tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9678549829359827302024-03-05T05:41:10.040-08:00Bourn Idea Lab @ Castilleja SchoolWe are a digital fabrication lab, maker space, and tinkering studio at an independent all-girls school for grades 6-12 in Palo Alto, CA. Check out
<strong><a href="http://www.castilleja.org/bournidealab">our main site</a></strong> for more info.Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-82152487779828904232013-06-24T19:50:00.000-07:002014-03-02T19:50:23.122-08:00Design Do Discover 2013 & Intro to Fab Lab<br />
Here in the Bourn Lab, not only do we love designing projects for students, but we also love to connect and collaborate with other educators. What better way to kick off the start of summer than hosting excited, like-minded educators at Castilleja for some making and tinkering fun? <br />
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In collaboration with Professor Paulo Blikstein and his crew of graduate students at the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab at Stanford, we held a two-day Intro to Fab Lab workshop for roughly 20 educators. Participants spent one day at Paulo's lab space at Stanford and one day at our Bourn Lab, gaining experience with everything from designing for the laser cutter to soldering to vacuum forming. The final project was a Rube Goldberg machine built by the class using the various digital fabrication machines we had been working with for the past two days. Check out some photos from the workshop below:<br />
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To connect with an even larger community of educators around the topic of making and hands-on learning, we also hosted an informal, one-day meeting called Design Do Discover and welcomed a wonderfully energetic group of about 50 attendees, representing not only local Bay Area schools but schools from as far away as Toronto and Hawaii! In the morning, participants engaged in presentations by Bourn Lab staff as well as Fab Lab/makerspace directors from Bishop Strachan School in Canada and Hillbrook School in Los Gatos. Then, in the afternoon, attendees were asked to get their hands dirty to design teaching manipulatives in teams, make mechanical boxes for fun, and play the role of students in sample hands-on lessons led by fellow teachers.<br />
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I guess the only left to say is that we can't wait for next summer!<br />
<br />Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-77310288378692895752013-05-31T20:46:00.000-07:002014-03-02T15:13:44.261-08:00Design a Monument | 8th grade History<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<i><b>This post is written by Heather Pang, our 8th grade history teacher, who recently gave a talk at the <a href="http://fablearn.stanford.edu/2013/">FabLearn conference</a> at Stanford. Read on below as she describes this Design a Monument project:</b></i><br />
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For years, students in my 8th grade history class have studied the monuments on the national mall. Now, rather than just learning about and visiting the monuments, I have developed a project that challenges them to design their own monuments to important women in American history.</div>
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I asked them to pick their subject from the work they had already done on women in the 20th century; I told them to think big, but keep in mind that they would have to figure out how to build it. They had two weeks in the lab to design and build the models.</div>
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When I designed the project I had two goals. The first was to create an engaging, thoughtful, and challenging project to end the year thinking about important themes from their studies. The second was to stretch students to think more critically about using history as they had to become the active designers of historical works, rather than as consumers of other people’s created histories. This project achieved those goals. It also presented some new challenges for me and the preparations I need to make for the students to engage in this type of historical practice.</div>
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I was asked by a prospective parent who came into the lab while we were working, why would you take so much time from “real history” to build things. The question is an important one, and I described some of my observations to the visitor. Students were debating the merits of representing historical events literally or metaphorically. They had long discussions about the need to include negative information in a monument for historical accuracy. They discussed the need to present their subject as a hero, a role model without flaws. They had delved deeply into their historical knowledge to find ways to show a modern visitor the historical realities of the lives of their subjects. I had seen more “real” historical thinking in the project up to that point than even I had expected.</div>
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The Monuments project brings together several threads from the 8th grade year, including the ways we memorialize history, the importance of women in American history, and the ways in which students are themselves practicing historians, not just consumers of information. The students used the tools in the Fab Lab at school to realize their designs, primarily the laser cutter, the foam cutter, and the 3D printer.</div>
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This project requires students to think about what important aspects of their subject they want to show in the monument, how literal or symbolic they want their monument to be, and how to design the best user experience. It also requires them to do a great deal of math to get the proportions and scale right. All group projects require collaboration, but one of the benefits of building something physical turns out that it is much harder for a student to hide and let her classmates do all the work. It also requires a different kind of collaboration because no one is sure of the “right” thing to do.</div>
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After the students had successfully presented the projects to the class, we talked about the challenges of the project. Some of these challenges are the same in any group project, time management, delegation of work to group members, and resolving differences of opinion about creative or technical issues. But they also talked about challenges that only came from actually building their monument models, or that came out very differently because of the making process. </div>
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First they talked about skills: they had to learn new software and improve their skills on the machines in the lab, which are important challenges in their learning process. These challenges brought out leadership in some students in ways that they would not have done in other settings. They also talked about the interdisciplinary nature of the project, not the way teachers sometimes do, fitting one subject into another because it is a current trend, but authentically, because they could not possibly build what they imagined without using math. They talked about working out issues of scale and understanding how people would react to their presentation of historical material in physical and symbolic ways. The students also talked about how to take an idea, for example, “what if we had lights on our fountain?” through the process of design and creation. </div>
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Other students described the benefits of doing a new type of project. They said (I am paraphrasing), we really had to think through what an architect thinks about, for example thinking about a fountain going down into the ground and not at ground level, and how we would build that. We had to think about constraints, for example, we can’t just put up a facade and need to think about struts for supporting the façade, and how that might work for someone visiting the monument. And my favorite comment, “Something that’s unexpected during building can actually work out!”</div>
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Bringing fabrication tools into the history class opens up ideas about the role of making in all academic subjects. When students experience history through the process of fabrication they become the historians and they have to come to a deeper understanding of their subject. This opens up a wider variety of project based learning for social studies and humanities classes, and brings students and teachers more options for creativity and deeper investigation of core academic topics and skills. </div>
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This project also reflects an ongoing and evolving interdisciplinary collaboration between me, the 8th grade Algebra teacher, and Angi in the fab lab. </div>
