Northside Coolness

Tonight at Northside was very cool. I met Karie in the parking lot at the Club a few minutes after four with several trips worth of materials, with a hazy view of what tonight would look like, and with a raging cold.

Troy met me at the door, eager to help unload my car. We got all our stuff inside, brought our cabinet into the Teen Room, and began setting up. The teens were having their lunch then, so the room was fairly empty.

I brought the big domino blocks, the marble run materials (minus the marbles...), simple switch materials, scrap lumber, a couple of programmed crickets, four laptops, and a box of crickets, motors, transfers, sensors, and tricolor displays. My vision was to provide an assortment of materials and to let the kids use them as they were inspired.

Karie and I were messing about with the crickets I'd brought, we were thinking of different ways to use them in chain reactions. Both were programmed with incredibly simple programs. One used a motor to knock over a domino, and the other used a tricolor LED.

A couple of kids, David and Michael, were really excited to see the marble run materials. Then we discovered I'd brought no marbles...They improvised, and it worked out well. A couple of girls, Christina and Ilene (the second of whom I'd never met), really got into making simple switches with motors and lights. Lazaro, a second year, came in from the gym to check us out, and his eyes lit up.

"Can I use one of those laptops, Miss Megan?" "Sure. What for?" I asked. He said he wanted to program some crickets. I willingly obliged! We set him up with a laptop, the appropriate cricket paraphenelia, and sat down together at one of the bleacher tables. He opened Logoblocks, sighing, "My favorite program." Naturally, all he was interested in was the tricolor LEDs. He is so into lights and electricity! He spent probably 45 minutes writing programs, trouble-shooting, experimenting with mixing color, and showing off his good work. He spent ten minutes figuring out how to make orange!

I thought the night was a success because kids were engaged in a variety of projects, because kids' faces lit up when they saw us come in, because the kids were teaching each other how to make switches/program crickets/affix tracking to the pegboards. I saw opportunities for improvement next time in how I thought about what supplies to bring. There were little things, tools and materials both, that kids asked for and that I forgot. I also wish I'd spent more time connecting with more of the kids.

All in all, it was an awesome night.

make cool stuff

had a good week cause i learned alot. on wednesday evening panther kids ventured to the museum. we started of by playing a fantastic community builder jon just creatively named "15 minutes of fame". without the kids seeing, i placed a nametag on each kid's back with a famous person's name on it. each kid had to then go to another person in the room and ask only yes or no questions in order to try and guess what name was on their back. afterwards, we handed out the first round of snacks. we learned something about our group after about 10 minutes and 3 helpings later, that it may be a good idea to limit snack portions. i'll just say finding cups full of kool aid sugar with spoons in them, but no water, led me to believe portions per child may be best. next, with materials to work with in four seperate square sectioned off areas on the floor, the group broke up into pairs and worked on building chain reaction pieces. the problem we had with this group was the same we had on the following monday night at panther, which i think we may have a solution to. aside from not bringing enouph materials on monday, which i will make sure not happens again, one main problem with attempting to build chain reaction piecesis that the kids are lacking experience with power tools and therefore competency and confidence. carlos made a brilliant point that many children who are raised in an education backround where failure is frowned upon and punished, they therefore are afraid to fail and discouraged when attempting new things. so instead of these kids focusing and problem solving off the bat, they have inherant fear and complacency. after break, i'm excited to utilize a new technique for teaching confidence in using provided power tools, while at the same time promting safety. at meeting we came up with "power tool training cards" where each tool will be listed on their own individual cards, and after each kid shows safety and compitance with a particular tool has been learned, the tool will be checked off. we'll se how it goes, but i think it has potential. i want to thank carlos and gabe for assistance in a tough spot on monday when i had to leave early, and i'm excited to get healthy and ready for next week. have a great turkey day.

