Toy Take-Apart reflection

Thank you for all the constructive feedback on my toy take-apart activity, I enjoyed reading your comments and I am glad the majority of you were engaged with the activity.

Some notable comments:
- combining the activity with Kevin's LED activity
- providing more signage, particularly about reconstructing ("Now make something new!" or "Take Apart a Toy--> Use those parts and others to create something new!")
- incorporate a large plastic toy with large plastic screws for toddlers to easily get a sense of the activity (maybe put this in the cozy corner)
- a lot of comments were about the activity becoming messy very fast, this is something that is inevitable, and it is an encouraging messy, however, I did state that I would have the large grey bin on the table for "mechanical guts"
- adding holding clamps to hold on to the toy so a person with low fine motor skills can use two hands on the tool
- think about supplements that could be added to the space, (maybe cozy corner) that link and invite younger tinkerers
- imagine having no knowledge of using a screw driver, what help would that require?
- for children who have no experience breaking toys, and may be discouraged at the outset, this activity is great for them, this is a safe space for them to deconstruct toys and gives them the opportunity to re-create something
- providing more safety goggles

Crochet Feedback Reflection

Thank you all for the feedback! Unfortunately, I was limited on time and kind of threw the set up together. I used my own personal hook which is why there was only one. For the ipad, most were in use for the activity in the workshop so I did not want to take from that but plan to have more than one of those as well. I plan to have a few hooks out at a time and at least 2 iPads. As for fine motor skills, I would love to have large hooks and chunky yarn, however, that yarn is VERY expensive. This would not allow for guests to take things home. If we provide large yarn, I would encourage it to only be part of a collaborative project that stays in the workshop as the budget would not allow for us to buy very much of it. We can totally add larger hooks and yarn and only allow them to take projects made with the regular yarn.

Ideally, sparks will be able to prototype during the month before the handicraft activities in order to build up enough skill with crochet to facilitate effectively. If anyone is struggling, I’m happy to do a little one-on-one as well. The main reason I did not want to put out examples of projects that are made with crochet such as hats or scarves is that I feel people would then ask how to make those or where they can get patterns and I do not want to make sparks responsible for such inquiries. I like the idea of having one yarn box so that the table can be sort of split. Crocheting on one side and patterns on the other. I will make a longer box so that people don’t have to clump!

Please let me know if you have any additional feedback or questions.

Pixel art feeback- Juliana

Thank you all for the helpful feedback on my activity! I was very curious to see how it would go with the Google Sheets template. I had some comments about figuring out a way to make it so that the artwork made by guests could be saved automatically rather than having to erase the past work that had been done. If anyone has ideas for this please let me know! I think I am going to add something to my sign that says “Ask a Spark how to send your artwork home!” (Destiny had a similar sign and liked this idea better than having explicit directions on how to share the google sheet- thanks Destiny!) I will also be sure to make my signs bigger as a few of you suggested.

Many of you gave me suggestions on how to make the application of pixel art clearer. KJ, I really liked your idea of having an ipad locked on an image for guests to zoom in and out of to see how the pixels change size. Ron and Danielle H. also suggested having different size pixels so that guests can create their artwork on multiple scales to understand how resolution affects pixelation. This is definitely something that I could incorporate into my final curriculum, and it also makes it more accessible to guests with dexterity difficulties.

I also liked the challenges that many of you came up with for the google sheets pixel art activity. I think instead of having these challenges displayed as signage, I will add them to my curriculum so that Sparks can read them and be ready to challenge guests. Sophia and Danielle came up with the challenge of typing your name to see what pattern it creates/decoding a message. Other ideas were a color-coded scrabble game and guessing a word based on the colors. If anyone else has ideas for challenges for guests that I could add to my curriculum, please comment and let me know!

Tarah- I really liked your idea of having the conditional formatting rules visible to guests. This way guests could learn about how the rules are made and maybe even tinker around with them. My only concern with this is if the rules were to get erased somehow, but I will be sure to save a few extra copies of the template in case this happens! Tarah also suggested to lock navigation around the computer- does anyone know how to do this?

