Principles of Kit-Based Learning

This short article on Principles of Kit-based learning from the Tinkering School has had me thinking about tinkering all morning. One of my biggest complaints about where tech ed seems to be headed is towards activities that are based on how easily they can be measured and evaluated. These "closed" kits tend to take the open ended possibilities out of a project and what I believe adds depth to the learning experience. So, I was pleased to see this list of criteria the Tinkering School uses in designing a learning kit:


1. Focus on the quality of the experience first
2. Allow for personal expression within the experience
3. Leave something to be discovered
4. Support failure
5. Focus on concept but connect it to the world and the sciences
6. Experience should transition smoothly to tangential or subsequent topics

[Image: Flickr: "Version 0.2 had Wheel Slippage Problems": Uploaded on April 30, 2009by gever tulley: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gevertulley/3489005209/in/set-72157617434361063/(Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0)]

Design Squad

Read an article in my most recent issue of The Technology Teacher (april/2008) that made reference to a television show that I wasn't familiar with called the Design Squad. The program is built around a group of teenagers that are given a design challenge each week. I tuned in today to watch an episode called the "PVC Kayak Challenge". In my area Design Squad plays on Sunday mornings. No wonder I never saw it on my schedule. Luckily, I have Tivo and was able to watch it in the afternoon rather than get up early. I enjoyed it and thought it would be a fun show for school kids also. It is kind of like Junk Yard Wars only aimed at a younger age group and less dangerous challenges.

After the show I went to their web site and found a wealth of information including a set of challenges that could be utilized in most classrooms. I saw several that I'd done in the past and many that I'd use if I were still running a technology lab. Give the web site and the show a look-see...I think you will find a few ideas you can use.

[Cheng, Jack. "Excite Kids About Engineering." The Technology Teacher Apr 2008: 26-31.]
[Image captured from Deisgn Squad website: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/challenges/s2-ep2.html]

Puppet Technology

My tech lab had a station dedicated to puppet building. Puppets are a fun way to experiment with simple machines. A puppet mouth is usually designed around a lever. Arms and eyes are usually controlled by a linkage of some sort. Marionettes and shadow puppets have pretty complex mechanisms controlling their movements.

I added this module after I co-taught a technology/art class in my middle school. I had the grand idea of a multi-disciplinary class built around building puppets and then using them as the actors in short videos. I had the opportunity to run this class once with a group of eighth graders. The logistics of it gave us the biggest headaches. Storage of puppets and props. Where to film. How to work multiple groups through scripting, puppet building, video production and editing. I think we could have worked it all out if the art teacher hadn't gone off to teach at the high school. (I don't think working with me drove her away? I'm a nice guy...a little odd...but nice.)

Anyway, after that experience, I was hooked using puppets as an educational doorway to the wonderful world of technology. I was pleased to discover this blog dedicated to puppet building and I've linked to a video from the site that demonstrates how to make blinking eyeballs.



Online Videos by Veoh.com
[Image Captured from Puppetmaking.com: Moving Eyelid Mechanism Video Tutorial:http://puppetbuilding.com/animatronics/moving-eyelid-mechanism-video.html]

Let kids build stuff

Since writing about popsicle bridges yesterday, I've been thinking about all the trash we recycled in my tech lab as supplies for building and prototyping. My students had a material list of items to bring in that was a bit unusual. They had to scrounge up a paper tube (paper towel, wrapping, etc), a small box (cereal, soap, Rice-a-roni, etc) and a clean tin can or a wire hanger. I had piles of this stuff that kids could then use in their projects.

Students built robot heads out of cereal boxes and animated them using the pneumatic devices we had at one station. Students building mousetrap cars for their science classes came in after school to try out different ideas using my "junk" before cutting into their store bought materials. My favorite example is when I took my 8 year old nephew in one afternoon and set him loose in the construction area with a small electric motor while I graded some assignments. With just a little help from his uncle, he built a small working vehicle by the time we left. The chassis was made from the box for a bar of soap. The axles were made out of a clothes hanger. The tires were cut out of a piece of thick cardboard. It wasn't pretty but it worked and he built it.

I guess my point is that it doesn't take a big budget to get kids some hands on building experience. Let kids build. Let them fail and not worry about the cost, cause eventually they will build something that works. I think these are all good things. Good for kids. Good for education.

When I was a kid, I spent hours building damns out of dirt and sticks in the gutters on the street where I lived. I created complex series of pools connected with sluices that collected the water coming down the street. I experimented with ways to keep the dirt structures from being washed away. I created simple water wheels. I floated small paper boats. I ran out into rain storms to see how the damns held up under the deluge of rain water. The neighbors always said that Gunn kid was either crazy or would be an engineer someday.

I became a teacher......so I guess that means crazy?

[Image: Palmer, Alfred. "Fort Loudoun Dam Construction." Library of Congress. 1942. 5 Mar 2008 .]