make cool stuff

had a good week cause i learned alot. on wednesday evening panther kids ventured to the museum. we started of by playing a fantastic community builder jon just creatively named "15 minutes of fame". without the kids seeing, i placed a nametag on each kid's back with a famous person's name on it. each kid had to then go to another person in the room and ask only yes or no questions in order to try and guess what name was on their back. afterwards, we handed out the first round of snacks. we learned something about our group after about 10 minutes and 3 helpings later, that it may be a good idea to limit snack portions. i'll just say finding cups full of kool aid sugar with spoons in them, but no water, led me to believe portions per child may be best. next, with materials to work with in four seperate square sectioned off areas on the floor, the group broke up into pairs and worked on building chain reaction pieces. the problem we had with this group was the same we had on the following monday night at panther, which i think we may have a solution to. aside from not bringing enouph materials on monday, which i will make sure not happens again, one main problem with attempting to build chain reaction piecesis that the kids are lacking experience with power tools and therefore competency and confidence. carlos made a brilliant point that many children who are raised in an education backround where failure is frowned upon and punished, they therefore are afraid to fail and discouraged when attempting new things. so instead of these kids focusing and problem solving off the bat, they have inherant fear and complacency. after break, i'm excited to utilize a new technique for teaching confidence in using provided power tools, while at the same time promting safety. at meeting we came up with "power tool training cards" where each tool will be listed on their own individual cards, and after each kid shows safety and compitance with a particular tool has been learned, the tool will be checked off. we'll se how it goes, but i think it has potential. i want to thank carlos and gabe for assistance in a tough spot on monday when i had to leave early, and i'm excited to get healthy and ready for next week. have a great turkey day.

ALA Thursday Nov. 18, 2004

GAGGLE
Today we began learning about Crickets and their programming. The thursday group finished up the intro to soldering as well. Cricket programming was introduced in the form of making the cricket play notes, turn on motors, use sensors to turn on motors, and then using sensors to turn the motors both on and off. The students will be encouraged to continue practicing in the week after the holidays in the attempt to get them to think about how to use a cricket in their chain reaction scuplture. The session went well, with only a minimal amount of technical difficulty - some of the sensors didn't work. Soon we hope to have the students actually soldering their own sensors to use with the crickets. This activity will be done with the tuesday group after thanksgiving.

MURDER
today the thursday group mostly finished up working on their story idea. I believe 2 of the groups are ready to film when they return from the holidays. The rest need to continue working on the storyboards. Some of the kids are learning that they need to be a bit more detailed in their storyboard to understand exactly what they'd like to see on film. (Side note - some of the people working on the actual drawing of the storyboards are amazing visual artists. I'm hoping to convince them to be a part of the art cycle later in the year if they are not signed up for it.) When the holidays are over, the filming of the final stories will begin.

ALA Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004

GAGGLE -
Today the groups were brought together with two objectives - 1. To work together as small groups and as a team to create a chain reaction that spans the entire studio; 2. To introduce crickets into the work being done.

The team building exercise done today: Each person was handed a piece of paper with one member of a famous foursome on it. Each student had to figure out who they had, what group they belonged to, and match up with three other classmates to form the working group for the day. The students then had to figure out how to use only themselves to lift numerous members of their team off the ground. The last event was trying to figure out how to only use 4 people standing and lift the other 16 people off the ground. The students were unsuccesful in this attempt only because the time was cut short for a small discussion. THey understood that unless they worked together and listened to everyone's ideas, they would have a very hard time of making this work. This translated well into the work of the day - the students not only worked on their own chain reaction link, but they helped each other out as well. Each team had to end with something that would begin the next group's chain. The 11:40 group used much more in the way of crickets and motors and lights and circuits than the 9:40 group. Both groups did an amazing job of putting a great run together, and when they return from Thanksgiving they will be building permanent links in a chain to be added to the entire group's work. Thursday the Gaggle members will be introduced to the programming of the crickets. They used them in their chains as circuits with motors. the Crickets were programmed to turn the motor on when a switch was thrown (or when two alligator clips were touching).

MURDER
Today the students were given the opportunity to come up with some interesting ideas for plotlines in a story, as well as their teammates for the filming process. After they came up with their ideas, they were given the choice of choosing their teammates, and having to pick their film idea from the ones given, or letting Jonathon pick the teammates and then letting them film whatever they wanted. They chose to pick their teammates, and then choose their story from the list of ideas they had given. THe list of the groups and their choices are listed earlier in Bill's entry to the blog. The only requirements they have now are as follows - they must storyboard the work before they will be able to start filming, and they must create a story that lasts about 3 minutes. The students were given the chance to work together on their storyboards today, as well as having the option to watch some short films chronicling the storyboarding process, as well as character development. Some of the students took advantage of the films and others worked very hard on their storyboards. Thursday they students will continue work on their stories and possibly start filming them. THey can use any medium we have used before - live action, stop motion with actors, stop motion with clay or toys. The students have about a month to complete the work.

