Doodlebot at Panther

Northside Doodlebots

Straw hacking on the floor

Straw man

at Panther -- September 29

Furniture Party and Spirograph Demo

Staff: Gabe, Myles, Saafir
Attendance: Nisha, Jasmine, Bianca (and her friend), Micah, Jonathan, Taylor, Marcus, Vittoria, (boy #1), (girl #1)

Melvin (director of operations) was the first person I saw when we arrived at Panther. He was checking out the teen room and obviously excited about way our programs complement thier plans for working with teens at all the clubs. He mentioned several upcoming programs. Best Buy donateded a superb package of software and hardware tools that we can help the Clubs use. Also, Taco Bell sponsored the Teen Supreme program and will provide a training workshop for staff working with teens. He wants me to attend.along with his Club staff.

The major goal for the day was getting the teens to help put together the IKEA furniture. This worked really well after we promised a suprise pizza dinner for anyone who built at least one piece. This quickly developed into a good spirited team effort to put together as many of the tables, chairs, and stools as we could. I'm disappointed in the dark table tops that we bought since they don't look nearly as durable as I'd hoped. Of course, the table legs are great and it would be easy enough to make plywood tops in odd shapes later on.

ALA Museum Day September 29, Wednesday

Today's objective was to introduce the ALA sudents to working on the floor of the museum. Last week we did straw hacking exercise with the kids, and had them make musical instruments and rocket launchers. Today the objective included having the kids make these same straw hacks and take them onto the floor to interact with museum visitors. The students were divided up into the same groups they were in last week, and a few of the kids wanted to switch their groups, but i kept them intact, to see how the kids would interact with people in their groups that are not their best friends. There were four groups - two that were making straw kazoos and two that were making rocket launchers. I separated the groups - one group was placed in a high traffic area, the Explorazone. One group was placed in a medium traffic area - the Hands-on-Science area. Two groups were placed in lower traffic areas, in an attempt to see how they would handle being in an area with nearly no visitors. The groups were on the floor for about 1 hour, and then they came back to the studio for debriefing.
Group one - Kazoos - The high traffic area - they said the noise attracted people to them, and that good explanations were necessary to getting the project to be a success with visitors.
Group Two - Kazoos - kids loved doing, it, but some people couldn't make it work for them. Also of note, it was hard for some of the kids to attract attention of people who had participated with the previous group of kazoo makers.
Group three - rockets - hard to explain, and had to deal with the difficulty of the task driving some people away. They were able to get some people to join them by going out and asking if visitors wanted to make the rockets.
Group four - low traffic area - rockets - they made a game around the rockets, decided to make signs to tell people what was going on and how to get to the Cowtown area where they were located, they advertised personally around the area and later decided to get a prize for the game. This group made use of every resource possible to excite people about their activity. Massively impressed here. One note, a few parents noted that the rockts might have been dangerous for little kids.
The groups learned today about the unpredictability of working on the floor. They were able to see how some people will not be interested in what you are doing and some will. They learned that innovation has to be part of what you do, so as to not seem like the same thing is happening all the time. They learned that good explanations of what's going on make a big difference in attracting people to their project. They also learned that location plays a role here. All of these aspects will come into play as they continue to work on the floor, and gear up for MINDFEST.
Jonathon and Bill were today's facilitators.

ALA kids 28-29 Sept.

