P5b Go Global

Prep

We initially met with Oxgangs deputy head Sarah in January to discuss our upcoming workshops with the school, she explained how Oxgangs slightly differed from the rest of the schools in Edinburgh as there was a wider range of pupils needs and backgrounds. She explained how a lot of the kids we would be working with had sometimes quite challenging behaviour. Some of the examples of how the kids can react quite honestly put the fear of god into me, and I left the meeting thinking I'd be safer getting a placement in a prison.

It was decided before commencing our workshops we should split up as a group and shadow each of the 4 classes in the weeks prior. I was assigned P5b, and I believe the 2 weeks I shadowed Mrs Nash was one of the most invaluable experiences I've gained. I was told I would have a slight advantage with my class, as the boys outnumbered the girls and being a “boy” myself the kids would connect easier.

In the weeks shadowing I was able to take note of the pupils abilities, as well as get to know their personalities. Thankfully some of the worst case scenarios that I had been warned about in the prep never presented themselves while I was in the class. However I was able to note some of the more challenging pupils in my class, which was crucial as I used this insight when I was drawing up class plans for the upcoming workshops.

Once we had finished shadowing, we sat down in the office and drew up an official launch document, As we had now seen what work we would be able to get out of the kids. It was important to clarify both with Oxgangs and ourselves how the next few months were going to look and finish (pre global pandemic).

Workshop 1

In the prep for our first workshop we knew it was important that we got the kids to learn some of the basic skills as designer/Inventor. From my weeks shadowing I noticed that when they were talking with me they liked to talk about themselves a lot (Doesn't everyone?)

The conversations usually went as such;

“Hey, Jordan…..

“Guess what iPhone I have”

“What car do you have, my dad has a BMW”

“Why do you always wear vans I have 3 pairs of gazelle”

These were the sorts of statements and questions we wanted to try change in our workshops, and why for our first workshop we got each class to make character profiles. Teaching them to design for someone else by literally designing someone.

In our presentation to the kids on what we were doing in the workshop, us 4 each designed a character. This gave my 2nd biggest insight into the mind of a P5!

One of the character examples we used in our presentation was a pet dog, this resulted in us getting 11 pet dog characters from the kids...

Kids have great imaginations, a fact that was cemented in my experience overall. But kids also need to be reassured constantly, and any uncertainty results in them not believing in themselves usually resorting to copying someone near for the reassurance they are doing it right.

And when you are striving for some ingenious "wee inventions" I had to think of a way for the remaining workshops to gt the kids reassured that there is no such thing as a bad invention.

Workshop 2

Following what we had learnt in the 1st workshop, we knew that the pupils wouldn't be able to just come up with an invention on their own. They needed a push in the right direction, But a balance had to be met as too much direction results in you getting 11 pet dog inventions.

To also give the project some structure for the upcoming exhibit, we decided to take Oxgangs “global”. This would give the exhibit more of a theme and it was also decided it would be a great case study for social media. We gave each class a continent from around the world, I chose Africa for P5B.

So in the prep before I met with the class I made up a presentation for some more unknown facts about Africa. The idea being, kids already have a pretty good stereotypical view on Africa and I didn't want their inventions to be limited to the more common facts.

I tried to focus more on transportation and animal issues, by giving them listed problems I then instructed them to simply pick one and use this to come up with an invention. This was a lot more successful way of teaching I found compared to the previous workshop, as it proved giving them a solution resulted in them simply just copying.

I was thrilled to see the inventions from P5B, I feel it was a great success as some of the solutions for the problems proposed were fun and ingenious. Also gave me a good source of material to work from for when it came to working with 1st yr product design at Napier. Leonidas age 9, how do you solve rhino poaching? Simply just give the rhino camouflage.

Workshop 3

During our prep phase, we organised a meeting with Malcom Innes and Euan Winton. They talked us through some of the community workshops they had run and just overall advice on how we could run with the project. A particular workshop they ran was interventions within a flat close, they had the residents design interventions for their close using Plasticine, which they later put on display in their exhibit.

This was an exercise we were keen to run with Oxgangs as not everyone is confident drawing, and the opportunity to make a 3-D interpretation of their invention would make it easier for both the pupils and us to understand.

However in the first 2 weeks shadowing, me and Kathleen's classes had an art lesson.

And well, if you think Donald Trump's America is chaotic, you should really witness P5 with paper mache. Enough said.

So with the insight into Oxgangs art lessons in mind, we thought it appropriate to start easy with the arts and crafts. We used our 3rd workshop with the pupils to get them to team up and build some famous buildings, I gave P5B a presentation on some famous architecture on the continent.

They were then tasked to replicate those buildings using cardboard. This was a great exercise as the kids found it fun but it also enabled me to learn how to keep them tame when it came to more practical crafts.

Workshop 4

By the last week at Oxgangs we had already had our first workshop with the first years, I really wanted P5 to get a chance to see how these “big people” worked, so in my presentation I showed them photos of the 1st years in the studio sifting through their inventions. This cause great excitement as I think the realisation that they were involved in something massive.

Best way to describe their excitement?

The idea of their invention being picked by a 1st year is equivalent to adults idea of winning the lottery. And for me personally this was the point that I really switched from seeing this project from just being some career experience to being something more personal. And nothing, not even a global pandemic would stop me from delivering these kids dreams.

Now we had control on organised chaos when it came to crafts, for our last workshops P5B were ready to move onto making Plasticine models of their inventions.

The last workshop and maybe one of the best, at first the kids struggled to work with the medium but as soon as we told them it was inventors play-doh they were hooked. Their concentration level matched that of a rocket scientist. they were focusing on their own model, and they all wanted to be the best.

By this workshop they were all aware that only 5 inventions were getting made and this pushed them into making sure their models were the best.

Overall my time at Oxgangs was an eye opening one, I've had a lot of experience before working with kids, running an arts club for 2years and tutoring.

But in all this experience, the kids I worked with at Oxgangs were something else. Some of them are experiencing hard home lives, a few with learning difficulties and a couple who were generally just having a hard time at school.

All these kids, all with different stories. Were all able to work on the same project with the same amount of success which made it impossible to pick just 5 inventions from P5B.