Jonathon

ALA - Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004

Today was a continuation of thursday's group work. THe Gaggle worked on circuits and soldering, while the Murder worked on claymation films. The claymation films were different this time - the students made 3-D objects and characters. The gaggle works so well together doing team building exercises and ice breakers - then they also helped each other out making interesting circuit creations. A picture of a few will be posted next. Wednesday's group work will revolve around getting introduced to crickets for the gaggle, and getting started on the final film work for the murder group.

Jonathon

Claymation Filming!

Aaron's circuit creation!

Teaching Each other the circuit Building!

Creating New Circuits!

Murder at the Museum Wed. Nov. 17. 04

Today was exciting They came in relaxed and subdued! Jonathan discussed the game plan and work for the day, passed out storyboard sheets and they progressed to work.

They decided on days at ALA The Tuesday group who meet after school will be: Fernando, Cody, Kellie, Allie, Jessica, Kim, and .............
The Thursday group will be: Portia, Marcus, Leland, Alex, David, Melanie, Chelsey, Caroline, P.J., and Ray........

Then they were called on to come up with movie themes or plots? This is the list they proposed:
1. Dancing Hats that Eat People
2. Drew Finney attacked by Monsters
3. Water that Turns you Purple
4. Mushrooms that eat Elephants.
5. Orange Juice that sucks body Fluid
6. Computer Game that traps your Mind inside a Video Game
7. Monkey that stuffs people into a pickle jar
8. Dancing Ballerina Squirrel
9. Goldfish that take over the sea
10. Killer Lightbulbs
11. Killer Snail/Boy with Salt
12. Robots Fishting
13. Old People Rebellion
14. Grim Reaper/Flowers Growing

They were then given the choice of dividing themselves into groups of three and then pick
one of the proposed topics to make a three-minute animated movie on that theme. Then they were allowed to work and start on their story boards. The groups and topics chosen were as follows:

1. Water that turns People Purple: Caroline, Chelsey, and Alex
2. Mushrooms that Eat Elephants: Marcus Sarah, and Portia
3. Old People's Rebellion: P.J., Ray, Leland
4. Dancing Hats that eat people: Kimberly, Kelly, and Allie
5. Monkey in the Pickle Jar: Melanie, David, and Joey
6. Robots Fighting: Cody, Fernando, and Jessica

They seem to have alot of ideas and got busy right away. Some involved in breaking a
lava lamp (guess who!), some started making props, some watching a video on story boarding, and a couple sat around!! Jonathan moved between groups coaching, questioning,
encouraging, and admonishing some. All in all a profitable day.

I have finally gotten on the web site to Blog again with the advent of a new ThinkPad and wireless connection. It only works at the Museum however. So this may be spasmodic.

Panther on Wednesday night

Saturday with Panther

Students: Dominic, Jasmine, Taylor, Jonathon, Vittoria, Andrea, and Kiah
Staff: Saafir and Nick

The goal of the day was to build a dominoe run contraption that would be triggered by a falling dominoe and would, in turn, cause another dominoe to fall. I was trying to set up a session that would result in wooden contraptions like the examples that Nick and I built from cannabalized sound automata from the summer. Mine was a simple spool mechanism that pulled a block off of a stool and swung down to knock over the next block. Nick used the boot that Karen built during the summer to push a block down an incline

Many of the teens never got a good picture of the goal of "building a contraption". I had a clear picture in my head but I hadn't communicated it well to them. I think I had too many dominoes available at the beginning. I wanted to constrain their exploration to "finding ways to get a domino to fall over when a cricket is triggered by a another falling dominoe." Instead many of the groups spent a lot of their time setting up domino runs. Also, their attention was really on the social experience and much of their energy was taken up by poking fun at their friends, telling stories about school, and arguing about what music to play on the computer.

Here are some other things I will do differently next time...

I will...