Additional questions I have for everyone:

1. Do you think the signage was helpful? Mostly wondering about the sign above the laptops: “Select a blank pixel, type any letter, then hit enter.” Do you think you would have been able to figure it out without this sign/is it necessary?
2. I was also wondering what everyone thought about guests having the option to print out their artwork? Or is it enough having the other activity with the foam squares?

Thank you to everyone for your responses!

DIgital Drawing presentation feedback - Destiny

First off, thank you so much for all the great ideas and suggestions for improvements. The main concern I got was pertaining to the set up being uninviting/ minimalistic.
I understand I need to make it inviting so maybe I can cover the table in butcher paper and write some challenges like "draw what you see outside." "draw yourself or a friend with your eyes closed" and then leave makers/ crayons on the table in buckets for guests to have an option between a community paper or the app.
Another option suggested by KJ was to have a theme or print outs of inspiring photos on the table like landscaped/ people/ objects. These could invite guests to start.
I could also combine the two and have both butcher paper and the inspiring photos.
WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK ON THIS OR OTHER OPTIONS. I would love to steer away from having objects out like the last workshop because I do not want guests thinking it is the same thing.


Some other comments were made about making it deeper. For example sending it home or sending it to a slide show outside. This is possible and when I was prototyping I was trying to figure out how to do this as smoothly as possible. I got a lot of feedback from my colleagues about and the cons out weighed the pros. I would be open to working with someone or some people on figuring this portion out. if it means sharing to the screen outside the workshop I would love to know how to do this or suggestions of how to make it a positive collaborative sharing space.


I got feedback that the app was very easy to navigate and I also got comments that an instruction sheet would be helpful. Something like "double tap the brush to change color and size" "press the + sign to change brush type" Is this necessary?


Thank you for your comments once again I will be making changes and improvements to my curriculum/ set up for sure.

Comments About Knot Tying and Lashings

Thank you for the great and insightful comments I received. The recommendations I received were very helpful. Danielle H. recommended including a shoe that children could practice tying laces on, Sam thought some cleats or fixtures would help with tying some of the knots and give guests and anchor, and Samantha recommend the addition of a tree branch to acted as the anchor. All of these ideas are great and I really liked that they all seemed to be achievable. The branch would act as a great way to include the natural environment that knots are associated with.

I did get some feedback that the activity may not be accessible to all guests and I do understand where the concern is coming from. I think the addition of the shoe is a really good way to get the younger guests involved and show off their new learned skills in everyday use. Challenges may be a good way to keep the interest of guests and give other a starting point from which they can grow.

Handicrafts feedback- Destiny

Handicrafts discussion of presentations based on their blog posts:

SAM:
I really like your idea of using pro create to improve your signs. I think basing your signs on what you had in class would be good enough. Maybe just clarify what you were trying to convey in them. Just a side note that I think you still need to keep your signs simple like they were in class because you do not want the sign to be limiting guests to a specific way of creating the rope and not too wordy to make them uninviting to engage in.

DANIELLE:
My suggestion to make this activity more accessible for people of all abilities and ages would be to have other components to your curriculum that does not involve the hot pens. This could be simply drawing on wood or having a game/challenge with exploring different types of wood based on the 5 senses. (organize wood based on color, smell, texture. weight. etc) you could have challenge cards like "cedar is reddish brown, straight fine texture.... can you find the car block?" This can engage guests who can not use the pen.

SAMANTHA:
I am very excited to see the transformation of your curriculum based on the feedback on class. I think you have many great ideas but since making a puzzle or riddle allows the guest to be the most creative I think narrowing it down to that will be successful in reaching your goal. I would just warn you because you mentioned that your original plan for set up was to have somme sort of flow to your station (buffet style line order, start on one end of the table and end on the other). This is risky in the workshop because most guests in the workshop just jump right in the middle or at the station with multiple people. This could jeopardize the experience if they start at the "wrong" end. If you still want to do this maybe have clear labels of START and FINISH so guests know there is an order. I do not know if this goal will be taken out in the iteration of the new set up but just a thought. We can discuss this if it is unclear.