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Each year I have increased the collaboration with math. We noticed the scale issues, and the students did too, so this year I am working with the math teacher and she is designing some indirect measurement activities to support the project. When we go to monuments in DC they will do indirect measurements, record their data in their journals, and we will save that material for the spring project. We will also have them record their reactions to different monuments in terms of the scale, structure, and style of the places they visit. They have already done a sample activity measuring buildings on campus. The idea came from some of the students last year, who figured out that if they wanted to know how a 30 foot tall monument would look, they needed to find something that was 30 feet tall and stand next to it. They started out measuring the lab itself to compare, but I like the idea of building that measurement process into the curriculum, and so does the math teacher. In addition, the math teacher is going to come down to the lab while they are working and observe them doing the scaling and she may intervene in their discussions, or push their thinking a bit further. Last year they were creative about how they tried to imagine scale, and we don’t want to interrupt that process, but we do want them to apply skills they have learned in other places.</div>
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The collaboration with Angi in the fab lab has been a huge part of the project. I developed it with Diego, and refined it the second year with Angi. The girls get more comfortable asking for help, and working together with another expert adult in the room, and that allows for greater creativity. Students who want to go further with one of the tools can do so, since sometimes Angi is able to spend significant time with one group, working on some technical challenge; that would not be possible without two people in the lab at least some of the time.</div>
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Bringing the history class down to the lab to build monuments is one more tool we can use to expand what we think of as history instruction, and introduce students to how history work happens in our culture. After building their own monument prototypes, students are more likely to think critically about historical monuments they see, and they are more likely to feel that they have the ability to present historical material in creative ways. In short, in the lab they make the monuments, and working in the lab makes them historians.</div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-32385137060555135992013-05-29T16:35:00.000-07:002014-03-02T16:43:13.017-08:00Interactive Museum Exhibits | Cancer Biology<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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You probably would find it as no surprise that we here in the Bourn Idea Lab are big fans of the <a href="http://www.exploratorium.edu/" target="_blank">Exploratorium</a> <a href="http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/" target="_blank">and</a> <a href="http://www2.fi.edu/" target="_blank">other</a> <a href="http://www.thetech.org/" target="_blank">similar</a> <a href="http://www.msichicago.org/" target="_blank">museums</a> that focus on designing highly interactive, hands-on exhibits to engage museum visitors. So when we got the opportunity to ask students to play the role of museum exhibit designers in the senior-level science elective, Biology and Economics of Cancer, we thought it would only be appropriate to put in a design constraint that the exhibits be interactive.<br />
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Along with teacher Elaine Middleman, we developed a very open-ended design prompt: "Design an interactive museum exhibit to educate visitors about some aspect of cancer biology." After the initial kickoff for the project, which involved a guest presentation by exhibit designers at the <a href="http://www2.fi.edu/" target="_blank">Franklin Institute</a> held via Skype, students had approximately six weeks to work on building prototypes of their exhibits. We noticed that the first few days were frustrating and anxiety-inducing for many students because the project was so open-ended and everyone struggled to figure out exactly what they wanted to work on. But every group eventually settled on a topic and as they began working on building their prototypes, excitement began to build.<br />
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Due to open-ended nature of this project, there really was no way for us to anticipate what students needed for their various projects and to scaffold/prep them ahead of time. So instead, Elaine, Diego, and I naturally took on the role of mentors, checking in with each group periodically, advising them on things to think about, giving tips on potential solution, and teaching them skills and techniques in a just-in-time manner. And in fact, more often than not, we acted more as collaborators because none of us had any idea how to do something and we ended up working alongside students to figure it out as best as we could. Along the way, depending on the project, students got the chance to use the laser cutter, 3D printer, vacuum former, and Arduinos. Some learned how to solder. One student taught herself Processing to write a game and threw in a Makey Makey at the end just for the fun of it. <br />
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Sure, this is a more chaotic way to run a class but this is exactly the type of controlled chaos we love. Because it is a surefire way to get to an amazing breadth of projects:<br />
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<li>A computer game controlled by a banana to illustratoe how the length of telomeres affect human aging and cancer</li>
<li>A virtual colonoscopy station built with a vacuum formed mold, creative use of red patterned fabric, a fake "endoscope", and a YouTube video of an actual colonoscopy</li>
<li>An exhibit demonstrating the different effects and side-effects of cancer treatments (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) using an Arduino </li>
<li>An exhibit illustrating the various aspects of liver cancer using an Arduino </li>
<li>An exhibit on lung cancer built using the vacuum former and the laser cutter</li>
<li>A station for testing your skills as a histopathologist built using laser cutter and simple circuits</li>
<li>A 3D printed heart hooked up to tubes and strings of pulsing LED lights controlled by an Arduino to represent blood flow </li>
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A mere six weeks ago, many of these students have never stepped foot inside the Bourn Lab and here they are as makers of these incredible projects. What will this project look like in a few years, when students who have had more consistent exposure to the lab rise in the grades and we get a class of seniors who are already comfortable with the resources of the lab? We can't wait to find out!<br />
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-24374194135379098012013-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:002013-12-17T21:01:42.314-08:00Roman Treasure Box | 6th grade History<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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History teacher Laura Docter came to us with a problem. In her 6th grade history class, Laura's students do a project in the spring where they make models of Roman artifacts using clay. As the project nears completion, Laura's classroom would start filling up with beautiful clay versions of oil lamps and jewelry but at the same time, she would struggle to find a good way to store and display all these items.<br />
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As we were chatting, I happened to mention that Diego and I were talking recently about how kids these days, and especially girls, rarely get the chance to learn basic hands-on skills like how to use a cordless drill properly. I count myself as one such data point; because neither of my parents are handy with tools, I never even touched a power drill until I was well into my 20s. Yes, using a cordless drill is a simple skill but simple skills can be the gateway to empowering students to start their own journey as makers.<br />
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You can probably guess where this is heading. Laura, Diego, and I thought, "Why not design a simple hands-on project for her history class, where each student will learn proper drilling techniques by building her own treasure box for the Roman artifacts project?" Since this is an assembly-focused project and we have very limited class time, we prepped and pre-cut the sides of the boxes using the laser cutter. Then within the span of one class period, we showed each girl how to use the cordless drills properly and safely, and then offered guidance as she assembled the hinges of the box using nuts and bolts. After all the boxes were built, the girls then took another class period to select and design appropriately Roman sayings to engrave on the top of the boxes.<br />
