What is it?
Daniel Bradac and I created a program meant to introduce young learners to the world of engineering. Using our members & resources from our high school Pioneers in Engineering program, we wanted to find a way to bring the experience to the middle school learners of ACLC. In PiE. we work according to a task we are given, and must complete our robot in a certain time period. In order to bring this to the middle school class, we worked with the Drama department to create mechanical robots for the school's Lion King production.
In production, they requested that we create a Zazu puppet, along with a moving set piece for a rolling gazelle wheels.
Daniel and myself went to various meetings with the Drama production crew to learn what we could do together to make a better production, and past that, organized with the community to create the middle school club.
In production, they requested that we create a Zazu puppet, along with a moving set piece for a rolling gazelle wheels.
Daniel and myself went to various meetings with the Drama production crew to learn what we could do together to make a better production, and past that, organized with the community to create the middle school club.
Hour Log:
Week 1
For our first week, I worked with Danny to get a feeling for what we wanted to do with our project. I let him know what I was thinking, wanting to make something fun and cool so that the learners working it would be able to see their own work on a bigger stage. Being able to see their project in use would give a sense of fulfillment that our high school robotics brought to me and the other members. He let me know what Lynne was looking for, and we agreed to follow up more on it later after HS PiE was finishing up.
Week 2
Danny and I met with Lynne Boone and Sara Scott to talk about what they wanted us to make for the play. They gave us a padlet that had all the ideas that they had on it, and it made our job a lot easier. They gave us a few options on what to work on; there were moving masks, cycling antelopes, and a moving puppet. We decided to focus on the puppet the most as there were some examples of how to make it from somewhat commonplace materials.
Week 3
In the first real week of the internship, I announced the project at CCC for any prospective middle schoolers interested in engineering. During the end of PiE for high schoolers, I also asked that group if anyone was interested in mentoring some of the middle schoolers during the process, but did not get all that many responses. Later in the week, we held the first meeting, where, unfortunately, very few middle schoolers actually showed up. We talked about what I wanted to do during the next month, and showed them the same padlet Lynne showed us. I showed them the video of the homemade parrot puppet, and ended it on that note.
Week 4
This was the first week of actual production, so it was interesting to learn how to work with younger learners. At the beginning of the week, we met and talked about what supplies we would need in order to move on with the project. We agreed on who would bring what to the next meeting, with Anthony bringing in a broken umbrella and Nathan bringing in an old bike brake for moving its head. When we finally met with all of the materials, we had to assemble the bike brake, and it was disappointingly short for it’s pull distance. We also worked on turning the umbrella into the wings of the bird by stripping the fabric off of the umbrella.
Week 5
In this week of meetings we adapted the materials that we had, starting with the umbrella. The umbrella was used for the wings, as mentioned earlier, which was done by clipping all of the skeletal pieces except for two “wings”. After we stripped the umbrella, we got to working on how to implement the bike brake. We sawed some PVC pipe that we got from Danny, and thread the brake through the pipe. During the next meeting, we began work on the wire frame of the puppet, attempting to build the head and moving jaw.
Week 6
During this week, we focused the most on structuring the rest of the puppet. In our first meeting, we attached the handle to the umbrella wings, and used Gorilla Glue to attach the pieces. One of the largest obstacles that we faced was attempting to actually attach all of the different sections to each other without some sort of heat-based adhesive. Throughout the rest of the week, we continued to work on using wire to build the upper and lower jaw of the bird, making them seperately so that the lower jaw could move independently, like a puppet.
Week 7
With the deadline slowly approaching, we split up the work that each of us went on to do during the meetings. I helped Nathan with the wings, using fabric from a shirt that I bought from Michaels. The other members continued work on the skeleton skull made of the copper wire. For the next meeting, I went to Paganos to pick up a door hinge along with some other materials for the building process. We attempted to use the door hinge to attach the skull and upper jaw to the lower jaw, so that it could open and close like a claw. Unfortunately, the hinge was unstable as it was only secured to the wiring.
Week 8
In the last week, we worked for extra time on the puppet in an attempt to actually finish for the upcoming play. One of the biggest difficulties that we faced was the instability of all of the actual creations. The wiring that we used was too weak in its own but also too hard to actually shift more. The wings were also pretty unstable in their own right, and the glue that we used kept falling apart. We had a final meeting to talk about what we made, and I invited them all to come the PiE robotics celebratory dinner.
Closing Report:
Starting off in March, I was expecting a challenge, but I was also excited to get the opportunity to work with younger learners one last time before graduating. I attended a few meetings, talked with Danny on his expectations, and got to planning (link to padlet). After our high school Pioneers in Engineering placed third and won the best design award, I was feeling fairly confident to bring that success to this new endeavor. I announced the project at one of our CCC’s, and to my dismay, very few learners showed up to the first meeting. Instead of calling it off because of low interest, I decided that perhaps this small group of middle schoolers would be a better fit for this type of creation.
We got to working almost immediately, following the same model as our HS program. We spent lunch meetings talking about our design, and how we wanted to manifest it into reality. Working on a zero dollar budget, the middle schoolers and I both brought our own homemade supplies, such as a broken umbrella or a used bike break. This low budget really limited what we were able to accomplish, but what was more important was teaching these learners how to work with what we had. After weeks of our lunch meetings, the deadline was approaching for the play and our many prototypes were still non functional. I quickly realized that there was a strong possibility that we would not actually be able to finish our design. I wanted to make sure that these kids had a good time building this project, so I made sure to entertain the idea that we might be able to finish, while also making sure that they would be alright with not finishing. The reason why we were not able to finish was because a lot of our ideas fell through when we tried to create them using very limited resources.
In the end, we were not able to finish, but we made some pretty interesting prototypes, and while doing so, I was able to create a bond with those helping me, and hopefully leave a lasting impression on these middle schoolers. Looking back, I'm not sure if I would have changed a thing. In engineering, a major flaw with a lot of prospective engineers is the inability to accept and move past a failure. I learned the importance of moving on in my years in PiE, and I only wished that I had learned those lessons earlier in life. Although we were not able to actually turn anything in, I feel as though I accomplished what I wanted to coming into this experience.
We got to working almost immediately, following the same model as our HS program. We spent lunch meetings talking about our design, and how we wanted to manifest it into reality. Working on a zero dollar budget, the middle schoolers and I both brought our own homemade supplies, such as a broken umbrella or a used bike break. This low budget really limited what we were able to accomplish, but what was more important was teaching these learners how to work with what we had. After weeks of our lunch meetings, the deadline was approaching for the play and our many prototypes were still non functional. I quickly realized that there was a strong possibility that we would not actually be able to finish our design. I wanted to make sure that these kids had a good time building this project, so I made sure to entertain the idea that we might be able to finish, while also making sure that they would be alright with not finishing. The reason why we were not able to finish was because a lot of our ideas fell through when we tried to create them using very limited resources.
In the end, we were not able to finish, but we made some pretty interesting prototypes, and while doing so, I was able to create a bond with those helping me, and hopefully leave a lasting impression on these middle schoolers. Looking back, I'm not sure if I would have changed a thing. In engineering, a major flaw with a lot of prospective engineers is the inability to accept and move past a failure. I learned the importance of moving on in my years in PiE, and I only wished that I had learned those lessons earlier in life. Although we were not able to actually turn anything in, I feel as though I accomplished what I wanted to coming into this experience.