Design process

Develop a maker mentality is crucial for modern STEM education

Literature Reviews

We started the process by reviewing Microsoft’s Hacking STEM library, reading the NGSS standards, and joining online teachers groups to familiarize ourselves with the process of creating a lesson plan for 3rd - 5th grade students.

We further looked into journals and white papers to assess the current stage of the education field as a whole. Thought leaders like Mitchel Resnick and his work on the scientific “black boxes”, Lee Martin on the “maker movement” are all great inspiration for this project.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

While familiarizing with a new problem space, I led the effort to recruit teachers for interviews and came up with a plan for a participatory design session with kids. I quickly handled the documentation and the outreach process. Once the details and the logistics were managed, our team was able to focus on solving the actual problem: bringing STEM education to the classroom.

In less than 1 week after receiving the project brief, having just a good level of confidence and comfort, we dived into the ideation process.

Go wild first and then refocus

Ideation

To come up with as many ideas as possible, we did a sketch storm activity. The reason behind this was to use sketching as a method to externalize our thoughts, visualize the good ideas, and simply empty the bad ones out of the way. In 1 minute, each person had to come up with an idea and sketch it out on paper. We spent another minute taking turns sharing out that sketch. 20 minutes later, we generated over 30 potentials concepts.

Concept narrowing

We then reviewed and assessed each concept carefully. There were 5 criteria that were taken into consideration: educational, iterative, exciting, feasible, and affordable. Besides, a common interest that emerged across our discussions was magnets. There are not many lesson plans teaching about the relationship between electric current and magnetic field. Combining the criteria and team interest, we narrowed down to 3 main concepts: Save the Bee, Wheel of Fortune, and Magic Board.

Ask for feedback early and don’t be afraid to pivot

We brought 3 ideas to Microsoft and sought feedback. All three met the requirements yet one critical element was still weak: educational. They were creative and engaging yet they weren’t apparent to the daily scientific phenomenon.

At this step, I helped my team pivot a new concept within the realm of electromagnetism. I looked into the applications of electromagnets in daily life, sketched out a few concepts, and an electromagnetic crane was one of them. I discussed these new concepts with my team and we decided to bring Save the Bee and ElectroCrane to a participatory design session with kids.

Both ideas received a lot of enthusiasm from the kids in the classroom. From the participatory design session, we learned that kids prefer to collaborate with their peers for class activities. It included assembling the prototype and interpreting data visualization.

We decided to move forward with ElectroCrane because of 2 reasons:

1. The concept is less abstracted, it resembles the actual vehicle that exists in real life.
2. The feedback received was more well-rounded from both Microsoft and kids.

Continue to iterate our way to the final product

In 2 weeks, we conducted usability studies with 3 teachers and 5 kids to refine the lesson plan, the crane form, and the interface. To quickly receive feedback from teachers without coding a finished concept, we employed the Wizard-of-Oz prototyping method. During testing sessions, I made sure the crane function properly and was in charge of camera work. I edited and produced this video to capture the testing sessions.

Feedback 1: IT’S HARD TO BUILD

Kids would love the construction process of the crane yet it takes lots of time and requires advanced crafting skills with the current model.

RESPONSE 1: MAKE IT SIMPLER

Use materials that can be put together easily, reduce cutting time and eliminate the use of glue gun.

I chose popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and clippers as new materials for the crane.

Feedback 2: TASK SWITCHING IS DISTRACTING

During the activity, to assess the strength of the electromagnet, people had to constantly switching task between controlling the crane arm and looking at the laptop interface. They felt distracted.

RESPONSE 2: SHOW IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK ON THE CRANE

Eliminate distraction by creating 2 separate interfaces: one as immediate feedback for crane control, and one for data logging and analysis.

We then brought the lesson plans and crafting materials to the session with kids again to assess whether they could assemble the crane and the circuit using the instructions provided.

Feedback 3: LACK OF PROPER LABELS

Since kids don’t understand physical computing, they rely on imagery and follow exactly how the circuit is illustrated. The current Microsoft’s instruction doesn’t provide enough labels which led to confusion and drop-off in the process.

RESPONSE 3: PROVIDE CLEAR LABELS

I suggested my team to gray out irrelevant components on the circuit illustration & add detailed labels so kids can follow the instruction more easily.

Our team applied the insights and revised ElectroCrane. I took the lead in finalizing the low-fidelity crane and the lesson plan. Yomna worked on polishing the interface, and Mengxiao created a high-fidelity crane.As a part of the final deliverable, I created a storyboard, produced a 2-minute video, and animated the logo to pitch ElectroCrane at Microsoft.