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One of my favorite things about this project is how even something so short and sweet can allow us to teach some foundational hands-on skills and provide Laura with a simple storage solution for her hands-on project. Two birds with one stone, indeed!Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-54876193730102662582013-04-15T15:53:00.000-07:002014-03-02T15:57:10.490-08:00da Vinci-inspired Angry Bird Launchers | 7th grade History<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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Back in the spring of 2012 when the Bourn Lab first opened its doors, our 7th grade History teacher Eugenie Paick and Diego designed a project commonly known as the "da Vinci project." In brief, students were challenged to build replicas of da Vinci machines using his original sketches as rough blueprints. Students built everything from the armored car to aerial screws to paddle boats. The project was such a success that it was featured as a <a href="http://issuu.com/castillejaschool/docs/fullcircle_springsummer2012_web" target="_blank">cover story</a> in our school's quarterly Full Circle magazine. <br />
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This year, as the time for this project approached, Eugenie, Diego and I started meeting regularly to plan out v2.0 of this project, using the lessons learned from the previous year as a starting point. One main driving factor in how we reframed the project was the observation that many students experienced frustration that they spent a lot of time building replicas of machines that were never shown to work in the first place. For example, students who built the <a href="http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/aerial-screw.aspx" target="_blank">aerial screws</a> were disappointed to find out that da Vinci neither built nor tested them and that most likely, these machines would never have worked anyway due to weight constraints.<br />
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With this in mind, we now were faced with the challenge of how to incorporate making and engineering into this project, relate it to the topic of Renaissance inventions (specifically da Vinci), and at the same time, have students built machines that actually worked? After some brainstorming, we decided to narrow the focus to a subset of da Vinci machines, in particular those that were designed to launch projectiles such as catapults, trebuchets, and cross bows. Machines like these have a clearly measurable "working" quality, i.e. how far they can throw. Just for fun, we printed a bunch of Angry Birds using our 3D printer and used them as our projectiles because, of course, everyone loves Angry Birds!<br />
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In Math class, through <a href="http://bournidealab.blogspot.com/2013/03/da-vinci-armored-cars-7th-grade-math.html">Ms. Steele's Armored Car project</a>, our 7th graders had already gotten experience with deconstructing a complex 3D object into 2D shapes. To help scaffold the project a bit more in terms of the mechanics, we also asked students to play the board game <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Trap_%28game%29" target="_blank">Mousetrap</a> during one of their history classes as a way to introduce the types of simple machines. Then we spent a long Flex period to investigate various pre-built models of da Vinci machines and asked them to identify the simple machines within each and note how simple machines can be connected together to create complex mechanisms.<br />
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Then, it was onto the main design challenge they had to work on for a week in history. We asked each pair of student to look through a curated set of da Vinci drawings, choose one machine, and use that machine as inspiration for building their own Angry Bird launcher. We suggested that they start by building a non-functional paper prototype to help them work out the major pieces they would need and turn in a list of requested shapes to us.<br />
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This process also helped us in terms of managing the work flow for this project because it allowed us to pre-cut an initial starting set of pieces for each group offline, and avoid the problem of wasting precious class time waiting for the laser cutter to cut pieces.With an initial set of building supplies on hand, each group was able to start building and then as they discover additional pieces they need, they worked with Diego or I to draw these out in CorelDraw and send them to the laser cutter.<br />
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By the end of the week, every pair of student had some type of Angry Bird launcher built and ready to test. On the Friday before Spring Break, on a beautifully clear and sunny day, we brought the machines out onto the Circle and tested each one's launching ability. What a great way to cap off a week of intense engineering and head home for a relaxing break! <br />
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<br />Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-42219379631182425602013-03-25T19:55:00.000-07:002014-03-02T15:58:40.589-08:00da Vinci Armored Cars | 7th grade Math<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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Understanding how to construct a complex 3D object using simple 2D shapes is one of the most challenging skills to learn as a maker. But the good news is that the more opportunities we give our students to practice this skill, the better they will get at it. And that's where the Bourn Lab comes in!<br />
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When the Bourn Lab first opened its doors in January of 2012, one of the first projects to be developed was a collaboration between the lab and our 7th grade history teacher. The project, commonly known as the "da Vinci project" around campus, involves asking students to build replicas of machines designed by Leonardo da Vinci. (We describe that project in more detail <a href="http://bournidealab.blogspot.com/2013/04/da-vinci-inspired-angry-bird-launchers.html">here</a>!)<br />
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After the first iteration, as we started discussing how we want to refine the project for v2.0, our 7th grade math teacher Carolyn Steele approached us with an amazing idea to help prepare students for the da Vinci project. She wanted to incorporate a making project in her class, one that will allow her to teach Pythagorean Theorem, let students see first-hand the applications of the theroem, and at the same time give them hands-on experience building complex 3D objects from 2D shapes! To connect it further with the da Vinci project, she thought the his <a href="http://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/submissions/ghoe/leonardo.htm">armored car</a> would be a good choice with plenty of opportunities for students to apply the Pythagorean Theorem.<br />
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After spending a few afternoons herself building a replica of the armored car with us in the lab, Carolyn was ready to bring the project back to her classroom. She decided to run the activity as a design challenge, a la Project Runway, with the students as "designers" (Tim Gunn impression 100% necessary, of course). In each of her classes, she challenged her designers to do measurements and calculations in order to decide on the dimensions of the trapezoidal pieces that will be used to construct a section of the vehicle as well as the total number of pieces needed. Towards the end of class, each group presented their results and the class voted on one final set of measurements, which was then passed on to the Bourn Lab.<br />
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On our end, we took the dimensions and quantities of trapezoids and quickly laser cut them out of thick cardboard. The next day, the classes used their laser cut pieces to build that particular section of the vehicle in order to check their calculations before moving on to the next section of the vehicle.<br />
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Originally, Carolyn had planned on doing this activity for just a couple of days, enough time to build out the two main sections of the vehicle. But after seeing the enthusiasm and level of learning that the students were experiencing, she extended the activity to the full week. By the end of the week, each class had constructed an armored vehicle as a team and they were proud to show it off!<br />
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Good work, designers!<br />
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<br />Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-46195140316236421062013-03-11T21:05:00.000-07:002014-03-02T14:54:24.442-08:00Makers' Studio: Toys! | Middle School Elective<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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How might you design an educational toy for a fourth grader? </div>
