
Students identify a genuine challenge in their school, neighborhood, or community — research it, develop empathy, prototype the best solution. The audience has actual power to act on what students present.
What do you actually want to learn? Now go learn it — and make something.
Students pursue a self-chosen question or project during dedicated class time. The only rule: you have to create something, not just research something. Intrinsic motivation changes everything.
The focus here is high school students — their learning, development, and growth through powerful real-world projects. The approach draws on design thinking, project-based learning, and experiential learning. The academic foundation is peer-reviewed research on what makes learning programs actually work.
These projects and frameworks can be used anywhere: a classroom, a nonprofit program, a camp, a leadership organization, or by students and peers working on their own. Everything here is free to use.