About

Humans depend on animals. We use animals as livestock in farming, animals do work for us, and we use animals in scientific research. Yet, surely the most beneficial relationship is when we keep animals as pets. Cats and dogs are popular pets the world over. People also keep as pets, horses, rabbits, hamsters, birds, and fish. Pets bring benefits, they are our companions, taking your dog for a walk is healthy exercise, and dogs also protect us in our homes. Many pets seem to grow attached to their owners and live a long and healthy life.
 

Your task

Design a pet environment for your pet at home. Your pet environment may be a bed for your dog or cat, a cage for your bird, a tank for your fish, or whatever you like. Your pet environment should be a place that provides for the needs of your pet, and a place where your pet is safe. The pet environment may be electrically operated if necessary, but it must safely enclose the electric parts. Build a model of your pet environment and test it. Work on this project in a small team with a group of your classmates.

​​​​​​​Note about animal welfare
​​​​​​​When designing for animals, you must consider above everything, the health, safety, and welfare of the animals and their owners.
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The design thinking stages

Follow the five design thinking stages to ensure that you think of everything and do everything necessary in order to succeed in your design project. First, you must UNDERSTAND the design topic and the needs of the users. With that understanding, you can DECIDE what is important to your design solution and what is not so important. Then you CREATE to come up with ideas and improve them. Then you BUILD your chosen design idea in a physical form and improve it through trial-and-error. Finally, you TEST your built design idea to get the opinions of users. ​​​​​​​Use the methods from the Design Thinking for Schools website as you follow the design thinking stages.
 

Note for teachers

• ​​​​​​​Designing for pets requires that students understand that they must protect the physical and psychological wellbeing of the animals at all times, and that they may never harm animals in any way.
• Students are only permitted to test their models on animals in the presence of teachers or other supervising adults.