All in all, I'm excited to see the evolution of these stations when implemented in the workshop. I am also excited to get feedback on my activity tomorrow and make changes based on how people respond/ interpret my curriculum.

Puzzles Curriculum: Responding to Feedback on In-Class Demonstration [Samantha Brown]

Physical Setup
A number of people were confused by the setup, with some comments stating there were too many materials, some about general lack of direction, and concern about the organization of the space; some people were unsure how to use the wood pieces; a few people appreciated the signage.

I will take the feedback I received after my presentation into consideration. I will include in the signage portion of the curriculum the image from my PowerPoint. I tried to use the opportunity in class to explore a somewhat alternative setup, one that might reflect a design challenge with leeway. I thought that it would be fun to see what people could make around a particular theme with little to no definitive template or guidebook on how to get there.

Accessibility
People felt that the activity was accessible but that the learning goal was unclear.

Practices
People felt that the activity allowed for social and emotional engagement, critical thinking skills, initiative and intentionality, as well as creativity. The selected learning practices did vary from person-to-person.

Learning Goals
People derived very unique learning goals despite a general lack of direction, prompts, or instructions:

Ron
“Make a puzzle, solve a riddle, build a toothpick sculpture, color”

Sam S
“Setting one’s own goal, planning out process and changing ideas based on goals, connecting projects to personal interests/experiences” 

Matthew
“Exploring and creativity in puzzles and riddles” 

Kevin
“Maybe that puzzles need to be solvable. I imagine that kids might want to make impossibly hard puzzles, but  those aren’t ! Also about working backwards.” 

Danielle T
“Shapes for young guests, younger guests might learn what Tetris is!” 

Sophia
“Riddle book - social and emotional engagement, working in teams, toothpicks, foam pieces - responding aesthetically to materials/creativity 

KJ
“Riddle book - social engagement, engaging in argument, using math + computational thinking, great for adults! Critical thinking?” 

Destiny
“Have guests create their own puzzles, explore using materials in a new way, practice engaging with riddles and puzzles, learn different types” 

Danielle H
“Added after presentations: so much learning potential here now that I understand it’s about making puzzles - scale, measuring, etc” 

Tarah
“I see problem solving as a very key learning outcome, and the presence of making tools makes me think that creative making/self-expression/exposure to a new process is intended - however, with this setup, I did not feel equipped to make something new.”

Comments
Some comments suggested I simplify the goals and intention. People also mentioned the multiple entry points are helpful but aren’t quite clear.

Reflection
Overall, I think I’ll simplify the activity.

I initially wanted to allow for making, tinkering, or playing—or all of the above! But I think I will change the curriculum so that it’s primarily making puzzles, in order to provide better direction. I'm still doubtful that I want to remove the tinkering or playing aspects. 

I wanted people to be able to freely create, but I think someone else posed the concern (it was Ron) that it might end up as an arts and crafts project. And if I do decide to keep these aspects, maybe I'll provide better guidelines and examples on the whiteboard, so that people don’t get overwhelmed. However, I think the theme of the activity is quite low-risk and accessible so that people would be inclined to attempt something regardless.

In the curriculum, I’ll rework the signage and setup portions. A few people didn’t notice the cardboard, so I’ll rearrange the materials to be more clear. Also, I’ll try to find better pictures for signage that demonstrate potential puzzles that can be made (I ran out of time that morning and wasn’t able to print proper examples). I think I’ll try to mention a better riddle book too, because the one provided was a little more complex with some answers being disputable.

Maybe choosing specific puzzles that can be made is another aspect I’ll change in the curriculum, again I'm unsure about this. Or, as Tarah mentioned, I can prompt the creation process of those specific puzzles better.

I appreciate the preliminary run of the activities; it’s helpful for putting the final touches on the curriculum.

Pyrography Feedback - Danielle Tisdale

I really appreciate all the feedback from everyone!

In general, I got a lot of feedback about safety concerns, so I wanted to address those. 

I will have signage, I want to include some instructions on one as well as some safety tips and warnings. I had an example of possible signage in my presentation, but I think I will also include a sign saying something like "Guests under a certain age need parental supervision or a spark to help". What age do you think would be able to handle the pen without a parent directly helping? I was thinking maybe 10 and up, any thoughts on that? 

