Design Thinking (DT) is an approach adopted to help solve problems in a creative, collaborative and humanistic way. The main objective of this work is to describe how the DT strategies were used with high school students enrolled at STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) curriculum to guide a project. This work consists of a qualitative descriptive experience sampling that arises from retrospective documental sources of the process and personal impressions of the authors. Five hundred (n=500) senior high school students and 14 tutoring teachers from a private school in Brazil participated, the theme projects were based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations Organization. The students were able to study and discuss some SDGs goals, choose one and develop a project so as to experience the phases of DT (Empathy, Definition, Idealization, Prototyping). At the end of the course, the students were capable of developing and delivering a prototype (digital or physical) and presenting their work. This report showed that DT can be a good strategy for implementing the Project-Based Learning with STEAM approach helping students to integrate inter, trans and multidisciplinary content and develop competences and skills such as: teamwork/collaborative actions; argumentation/negotiation/communication skills; reflective thinking and logical reasoning; creativity; time management in a project; resilience and tolerance when the group had to face some frustrations (projects that did not go as expected, lack of material/time/planning or disagreement between teammates), as well as development of the ability to use different resources to create their prototypes (like scrap materials, metal tools, or some technological resources to create digital prototypes). It is the author’s hope that this article contributes to the development of curricular activities using DT, Project-Based Learning and the STEAM approach, and also that it can be used as a guideline.

Project Based Learning and Design Thinking to develop skills and competences in high-school students