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That is the design prompt we posed to a group of students who were part of a recent middle school elective, "Makers' Studio: Toys!" Developed in collaboration with our art and design teacher Helen Shanks, this elective was a way for students to experience the steps of the <a href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/use-our-methods/" target="_blank">design thinking process</a> in the context of a fun design challenge.</div>
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To kickstart the elective, we first asked each student to talk with each other about their favorite toys and interview adults on campus about the toys they remember from their childhood. In addition, they had to think back to when they were younger and ask their younger siblings about what they're studying in elementary school, in order to figure out how their educational toys can be help fourth graders learn. (For the next version, we think it would be even better to partner with an elementary school teacher so that our students can have authentic fourth-grade "clients" for their project.)</div>
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Then, it was off to a local toy store for field research! And lest you think dispatching a group of middle schoolers is a bad idea, our girls were 100% focused on their objective and walked through the aisles meticulously jotting down notes and talking with each other about why certain toys hold appeal. </div>
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After all this research, they were ready to get back to the lab to start brainstorming and prototyping . By the end of the elective, we had everything from a game that teaches kids about fishes and fish facts to a board game about the Gold Rush to a jigsaw puzzle that doubled as a multiplication exercise to a handmade ukelele. </div>
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It turns out toys are always fun, even if you are designing them instead of playing them!</div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-15009281132478092212012-12-21T22:54:00.000-08:002013-08-19T23:05:37.697-07:00Model Circulatory System | 7th Grade Science<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you remember learning about our circulatory system in biology class? If so, you may remember looking at diagrams of the heart, memorizing the names of the various valves and chambers, and understanding how blood flows through the system. But in our 7th grade science class, we decided to try something different.... something a little more "Bourn-ified"!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How might we build a model of the circulatory system that would allow students to simulate the flow of blood, the contraction (aka the "pumping" of the heart muscles, and gain an appreciation for how the sequence of events has to be precisely orchestrated in order for the system to function? Christina Nawas, who has done a <a data-mce-href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/building-a-body-joint/" href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/building-a-body-joint/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" title="Building a Body Joint">number</a> of <a data-mce-href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/lets-build-a-microscope/" href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/lets-build-a-microscope/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" title="Let’s Build a Microscope!">projects</a> with us this semester, came to us with this original question and we rolled up our sleeves to design a hands-on project to do exactly that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After some brainstorming, Diego got to work building a prototype using plastic tubing to model arteries and aortas and squeeze bottles to model the chambers of the heart. He first started by playing around with those plastic squeeze bottles that you usually see holding ketchup and various sauces at restaurants, but eventually realized their seals don't hold up and leaked water everywhere when squeezed. Tiny travel-size screw-top bottles ended up working better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next challenge was finding one-way valves to model heart valves. Diego started by designing some using laser-cut parts and pieces of thin rubber but these didn't end up being as one-way as we'd like. Then one day in the lab, as the two of us were wrecking our brains trying to solve this problem, I randomly wondered aloud whether people who keep fish for pets need one-way valves for their aquariums. A bit of Googling and a trip to the pet store confirmed our suspicions and thanks to Amazon, we were able to get a large batch of these valves in time for class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To scaffold the activity, we started by asking the girls to build two-chamber hearts in pairs, using a kit of squeeze bottles, plastic tubing, connectors, and one-way valves. Christina also took some time to explain that the type of two-chamber hearts we're building are different from those found in nature. (We were building hearts where one chamber is the left and one chamber is the right; in nature, two-chamber hearts are usually divided into one ventricle and one atrium instead.) Then they had to work together to get "blood" (clear water, for the sake of not having our lab look like a massacre at the end!) pumping through their model system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the two-chamber hearts were built, we then asked the girls to get in groups of four and challenged them to put together four-chamber hearts! Again, after they got their system wired up correctly, with all the valves facing the right way, they had to test it by working together to pump the heart chambers in a proper sequence to get blood to flow. Some groups even came up with chants to help coordinate the proper pumping sequence!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even though everyone got slightly soggy, it was so great to see how this activity really allowed the students to learn about how the circulatory system works! Don't believe me? See for yourself!</span></div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-12021259800613355522012-12-15T22:49:00.000-08:002013-08-19T22:56:44.864-07:00Science Saturdays: Light-Up Holiday Cards<div id="fsMediaPlayer"><iframe src="http://www.castilleja.org/cf_media/embed.cfm?siteurl=http://www.castilleja.org&mediaChannelID=171&mediaCategoryID=417&mediaGroupID=698&mediaObjectID=10200&mini=true&autoPlay=false&w=640&h=360" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" id="FlashID" title="Finalsite Media Player"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things you may not know about the Bourn Lab is that in addition to being a space for tinkering and hands-on projects during the school day and the home of <a data-mce-href="http://gatorbotics.org/" href="http://gatorbotics.org/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Gatorbotics Team 1700</a> after school, we occasionally open up the lab to the wider Palo Alto community by participating in Science Saturdays throughout the school year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary Hurlbut, our 6th grade art teacher and Castilleja's site director for the <a data-mce-href="http://www.peninsulabridge.org/" href="http://www.peninsulabridge.org/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Peninsula Bridge</a> program, and intern Ruby Moreno (Casti alum alert!) work together to organize on-campus events for younger girls from the local community to get them excited about science and engineering. Usually, a hands-on activity in the science labs is paired with a related activity in the Bourn Lab. The extra cool thing about Science Saturdays is that the whole event is supported by our robotics girls!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back on 12/1, we kicked off the year's first Science Saturday with a holiday-themed event. After a fun and slightly chaotic name game involving tennis balls, the group split up. One half went to the physics lab to do a simple circuitry activity involving batteries and light bulbs. The other half headed down to the Bourn Lab to work on <a data-mce-href="http://bournidealab.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/lightup.pdf" href="http://bournidealab.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/lightup.pdf" style="color: #3c2bb6;">Light-Up Holiday Cards</a>, which also involved ... you guessed it, batteries (little coin ones) and lights (LEDs in this case)!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The girls, both younger and older, had such a great time and each of them got to take home a light-up holiday card. We can't wait for more Science Saturdays next semester!