Popsicle Stick Bridge Building

I read GeekDad the other day and Kevin Kelly posted some pictures of a popsicle bridge his son, along with a friend, had built at home.

For around $12 (my guess at what the supplies would cost at my local craft store) the boys built a bridge that was able to span ten feet. In my lab I'd challenge kids to build the bridge and then we'd see how much weight it could support before collapsing. The cool think about glue guns is that a couple of sixth graders can build a bridge (shorter than ten feet) in a single class period. This gives them an opportunity to build more than one bridge and improve their designs.

The first group builds a 1 pound bridge that can hold, oh say two pounds, and the race is on between each group that follows to build theirs stronger and lighter. Each bridge was photographed before testing and then with the important data included was put up on my classroom wall. If I were doing this now, I'd post them on a classroom blog.

I had books and other resources on bridge building laying around the station and while the first group may only have glanced at the pictures, later groups would ask to check the reading material out over night. I know of several groups that met on the weekends to build and test their structures. For best results, I would recommend letting the bridges sit and completely dry overnight (or at least a couple hours). Otherwise, the glue is still pretty elastic and instead of a satisfying break and crack when testing the weight load, the bridge slowly bends to the ground like silly putty.

I had great success with simple bridge building in my tech lab. It taught the kids to use some simple tools. It taught them to problem solve. It taught them to work as a team. It was a fun place to start talking about some basic engineering principles.

I might note that over the years I used other materials: toothpicks, balsa wood, paper, and straws. One year we had a bunch of Knex donated to the lab and I let them build and test the strength of their structures. I should warn you that you will break at least one or two Knex pieces each time you test. Still, I think popsicle sticks and glue guns were my favorite.

The beauty of a project like this is that it, as shown by the pictures on GeekDad, can be done at home. I had a parent tell me her son loved building the bridges so much that she wanted to buy him the same kit we used in the lab for his birthday. I explained that I went to the craft store and bought popsicle sticks and glue guns. He came in a week later and told me that he had a great birthday that year!

[Image captured from GeekDad: Popsicle Stick Bridge: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/03/popsicle-stick.html]

Compact Nomadic Furniture

Saw this video on Make and immediately thought of a book I picked up years ago in a bargain bin called Nomadic Furniture. It had the schematics for all kinds of furniture that could be easily torn down and packed. At the time, we were moving a lot and the idea of being able to easily break down all my belongings into easily transportable components seemed like a great idea. My wife had silly notions about style, color schemes and comfort. I let myself get won over to her point of view by a huge, heavy couch that was ideal for napping.

This concept could be a fun for a classroom design project. Have your students design a piece of furniture on paper. Then mock up a scale model using construction paper. Then create a full size reproduction out of cardboard. Then have your parents come in so they can "ooo" and "ahhh".

I attended a workshop given by a woman who taught technology in the United Kingdom and she had a design unit built around the design and construction of a chair made out of cardboard and paper mache. (Sorry, I can't find her name in any of my notes.) I loved the idea but never pursued it as I had no place where I could work with wet paper mache and then store all the projects in their various stages. If you were working with collapsible cardboard models connected with something like McGroovys Box Rivets, it might be doable in a smaller space.

This brings to mind my two biggest complaints about technology labs. They never build them big enough and they never include an area where you can work with wet and dirty materials. Not all technology education takes place on a computer screen. Some of the best labs I've seen were stuck in old shops or extra storage areas with concrete floors, easy access to the outside and sinks with running water. The newer labs I've seen tend to be smaller and carpeted with the idea that the kids will be sitting at a computer and will never need to get out of their seats or build anything bigger than matchbox.

We work with what we are given but we can dream!



[Image: Captured from Amazon.com: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/casulo_your_bedroom_in_a.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890]

Organizing Lego: Part 2

After writing about organizing Lego a while back, I got curious about this whole storage issue and did a little searching on the web to see if anyone has come up with anything unique or different from when I tackled this problem several years ago. Found this article, 16 Lego Storage Options almost immediately. It didn't really give me anything new, but did a nice job of showing most of the options I ever tried in one place with photos of each method.

One method I used with some success that I haven't really seen described was sorting parts into zip lock bags. Each Mindstorm kit we used was sorted into about 12 bags. Each bag had an inventory list included that was cut so it could fit into the bag. It was easy for my students to quickly see if they had a complete set. (OK....easier.) The bags were then put into boxes that were checked out to each group of kids. At the time I was traveling from classroom to classroom with these kits and they had to be stored up out of the way of the regularly scheduled science classes. The bags helped to keep everything together. It wasn't perfect, but it was workable.

Here are a few other sites that you might find useful if you are in the process of trying to get all your bricks in a row.

