Maker Lab 1: Design Lab

Participation

A class is a place where we study together. Your participation will help make this a great class.

To get full participation points:

1. Attend every class session. This is a short course and there are no excused absences outside of medical exemptions with a doctor’s note, modification from the Student Access Office, or a religious holiday.
2. Don’t be late. Don’t leave early.
3. Do the readings. Come to class prepared to discuss the readings. If it’s obvious that you didn’t do the readings, or made little effort to engage with or try to understand them, you will lose participation points.
4. Maintain the lab. We are all responsible for maintaining the maker lab, closet, and our materials. Help us set up, help keep things clean and organized, help us put things away.
5. Be bold. This is a class about creativity and making. We want you to take risks, to try new things. This is not an easy thing!
6. Be kind and respectful. We love a spirited debate, strong opinions, and learning new things from each other. But those practices only work if we offer our respect to the other participants and assume they are operating in good faith, too.
7. Communicate. Read your emails. Post on Discord. Talk to your partners. Let the instructors know if there’s a problem or question. Tell us how to make things better.

On the last day of class, please share with the instructors (via Direct Message on Discord) a photo of a 1-page reflection of your participation from your journal.

Artist’s Journal

Everyone will keep an artist’s journal during this course (and after, we hope). The Journal is a place for you to record thoughts, plan designs, sketch ideas, and reflect. There will be some “assigned” journal entries (see below), but mostly it is meant for your own benefit. Journaling might not be for you… but for the purpose of this course, try it out with an open mind.

To “grade” your journal, you will upload photos of key pages to your online portfolio and post a brief (300-500 word) reflection about how you used it, and what you thought of the journal.

Museum Visits

You will visit (at least) 3 museums outside of course hours. Each visit must be at least one hour long. You must keep journal entries for each visit that log the museum, the date and time of the visit, and key exhibitions or works that you engaged with. You should also document your visit with sketches, photos, and videos. You will create an entry on your online portfolio for each visit. Your entries should reflect on the visit in terms of course readings and discussions, including considering how the museums work as public pedagogy, the learning design, the aesthetic experience, politics of the museum, etc.

You must visit at least one of the following “STEM” museums:

• New York Hall of Science
• MoMath: Museum of Mathematics
• Museum of the Moving Image
• American Museum of Natural History

You can use your library card (New York, Brooklyn, or Queens) to get free culture pass to many museums in the city. Even if you can’t take advantage during our short course, it is a great resource.

The instructors will post other interesting museum exhibits and events on Discord as well as invitations to join us for informal, optional fieldtrips during the course. You can also check out the NYC Arts Calendar for further ideas and events.

Maker Lesson

You will read the New York State and professional standards for your content area (Math, Biology, Physics, Comp Sci, etc.) as well as the Art Standards. You will create your own lesson plan that addresses one of the standards from your content area and one of the art standards. Your lesson must incorporate key ideas of maker education and STEAM learning. The instructors will provide links to sample lesson plans as well as example templates for creating a lesson plan.

Plan a lesson for a 45 minute class.

At the very least, your lesson plan must include the following items:

• a brief narrative describing what happens before and after this lesson
• learning goals and standards covered in the lesson
• materials list
• a timeline of activities
• how the lesson will be assessed
• any instructor created materials (slides, handouts, examples)

You will submit your lesson as a Google Doc shared with the instructors, with links to all external materials and resources.

The lesson will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• creativity of the lesson
• alignment with standards
• integration with maker and STEAM learning
• viability of the lesson in a classroom setting

Optionally add your lesson plan to your portfolio.

Public Art Encounters

New York is full of public art: famous sculptures, big shows, street art, hidden and half forgotten works, and more. You will document at least 3 public art works that you encounter. At least one of these should be “sanctioned” work and at least one should be “unsanctioned” work.

Document your encounter in your journal with at least one sketch of each work, and notes on the context, your experience, and thoughts on the work. Further document your encounter with photos and videos. Consider things like the medium of the work, the scale (aka size), the materials, when it was created, how it was funded (or not).

Upload your documentation to your online portfolio.

Reading Responses

For each reading, you will write a “reading response” in your journal prior to the class session (except for the first meeting – we will write them in class). Your response must include a 150 word summary of the reading, it should also include notes, questions, reference to key passages, and your thoughts.

Reading responses will be checked by the instructors at the start of each class. For some sessions you will read your response aloud or share with a partner.

Maker Vest

We are all going to make a vest. Working from patterns provided, you will design your own vest, cut the fabric, and sew it together. You will design an embroidery or patch for your name, and also a decorative design for the back of the vest. The vests will include “wearable” technologies powered by Adafruit Qt Py microcontrollers. Your technology integration can be playful, aesthetic, or functional.

In addition to the patch and tech, you will must also design and 3D print an element for your vest. This could be a button, a zipper pull, a buckle, or something else.

We will begin working on the vests during our first Saturday session, but you will need to spend time outside of class to complete the project.

To submit your vest, create a page to showcase it on your portfolio. Add photos of the vest (in stages as you construct it), supplement it with videos, sketches, digital diagrams, 3D models, etc. Upload these to your portfolio, along with a reflection of your process, what you learned, what you think of your final piece, and how this project fits into your understanding of maker education.

Your vest will be evaluated on:

• the quality of your craft
• the innovations found in your design (don’t just copy something your found online)
• the demonstration your ability with the tools of the maker lab:
  • microcomputer
  • circuits
  • 3D design and printing

Scratch Story Game

The Scratch programming language is many students’ first introduction to computer science and computer programming. Scratch is the direct descendent of the Logo programming; Seymour Papert’s constructionist programming language.

For this project you will work in a team of two to design, code, and test a “story game” in Scratch. You will create original art for your game as vector graphics, create a compelling narrative to drive the game, and incorporate puzzles, challenges, and other interactive elements.

Your will build your game on top of our Scratch game platform which will make provide basic mechanics such as keeping track of active scenes, inventory, score, etc. You will not just create a game, but a game-for-learning (aka serious game) that incorporates elements of our STEAM content areas.

To complete this assignment, you publish your game on Scratch. Each team member will also submit a reflection on their portfolio site that describes the content areas addressed, the theory behind the game (why is it fun? who is it for? how does it teach?). Also discuss the development and game testing process. Finish your reflection with ways that you could improve the game.

Your game will be evaluated on:

• Risk & Creativity: does your game try to do something new?
• Fun: how well does it work as a game?
• Story: does the story make sense? are the characters compelling? does the player make real choices?
• Art & Design: does the game visually and aesthetically enhance the learning and story goals? are the developers able to create a polished look and feel?
• Programming: do the developers demonstrate understanding of key CS concepts such as loops, conditionals, variables, events, functions, and parallelism? do they understand key Scratch concepts such as sprites, costumes, and backdrops?
• Learning: does the game teach something? is it worth teaching? are the “play” and “learning” elements integrated?

Online Portfolio

You will create an online portfolio that will be used throughout the Master’s in STEAM Teaching and Learning. While the portfolio will house many of your assignments, you are also responsible for designing a site that reflects your identity as a maker and educator.

The portfolios will be created using Google Sites with your Adelphi email account. You will be responsible for maintaining the site permissions and making sure that it is available to the instructors and other students in the class, and that some aspects (at least) are fully public. Everyone is encouraged to use Google Sites, but if you have a strong preference for another platform, you can use it once you have instructor approval.

Your portfolio will be evaluated on how well you demonstrate your ability to use the features of your online platform, you ability to achieve a consistent and professional design and user experience, the quality of your content (well edited writing, thoughtful images, clear audio, etc), and the overall creativity and originality of your site.