• set the day up from the begining with a tighter structure;
• tell the group about the days plan, hour by hour;
• spend some time working torward solutions to the design problem before we touch materials or tools. For example, I will tell them to "take ten minutes and explore the designs that Nick created for the examples, then at 12:15, I will hand out butcher paper and markers and we will sketch some other possibilities for making a dominoe fall."
• after that, I will give each team exactly what they need to start on their project -- a cricket, alligator clips, motor, scrap wood, and aluminum foil; this will narrow the available design solutions to a manageable level
  
• mark out clear working areas for the teams
• announce the teammates at the beginning, without making obvious how I picked them out
  
• do a progress check at the halfway point of the day
  

Soldering Excitement!!

Nov 11 - the lights, the motors, the CIRCUITS!!

Students hard at work on their first chain reaction

Chain reaction from Nov 3 - the setup

Chain Reactions - the Beginning!

ALA Thursday Nov 11, 2004

GAGGLE

Today the group continued working on circuits with motors, batteries, christmas lights, and wires. As they were working on making some fun art that lit up or spun around, Gabe was teaching them how to solder two at a time. The students seemed very proud of themselves as they worked, realizing that they were actually working with electrical circuits and being able to make things run! One young woman had a lightbulb moment, where she asked Jonathon how to make the switches again. As He explained the process, the girl eyes began to light up and she actually finished the description of how to complete the circuit herself. Once she did that, her remark was "i used to hate science!!" and then she quickly focused on getting her motor and light circuit to work. This group has taken to each other very well, working hard on the projects and really enjoying each other as a whole. THey are very responsive to all the activities designed to get to know them, and one can see them jelling together as a group already. This makes working with them a lot of fun.

MURDER

Today the students were divided up into 5 groups, given the computers and the cameras, as well as play-doh and clay, and instructed to create a story using no words, no sound, and only the characters they could create from the clay medium. Aside from a few technical issues (computer freezing) the students took to this project well. They were engaged, and they worked hard to create a 2 minute film before the time was up. Interesting note - Jonathon provided boards for the students to work on, so that clay would not get on the glass tops of the work tables. All of the students made films that were flat. They used the boards not for a stand for their 3D clay creations, but created flat clay characters that lay on top of the board and were moved around to film. If given more time the kids might explore ways to make their creations more three-dimensional. They expressed an interest in working with the clay again, and also expressed interest in possibly seeing a film about animation and using puppets and clay ( we have a short film about the making of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS that really shows stop motion and storyboarding well. it will be made available next week for the students.) This week looked really good compared to the non-engagement of last week's work. Jonathon is learning more how to facilitate free choice educational environments.

Jonathon

make cool stuff

long day but very rewarding. worked in the morning with jon and megan with the first group, then megan, saafir and i teamed up for the second of our new gaggles. the icebreaker was great that jon had planned which split everyone into groups. everyone wrote a fact about themselves that noone else knew and we put the sheets in a hat and selected them at random. we then tried to guess who's sheet was who's and the order picked put them in groups. my favorites were "i like sushi" and "i'm scared of leprichons". chain reactions involving the new element of swithches followed. great new ideas including tangling up baloon string on a battery powered motor to make the baloon go up and down, then reversing polarity to do the opposite. sweet. in the evening saafir, gabe and i had a blast with the teens of bngc-panther, who had alot of energy due partly i believe to new surroundings. snacks, t-shirts as sellin tools seem to have worked for the chain reaction cycle, but can't wait to see how they react to the band saw and drill. we did learn examples created before hand with new groups is essential, but the ratio of three staffers to eight kids helped alot. luv myles.

Panther at the Museum, Nov 10

Who was here:
Myles, Gabe, and Saafir
Micah, Dominic, Taylor, Kaira, Vittoria, Andrea, Fernando (?), and Vittoria's friend

Goals:
...inspire notions about chain reaction for the chain reaction team by showing "The Way Things Go," and a segment from Pee Wee Herman's film....
...let the team try their hand at building a simple chain reaction event out of a helium balloon, large wooden "dominoes," a roll of tape, and a short stool.

Comments:
The teens were pretty upbeat and excited about being at the Museum. The were game for watching the films we had set up for them. We got a fair amount of mileage out of some of them on building the chain reaction sculptures. Doing it again, Myles and I would provide richer examples of dominoe runs/chain reactions. We neglected this point although we had built into our work with the other groups. Maybe we assumed that these teens had payed more attention when we did this stuff out at the club.