• How to Sort and Store Lego: Above article refers to this one several times.
• My Old Lego Storage Facility: Nice picture of one man's setup.
• Matt's Mushroom Bins: I thought when I first read this that these were mushroom shaped. Nope! The author is referring to those plastic bins that mushrooms or berries are packaged in at the supermarket. Cool idea!

[Image: Captured from Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News: 16 Lego Storage Options: http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/2007/09/15-lego-storage-options.html]

Rube Goldberg Devices

Maybe it's because I loved the game Mousetrap as a boy?

Maybe it's because I loved those old Rube Goldberg cartoons with their crazy series of contrivances all aimed at lighting a match or blowing out a candle.

Whatever the source of my fascination, it carried over into my technology lab. One of the stations in my lab was to work on the "Doo Dad Machine!" The machine was a 4 ft x 8 ft wire frame that hung on the wall covered with simple student made constructions. The final goal was to get a golf ball from one corner to the other. Each group was assigned a square foot of space in which they could do whatever they wanted as long as they moved the ball from point A to point B.

I had hoped that after being in the lab for a while and working with the different equipment and materials, my students would create the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine. It never quite panned out. Most of my kids thought it was a cool idea until they actually tried to build something. It was hard and required a lot of experimentation. In hind sight, maybe it was too hard. I needed to be able to give them more examples similar to the video I've linked to today.

I looked through all my snapshots and couldn't find a picture of one of the DooDad Machines we built. I'll keep looking and will post a picture when I find it. For posterity.




[Story Source: Makezine: Pitagora Suitch Devices: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/pitagora_suitch_devices.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890]
[Image: Captured from the video, Pythagoraswitch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pAmVipomcA&eurl=http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/pitagora_suitch_devices.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890]

Organizing Lego

A continuing dilemma I had as a technology teacher using Lego was how to organize my kits. I tried throwing everything into one big bin, organizing them in tackle boxes, using plastic boxes designed for hardware and stacking bricks as suggested in today's link. How to organize your lego for efficient building on the Evil Mad Scientist Blog.

The factors I had to take into account when organizing my Lego was:

• Inventory. Two parts to this, one, making sure pieces that students needed were available and, two, knowing what parts I needed to order.
• Ease of use. It's no fun if the majority of your time is spent looking for parts.
• Storage. How do I store, stack, put away all these kits?
  
• Theft. Sometimes it's necessary to track what parts go out and if they come back again. I am thankful to say that theft in my lab was not ever a big issue but another lab in my district had problems with items disappearing.

I never did figure out the perfect solution. I ended up using a basic kit in a multi-chambered hardware box that had the minimum number of pieces needed. It had a visual picture and inventory list that went out with the students and they had to organize the kit before turning it back in again. Then I had other parts and bins of parts that students could check out as they needed.

I always hoped that someone would come up with the perfect bin or storage container. Maybe when I retire?


[Image Source: How to Organize your lego for efficient building: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/efficientlego]

Kinematic Models

Many was the time a gaggle of sixth grade engineers and I would stand by the white board sketching out a gear assembly in an effort to design a structure that would duplicate the movement needed for a project. This is one area where I always wished I had deeper training so I could have more ably guided my students. I did the best I could by having samples of mechanisms and photos of what other students had done. (And the trusty whiteboard.)

I saw an article about a site called Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) at Cornell University. What a great resource! They have photos and movies of a variety of mechanical models. Are you trying to describe a universal joint to a group of seventh graders? Navigate to this site and you can show them a model of a universal joint. You can also show them a video of the machine in action.

If I still ran a tech lab, I'd build a challenge or two around a few of these descriptions. Possibly have students reproduce some of the them using their Lego kits. If you like this kind of stuff, this site will become a favorite.

[Story source frome Makezine:KMODDL - Kinematic models for design digital library: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/12/kmoddl_kinematic_models_f.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890]
[Image: Grabbed from KMODDL/Universal Joint; http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/model.php?m=240]

TechShop

Every time my school had an open house, the comment I got from parents who were touring the technology lab was never,

"Mr. G, you are so good looking for a man your age. What is your secret?"

It was always,

"I wish I could take this class. I'd like to just come here, hang out and mess around with all this stuff!"

A place called TechShop has opened in California that offers just such a place. Along with access to all thier neat equipment they also offer classes in case you don't know how to run a Desktop Milling Machine or are a little rusty on your welding. There are plans to keep the shop open 24 hours a day. Just imagine, a place where you could run your power tools and hammer metal at any time of the night without the neighbors taking up a petition for your immediate deportation to Iceland.

Guy Kawasaki has a long article on his blog, How to Change the World, about the TechShop and it's founder, Jim Newton.

["TechShop is the SF Bay Area's Only Open-Acess Public Workshop--Welcom." TechShop:Build Your Dreams Here. 2007. TechShop LLC. 12 Sep 2007 .]
[Image: Kawasaki, Guy. "How to Change the World: TechShop: Geek Heaven." How to Change the World. 2007. 12 Sep 2007 .]