I also want to have some safety glasses and gloves available, Tarah is it possible to get the heat protective gloves in kid sizes? I also want to put the silicon soldering mats on the table under the pens so that guests won't be tempted to test the pens on the wooden tables. A couple people mentioned that the pen stands weren't very sturdy, could we use the holsters for the soldering pens instead? I also like the idea of having a small fan next to the station to help keep the smoke out of guests' eyes. A couple people also asked if we could have different pen tips available, I think I would like to have those available but only if guests ask for them so they don't change the tips on their own while the pen is on. 

I also want to have lots of pieces of wood of different types and sizes for people to be able experiment with and take their own creation home. 

Sam, you mentioned in the feedback that creating experiments would be a good idea, what specifically did you mean by that? Just testing the pen on different types of wood, or something else?

Matthew, I definitely want to emphasize that parents of younger guests should work with them as a team on their project, but I also think that as long as the parents are supervising their kids, the older ones should be allowed to try it on their own. You also mentioned heat transfer and a burn tool, can you elaborate on those suggestions? Is a burn tool different from the pyrography pen? What is involved in heat transfer techniques?

Sophia, I liked your idea of adding markers and pens so younger guests can contribute to the collaborative piece without needing to use the pen itself or having their parents do it for them.

Destiny, do you have any specific ideas on making the activity more accessible to guests with disabilities? 

Samantha, since it's a side activity, I think I want to use the back table that currently has the MOXI I spy station, I think that would be enough space for two people. What did you mean by textile stimulation?

Danielle, I think that oven mitts would make people more clumsy, but they could work in a pinch. I'm hoping we can get more protective gloves in some smaller sizes. 

Tarah, I want to have paper available to guests so they can sketch their designs onto paper instead of directly onto the wood. They can sketch directly onto the wood if they want, but I have found that to be slightly frustrating because if you mess up the sketch, it doesn't tend to erase well. I'm excited people worked in parallel! To encourage that, do you think that increasing the size of the collaborative piece would encourage that since there would be more room?

Ron, I think your suggestion to have patterns out for guests to copy or be inspired by is great! I will also do some research on if other makerspaces or museums have done wood burning before and share my findings.

KJ, I like your idea to provide prompts for guests to inspire them, do you think that they would be more helpful on a sign or to include them in the curriculum as something for Sparks to say while they facilitate? There will be takeaways, I think what I want to emphasize is the collaborative project but I also want to allow guests to make take home pieces. I definitely did not think about people burning their hair, so I will provide hairbands for guests along with safety glasses and protective gloves! I will include in the curriculum that when sparks set up, to check the pen tips and tighten them with pliers if they are loose. I want to put this station in the back of the room so that it minimizes the risk of kids running in and grabbing the pens, like they might if it were the first thing they see. 

Review and Feedback to Rope-making - Sam S.

Thank you all for the great feedback! I think the format for this week's class was really fun and helpful in thinking about how to set up final touches for my curriculum.

I think that I have two primary challenges in finalizing my project: communicating rope-making technique to Sparks and guests through the curriculum and through signage, and coming up with prompts, signs and setups that will encourage testing and breaking ropes to see their strength.

I received suggestions to make the signage clearer and more visual to communicate technique for rolling/twisting/braiding rope. I think I'm going to use the Pro Create program on the ipad pros to make clear visual aids that I can print up for each technique. The signs that I had out during our demo were better than nothing, but they were still somewhat slap-dash and vague. I got a coupe of reminders to keep in mind that most guests will never have done anything like this before, so I have to be very explicit in communicating. It's safe to assume that outside of the demo on Tuesday, Sparks haven't done this either. I'll try to be as clear as possible in the curriculum. If anyone has any suggestions for clear and effective signage, I'd love to hear it!

