Focus Question: How did the iterative design thinking process come into play in this activity? Tell a story about your experience using a combination of words and images.
Ask: Me and Kelsey asked how we could design a bot that would work properly. We had the limitations of the supplies in the room, and whatever we had in our bags at the time.
Imagine: We thought of some ways we could tackle the project. First we thought using a cup would work, but we decided that it would be easier to attach the markers to a strawberry basket.
Build: We started constructing the bot by duct taping the markers onto the strawberry basket, and making sure the battery and all wires were set up. We also got the design challenge, which for us was the word “mischievous”.
To make our bot convey mischievousness, we gathered pipe cleaners and weaved them in and out of the basket holes to emulate the idea of snakes (because people associate snakes with sneakiness). Another addition was duct tape around the basket that had a small figure hiding behind a wall. We thought that this addition would make it easier to guess the word.
Evaluate: We quickly realized that we had taped the markers on the wrong side of the basket, so we had to flip them around. Then we ran into the problem of how to bend the pipe cleaners in a way that would look the most aesthetically pleasing. Another challenge was the glue stick and inserting it into the motor, making sure that it didn’t get blocked by anything (or else it wouldn’t move).
Share: When the class got to our group, we wanted our word to be really obvious. I played a version of pink panther music while our bot moved around the paper. Then everyone guessed the word by putting their predictions onto a small piece of paper.
What did you learn? Describe your learning process. What was most challenging? What was most fun? (.5 points)
I learned that balance and distribution of weight is really important when designing something like this. If the weight was off one of the markers wouldn’t touch the paper. Me and Kelsey had to make adjustments and oddly enough, altering the placement of the markers and making sure we taped them right was most challenging to me. Choosing the music that we played when sharing our bot was fun. I had to listen to different videos and find one that both of us agreed on. IMG_3713-tgrr52
How did this activity connect (or not) to your prior knowledge of art and art education? (.25 points) How might you use and/or adapt this activity in an art classroom? (.25 points)
I had never seen this in any other classroom, so this was a new experience for me. The project could definitely be put to use in a 9-12th grade classroom, but I would figure out a different way to get the bot to vibrate because the glue stick wasn’t the most visually appealing.
First, I have to comment that I like the way you laid out your writing with the pictures immediately following what you are talking about. It makes for better and easy to digest material and I am able to understand things right away because of this layout. I think the use of outside resources like playing pink panther to convey the mood of your word was very creative, innovative, and a fun take on the project. I also really enjoyed how you added other visual additions to suggest the word mischievous, like the pipe cleaner snakes, and the drawing of someone sneaking behind a wall. It was put together very cleverly and its documentation was well organized, great job!