Yesterday, students took on our Impossible Bag Design Challenge—a creative task that asked them to transform an ordinary bag into something unexpected. The challenge was simple in description but complex in thinking: re-imagine a bag so it can hide or conceal an item, transform its function, or serve multiple purposes at once.

Students rose to the challenge with curiosity and ingenuity. One group transformed a reusable grocery bag into a popcorn bag, rethinking structure, openings, and how the material could hold and pour food. Another designed a cellphone crossbody bag / fanny pack that doubles as a phone holder or stand, allowing the object to shift purpose depending on how it’s used. Each design required students to slow down, test ideas, and respond to how materials actually behaved—not how they first imagined they would.

This challenge wasn’t about getting the “right” answer. It was about building design capacities:
• Aesthetic awareness – considering how form, colour, and shape communicate purpose
• Design thinking – moving through ideation, prototyping, testing, and revising
• Material noticing – observing how fabric folds, stretches, holds weight, or resists change
• Creative risk-taking – pushing beyond obvious solutions
• Flexible thinking – letting an object become something new

Most importantly, students practiced slowing down—pausing to think differently, notice constraints, and allow ideas to evolve rather than rushing to completion. These moments of uncertainty and adjustment are where real learning happens.

Tomorrow, students will begin the next design challenge, stretching their thinking even further as they continue transforming everyday objects in surprising and creative ways. Each challenge builds their ability to see possibility where others see limits—and to design with intention, imagination, and care.