Monday, October 14, 2013

10.14.13 Prototyping Galore


Early in September we began a design challenge that has come to be known as 'Take it Outside' . We are at a second year high school and have a beautiful campus with tons of outdoor space. None of that space, however, was necessarily was conducive to learning outside. There was no defined space, or home base if this was tag, for teachers and students outside. This presented a problem. Because our campus is so expansive, not having a home base when taking students outside was a deterrent for teachers from using our awesome natural classroom. So, seeing a problem with no easy solution, we turned it into a design challenge.

"How might we design an outdoor learning space that is both functional and sustainable?"

Students began with research in our Gather Stage. They designed interview questions for teachers and students to see what the needs were for an outdoor learning space. What did the users want? Students wrote professional emails, scheduled interviews, practiced handshakes and interview posture, and held some great interviews. Some left with a ton of great information that could push their ideas for a learning space into fruition. Others learned that even if they write great questions that are deep and meaningful, they aren't always going to get answers with the same amount of thought. They reflected, transcribed, and summarized what they learned and took that information into account as they began designing delieverables for the OLS. 

After we finished these reflections, we were able to move to the Glean Stage. Students began designing what they saw as the different elements of the space: seating, work space, weather protection, storage, and plant and garden space. They pulled inspiration from the internet, from magazines, from their natural surroundings, from their home, from TV, and used it all to create their own ideas of what could work for our space. Students began with basic sketches of what they saw as possibilities to meet needs in our space. We brought in our school art teacher Bill Hicks who did a great lesson with students on drawing to perspective and making their sketches more realistic. 


Finally, we began the long awaited Generate Stage. Students then had the challenge of translating those drawings to scale on graph paper. They had to include their desired measurements for their finished products so that they could begin prototyping. Students had to bring their designed ideas to life with simple materials to see how realistic theiridea could be.  here we are. Prototyping is a bit chaotic. Glue guns, cardboard, Exacto knives, oh my. To the untrained eye it could look a bit unorganized, but our students are focused and working to the plans they designed. I can't ask much more of these freshman.

Here's a great definition of prototyping:

prototype is a concrete artifact that communicates your idea and gets you the information you need to improve it. 
Can't take credit for that one- got it here.

Students have a vote on Wednesday where they have to present their prototypes to the rest of the class. There are multiple groups working on different designs for the same element of the space, so the pressure is on to defend their design and see it into the project lab. 

Here's what it looks like in the Studio today:

  

 


Ss: Don't forget your priorities for the day. Quizzes Wed. in Science, Safety, and Vocabulary. Also be ready to defend your prototype in front of the class for voting Wednesday!

Coach K

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