Teaching students how to pick up a pencil and communicate their ideas

One of the greatest inventors of all time created a lot of ugly design drawings. Thomas Edison’s sketches may not be pretty, but they communicated his ideas, and that’s essential to collaboration and innovation. 

Todd Kelley, associate professor of technology leadership and innovation, is a former secondary school teacher who researches how young students learn design and how design improves STEM education. He uses Edison’s drawings to illustrate that design sketches do not need to be artistic or attractive to serve their purpose — clearly communicating an idea. 

“As a classroom teacher, I was challenged by trying to understand what kids were thinking when they designed,” Kelley says. “Sketching is a key part of brainstorming. It’s a means of expressing what they see in their imaginations.”

The evolution of technology means students are spending more time with screens and less time with pencils, leading to little instruction and emphasis on design sketching skills. Kelley’s peer-reviewed article “Design Sketching: A lost skill” appeared in the journal Technology and Engineering Teacher and was voted the top publication of the year by its readers. In it, he shares instruction techniques to help students refine and improve their sketches.

The focus isn’t on developing art techniques, but rather understanding the elements of a good technical drawing. 

“As a teacher, sitting down and having an interaction with a student when you don’t understand their drawing, I know how challenging that can be,” Kelley says. “By asking them, ‘How does it work? How do the parts come together? What is it made of? What is missing?’ the student starts to think critically about the function of the thing, rather than how it looks.”

Most people don’t have confidence in their sketching. Kelley wants to bust the myth that you have to be artistic to be a designer. Teaching students to understand the purpose of sketching in design helps them to realize how even poor drawings can still communicate ideas effectively.   

“To me that’s the biggest impact we can have. Can we teach others so that they can raise up the next generation of Purdue students that are going to be innovative?”