Several people mentioned that it was really helpful to have examples of rope on display that were made by several different techniques. I think that having broken/tested ropes out as well may encourage guests to stress-test their creations. This testing and iterating will really help guests get to the learning goals of understanding material properties, internal friction, and how rope works. I also got a couple of suggestions to have weights kept out to test the rope. One problem I see there is that lots of the rope will exceed any small-sized weight in strength, and I don't want guests hurting themselves. If anyone has any other idea how to test the tensile strength safely please let me know.

Finally, it was super interesting hearing others' interpretations of the practices and learning outcomes for this activity. There were several things that I hadn't thought of at all! I hadn't even considered pattern recognition as a learning outcome. I hadn't thought at all about connecting this concept to hair braiding, and that guests with longer hair may be more ready to engage and succeed. Reading some of those thoughts was eye-opening that, despite how much I'd thought about different ways to approach this, some now-obvious things completely escaped me.

I've written down most suggestions/thoughts from the review sheets below, which will help in finalizing the curriculum.

Phyical Setup
- Having examples out was helpful, compared to the signs.
- "Start with this much material, then make it look like this" sign
- Include gloves to make rolling easier?
- 2 rather than 3 cork boards?
- collaborative/splicing piece?
- make signage more instructive
- Prompt like "make and test a rope", challenge weights for rope w/ clamp,
- demonstrate sample taped to surface
- need to assume guest has never done anything like this before


Accessibility
- keep prompts VISUAL and DIRECT
- Encourage testing/playing with raw materials vs finished rope for guests who can't make it
- Dexterity issues can be a barrier (C, C,
- longer-haired people may be more familiar
-

Practices
- Find prompts to get towards what makes rope strong, fundamentals
- Connect to braiding hair
- Initiative and intentionality (C, C, C, C, C
- Creativity (C
- Problem solving/critical thinking (C, C
- Investigating (magnifying glass)
- social engagement, asking for help (C,
- iteration
- collaboration
-


Learning Goals
- pattern recognition/generation
- fine motor skills
- different materials that can be used (C, C,
- changing raw materials into something stronger (C,
- can be time consuming/difficult, requires perseverance
- strength of materials
- many ways to make a rope (C,


Other Comments
- cork boards may eventually disintegrate

UDL at MOXI - Danielle Tisdale

Look at White Water, Sound Machine, and one other exhibit and think about how UDL is incorporated into this exhibit, or how it could be through facilitation.

Sound Machine: Sound machine is accessible to most guests, even HoH guests because it is also visual, but the space between the two parts of it where guests can interact with it is limited for wheelchair users.


White Water: It seems fairly accessible in at least one way to every guest, but maybe it is hard for a person with limited mobility to interact with it. I could imagine that someone on crutches would have a hard time maneuvering around it. Spaces are open enough for wheelchair users to be able to experience all of the exhibit, and it is tactile, visual, and audible, so guests can interact with it even if one of those experiences is limited for them.

Heartbeat Drum: The heartbeat drum is too tall for most wheelchair users to be able to interact with it, is there a way to work around that? We have stools for smaller guests, but that won't help everyone. Otherwise, it is a good mix of audio and visual experiences so most guests will be able to interact with it.

UDL at MOXI

Look at White Water, Sound Machine, and one other exhibit and think about how UDL is incorporated into this exhibit, or how it could be through facilitation. 

White water - Accessible to a large audience and multiple points of entry to engage with the exhibit. Certain aspects of the exhibit may be limited by strength an height such as the pumps however with a broad goal, guests can still find success at this exhibit. 

Sound machine - Accessible to a large audience and tactile, visual, and auditory components to the exhibit. 

Giant Guitar - Accessible to a large audience, low and high access points for visitors. Scale component, movable parts are easily manipulated. 

All of these exhibits are asseccible to a large audience and have tacticle, visual, and auditory components, have multiple points of entry, and have both high and low access points for individuals of different heights. There are limitations in the exhibits such as the pumps at whitewater or being able to pluck the strings at the guitar however, there are a lot of different means to interact with the exhibit allowing it to be accessible to everyone. MOXI exhibits provide a space for guests to set their own goal and test and experiment in order to reach their goal. I think that this is precisely what UDL strives to achieve allowing everyone to reach a goal and learn by using the tools that work best for them.