RLabs partnered with Tanks (powered by Tangibl) to host a Tanks and Design Thinking bootcamp during the school holiday which was from 4th to 5th April 2018 camp for children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old from various communities in Cape Town.
The two-day boot camp introduced the young children to the basic concepts of Design Thinking which allowed them to think creatively and find solutions to solve complex problems. Design Thinking was used as a method to explore and solve the problems at hand. The children then had the opportunity to present their projects, creations, understandings of how they think and feel about school and also how they can relate to other students, as well as results and findings at the end of the day. They also had the opportunity to think creatively how best to share their creative ideas in other forms such as dancing, singing, rapping or even beatboxing.
We kick started with the youngsters having to express their likes and dislikes about school so that the questions can be answered regarding why they go or do not go to school. The top likes were; Subjects and aspects that fall into the category of “Other”. “Other” includes; Art, Homework, Good Marks, Principal, Exams, Everything, Tasks, Test Reading, Tuckshop, Outings and WiFi. After the findings, it was also discovered that 82% of the kids said that they dislike; Carrying textbooks, Having too many subjects, Waking up early, School’s Food, People fighting, Detention, etc. Once going through all the dislikes, the kids voted for the 4 dislikes that they would like to focus on. Using various arts and craft materials which were provided to them, they were then tasked with physically building of a solution to their dislikes and each group had the opportunity to practice confidence and present in a unique way. 
Having them vote was so that they could find what they have in common and relate with one other on what they experience at school. The facilitators also got to engage better with the kids when knowing the context and reasons of their likes or dislikes of school.
Having this activity assisted with helping identify what kids enjoy and do not enjoy about school.
The students also had the opportunity to split into pairs and play a physical coding game that was created by the Innovation Lab Team from RLabs. This was created so that students could understand the basics of following coding concepts and how coding works before actually pursuing a career in coding. They also had the opportunity to play around on the Tangibl Application and share their thoughts on it with the teams at the respective venues.
The students then got to play the TANKS game which allowed them to move up to different levels and combat various challenges.
After all the activities, We celebrated the participants by presenting each one of them with a certificate for attending the two-day Tanks & Design Thinking Bootcamp.
