Team Africa.

Working with the 1st years was one of the most crucial parts of the project, as without their input we wouldn't be able to produce the inventions that were being pumped out of Oxgangs.

However in the weeks running up to our first meeting with the first years we spent a lot of time preparing, it was agreed we would be frank with them on the timeline/ brief which meant we could include the 1st years on some of the decisions needing to be made in the weeks to come. This is a luxury we all agreed worked for us in our past through 1st and 2nd year, the ability to change the brief as the projects developed.

I had concerns that they might find the project a bit dull or annoying as they were building the kid’s inventions and not being able to actually design it from scratch. So I wanted to emphasise both in the brief and in our meetings with them that they were redesigning the idea promoted by the client (Oxgangs) bringing it to life.

We organised a meeting with Malcolm Innes as we received a lecture from him on his 16 close exhibit and running a community project, and we were keen to run a similar workshop with the first years, he emphasised we had to keep the project interesting as we ran the risk of just running it like a design sweatshop.

After a discussion with the 1st year tutor Richard Firth, he gave us a summary on what to expect as they were shy and had a tendency to lose focus if we didn't constantly check back every hour.

All this research in the run up to the first workshop was so important to me as I really wanted to impress the first years with the project, and explain how big an opportunity it was for them to not only have their models in an exhibit but also to be able to say they worked in alliance with a wider company (little inventors).

Last bit of prep? After getting the scope of the year from Richard, we really wanted to get the year out to the pub. Not only would it allow us to infiltrate the ranks, but a close team is a strong team (After working with Kathleen Kat and Lara I strongly believe in this).

Workshop 1

When drawing up the brief, we decided to use certain terms throughout the learning outcomes and just in general conversation with 1st year. We always referred to Oxgangs and the kids as the “client ''. We felt strongly that if we referred to Oxgangs as the “kids” the 1st years may lose interest.

After delivering the brief, we asked for them to team up into 4 sub teams, this would allow us to make sure that 5 inventions from each class would get made with no bias to a particular class. Each team was assigned one of us as a mentor but also to ask us questions as we found they were more chatting in smaller groups rather than the large year.

Team Africa, my team. The best team.

Anna Hardie, Matthew Taylor, Matthew Estevens and Diana Tsaneva.

I had sifted through P5bs inventions drawings prior to meeting with the team to the ones I felt were strong contenders, But ultimately to keep it fair the guys looked through all inventions and were instructed to pick 1 “clients” inventions to work from.

What I felt was nice having getting to know the kids at Oxgangs, the inventions team Africa chose happened to be a lot of the kids who were having a tough time at school.

Another interesting note was the kids picked all were kids who struggled academically, but seem to flourish when being creative.

Now they had picked, for the remainder of the day we got them as a team to pick an invention to draw up a storyboard into how they would build the model and from what. This task we set them to do with their own inventions so it was a good warm up for them and us to see how they worked.

Workshop 2

This is when we really started to get our heads down, the team came in with a scale card model of their clients inventions. We sat as a team and went over them, working through any concern and to suggest how to go about making the models real.

Matthew T was working with a flying bike invention, and we were keen as a team to make it a life size bike rather

than a model. We took a visit down stairs to the metal workshop to ask the technician for advice on the easiest way to alter the steel frame.

Matthew E was working on a rhino horn shield to protect it from poachers. His card model was so good that to improve on it we tried to source as rhino horn prop and it would be ready for the exhibit.

Anna was working on giraffe stilts, her initial idea was to convert a stool from a charity shop, but after consulting with the team we made cardboard props, laser cutting each one to allow ease of movement to extend the stilts.

Diana was working on a spring loaded truck, her card model too was exactly how I imagined it looking in the exhibit, we discussed designing a Sahara desert scene for the exhibit to showcase her invention.

We left this workshop all on the right track for finishing the models on time, we aimed to have the models finished by week 3 so we could move onto making storyboards and exhibit planning so that all the deliverables were met before Easter.

COVID GATE

In the weeks running up to the first workshop with 1st year, its fair to say we were oblivious to the upcoming global pandemic, by the 2nd workshop however we lived in a different world. By this stage Italy had been placed on lockdown and shops were out of toilet roll.

This was the first time I had ever even contemplated that this project was in jeopardy.

So by workshop 3 the whole world was upside down, it was our last workshop, and by this point we knew the exhibit and project as whole was going to be postponed.

We had an open discussion with the 1st years, and everyone was at a stage in their projects that it was important to them to see it through. Some were so close to finishing that by September they would easily be able to resume where they left off.

Reflection

I found working with the first years quite refreshing, as up until this point we had spent weeks and weeks preparing not only for their part in the project but also Oxgangs and Wee inventors as a whole. So i felt it was the halfway point in my placement, as now i had completed the preparation, it was time to start designing.

Separating into teams worked well for me as I was able to use the guys in “team Africa” to give my opinions on my invention as well as having an active part in building their models for the exhibit. The 1st years workshops proved to be the area in need of the biggest problem solving, as we had limited access to the workshops and funds by this stage, working to find materials became a constant onus on us. But it was one I enjoyed and feel something Team Africa has shown to overcome the constraints of the budget and time.