Designing for GreenFab @ ITP

Last summer I really wanted the chance to teach interactive technology to kids. Thanks to a tip from ex-professor, Marianne Petit, I was lucky enough to find the perfect company to work for. At Vision Education, I've since had the diverse experiences of teaching:

• Lego robotics to over 30 kindergartners
  
• Scratch video game design to several classes of 2nd graders and middle schoolers
• Physical computing to over 45 high schoolers
• Educational software to over 100 high new york public school teachers
  

Now I get to try another group. Graduate students. Not just any graduate students, but Interactive Telecommunications Program students. I'm honored and excited to be able to teach at my alma mater with such a diverse and talented group of second year students. After 6 years of paying tuition to NYU, I finally get some of it back!

Here is the syllabus for the course I am co-teaching with Chris Cerrito at ITP, Designing for GreenFab. I can't thank Chris enough for proposing this class in the first place.

Designing for Greenfab
H79.2872.1, 2-credit internship Assorted Mondays, in rm 442 @ ITP and @ Greenfab

Facilitators
Jaymes Dec
Christian Cerrito

Description
During the course of this two credit internship, ITP students will develop, test, and teach workshops to the students of GreenFab, South Bronx, a hands on high school program that aims to teach science, technology, and engineering skills through coursework in both sustainable design and green technologies. ITP students will be asked to design small, creative, inexpensive, kit-able activities to be utilized in reinforcing Greenfab's core curriculum and mission. Topics of discussion will include the application of physical computing in regards to secondary education, creative uses of sustainable technologies, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum development, user testing, and open source hardware and software tools. During the semester seven meetings will be held both at ITP and at GreenFab's facilities in the South Bronx.

Grading will be based on the following: The completion of a workshop activity and the submission of accompanying curriculum, class attendance (both at ITP and Greenfab, especially important with so few class sessions), and participation during in class discussions and evaluations. In addition to time spent working together in class, students will be expected to work independently, 4-6 hours per week (standard for a 2 credit internship), in developing and refining their workshops and ideas.

Additionally, students will be expected to blog weekly about both their progress and experiences in relation to this internship.

Workshop Activity Guidelines and Accompanying Curriculum
You will work in small groups to develop and test a three-hour activity for the GreenFab students (activity should be designed for 15 - 30 students, depending on number of ITP groups). At the final meeting (11/29) groups must hand in a final curriculum document that includes:

Activity Objectives / Skills Learned

• What are the goals of the activity?
• What are they supposed to be learning?
  

Complete List of Materials and Tools Needed

• Everything needed for activity
  
• Recommendations for materials sourcing

Recommended Classroom Setup

• For students (Up to 15 - 30 students) and teacher

Supporting Resources

• Websites
• Illustrations
• Examples

Introduction Questions

• How should the teacher introduce the activity?

Full Activity Description

• Step by step directions

Closing Discussion

• How should the teacher close the activity?

Other Final Assignment Guidelines
Curriculum document should be written for teachers, not students
Must include detailed instructions and documentation
Total cost should not exceed $10.00 per student (compounded for group activities)
Should allow for individual creativity/exploration of the topic presented

(9/13) CLASS 1 @ ITP: Class overview & personal introductions
All about Greenfab ITP and Greenfab (where you come in) Workshop expectations Greenfab’s resources and examples of the current curriculum In class activity: Evaluating GRL’s LED Throwie Tutorial
CLASS 1 ASSIGNMENT : Tutorial Evaluation/Expansion (BLOG BY CLASS 2, 9/27, AND PRESENT IN CLASS 3 ON 10/18): Using a resource such as instructables.com, MAKE online, Arduino.cc, Sketchup.google.com, www.inkscape.org, or Processing.com, find a tutorial that interests you, and do it. Make something hardware or software based to present in class in two weeks while documenting the entire process. Evaluate the author’s writing style, the quality of instruction, and the tutorials final outcome. Discuss how the tutorial and final product could be improved/expanded upon...What would you do differently?

(9/27) CLASS 2 @ Greenfab:
Directions from ITP to GreenFab 841 Barretto St, Bronx NY Orientation at Greenfab at 1:15 (Leave ITP 12:30):
Meet the kids, tour the facilities, and participate in Greenfab’s student orientation.
CLASS 2 ASSIGNMENT : Experiences at Greenfab/Workshop Ideas (BLOG BY CLASS 3, 10/18, AND PRESENT YOUR WORKSHOP IDEAS IN CLASS 3 ON 10/18): Blog about your experiences while at Greenfab. Start brainstorming/prototyping ideas for your workshop. Include a rough materials list and cost outline.

(10/18) CLASS 3 @ ITP:
Present your Tutorial Evaluation/Expansion Assignment from class one, and outline your workshop ideas. Workshop topics will be discussed and evaluated by the class as a whole. Present a preliminary parts/materials list.
CLASS 3 ASSIGNMENT: Teach in 20 (DUE BY CLASS 4, 10/25):
Teach one aspect/section of your proposed workshop in 20 minutes. Present both instructions and a live demo of your activity (you will be evaluated in class on your teaching style, clarity of instruction, overall organization, etc.) Make sure to fully complete your lesson within the 20 minute time frame! Be sure to blog about your process.