ALA September 28, Tuesday

The plan for yesterday at ALA was to review the techniques and programming code for Digital Spirograph, as well as inform the students of how they could save any of their work now on the FTP site for the Design It Studio Website. The tuesday group proved to be small, about 7 or 8 students (Bill took the names down), but the small group worked well on the Spirograph programs. Melanie and Cody, who were a part of the summer institute where spirographs were introduced, were able to help the other students if they had some trouble. I was able to walk the students through the creation of a simple spirograph program through Microworlds EX first. After that, i asked the students if any of them remembered how to make shapes, like a circle, a square, or a triangle. It quickly became evident that most of these students had not done spirogrpahs before, so i tried to walk through the programming process in Microworlds slowly. Bill handed each student the prepared handout for the spirograph programs involving the aforementioned shapes, and we were able to help each student write their own spirographs. We talked about the programming language, and there were questions asked during the instruction time that i remembered asking during the summer - like do spaces matter in the programming, and how to change colors, etc. Allison and Kim were having a little trouble following the directions, but they came along well by the end of the session. I think a few of them probably need to practice this more. Mark and Raffy did very well, as well as Cody and Melanie. Cody and Melanie and Mark were able to improve amazingly on the spirograph programs and make some very interesting projects. I'm hoping that some of the others in the thursday group will do the same so that we can have a wealth of innovation to pull from for Mindfest. We had to teach the students (or remind them) how to create turtles and buttons within the Microworlds program, as well as review the commands for turning the turtles and making them move. I should have done a better job of that, thinking back on it. I could have done the exercise from the institute where we talked about 360 degrees of turning and had the kids actually stand up and turn their bodies. I will make that up for thursday. I do think the students did a good job and i believe with a little more practice all of the students will be able to make innovative spirograph creations.

After i had them save their work, i then put up on the screen the instructions for uploading their work onto the FTP site. A few of the kids seemed to have a bit of trouble at first getting the address typed just right, but we all got there. We had some weird problems with the uploading and downloading process. THe machines at ALA were having issues getting online, and then when we went to copy files from the site onto the computers the students were working on, the machines would not get back onto the FTP site. Eventually we were able to do that, but then we could not copy and paste the files onto the machines from the site. I was able to make it work by using the COPY TO FOLDER command, but it should have pasted the copied files and i don't know why it didn't work. I'll be trying that again today in the Studio with the laptops. All the machines in the ALA classroom then refused to get back online, and that ended our day. A few of the kids went back to play with spirographs for a few minutes, but then they left.

Joyce, Saafir, Bill, Gabe, and I talked on the phone for a little while after this to try and figure out just how the cycles are going to work, how they might be staffed, the curriculum involved, and the spaces to be used. We seemed to be on three different pages on this, so another meeting is necessary to get everyone on the same page. Joyce and I then went and talked for a little while longer on the idea of cycle work, the returning vs. the new kids, and trying to work out a time so that 8th graders from ALA could get involved with us without missing a class that they are not allowed to miss. we worked out a few interesting ideas, but they need to be run by Saafir first. Thursday before the afternoon session i have a chance to go to ALA and recruit some 8th graders into the program that do not have scheduling conflicts. I'll be working on that later today.

QUESTIONS - 1. THere is no security on the FTP site whatsoever. Anyone from any site can go on and open any folder and change or remove programs. This is a security risk. We need to find a way to lock down the folders from each site and only the people from each site have a password for their folder, and then they need a folder with their name on it that can also only be opened with their own password. There was a concern voiced that as the site stands, anyone could go in and delete or change anyone else's programs, or copy and rename them to use as their own.
2. How are we going to run workshop times for both returning and new students? if the cycles are going to encompass everyone, we run the risk of not being challenging enough for the returning students because they are already familiar with the technology and it would seem that new students would be on equal footing with them inside a cycle. This might be a problem, and we could lose the returning students. How are we going to teach the new students the technology separate from the returning students? Need to talk about this and nail this down.

Talking teens

Alex

Exstrawdinary Bill

Panther -- Day 3

Doodlebots and Toy Hacking
Attendance: 10 - 12

Thank you Gabe for being a great help at set up and clean up. And for making a great doodlebot out of a scavenged CD player that drew fantastic cirles.

The day at Panther started with me (Saafir) and Gabe setting up materials for Doodlebots and Toy Hacking in the teen room. Working in the teen room feels much more comfortable compared to the art or multi-purpose room. This is their space and they have developed customary ways to use it. We just fall in wherever it makes sense. We have developed incredible goodwill among the wider group at the club -- all the younger kids LOVE the museum folks. The teenagers put their CD’s on the laptops in the computer room and burn mix CD’s to play in the teen room. Yin-Yang Twins, Lil’ John, Ginuwine, etc. This is the music that they listen to at school and at home, most of it is sexually explicit and full of profanity. It doesnt' always work to say "hey man, turn that off". Being a hard-ass to get them to conform often backfires and makes them more recalcitrant. How do you avoid trampling their egos while keeping order in the room? We need to set up some ground rules but we want to give them some freedom. Maybe we'll get some decent headphones so they can listen to whatever the they want to without me having to regulate. Until then, I'm using the “Grandma rule” for appropriate music and language -- if you wouldn't listen to it in front of your grandmother, don't listen to it in front of me.