Morningside Elementary school was her for family science night tonight so it was fun that we knew many of the families who came. I got big smiles and hand shakes from at least a dozen of the children who came with their families tonight, and many of them knew my name.

ALA day museum Nov. 10, 2004

GAGGLE

Today the groups were to make use of the newfound knowledge of circuit making to add to a chain reaction. The groups were given the same tools and materials as last week, only this time alongside the blocks, tape, and balloons, they were to add a motor, battery, and switch. The groups made some amazing inventions, and pictures will be posted soon. Some used the motor to wind down a balloon, while others used the switch and motor to start a marble that would knock over blocks and release a balloon. One group had a switch designed to run a motor to knock over blocks, and still another group had a motor that set off another motor, and a roll of tape that rolled and knocked over other tower blocks! Amazing time today! Played a couple of "getting-to-know-you" games with them, still trying to get a feel for their names and personalities. Tomorrow they will continue their soldering practice and circuit making using lights and buzzers as well as motors. Next week they begin construction on permanent sculptures, as well as introduction to crickets.

MURDER

Today we discussed the six elements of the successful story with the group as they relate to the story they told and we filmed last week. THe handouts and informational analysis just didn't work well. I've conceded that battle. I was able to have a discussion with the kids about their story and for the most part, they remembered different elements of the story, more than they realized. i was hoping that they would be able to read the information and translate the elements of the story into their own, but i could have done a much better job of engaging them than i did. I'll think about how to make that better in the future. As we moved on, the students were divided into groups and given a new challenge. Instead of watching a film on character development and getting ready to write a story, we had the kids make up one and tell us a story with one restriction. There were to be no words and no sound. I made props in the room fair game, but no talking and no sounds. They were given about 40 minutes to create and then we had each group perform their story for the group. after each group performed their 2 minute story, the rest of the group was asked to talk about what they saw, and what kind of story was being portrayed. Each group had people who observed well and knew what was going on, but each group also knew things about their own story that were not able to be shown in the acting out of the story. These elements were not known to those observing the story, and so tomorrow i'm going to try and get them to think about those things as they tell me a new story. TOmorrow's exercise will be using the cameras and stop motion animation. They will again have to tell me a story without sound or words, but using clay and play-doh. i may give them story prompts tomorrow, or i may let them come up with their own ideas.

Jonathon

ALA day Tuesday Nov 9, 2004

Today was a continuation of thursday for the two different groups. The gaggle group spent the time working on making simple circuits with motors, batteries, homemade switches, and single stranded wires. As they were learning how to put the circuits together, the students were being taken two at a time to learn about the soldering iron. This format is scheduled to continue a bit Thursday and next tuesday as the kids who didn't get to solder do it this time, and we are going to add lights and buzzers into the circuits, as well as give them the chance to solder the apparatus that they build.

THe murder group worked on their story analysis today for the purposes of discussion tomorrow. After working with them today Joyce, Karie, and Gabe had some awesome suggestions about wednesday and how to seemingly get the kids engaged in the cycle again. Tomorrow they will discuss with me the story that they created, then they will create another, but this time, they have to use what they know about plot development to tell a story without using words or sound. It should prove interesting.

ALA Day THursday Nov 5, 2004

Both groups were represented today - gaggle and murder. The murder group had the task of going through the handout they were given on the successful elements of a story, and then using that information to critique their own work from the previous day. As reported earlier, the murder students were given a few guidelines and then asked to tell 2 minutes each of a continuing story. This was filmed and now they were to critique their own part of the story as well as the whole piece based on plot elements, themes, points of view, characters, style, and setting. This will be used to fuel the discussion on wednesday and usher the group into learning about plot and character development for their original stories.

The gaggle group that came Thursday began their work on learning about circuits, simple switches, motors, and becoming proficient with a soldering iron. This group really took to the work quickly. Bill began to show them the circuit basics, and they learned how to make simple switches from cardboard, aluminum foil, batteries, and wires. After this they added motors to their circuits, and all the while Gabe was taking the students 2 at a time to show them how to use the soldering iron. Wednesday they will use the newfound knowledge of circuit making, switches and motors to add new dimensions to their chain reactions. Having Bill and Gabe there made it easy to have both groups present and learning, and Jonathon working with both.

