Duct Tape Learning

laser cut snowflakes I created

This is my 100th post! I know I should be sharing more, so I"m going to try and share the happenings in my Technology and Design class for the rest of the semester.

The title of this post hopefully got you thinking about what duct tape learning. When we think of duct tape we think of fixing, repairing, creating constructing, etc. That's exactly the kind of work I want my students to be doing right now. Using duct tape also means we aren't always going to be super precise and there is room for constant improvement.

Student prototype cut and etched 

Our current project is based on a challenge I gave students to develop a product from start to finish that can be sold a one of our community craft sales in about 3 weeks. Students are in small teams of two and  have 1 month to bring a product to market. I am guiding them through this using a version the design process as set out by IDEO's Teacher toolkit. I highly recommend that any teachers who would like to give their students a big idea challenge to check this toolkit out. I'm adapting it as I go because I do find that certain steps are quite laborious and tend to drag on for students.

What has really helped me from the kit is how to frame questions for students to reflect upon and share their learning with others at each step of the design process. We are going to be doing quick daily 'tailgate' meetings, and 2-5 min team presentations that will be opportunities for formal feedback from myself and peers. Tomorrow we are starting team blogs and I'm going to tell students to take our their smart phones and use them as much as possible to document their product development. I'm still struggling however to get to that stage where students reach a deeper level of understanding of why reflection and public sharing of their learning is so important. Getting some students to blog with or without writing prompts is a challenge for me right now. I'm also struggling with students who want to 'get it done' as quick as possible and are waiting to be 'spoon fed' where to look for ideas or how to use a certain aspects of the tools we are using.

eraser and marker holder 

Students have gone through the DISCOVERY and IDEATION phases of the design process as of last week. One key element to the design process is that at an moment the process can cycle back to the beginning and start over with new ideas if new information is learned, or challenges present themselves. Case and point was a group who wanted to create puzzles that stand up and are animal shaped. They did a few sketches, designs in Inkscape (more on this in another post), and did a test cut with the laser cutter. The wood they chose was a 1/2" piece of plywood, and the laser cutter couldn't cut through it without totally charring the wood because it took 4 passes to cut the test circle. Back to the drawing board, and the group decided to do a 2D Christmas puzzle out of 4mm thick wood instead. Back to DISCOVERY and  IDEATION!


Most students have moved on to EXPERIMENTATION. This is where it gets fun. While one student is designing decorative wall hangings that look like cutting boards, another is finding out how to make a 2 piece ornament that has a spinning centre piece. Each day I'm also working on demonstrating how to take and idea from research, sketch, prototype, analyzing the prototype and creating a final product. One of these was a holder for my white board eraser.

Duct tape in all sorts of colours and a prototype wallet

The title of this post was inspired by a student who is choosing not to do a Christmas craft or something wooden or even acrylic jewellery or keychains. She is choosing to make duct tape wallets. I've even supported her by purchasing over $50 worth of duct tape! The skills to make a duct tape wallet are very specific and from the prototypes she has made I'm very impressed. The work is tedious but her attention to detail makes it a true craft.

But she's made a lot of them before.

I've asked her to do something that is out of her comfort zone by challenging her to diversify her product line and make other models of the wallet. A clutch style for women, a slim wallet for just a few cards and cash are some other ideas for wallets. Pricing, packaging and promotion will also be a good challenge for her.

This week groups transition at different times from EXPERIMENTATION to EVOLUTION where feedback from people in our community will influence whether or not they change their products, pricing or packaging or all three!

All of this is pretty experimental for me. I've given a lot of freedom to groups to pick almost anything they want to make, and now I'm going to support teams as they need guidance or technical help with tools on the computer. What's kind of cool right now is that I've got students designing on paper, on Inkscape, Corel, with cardboard and everywhere in between!

If you want to check out my wiki where I've made my first feeble attempt and organizing this crazy process check it out here. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on helping students through reflection for deeper understanding of their learning. I'll write an update next week with more student prototypes.

The Early Bird Gets the Laser Radar?

Great fall morning here in Cold Lake! I'm up WAY earlier than normal and off to school to check out the project of 2 students in my Technology and Design course (temporary name until something better comes to mind).