</span></div>Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-58362391089369922152012-12-14T22:45:00.000-08:002013-08-21T21:37:38.849-07:00Intro to GoGo Boards | 6th Grade Science<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How would you design the logic of a traffic signal?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was one of the challenges we posed to our 6th graders, as part of a two-day activity we did during their science class. On the first day, Sarah Barnum (6th grade science teacher) and I, with help from Ann Greyson (computer science teacher) and Megan Chiou (our teaching intern), took students through a quick lesson on inputs and outputs and then a tutorial on how to use <a data-mce-href="http://www.gogoboard.org/" href="http://www.gogoboard.org/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">GoGo Boards</a>. On the second day, we asked them to use what they learned to design two everyday devices: a night light and a traffic light. At least one of their designs must incorporate some type of input (sensors) that would control the outputs (lights).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In developing this activity, the first hurdle we faced was that <a data-mce-href="http://www.gogoboard.org/downloads-hardware" href="http://www.gogoboard.org/downloads-hardware" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">GoGo Monitor,</a> the standard software for GoGo Boards, only runs on Windows PCs and our campus is for the most part a Mac campus. In the past, we kept a set of Windows laptops in the lab for this exact purpose. But we wanted to try something different this year and find a Mac-friendly way to allow students to play with GoGo Boards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I should probably mention at this point that a main reason for trying something different is that I'm a big believer in making technology less "precious"/as accessible as possible and tend to opt for solutions to that effect. Especially for something like programming and GoGo Boards, I want students to have the software on their own computers, so they feel empowered to explore and tinker further on their own if they want, maybe by borrowing GoGo Boards from us or buying their own, and won't feel that this is something they can do only if they came to the lab.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, we found a way to control the GoGo Boards using a cross-platform program called <a data-mce-href="http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/" href="http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">NetLogo</a>. In fact, NetLogo turned out to be a great solution because it allowed us to write up a tutorial, based on the original <a data-mce-href="http://fablabatschool.org/page/fablab-school-activities-agreement" href="http://fablabatschool.org/page/fablab-school-activities-agreement" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">FabLab@School activity</a>, directly inside the program that students can follow along.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our 6th graders loved playing with the GoGo Boards and were excited to think about how their night lights and traffic lights should work. Some thought that night lights should be motion-activated while others thought they should sense the amount of light in a room before turning on. And for traffic lights, some groups incorporated mechanical switches, which would be placed on the road and activate the traffic light sequence only when a car rolls up and triggers the switch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check out the video below for a traffic light demo:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some girls got so into programming and GoGo Boards that they kept asking Sarah if they'll get to play around with them in class again. So by popular demand, we decided to lend the 6th grade science classroom a couple of GoGo kits. Now, whenever there's some downtime, girls who want to can tinker with GoGo Boards more on their own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not exactly a quantitative measure but I would certainly call that a sign that GoGo Boards are a hit!</span></div>
<br />Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-67100052105768814062012-11-30T22:37:00.000-08:002013-08-19T22:46:51.558-07:00Bourn Lab wins the Rambus/KCI Innovation Award!<div id="fsMediaPlayer"><iframe src="http://www.castilleja.org/cf_media/embed.cfm?siteurl=http://www.castilleja.org&mediaChannelID=171&mediaCategoryID=417&mediaGroupID=696&mediaObjectID=10187&mini=true&autoPlay=false&w=640&h=360" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" id="FlashID" title="Finalsite Media Player"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>(photos by Karim Mansouri)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great news! The Bourn Lab is the proud recipient of the <a data-mce-href="http://krauseinnovationcenter.org/?p=1413" href="http://krauseinnovationcenter.org/?p=1413" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Rambus/KCI Innovation Award for 2012</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Krause Center for Innovation (KCI), located at Foothill College, is a center devoted to the mission of encouraging technology integration and STEM curriculum in K-12 education. On November 28th, I, along with science teacher Christina Nawas, current Castilleja student/Bourn Lab TA Carly and Carly's mom Margot, attended the award ceremony. We brought along a bunch of example projects to show and did a short presentation about Casti and the lab.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone was so excited about the diversity of projects we do in the lab and we had lots of interesting conversation with many inspiring people. Thank you Rambus and KCI!</span></div>
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<br /></div>Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-40744057890570526212012-11-27T22:30:00.000-08:002013-08-19T22:43:14.091-07:00Building a Body Joint | 7th Grade Science<div id="fsMediaPlayer"><iframe src="http://www.castilleja.org/cf_media/embed.cfm?siteurl=http://www.castilleja.org&mediaChannelID=171&mediaCategoryID=417&mediaGroupID=695&mediaObjectID=10173&mini=true&autoPlay=false&w=640&h=360" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" id="FlashID" title="Finalsite Media Player"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As part of the unit on human anatomy, Christina Nawas' 7th grade science students (<a data-mce-href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/lets-build-a-microscope/" href="http://bournidealab.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/lets-build-a-microscope/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" title="Let’s Build a Microscope!">remember them</a>?) came to the lab for a weeklong activity for building model body joints. In preparation for this activity, we spent some quality laser-cutting time making simple cardboard pieces to serve as the foundation pieces, aka "bones."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Students were paired up to first decide and then do research on the specific body joint they want to model. Then it's time to put their clay-modeling skills to the test! Using quick-drying modeling clay, they made everything from "ball and socket" joints to hinge joints.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the basic joint structures were in place and dried, the students were next tasked with adding on cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. We laid out a variety of items - bubble wrap, cotton balls, stretchy athletic tape, bandages, string - and asked them to consider the properties of each material and whether it would be a good model for the particular component they are adding. For example, many groups decided that bubble wrap was a good substance for modeling cartilage while other groups preferred cotton balls. There is no "correct" answer of course; rather, we were more interested in how the students thought about and justified their choices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final part of the project was to use motors driven by an <a data-mce-href="http://arduino.cc/" href="http://arduino.cc/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Arduino</a> board in order to control the two opposing muscles (which we asked them to model using strings) and simulate the movement of the body joint. Thanks to a piece of software being developed by a group in Spain called <a data-mce-href="http://seaside.citilab.eu/scratch/arduino" href="http://seaside.citilab.eu/scratch/arduino" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Scratch4Arduino</a> (or S4A), the girls got to use a programming language they're familiar with (<a data-mce-href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Scratch</a>) to control the Arduino board. Like with the microscope project, we filmed a <a data-mce-href="https://vimeo.com/53476825" href="https://vimeo.com/53476825" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_self">short instructional video</a> to show the girls how to set everything up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After putting everything together and resolving a few technical issues (e.g. how to keep the string from slipping off the motor wheel), every group got to see their movable joints in action!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check out the video below for a few examples:</span></div>