(10/25) CLASS 4 @ ITP:
Present your Teach in 20 with class feedback. Finalize dates for workshop presentations at Greenfab. CLASS 4 ASSIGNMENT: FULLY DEVELOP AND USER TEST YOUR WORKSHOP (BLOG AND PRESENT BY CLASS 5, 11/8) Expand upon your activity instructions and finalize your curriculum and parts list. Before class 5, perform initial user tests of your workshop, with non-ITP students, if possible. Blog about your experiences.

(11/8) CLASS 5 @ ITP:
Present and discuss user testing results and the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed curriculum. Utilize the resources/collective brain power of the class in putting the finishing touches on your activity.
CLASS 5 ASSIGNMENT: FINAL WORKSHOP PREPARATIONS!!! Put the final touches on your curriculum, and prep your materials. Get ready to teach!

(Either 11/15 or 11/22) TEACH YOUR WORKSHOP @ Greenfab
Be sure to fully document the process, and end results, in whatever way that you deem appropriate.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT (PRESENT DURING CLASS 7, 11/29): Utilizing the materials that you’ve developed, as well as the documentation of your activity, prepare a 15-20 minute final presentation about the curriculum that you’ve developed and the work that you’ve accomplished. Be sure to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of your activity, as well as possible improvements.

(11/29) FINAL PRESENTATIONS @ ITP: Final presentations, and feedback from guests.

If you read all the way through the whole thing, let me know what you think in the comments. I'm really excited. If my students take this seriously we should have some great new activities to teach kids how fun DIY tech can be! I wish they offered this class when I was at ITP.

Winter Round Up

Hello internets. Sorry I've been MIA. Blogging is a whole lot harder than it's name implies. It sounds so casual.

Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post 161 days ago! So I thought I'd try to do a general round-up (with pictures!) of my first semester at GreenFab and then what we've been doing during this Spring semester. Hopefully I'll be posting more often for reasons that may become clear in my next post.

After our turbine demonstrations, we introduced the fundamentals of electricity and circuit building. On breadboards, we built simple circuits with batteries, a switch and various actuators: LEDs, buzzers motors, etc...We introduced resistors to the circuit and measured the difference in voltage with multimeters. We discussed voltage and resistance.

The next class, we introduced the ideas of varying resistance and Ohm's Law. We discussed several types of variable resistors. The students introduced potentiometers and photocells into their circuits from the last class. We measured the varying resistance with multimeters and observed the dimming/brightening of LEDs. We talked about different types of sensors and discussed the difference between analog and digital sensors.

The following class, we talked about transistors: what they are and why they are so damn useful! We built a simple nightlight circuit using a transistor and photocell. We looked at the schematic of the circuit and followed the path of electrons (not literally) in a dark room and a light room. I found this to be a very helpful exercise for me in understanding how a more complex circuit can work.

In the next activity we introduced voltage regulators and capacitors and showed how to use them in circuits. Over the course of a few classes, the students built their own battery powered USB charger circuits, first on breadboard, then soldered to perfboard. We discussed each step along the way including the history and beauty of USB.

For the next few sessions, we changed pace and learned InkScape, an open source vector drawing program. This was helpful for me, because I have not done much work with vector drawing. We designed and built windmills and tested them with multimeters with varying degrees of success.

For the last few weeks of the semester, we worked with Arduinos, every hobbyist's favorite microcontroller! I'm not going to dive into the lessons now, because I will be devoting much space here to Arduino in the near future.

At the end of the semester, we had a show that was open to the public for our final student projects. It was a hoot. For pictures from the semester and that show, see below! And come back soon for the Spring round-up!

Students in the Sustainable Design class came up with a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote trees in Hunts Point. Here is one of their laser-cut signs out in the field. These were posted right outside a NYPD station. I was surprised when they stayed up for a few weeks!

This is one corner of the Sustainable Design Lab.
We are really lucky to have spacious facilities with tons of shelf space.

And we have great equipment donated by MIT's FabLab initiative.
In the foreground is out Laser Cutter and in the background, our bandsaw.

Some plants germinating on the windowsill of the Sustainable Design Lab.

Every two weeks the Resident Researchers from ITP come up to GreenFab to help facilitate an afternoon activity. Here is Kacie demonstrating proper setup of helping hands. The following few pictures were taken during a Solar Robot project that Chris Cerrito designed.

I hope nobody is offended if I point out that the girls tend to be much better at soldering and following directions.

This is the top of the robot that the students were building...

...and the bottom.
When light is shined on the solar panel, the pager motors on the bottom pulse and make the robot skitter across the ground.

Students hard at work on their robots.

A student showing off impeccable soldering technique.

This activity was done in the Green Tech Lab, where I teach. There I am with long hair.

Pretty lights...