The boys were more into the toy hacking than some of the girls. Nisha, Taylor, and Jasmine spent a lot of time on BlackPlanet.com inserting photos of Ludacris and Ant Banks into their webpages. We ended up with some disassembled action figure toys and five or six doodlebots. Awesome night.

ALA Museum Day - Sept. 22, 2004

Today the ALA group (returning) came to the museum. THe plan on the day was to introduce MINDFEST, the kids' role during MINDFEST, and also introduce them to the idea of hacking, or making something new and cool out of different materials. The tool of the day was a drinking straw. The kids were encouraged in the same ways that the PANTHER group was, and since we had a large enough group, we were able to break them up into 4 smaller groups to explore all the straw hacking possible. Many of the kids took a simple idea, like the straw rocket and instruments, and completely made them their own creations. (SAAFIR will have these pictures up soon.) Discussions of Mindfest went well - we discussed the different aspects of playshops and how the returning students will be expected to help staff the events, the playshops, and the wandering floor exhibits, like Melon Harp. Good day today, the kids were very engaged in the activity, and we talked to them about next week dividing up in to the same groups to take some of these straw explorations onto the museum floor. It will be their first visitor interaction time since we began the new year. Also, we decided that we will be doing 2 away days at ALA, one on tuesday and one on thursday, because some of the kids can't make it on one or the other. We will have to do this anyway when we get new students in the program, so starting now with the 2 days a week will be a good thing. Saafir, Bill, and Jonathon were involved here. Joyce Baker also accompanied the kids to the studio time.

ALA, Wed Aft.

Just a note as a trial for me. Kids came in not as excited as before, but still excited They got into working with straws and completed all stations. Some more that others--hard to move them sometimes. They several created or hacked new things. Others did not quite get what hacking was all about. Some were a little subdued, but I think it ws because they had activities at school until after 9:00 PM!! A few came by last night.

I got to stay all the time today and made straw kazoos, etc. i am still sort of feeling my way. I did not notice any adverse reactions. The time passed quickly.

Straw Hacking with ALA

ALA Open House - September 21

Bill, Gabe, and Jonathon spent this evening at ALA for their open house instead of the normally scheduled studio time with the year 1 kids. THe purpose of the evening was to recruit new 7th and 8th grade students into the DESIGN IT program. We set up the laptops in Joyce Baker's room, who is the contact person for the project at ALA. We posted Signs all over the school for 7th and 8th grade students to come and explore the possibilities of the partnership with the Museum, and that we were set up in Joyce's room. We took examples of the Summer Institute work with us, including the Scratch Animation Film, some of the Sound Automata, the Spirograph Microworlds work, Microworlds stories and games, and the stop-motion animation films. We also made available flyers for MINDFEST, to help show parents and students what the first cycle of work was being prepared for. THe night went a little later than expected, but it seemed to be a conditional success. First i will list the positives on the night, and then i will list the elements that need to be improved if possible.
POSITIVES - we got to talk to a good number of parents and students about the museum, the project DESIGN IT, and the upcoming Mindfest. Many people seemed very interested in coming to Mindfest and exploring all the museum has to offer. We were able to meet some of the new applicants from the ALA and their families, and show off some of the work to them. THe new applicants seemed very excited about being a part of the new year of DESIGN IT. We also got to see a few of the current students (year 1 returning) and their families. Talking to them about geting ready for Mindfest and having their students intimately involved with the visitors during the event as well as during the year excited the parents. One of our students, David, even showed me one of his Microworlds projects that he has been working on away from the studio. I'll be looking into some of the issues he raised that he needs help with later today. The Museum was hyped, MINDFEST was given an incredible push, and the DESIGN IT program was encouraged among all the visitors that came through. It should prove interesting and fun to see who actually comes in to the program this year.
IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY - Most of the students and parents we talked to were 6th graders. That was a problem, because they are not eligible for the program at this time. There were many who were interested, and a few 6th grade students that could really do well and benefit from DESIGN IT, but having to iterate their ineligibility may prove to be a liability. We'll have to wait and see. Joyce Baker is wonderful as our partner, but her room and her space is in the 6th grade area of the school. We were not able to set up anywhere near the 7th and 8th grade areas of the school. The open house was part of a larger PTA meeting and the bands played until almost 8 pm - the band students are the one we are trying to recruit, and after the long night of meetings and band music we didn't get many takers in Joyce's room from new students. The location may have been more of a liability than we were aware at the time. Hopefully by next week we will have a good number of new applicants to interview for this year's starting group from ALA.