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<br /></div>Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-32161893982375970632012-11-19T22:22:00.000-08:002013-08-19T22:33:03.878-07:00A Timer is Bourn | 9th grade<div id="fsMediaPlayer"><iframe src="http://www.castilleja.org/cf_media/embed.cfm?siteurl=http://www.castilleja.org&mediaChannelID=171&mediaCategoryID=417&mediaGroupID=694&mediaObjectID=10132&mini=true&autoPlay=false&w=640&h=360" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" id="FlashID" title="Finalsite Media Player"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How difficult is it to keep time with nothing but cups, straws, popsicle sticks, etc?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's the question we asked our 9th grade class in a design challenge we have dubbed "A Timer is Bourn". Over four sessions during EOP (extended opportunity period), our freshmen girls were charged with finding a way to keep time for 5 minutes using a standard kit of parts, some common materials like sand, water, capacitors and batteries from their physics lab supplies, and above all, their imagination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unbeknownst to the girls, this activity has actually been in the works since even before they arrived on campus. Towards the end of summer, a group of teachers from various departments met to brainstorm interdisciplinary activities that would give the students a taste of design and building while connecting with some of the concepts covered in history, physics, and math. After discussing a few potential topics, we eventually settled on timekeeping.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the history side, timekeeping is a key topic that sets the stage for learning about the age of scientific discovery. In physics, the measurement of time is critical to many of the experiments students perform in the lab, yet more often than not, we take the measurement of time itself for granted. Like all other measurements, of course, how time is measured affects its accuracy and precision. With all these links to the 9th grade curriculum, timekeeping seemed like a prime topic upon which to develop an interdisciplinary activity. And when the Bourn Lab gets involved, you can count on us to bring a building/design component to it! ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the first session, held on 9/26, students were given an introduction to the importance of timekeeping. History teachers Peggy McKee and Christy Story talked with the girls about timekeeping in the historical context. Then students dispersed into various classrooms where there were models of historical clocks, like <a data-mce-href="http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/instruments/pendulum.html" href="http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/instruments/pendulum.html" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Galileo's pendulum clock</a> and <a data-mce-href="http://www.ubr.com/clocks/default/history-of-timekeeping/rees-s-clepsydra-1819.aspx" href="http://www.ubr.com/clocks/default/history-of-timekeeping/rees-s-clepsydra-1819.aspx" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">clepsydra</a> (water clock), as well as electronic resources to explore timekeeping (e.g. the super accurate clocks of the Olympics). The main goal of this session was to give the girls some ideas for how to keep time and seed them with inspirations for their deisgn challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second session, held on 10/10, kicked off the project with a <a data-mce-href="https://vimeo.com/51010859" href="https://vimeo.com/51010859" style="color: #3c2bb6;">video starring our head of school,</a> where the timing challenge was presented. Each pair of girls were then given a Ziploc bag containing assorted supplies. With only that little bit of instructions, the girls were off! Some headed straight for the sink to try out water clock ideas; others saw the buckets of sand and started experimenting with hourglasses. A few groups spied the boxes of capacitors, batteries, and light bulbs and decided to try out what they learned in physics class to build timing devices out of electronic components. The wide array of approaches that the girls took to solving this challenge was absolutely astounding! At some point, one group even asked me if they can use the Ziploc bag as part of their clock - talk about innovative thinking!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After two one-hour build sessions, the end was upon us before we know it. In the final session, we gathered all the groups in one room and allowed them some time to finish/refine their clocks before asking them to take the timing challenge. Timer stations were set up at one end of the room - Diego and I had worked together to make some timer boxes using <a data-mce-href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9181" href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9181" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">giant red buttons</a> hooked up to <a data-mce-href="http://www.gogoboard.org/" href="http://www.gogoboard.org/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">GoGoBoards</a>. (Why? Because giant red buttons are so much fun to push, of course!) To keep the excitement level high, as groups got tested, we projected the live tally of results on the projector so everyone could see the current standings. In the end, the group that got closest to 5 minutes came in at 4 minutes and 59 seconds! Each of the departments involved also gave out awards. Bourn Lab, for example, gave out an award for the most thoughtful design.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since this was the first time we teachers ran this activity, a lot of lessons were learned and we already have a long list of ideas for improvements next time, including everything from how much build time to allot, how to redesign the first session to run more smoothly, other items to include in the kits, etc. But all in all, the activity was a rousing success! And the best part? It wasn't just us teachers who thought so. We asked students to complete a survey the day after the activity ended and the comments we received were generally quite positive. "It was cool when you were able to successfully overcome a problem you encountered," one student wrote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, how cool is <strong><em>that</em></strong>? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Many thanks to all the teachers who were involved in this activity - Peggy McKee, Christy Story, Eugenie Paick, Jon Rockman, Bryan Valek, Jean Adams, Kim Knapp, Josh Genauer - as well as all the many many people who provided various support along the way, from the kitchen staff who allowed us to use the dining room right after lunch to our maintenance crew who helped us even with strange requests like "please take down all visible clocks in the dining room". While all Bourn projects are team efforts by nature, this one was way more so than all the others.) </span></div>Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-7744994757254768242012-11-17T22:17:00.000-08:002013-08-21T22:33:04.817-07:00Adventures with iDraw | Carly's Corner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi all! I'm Carly, the Bourn Lab TA. I'm a junior, I'm on the robotics team, and my favorite machine in the Bourn Lab right now is the Vinyl Cutter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of my first projects as TA was to create wood tracing figures for Ms. Shanks' design class so that they could focus less on drawing a realistic person and more on designing clothes. First, I scanned in pictures of models from a book. Then I imported those photos into iDraw and traced around the lines to cut them out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">iDraw is a powerful tool for the iPad. It's great for anything from doodling your name to accurately tracing a shape to cut out. In fact, I've since used iDraw to trace a horse cutout for clues for my ringer. Ms. Hurlbut's sixth grade art class is also using iDraw for a stamp project on an ancient culture. Yesterday, I went in and taught them how to trace objects, so that they can easily design and cut out their stamp pieces. Most of them loved it and I saw a few actually import flowers and begin tracing by the end of my 20-minute talk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From iDraw, I then sent the .svg file to the laser cutter computer. I had designed the tracing so that some of the pieces, for example the hands, were not cut all the way through but rather rastered on top. I imported the file into CorrelDraw, the laser cutter program, and then watched as the laser cutter cut my pieces!</span></div>
Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-46814864385282920962012-10-26T22:05:00.000-07:002013-08-19T22:06:50.797-07:00How Would You Design a Wallet? | Computer Science 1<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in September, a few of us teachers from Castilleja went to the <a data-mce-href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/" href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Stanford d.school</a> to attend a public "crash course" on design thinking. When we arrived, we were shown to this large conference room filled with people from all walks of life. Eventually, the lead facilitator came in, gave us some brief instructions (but not much since the whole point of the afternoon was "learning by doing"), and we immediately got to work. Strangers were paired together and then in groups of four, we filed into a large room with movable partitions, writable surfaces and Post-it notes everywhere, and lots more facilitators waiting for us. For the next 1.5 hours, we immersed ourselves in a quick-paced, energetic, intense design exercise to <a data-mce-href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/designresources/wiki/ed894/The_GiftGiving_Project.html" href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/designresources/wiki/ed894/The_GiftGiving_Project.html" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">reimagine the gift-giving experience</a>. It was fun, exhausting, messy, inspiring, and chaotic, all at the same time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exercise made such an impression on me that a month later, when I was asked to host a faculty learning exchange workshop, I immediately thought of doing a similar activity. Instead of redesigning the gift-giving experience though, I used the <a data-mce-href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/designresources/wiki/4dbb2/The_Wallet_Project.html" href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/designresources/wiki/4dbb2/The_Wallet_Project.html" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">wallet variation</a>, because it would give people a more practical thing to design and prototype. Anyway, what's being designed isn't particularly important. What I cared most about is keeping the quick-paced, high-energy aspect of the exercise because it shows that yes, design can be messy, chaotic, and confusing... but that there are ways to work within this space to really understand what the needs are and then generate creative solutions to fulfill those needs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was glad that most of the teachers who came to the October workshop enjoyed the experience. What I didn't expect was that Ann Greyson, our computer science instructor, actually enjoyed the exercise so much that she asked to bring her entire CS class down to the lab to do the same activity! It turns out that as part of the unit on designing user interfaces, she wanted her students to really think about understanding the needs of a user and how to fulfill those needs... hey, that sounds familiar! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this afternoon, a class of juniors and seniors gathered in the Bourn Lab, divided into pairs, grabbed Sharpies, and designed wallets for each other in a short 50-min period. Check out the photos of some of the prototypes, including one for a wallet that will come flying back to the owner when lost!</span></div>
Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-67908889035929017522012-10-22T16:09:00.000-07:002013-08-21T22:35:41.836-07:00Measuring the Voltage of the Sun | Biology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before photosynthesis became a hot(!) topic in Elaine Middleman's biology class, she wanted to use solar cells as a way to show how energy from sun light can be converted to another form of energy. When Elaine approached us at the beginning of the year with this objective though, we didn't have any immediately great ideas on how we can plan such a lesson...mostly because none of us knew very much about solar cells at the time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we wouldn't let that stop us, of course! After spending some quality time learning about solar cells, we started looking for a source for them. Our <a data-mce-href="http://jameco.com" href="http://jameco.com/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">go-to electronics shop</a> sold these grab bags of chipped solar cells, but those turned out to be too rough and not ideal for a short one-class activity. Since class time is precious, we needed a more robust solution so we don't risk wasting time troubleshooting broken cells.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Luckily, it turns out there's a big market for solar cells for educational purposes, so we ordered <a data-mce-href="http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/solar_mini_panels/2093" href="http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/solar_mini_panels/2093" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">a batch</a> from <a data-mce-href="http://www.legoeducation.us/" href="http://www.legoeducation.us/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Lego Education</a>. (Since then, we've also found that there are other places with a <a data-mce-href="http://www.browndoggadgets.com/store/solar-cells/" href="http://www.browndoggadgets.com/store/solar-cells/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">larger variety of cells</a>.) We also came upon some old-school, <a data-mce-href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10285" href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10285" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">analog voltmeter panels</a> for hooking up to the cells. Once all our supplies came, it didn't take Diego very long to design a box to hold everything together, so the students can assemble DIY "solar meters".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After assembly, the students took their devices around campus to take measurements of how voltage varies in sunny spots versus shady groves versus indoors. Unluckily for the period 2 girls though, the activity ended up on a rainy day! To give them some variations in lighting without having to go out in the rain, Hong dug through his tool chest and brought out his super bright work lamp (which surprisingly got pretty close to the voltage reading of direct sun).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if you are curious about the "voltage of the sun," just ask one of the girls in Dr. Middleman's class. Or better yet, try making your own "solar meter"!</span></div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-72903723378485536812012-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:002013-08-19T15:56:59.236-07:00The Law of Sines | Algebra 2<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">Last Friday, Kyle Barriger came by the lab with an idea. In his Algebra II classes, the students are learning about the law of sines. (And truth be told, I had to ask him to be my math teacher for a moment and remind me what the</span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_sines" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_sines" style="color: #3c2bb6; line-height: 19px;" target="_blank">law of sines</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">is!) While students generally have no problems visualizing when the law results in no solutions, understanding why there can be ambiguous cases where there are two solutions seems to be much more difficult.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Kyle thought maybe we can build some sort of contraption to physically show this concept. After some quick planning and sketching on the whiteboard tables, we got to work building such a contraption.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were a few design requirements we had to keep in mind:<br />- a way to set a fixed angle of a certain degree<br />- a fixed length for one side of the triangle<br />- variable length for the pivoting side of the triangle<br />- a way for the pivoting side to actually pivot</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few cardboard prototypes later, we were ready to print out our contraption in wood and assemble it using a few screws and nuts. To fulfill requirement #3, we made various lengths for the pivoting side that can be swapped in and out. We even scavenged some strong magnets from old name tags so the whole thing can be stuck on a whiteboard!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During our initial meeting, we had also discussed the idea of having the students build their own contraptions to explain this law. So in today's class, after Kyle used our wooden version to review the law of sines, the students got to work building their own models with everything from pipe cleaners to string to popsicle sticks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although many groups weren't able to fully finish their "explanation contraptions," we enjoyed watching how this hands-on activity got them moving and talking and even witnessed some "ah-ha” moments! Now if that isn't a lovely result for such a quick and simple project, I don't know what is.