THe murder group is having to adjust to the new freedom we are giving them to work at their own pace. the only restrictions given to them involved the analyzing of the story information by wednesday the 10th of november. This schedule gives them a week to do what they are asked to do, and they can come on either thursday or tuesday to use the computers, but they have the freedom to work at home if they need as well. The Gaggle group will definitely be more focused in their time because they are just learning the technology for the first time.

Tuesday's groups will engage in the same activities, and wednesday will begin the brand new week of proramming.

Jonathon

Doodle

Mon, Nov 8 – Tue, Nov 16

Mon, Nov 8	Tues, Nov 9
3:00 Panther Recruitment Push Set up our latest iteration of a chain reaction sculpture Set up a table to recruit our team for the next two weeks Get names, addresses, and T-shirt sizes for everyone on the team Nick please talk to me about Ms. Mayes music project Myles, Saafir, Gabe, Nick Materials include, Application/permission forms, plywood for cutting another set of blocks, tablecloth, displays	11:00 All-Staff Meeting Fixed Agenda Items: Blog Highlights Most memorable moments from the week Next Week What’s our game plan for Week 3 of the cycle? Stuff Saafir Wants to talk about: Muse List 2 Muses (and 2 Field trips) per cycle? Who will they be during Storytelling/Chain Reactions?
Other Notes (I will talk to Roland on Friday 11/5 about the possibility of several van trips per week and on Saturdays for the recruitment team. I will also contact Andrew Chambers, the principal at Morningside Elementary and set the time and date for the event at his school) (Megan, I will call Virginia Dean at J.P. Elder again about this recruitment visit from our chain reaction team)	3:00 Northside Recruitment Push Same as Panther Megan, Saafir Materials Same as Panther We MUST have a Spanish version of the application/permission form
	3:30 ALA Chain Reactions 2 Tinker with switches and motors in chain reactions Jonathon, Gabe, Karie Materials include, Aluminum foil, cardboard, 20 motors with leads soldered on them (should we have Gaggle solder leads tonight?), coffee stirrers, masking tape, 40 domino blocks, string, foamie sheets, AA batteries, telephone wire
Wed, Nov 10	Thu, Nov 11
9:40 Gaggle Chain Reactions 4 Combine the simple circuits with chain reactions Jonathon, Megan	3:30 At ALA Chain Reactions 5 Introduce Christmas lights and buzzers to their simple circuits Jonathon, Karie, Gabe
11:40 Gaggle Chain Reactions 4 Saafir, Myles
12:45 Murder Storytelling 3 Jonathon, Bill	3:45 Northside (5:00 at the Museum) Recruitment Push Megan, Bill Voss, Curator of Inspiration
3:45 Panther (4:30 at the Museum) Recruitment Push Watch “The Way Things Go” in the multipurpose room Build balloon, tape, and block chain reactions Myles, Gabe, Saafir,
Fri, Nov 12	Sat, Nov 13
Please turn in your hours tonight	12:00 – 4:00 Panther (at the Museum) Chain Reaction Team Saafir
At Northside Open Studio (Do something inspired with chain reactions) Nick
At Panther Open Studio (Do something inspired with chain reactions Also, can you help me prepare for Saturdays workshop at the Museum?) Gabe

Mon, Nov 15	Tues, Nov 16
3:00 Panther Recruitment Push Nick Submit entries for Ms. Mayes project? Work on signs and presentation materials for the Morningside Chain Reaction Put together the rest of the furniture Myles, Saafir, Gabe, Nick Materials include, Snacks!, tools for furniture assembly, markers, poster board, markers, and laptops for making the signage for Morningside	11:00 All-Staff Meeting Fixed Agenda Items: Blog Highlights Most memorable moments from the week Next Week What’s our game plan for Week 4 of the cycle?
	3:00 Northside Recruitment Push Megan, Saafir
	3:30 At ALA Chain Reactions 5 Introduce Christmas lights and buzzers to their simple circuits Jonathon, Karie, Gabe

Goals and Strategies Meeting

11:00 – 4:00 Panera Bread on University

Opportunities for the meeting:
Please take a half-hour and jot down your thoughts on Design IT Studio. I’m especially interested in what inspires you about the project. Also, what strengths do you bring to the team? What do you see yourself contributing to the vision of Studio over the next several years (or months)?