Jonathon

Panther - Sept 20, 2004

The day began with Saafir, Myles, and myself just spending time with the kids in the teen room, listening to them talk and watching them play on the internet. The kids in the room were about half Year One Design It kids and the other half were new to us. Bill Voss showed up with 2 snakes and a tarantula, which turned out ot be a big hit with all the club kids. After a while, we all sat down and began to talk with all the teens at the club, or at least, all the ones who came to join us this day. There were about 10 kids with us. Saafir was telling them about Design it and trying to see if any of the new teens would be interested. Myles asked them all what they did over the summer that they thought was cool, and then we did this really cool exercise with straws!! We made straw instruments, and a few of the kids seemed to really enjoy the activity. I took a few pictures of this. I think Saafir, Myles, Bill, and myself were having more fun with it that the kids!! There was an absence of some of our Year One kids, whether because of football practice or club interest, or some of them just weren't at the club this day. Saafir will be going back to the club on wednesday while i am working with the ALA kids at the museum. We will be asking the club kids to commit to signing up for cycle work so that we can know ho we will be working with from the club until mindfest. We are hoping to have the kids involved in all mindfest events possible.
( we need to make sure that there are rules in place for people coming and going from the teen room, as well as following the club rules for music and language.)
Jonathon

Panther -- Day 2

Today I talked to counselors at the Cassada School and the FWISD Accelerated Academy. Tomorrow I will talk to Virginia Dean, the principal of J.P. Elder middle school. They have 1200 students there!

Bill was a hit today at Panther when he showed up with the Trans-Pecos rat snakes and the tarantula. All the kids in the club were excited, many of them running toward (or away from) Bill, Jonathon, and Myles as they carried around the animals. The kids felt at home in the teen room if their language and attitude were any indication. After the excitement from the animals had subsided, we ended up with all of the teens in the club in the room, sitting on the couches and talking about their summer. Earlier when I had tried to gather them all in the teen room, I didn’t have much luck. When we had them all together we talked briefly about Design IT and did the straw-hacking experiment. I quickly demonstrated four or five unusual ways for using a soda straw and invited the teens to try a few or come up with their own. Using a drinking straws I made a kazoo with a pitch slider, levitated a ping-pong ball, animated a scrunched straw wrapper, created a spray gun, and launched a straw rocket.

Panther Day 1 - September 16

Today we went to the Panther Boys and Girls Club to introduce the new year of Design it Studio. We had about 10 kids from last year's program that came for the session. We talked about the summer briefly, and Megan did a wonderful job of working with the group in an activity to help us all get acquainted again. The kids were defintiely interested in finding the projects that they had worked on as well as seeing themselves in pictures. Dominic was interested in doing some animation movies as well as taking apart a car, but he won't be able to join us much at all because of football. Taylor expressed interest in working on more Microworlds games. Juan was also incredibly interested in working in Microworlds and finishing his already started project from the summer - Gabe sat down with him and they worked on his project for about 45 minutes. The kids seemed to like the scratch animation and the instruments. These were the positives on the day.
A few things that need to be considered - the kids today were terribly distracted. THis isn't our normal day, so maybe it will be a little better on Monday. A couple of the kids seemed liek they didn't want to be involved in any work, just playing at the musem. There were many times where discussion was interrupted by people leaving and coming back in, friends from the club coming into the space to talk to studio members about any number of things during our discussion time. THis was very distracting. There were many moments where i felt like Megan and i were having a conversation with each other and Gabe, and all the kids were just interested in other things other than studio. We did have some people come in and want to know what we were doing, so we got to share a little with other students about Design it. The club sites are going to be pretty good for open time, but for work time, or workshop time, we need to do that at the museum. The club is just not going to lend itself to a concerted focused atmosphere for project work.
Jonathon