The premise of the class is for students to get big idea challenges/questions and have them use the design process to attack them. They will then use the digital tools provided to help make their ideas become a reality through rapid prototyping.



The current question students have been asked to tackle is "How might we create a better CLHS experience?" Two of my students have been focusing on the fact that we don't have a safe drop off zone for parents to eject their children in the morning. They thought that we should look at designating an area and then make signs in my class with the vinyl cutter and laser cutter- great idea!


They've been interviewing our administration, are going to talk to the City of Cold Lake, have written letters to the mayor and council, and are even enlisting the help of the MD of Bonnyville School Resource Officers this morning. One issue they identified is that there are no posted speed signs in the entrance area and parking area at our school (which is connected to our recreation complex and community college. This is of course, why I'm up so early.

Today they are going to set up radar with Officer Prockiw and Officer Tomaino to find out if speed of vehicles in the parking lot really is an issue and then will determine if they need to ask city council to post speed limits. Very cool. I'm enjoying this process because students are super engaged, and it doesn't bother me that I don't really know where their final projects will end up!

Students with Lasers? Yes Please!

Tuesday last week as a great day. I had a 3 hours of impromptu PD thanks to Mother Nature. A freak dump of snow caused our busses to be cancelled. We only had 1 student in our whole school. A colleague of mine Brent Stasiuk gave me a ring and asked if I wanted to take a trip to the French Separate school down the road to see some amazing technology in action.

When I arrived I was in awe of what they had set up. Light tables, vinyl cutter, a Dewalt filled shop, and the highlight for me- a laser cutter! I've been pining over the idea of a laser cutter for a while now, ever since I toured school in Sherwood Park with David Hay.

At Ecole Voyageur the Phys Ed and CTS teacher is Marc Hamel. He is actually a former colleague from my school division but he has a great teaching position at this school now! We talked about CTS instruction and evaluation, how CTS is largely performance/skills based. It is difficult to give a student a 73% on their wood shop project. We also talked about how CTS is unique in this area because a student often gets to see right away if they have done something 'wrong' in a physical way and feedback is immediate. I think true learning happens from this type of project based environment.


Without a doubt, the coolest technology I saw there was a Epilog 35W laser/engraver. The machine has an 18x24" bed which can do a lot of work in a school or business. Marc showed me how etching a design into a material is as easy as printing a piece of paper. The laser can do vector cutting, which is cutting through a material to make a shape, and raster cutting/etching, which is taking away parts of the material to leave a design behind, which can be at different depths and can be different shades. The name plate seen above was made with the machine! Marc uses Corel Draw to import graphics from a library, adds text and then literally clicks 'print'. A printer driver pops up with speed and power options to select. Once these are selected the job is sent to the laser and stored in the internal memory. Marc showed me how to focus the laser just above the wood we were using, then he sent the laser 'home' and clicked 'Go'. Here is my design being cut out.

The image is a shrimp bowl with my name. It turned out awesome! I'm impressed with the detail and precision that the laser gives to the final product. The machine can cut and engrave dozens of materials. While there we also cut ovals through 1/4" cedar which were so sharp and smelled great! I love the smell of burning wood!

My mind has been racing with ideas for projects after this visit. Marc shared the work his students are doing and how he makes products for people in the community, like puzzles for elderly in the lodge who are working on dexterity and memory, and custom cheese boards.

Some ideas that I have for projects would require digital work to produce physical things:
- chess board in the laser cutter, and chess pieces in Google Sketchup to our Makerbot.
- dinosaur bones puzzles
- puzzles
- signage around the school
- game design and re-design (another post of this to come).
- coasters
- engraving iPods, iPads, iPhones and other electronics
- custom boxes
- trophies and plaques for school awards and sports teams
- acrylic signage
- glassware for parent thank you's
- design projects that require multiple prototypes

                          

What a great find in my own community! Thanks to Marc for all his time and valuable discussions. I'm drooling over what an addition like this to our school could do for a multimedia program. It would bring my vision of "maker spaces" one step closer. Giving students more choice and control of the products they produce, and allowing them to rapidly turn ideas into physical prototypes for changing and evaluating. This machine would open up so many opportunities for our students!