|
We developed a kangaroo, whose legs were spring loaded to mimic the kangaroo's natural jumping. A pole housed strings which students could pull to cause the kangaroo to punch. It was developed, designed, and created fully by our team. We heavily relied on Solidworks to design and prototype the mechanical system.
Teams of 4-5 students chose an animal with which they need to design and build an experience for fourth grade students. Each group had to go through the different stages of design, brainstorming, iteration, development, and creation. Our team had the pleasure to research more about Kangaroos and develop an interactive game. It finally ended being a clue driven rescue mission, where the Mamma Kangaroo had to find her baby joey. Balloons stood as dingoes, which the mamma kangaroo would punch to defend her baby.
Many hours were spent brainstorming different games, mechanism designs, and goals for our group. We wanted to create a fun interactive game that would take into account the wants and wishes of our user-group.
|
Understanding The Kangaroo & the Fourth Grader
Our team, due to scheduling factors, did not have much time to actually go see Kangaroos interacting or playing around. However, we thankfully did have access to the internet and various credible secondary resources. While we may not have been able directly see how a kangaroo behaves, through secondary sources we were able to gather a pool of kangaroo knowledge. The project needed to be grounded in fact- we needed to understand the patterns of Kangaroos. This includes how they live, eat, sleep, and more. We held a motion study where we replicated found kangaroo motion with our bodies. In order to get into the mindsets of the marsupial, we made a video of us acting like Kangaroos. We jumped around the lawn outside of our school and played Kangaroo tag. It was a powerful way for us to bond as a team, as well as build empathy between child like play and the animal.
We were also able to gain an understanding of how children learn and have fun, by pulling from various resources. These resources included actual fourth graders, various publications on education, and by talking to experts in child education. It helped spurn our creativity and opened our minds to more ideas.
We were also able to gain an understanding of how children learn and have fun, by pulling from various resources. These resources included actual fourth graders, various publications on education, and by talking to experts in child education. It helped spurn our creativity and opened our minds to more ideas.
Talking to the User
At first it was extremely difficult to find ways to get into the mind of a fourth grader. As a group, we pooled our own internal resources. I had members of the team talk with their families. Some members of our team had cousins or siblings that we around the age of a fourth grader.
From our discussions with fourth graders we learned that they liked to learn, however they didn't like pandering. We were pleasently surprised to find that the fourth graders could precieve when people were being pedantic. We also learned that they loved a challenge, but one they felt they could solve- they wanted to see a path forward, even if they didn't know where it led. Finally, they also appreciated action and running around. We took this information to begin brainstorming and to better understand our fourth grade users.
In a perfect world we would have been able to connect to a wider range of fourth graders. Due to the scope of our project and issues with legality, we were not abel to reach as many fourthgraders as we would have preffered. If this project was completed again, we would have spent more time trying to connect to parents, and better using Olin's resources to reach out to parents of users.
From our discussions with fourth graders we learned that they liked to learn, however they didn't like pandering. We were pleasently surprised to find that the fourth graders could precieve when people were being pedantic. We also learned that they loved a challenge, but one they felt they could solve- they wanted to see a path forward, even if they didn't know where it led. Finally, they also appreciated action and running around. We took this information to begin brainstorming and to better understand our fourth grade users.
In a perfect world we would have been able to connect to a wider range of fourth graders. Due to the scope of our project and issues with legality, we were not abel to reach as many fourthgraders as we would have preffered. If this project was completed again, we would have spent more time trying to connect to parents, and better using Olin's resources to reach out to parents of users.
Brainstorming
With our conducted research, we were able to brainstorm ideas for games. We had to brainstorm for two aspects of the project: what the students were transporting, and what the interaction would be for the fourth graders. We took time to ask what was the goal of the project and how would we could produce a product that would satisfy our multiple stakeholders: our school, our team, the parents, and the fourth graders. From this framing we were able to brainstorm different experiences and opportunities for the children. Using specific information learned about child education, behavioral patterns of kangaroos, and a generally open mindset, we were able to pull from our experience to brainstrom numerous ideas. This was a freshman year design project. It was my first introduction to "design", in the explicit sense. This meant that when we came up with all of our ideas, we ideated on a white board, and didn't full appreciate the importance of good documentation. This meant that we did not full capture all ideas associated with brainstorming.
As team we had trouble focusing our brainstorming efforts. When we tried to brainstorm just games, we weren't creative enough with our potential outcomes. When we tried to just brainstorm what they were transporting, we lost sight of the game. Only when we brainstormed how pairs between both subsets of topics did we find our golden window of opportunity.
As team we had trouble focusing our brainstorming efforts. When we tried to brainstorm just games, we weren't creative enough with our potential outcomes. When we tried to just brainstorm what they were transporting, we lost sight of the game. Only when we brainstormed how pairs between both subsets of topics did we find our golden window of opportunity.