ALA Day 1 -- Saafir

Great energy today -- the students were glad to be back. I didn't realize how much of a personal connection we had made with them last year. But when I asked for feedback about why they decided to return this year, several of them mentioned the wacky people they got to work with in Design IT .... sniff, sniff. Lots of grumbles about the uniform. Joyce gave them a chance to give her some input, but no one took her up on the offer. So we're sticking with her original plan to have them each get a white polo and we will embroider the Design IT Studio logo on it. They will have to wear it with khaki pants (or jeans?) when we do stuff on the floor and in Invention at Play. It will be a challenge to balance the need for a professional image with Design IT's spirit of wild creativity. Shouldn't we get real nametags for the Cadre 1 kids who work on the floor? Jonathon did a tremendous job setting up the stuff for today. Thanks man, you're awesome.

Yup, we've got all kinds of turtles in Design IT

Oooo....stop-motion animation!

I don't like listening to me talk either.

ALA Day 1 -- Myles

first day we had a blast. i felt very comfortable due when they walked in because we were very prepared. couple reasons for that... 1) saafir and jon rocked at getting eveything together, that being computer stations with activities from the summer at each station and obvious labels at each station with descriptions of what to do and look at 2) we had questions and instructions prepared for the gang to focus on before, during and after the activity (ie. be sure to talk to two people during the activity about things you enjoyed or had questions with) and 3) also enjoyed the follow up activity of naming reasons they came back to designIT.

about #3...i think its really really really important to take note of these reasons they came back. a few of them included...
-being in the newspaper
-building stuff from junk
-doesn't feel like work due to freedom of activities
-scholarships in future
-power tools!
-the cazy people that lead it
-future job opportunities/security
-high tech new activities
-field trips
-seeing the same people equals friendships

i believe these are very important to focus on and understand for the future of design it, so a quick excercise for you to do right now, go back and read that list again and brainstorm each as to how it can be continued, encouraged, and/or improved. and i like meghan and saafir's idea to next time ask "what do you think made other people not come back to design it, and how we can improve these things?"

as far as things that could have gone better, we had a few people not participate in the activity presented about talking to one another about the projects, which really isn't a big deal, but i did notice those who did the activity got alot out of the the stations. it also encouraged A) learning about possible future activities for the kids who weren't here this summer and B) boosted self confidence in kids who had done the projects. for next time, a simple solution to pushing kids to do the assigned activity would simply be to ask them at random how far they were on the task (ie "okay, who have you talked to so far and about what?")

one more thing i noticed was that the stop motion films were by far the most popular station. with that in mind it might be important to consider where to place that during the year in order for kids to keep interest. excited to read other blogs and get this party started.
ps.please know my grammer is not this bad i write this way to get my thoughts down fast before i forget em.
love myles

ALA Day 1 -- Jonathon

The kids from ALA came today from 1 to 3 pm. Good to see them all. Excellent positives on the say included the interest in the kids about the animation movies we made over the summer, as well as the instruments and the scratch animation film. interesting issues seem to arise when we start dealing with Microworlds. The kids seem to need to get back involved and do mroe programming to stay interested in the game writing and the storytelling with the Microworlds technology. We have some incredibly creative young men and women. WE need to work on channeling their nervous energy. We will continue to plan for the upcoming days where we willbe focusing their energies on mindfest events and activities. Tomorrow will be PANTHER club day. Saafir will take the machines to PANTHER - Bill, Megan, and Jonathon will go to the club tomorrow at about 3:30 and set up for the same intro day as we did with the ALA kids. Saafir will show up around 5:30 after his schooling. THe same activities are planned - summer institute pictures, games, movies, scratch animation, and instruments.

Northside Parade

Today I drove the van in a Parade sponsored by the Northside Boys & Girls club. This photo is of me and one of the 'T' bus drivers who was in line ahead of me, driving a bus with Deanna and a few others from the 'T'. I called Mary on Thursday to talk over plans for next week and by the end of our conversation I was signed up for lunch on Friday and a parade on Saturday. She moves quickly!