</span></div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-46347529080210436142012-10-10T15:25:00.000-07:002013-08-19T15:31:59.945-07:00Project "Casti-Cam" | Film 1<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks ago, one of our arts teachers Winter Mead came by the lab to chat about a potential project for his Film 1 class. He had an idea to ask the girls to design and build prototypes for their own <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steadicam" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">Steadi-cam</a> rigs! He also wanted to emphasize the use of the <a data-mce-href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/" href="http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">design thinking</a> process, in that they should build quick prototypes, test, and iterate. Kind of a "fail early, fail often" model, although I generally prefer to think of it more as a "test early, iterate often" model because when you learn something from each attempt, it's not an exact failure, right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the day of, the girls were divided into three teams. We originally had the idea that we would not allow them to research online for this project, but soon realized that's both impractical (since they are surrounded by computing devices all day long) and not exactly true to how one would solve real problems these days. Instead, we only asked each team to generate ideas for their "Casti-cams" without using their computers on the first day. Then they could all go home, do some research online, and come to the second day of class with a plan in mind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After gathering supplies such as PVC pipes, connectors, cheap Harajuku backpacks, 1/4 20 screws, and large binder clips, the girls got to work! Although each team used some sort of counterweight system, you can see from the photos that they came up with very different designs. Our teaching intern Zubair was on hand to assist and ended up teaching everyone how to use the PVC cutter, which became quite a popular tool in the class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the final day of the four-day project, Winter came up with a short challenge - each team had to use their Casti-cam rigs to film and track subjects through a variety of bumpy situations, from walking up and down stairs, opening doors, and running around the circle. When we watched the footages of the challenge later, it was not only really cool to see which design resulted in the steadiest shots, but also how some cheap hardware store items can give you a pretty decent Steadi-cam! </span></div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-37517935723169910322012-09-25T15:14:00.000-07:002013-08-19T22:31:49.635-07:00Mechanical Boxes (Cardboard Karakuri) | 6th Grade<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our 6th graders came through the lab during their Wednesday afternoon “flex block” for an introductory activity. I have to admit that this whole event, being so close to the start of school and all, kind of snuck up on all of us (or at least me!) and we barely had any time to prep for it. After a quick meeting with the teachers in the morning, Diego and I scrambled to figure out some fun, interesting building activity that would be doable both in a short amount of class time (45 min!) and with a group of girls who for the most part have not been exposed to building and tinkering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Diego quickly suggested that we plan an activity based on some mechanical boxes that he had done with an art class last semester. We can have the parts for the basic box pre-cut and limit ourselves to two mechanisms (the cam and the crank). Then the students can use the resulting motions to make whatever they want, be it a dolphin jumping out of the waves, a bunny chasing a carrot, or a Hunger Games-inspired scene complete with bow and arrow!</span>Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-52155062749053571462012-09-11T10:46:00.000-07:002013-08-19T22:31:59.486-07:00Let's Build a Microscope! | 7th Grade Science<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you can build your own microscope, it'd be so much easier to learn how it works, right? At least that's the idea behind the microscope project we did last month. In collaboration with Christina Nawas, who teaches our 7th grade life science classes, we wanted a way to teach students the basics of microscopy using a hands-on building activity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After getting <a data-mce-href="http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/esplora/microscopio/dswmedia/risorse/how_to_make_microscope.pdf" href="http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/esplora/microscopio/dswmedia/risorse/how_to_make_microscope.pdf" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">some</a> <a data-mce-href="http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/ucomp1/ucomp1.htm" href="http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/ucomp1/ucomp1.htm" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">inspirations</a> <a data-mce-href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1105" href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/?pid=1105" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">online</a>, Diego set about designing a prototype using laser cut wood parts. He even tried to make the whole thing look as "microscope-like" as possible and added on an iPad attachment!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Christina and I visited a bunch of local Walgreens and asking them for old disposable cameras they don't want. With a few shopping bags full of old discarded cameras, we sat down to crack them open and salvaged their small plastic lenses (if you do this yourself, be careful of the <a data-mce-href="http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/11/important-warning-camera-flash.html" href="http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/11/important-warning-camera-flash.html" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">flash capacitor</a> in there!). To make it easier from a classroom management perspective, we decided to make an <a data-mce-href="https://vimeo.com/49610261" href="https://vimeo.com/49610261" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">instructional video</a> and have each pair of girls follow along, while having the ability to stop and rewind as needed:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our biggest lesson learned is that using glue to hold the body tube/lenses in place is way too messy! On the second day, we experimented using wall putty instead - you know, the stuff you use to stick posters onto walls. That made for a much cleaner, easier-to-assemble microscope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking back, I think the most challenging part of this activity was prepping 36 of these <a data-mce-href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31632" href="http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31632" style="color: #3c2bb6;" target="_blank">microscope-building kits</a> and the lab definitely smelled like a campfire for several days after. But of course, it was all worth it in the end! Our girls had working microscopes that they built and decorated with their own hands by the end of the two-day activity, learned the basics of microscopy, and gained an appreciation for the super nice microscopes they actually use in the lab.</span></div>
Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967854982935982730.post-76837522415632212412012-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:002013-08-19T10:51:16.411-07:00Intro to the Bourn Lab | Faculty Workshop<div id="fsMediaPlayer">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bourn Lab kicked off the new school year by hosting a short workshop for faculty. With help from the folks at Stanford’s <a href="http://tltl.stanford.edu/" style="border: 0px; color: #2786c2; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Transformative Learning Technologies Lab</a>, teachers divided into groups and rotated through different demo stations set up in the lab. They got their hands dirty in a quick GoGoBoard exercise, saw the vinyl cutter in action, and watched as the 3D printer churned out a model of a heart in plastic. They even tried their hands at designing name tags for each other on the laser cutter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all, a successful start to the 2012-2013 school year. We’re excited to see all the projects to come this year!</span></div>
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Bourn Idea Labhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139026685075167174noreply@blogger.com0