Jonathon and I will send out the advisor meeting notes sometime today.

My Ideas for the Agenda
SWOT Session (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges)
Our Goals (What are we doing in Design IT Studio? How do we want these teenagers’ lives to be different after they have passed through Studio? How will we know that we have succeeded? How is Studio different from school?)
Strategy Brainstorming (centered on Recruitment and Retention, the Curriculum Framework, and the Muse List)

ALA Murder Group, Museum Day, Nov. 3, 2004

Today we continued the Storytelling cycle by having the students talk a little to their classmates about the previous activity of filming and writing a story. We then engaged the students in a an activity where they told a story to each other. In a variation of the old EGG TIMER game, the students were given a place (the museum), character names (Julie and Ryan), and a situation or crisis (a kidnapping), and they were instructed to begin telling a story from those guidelines. ( a practice run was done first, and too many options for them to use were given - they guidelines were then whittled down to what is written above.) For the trial run, each student was given thirty seconds to tell part of the story, making it up as they went along. After the thirty seconds, the next person in the circle was to continue the story. The larger exercise went to two minutes instead of thirty seconds. As the story was told, the students were also filmed telling the story. After the exercise was completed, evaluation questions were asked such as:
What do you remember about the story?
Can you describe the characters at all?
How about the guidelines - did the story stick to them?
The students began to talk about how there were too many PLOT points that came out and it was hard to follow. They also mentioned that details about the characters were left out and the settings were confusing. (They mentioned that the story told would be very hard to film.) A handout was given that explained to them the elements of a good story that they were already talking about - Theme, setting, Story Structure and Point of View, Characters, Plot, and Style and Tone. The work for the next week is for the students to view the film of their work and critique it - the story as a whole, and their 2 minute contribution - on the basis of the six elements given above from a questionnaire based on the descriptions.
Jonathon

ALA Gaggle 1 and 2 - Museum, Nov. 3, 2004

Today began the new group from the ALA at the museum. We started the year off by introducing the students to Chain reactions (marble runs, etc.) The cycle will consist of the students working on their own chain reaction sculptures, using the elements of marble runs, dominoes, motors, switches, sensors, and crickets. We will be teaching them how to make sensors, program the crickets, build simple switches with motors, and all for the purpose of not only learning the electronics, but creating an interesting piece of interactive art that can be used and displayed later in the year. The students were introduced to all these ideas and then shown the film THE WAY THINGS GO, in an attempt to foster some creativity and inspiration of their own creations. After the films the students were shown an example of a chain reaction that used marble runs, crickets, switches, dominoes, and helium balloons. After seeing the example made by saafir, jonathon, and gabe, the kids were then instructed to take some large domino shaped blocks, rolls of tape, and a helium balloon, and create their own chain reaction. They were allowed to use any other material they found in the room, and they worked very hard to create some interesting reaction pieces. Thursday and tuesday these students will be introduced to motors and switches, so that next week they can incorporate the new technology into another chain reaction as they think about building one to be linked together later with all their classmates' sculptures.
Jonathon

ALA Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Today was the continuation of what the thursday group did last week, telling stories, encouraging storyboarding, and filming their creations. TO begin our storytelling cycle, the students were asked to tell me a story using the stop motion animation cameras. They were shown how to use them to take video clips, and how to edit the clips in with the stop motion animation if they chose. THe students were divided up into groups, and each given a sombrero, a plastic spider, some laboratory goggles, and a balloon, and were instructed to tell a story using these 4 elements. They were not limited to the 4 elements given, but the objects were to be an integral part of the constructed story. Before the students were allowed to use the cameras, however, they were instructed to write. The students were provided storyboard templates to use, as well as pen and paper to help them write. They were given 30 minutes to work on the story of their film, and then 1 hour to work on the filming itself. I asked to see their work in writing. Many of the groups used the storyboard templates, but most of them seemed to want to know if they could use different materials instead of actually writing a story at first. A couple of the groups actually worked on a narrative instead of a storyboard. All of today's groups used the storyboard templates to prepare their films. (Interestingly enough, many of the groups were using filming elements that they didn't even know, such as acting as a director, a writer, and even a cinematographer.) Watching the process of the students as they prepared their stories helped me to work out a tool to give them on wednesday to help describe and identify elements of a successful story.
Jonathon