Turning First Years into Magnificent Makers

I was very excited to work with the first years in the coming months, this is going to be an amazing project. We knew that organising workshops for the first years would be very different from the ones we had done for oxgangs primary. I had previously worked with children before I went into oxgangs but I had not worked with young adults so I wasn't sure what to expect.

In preparation for our workshops we spent a few days figuring out how we should approach them, we decided it best that we got some advice from our lecturer Richard.

He really helped us understand how to best guide the first years while keeping them engaged with the project. He expressed to us how important involvement was and that we needed to keep on top of them as they will quickly show a lack of interest. This reminded me of ‘me’ when I was a first year, I sometimes found it difficult to engage in classes especially if it was group work as I still didn't know many people. As a group we reminisced of how far we have come since then and discussed our own feelings of being first years, putting ourselves in their shoes.

We decided that we best start with setting the brief of the project. Knowing that the brief was pretty set as the whole concept from ‘Wee Inventors’ is kids design then makers making but we wanted to make sure that the first years enjoyed what they were doing. Thinking back to what Richard had discussed with us we started to think of how he taught the first years and us, his style of teaching is very fun and open, always pushing us to be creative. Wanting to do this for the first years we decided it was best to allow them plenty of ‘wiggle room’ on their designs. So this was a major point in our brief that they would be able to redesign the children's ideas to suit their style.

Before starting our workshops we popped into one of Richards' classes to explain the project and give them the brief, we wanted to express to them how much of an amazing opportunity this was. That working with a ‘live client’ in first year will look so good on cv, I feel this really got them motivated when we said it was a ‘live client’ as designing for real people really pushes you more than a standard brief. Especially kids as you don't want to let them down.

Week 1:

We started off by reminding them of the brief and the amazing opportunity they were getting. To get them motivated we showed them some of the work we had been doing with oxgangs, the kids that they would be designing for and their inventions. We asked that they split themselves into groups of four with four people in them, this will insure that we will get 5 inventions per class including our own.

My group were Australia, Emma, Sophie, India, Riha. Girl power.

I spent a short while getting to know my group before giving them their instructions, then it was all go. We only had a short time with them so I wanted to get stuck right into our inventions. I had pre sorted my classes' drawings and picked some of the best inventions, giving the narrowed down pile to my group. I let them decide themselves who they wanted to design for, they found this to be tricky as there were so many good ideas. We decided we would get all the first years to brainstorm their ideas of how to make the inventions real, focussing on what materials they may need or what access they had to workshop space.

It was nice looking at who the first years had chosen to design for, there was a mix of children picked. Some who struggle at other curricular activities such as english and maths and some who are shy and quiet. I knew this would make them feel so special being picked and I hoped it would give them the little extra boost they needed in class to come out their shell. I noticed in my ‘boy heavy’ class that there were a lot of boys who struggled to engage with what the teacher was doing during the lesson but they really loved the workshops. I found this was much like myself when I was younger, so this is why I really wanted to push their ideas, showing them that they are amazing at what they do even if it's not english or maths.

We rounded up the first years and explained what we wanted done for next week, emphasizing again that we only had a short time with them. That they weren't only designing to get a grade but were designing for kids and no one wants to let kids down.

Week 2:

This week I really wanted to just get stuck into things, I was so excited to see what the first years had come up with over the past week. We had asked them to think about how they were going to make their inventions real, we subjected that card model, sketch and storyboard to get their brains going. Well, wow I was impressed! Out of the four I got three amazing scale models, I found these to be so funky in design. I couldn't never make anything like that out of card in first year.

The designs that were chosen were,

Koala Sanctuary, designed to for the kowals to have a safe space to stay/hide in during the bush fires. It will have a fully functioning water supply and robust walls to protect them, two trees will shoot water to ensure that fire will not reach the sanctuary. Emma redesigned this invention by creating a full scale card model with a life like backdrop really giving a feel for the situation. After working on her model we decided that she should continue with card but on a larger scale, possibly 1:2 or full scale depending on resources.

Kangaroo Boxing Gloves, this design is to protect the people if kangaroos come in their home gardens and start fighting. The gloves are designed to create a super soft impact when boxing, this would also help kangaroos not get hurt when fighting against each other. Sophie and I discussed that she would make the invention full scale, she had produced a small scale model of her initial ideas. The boxing glove was a unique shape so Sophie decided she would continue with a mix of card and paper mashue modeling for the final approach, then to be painted to add features.

Rainbow Umbrella, designed to protect the koalas from the hailstones the size of golf balls. The material of the umbrella would be super bouncy so that the hailstones would bounce right off and not hurt the koala. India had not made a card model but had started to work out what materials she may need and where she will need to make a full scale model. As discussed she would take an umbrella and ‘upcycle’ it, redesigning it into the invention by adding leaves and a water filter/catcher so that the koala can drink some fresh water. After showing me some sketches I suggested she get stuck into it as it looked well thought out.

Fish Feeder, this design will not only feed the fish but will swim about so that the fish will follow it and not eat the rubbish in the Barrier Reef, like plastics. The robot fish has a fully loaded mouth that will spit out food, hoping to encourage the fish away from the dangerous parts. Riha had made a small scale card model of the design, focussing on small aspects and features. We wanted to make this the best experience we could for the kids so we talked about using waterproof materials as this would allow us to place the design in a real fish enclosure, designed like the Barrier Reef.

Covid:

This was devastating, we had no idea what to expect. This was a very strange time for us, I had the thought that this would all blow over and calm down. That nothing would stop are makers making, little did I know what would really happen.

We spoke to the first years about what would happen next or what we had hoped would happen. As a team we were all a little in shock of how sudden everything was shutting, from working in Tesco I knew it was bad as there was nothing left in the shops. Knowing we had to put a plan in action we sat down in our office, not knowing this would be the last day ever there, and worked out a plan A and B. A that we would all be back to uni come september and carry on our project for the first few weeks getting ready for exhibit. B that we won't be back and have to do our exhibit online.