Thoughts on a Crazy Schedule

Today I went to the Northside Boys & Girls Club to talk to Mary (again) about the upcoming year. She was heading in three different directions as usual. Her crew for the night was Christina, Maggly, and herself but there were only 250 kids coming. It was Andrews last day after fourteen years so Ms. Lupe cooked green and red molé. Mary made me a plate I got the number to call the principal of J.P. Elder middle school and

San Fransisco Trip

Hey guys,

Forgive the personal tone of this entry. If it sounds like I'm talking to myself, that's because I am. This is the journal entry I wrote on my flight back from San Fransisco earlier this week. I was so excited when I set up this blog last night that I had to get something out on the web.

Cabaret Mechanical Workshop: September 4 - 6, 2004

On the second day, Ken talked about when he first started teaching he would write everything down. This idea of keeping a daily journal will not go away. I should keep a web log of everything that happens in Design IT Studio, complete with photos from the day. Evaluation and tracking would be easy following this kind of diligence. Think Lewis and Clark, or Charles Darwin. They kept tremendously detailed logs of daily events and observations under extreme conditions. I should be able to keep at least a daily log with my laptop, automobile, and air conditioned buildings.

San Francisco is a magical place – the Palace of Fine Arts a beautiful building. Kim and I walked the streets around the Marina for three days, on the quiet streets of the East Bay area, the condos all lined and uniform. The afternoon we arrived, we went down to the beach and took photos around the Exploratorium. Mike and Karen’s studio was an astonishing place filled with projects by the cabaret artists, Kitundu, and many others. I wonder about the ratio of time they spend working with visitors and staff to the time they spend tinkering and playing. They must have oodles of time to create these magical learning environments. Marble machines, windmills and whirligigs, cabaret mechanical, film series, and sound automata are some of their most recent work. Now they are thinking about ways to explore papercraft and they want to find ways to collaborate with PIE/ExNet partners in creating this new theme (A development cycle for Design IT?)

Ken Finn is a really neat guy; a great story teller with a warm personality, humor, and sharp wit. He’s been working at the E. for 17 years now and his new role with ExNet is a lot different than his previous work with floor explainers and summer camps. I want to find out more about his staff-hiring experience; hiring 15 new people every season is a significant feat of recruitment and training. Our first day consisted almost entirely of Ken, Sam Dean, Kurt Gross, and me talking about our work, our institutions, tinkering and learning, and huge range of other things. We took our conversation and Kim to lunch at Café Marimba. There we talked about the culture of disposable stuff, how exponential growth of anything from cars to trash is hard to encompass with short term political and economic planning, the cost of living in San Francisco, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and kayaking in an extra special area there, the fashion industry.

Take Home thoughts

I must return to San Francisco – I want to spend a month out there working with one of the artists-in-residence, Mike, Karen, and Ken.

I need to get copies of their write-ups for marble machines and photos of their space

I need to set an agenda for the advisor meeting and start some initial conversations with 1) Mitch Resnick, 2) M & K 3) John Parris (is he coming to the advisor meeting?) 4) Ken, Sam, Kristen, and Kurt

Their Studio is the embodiment of a thriving creative center where people join art, technology, and wild imagination to explore novel ideas. I LOVED it. It was bracing to realize how much work it took for Mike and Karen and all the other people who circulate through the area to create that magical environment. And this is at an institution with a strong history of work in this vein. M and K have put a tremendous amount of inspired time into cultivating this stuff; if I am to accomplish anything approaching this level of creativity I will have to find a lot more time to play and it won’t happen in a weekend.

I must get track lights and places to hang artwork from, decent shelving, a toolbox, the power tools on a lock-downable cart. (How much more money do I have to work with at the satellite sites and what are we doing out at Northside?)

I should probably start small in my work with the teens and my focus should be on developing a robust program and finding the people and projects that are inspirational to me and to the kids.

Random Thoughts on September 7, 2004

I need to tinker more: Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels

We should keep our framework closer to home with a focus on interactions with visitors on the floor.

Second Try

This one's dedicated to John Parris: thanks John