These pictures were taken during the final project show. Here is one of my students with a remote controlled robot he built.

The number of lit lights on this box changed according to light levels over the box.
So if you wave your hand over it, the lights magically respond.

One of my students made a pong controller to control Tom Igoe's Pong Client from Making Things Talk. Great book. Go get it!

Carlos, the Sustainable Design teacher playing with the light box.

A student demonstrating his alarm box. Reaching into this box to take the dollar bill at the bottom would result in your hand breaking a laser beam and setting off an alarm. Ha!

The students from the Sustainable Design class collaborated on some environmental design precedent studies on the the wall and their own design for an eco-friendly building below.

Another funny alarm project.
This one used a motion sensor to detect when people were in the hallway and set off a buzzer.

What a great experience I had my first semester!

Electricity Fundementals

I started the class by asking each student to answer one of two questions.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
or
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I got this idea from Herbert Kohl, who writes about the need to act as a “hope-monger” to help some unmotivated youths. I want to remind these kids that they have dreams and are in control of their own destinies.

The answers ranged from Pediatrician to Body Shop Owner. Nomad to South Bronx.

This exercise also helps me learn all the students names.

We started by pulling out their hand-cranks from the last class. We talked about voltage and defined it as “a type of ‘pressure’ that drives electrical charge through a circuit.” Each team got a voltmeter and we had a contest to see who could get the most volts out of their hand-crank. Four teams were able to get 20 volts.

The goal of the rest of class was to introduce the students to some electricity fundamentals. We started with a discussion around circuits. What are circuits, where are they found, etc…Next we all built a circuit together.

We passed out a breadboard and battery box to each team of two or three. I showed them how the breadboard works and we briefly discussed rapid prototyping vs. traditional circuit boards. We powered the boards and started to build a simple circuit.

First we added a little push button switch. I diagramed how a switch works. Next we added a LED (Light Emitting Diode). I explained that a diode is like a roadblock that turns the wire into a one-way street. These ones happen to emit light. Next we added a 10 Ohm resister and connected it to ground. Lights went on around the room.

Most of them worked and we walked around and fixed the ones that needed it while showing them what was wrong. Mostly the switches were inserted incorrectly because they have four pins rather than two. I can never get those types of switches right myself!

I diagrammed the circuit on a whiteboard. I showed them how the battery pushed electrons around the circuit. We talked about the difference between batteries in serial vs. parallel. For the record, connecting batteries in series will double the voltage. Batteries in parallel keep the same voltage, but double capacity (last longer).

We finished up really quickly so I jumped into the next day’s syllabus. I passed out different types of variable resistors and we replaced the resistor in their circuits. I showed them how you can use a photocell or a potentiometer to dim the LED.

At this point one of the seniors (who did this last year) realized that he could power his light with the hand-crank. We noticed that the light would only light when he turned the crank in one direction (with the LEGO lights, it works in both directions). This turned out to be a great demonstration of what a diode does. He also realized that hooking up the battery box to the hand crank would spin it.

It turned out to be a good scene when the CEO of VEMNY stopped by with a member of the NSF and some representatives from SSBX. Several groups showed off their circuits and hand-cranks to “the adults”.

I was a bit worried about how quickly we got through the syllabus. Perhaps I’m rushing as a response to some of the students seeming disinterested. My work with City Hunt has taught me that if someone seems bored with an activity, move onto the next one. But maybe that is a poor teaching method. I don’t want to leave anyone behind. But it’s really hard when there is such a disparate level of knowledge among the students.

Learning about Not-Learning

On Friday I start advising two First LEGO League Robotics teams in Newark.

When I was a kid, LEGOs did not have robotics. Now they have global competitions.

Since this will be my first time building NXT LEGO robots, I decided I should practice. So on Wednesday I went to the Vision Education offices to build an example off blueprint.

Luckily, Laura Allen, the founder and CEO was kind enough to briefly sit down with me and ask how things are going. She relieved me by telling me that in all her years in education, that GreenFab is one of the toughest environments to teach in. Phew, I'm not the only one that finds this hard!

I told her that I might have a problem keeping the attention of a few of the students.

She had the perfect response: "I've got some books you should read."

We went upstairs and I had to stand on a chair to reach a slim paperback with a blue spine. "Start with this one:"

"I won't learn from you", And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment"
By Herbert Kohl

I thanked her and read the back cover as I walked down the stairs. A collection of classic essays in education theory by Herbert Kohl (not the senator from Wisconsin).

Raised in the Bronx in the 40s and 50s, Herbert and his parents were non-religious Jews. As a boy he was a fake gangster who moonlighted as an intellectual. He knew when he was 12 that he would be a teacher. Bronx Science to Harvard to Columbia. He sure did fulfill his childhood goal. He's taught every grade from Kindergarten through college! One of the best educators of our time...and an amazing writer.

In the title essay, "I won't learn from you", he introduces a phenomenon that I had never recognized: Not-learning.

Apparently, people consciously and purposefully try to not-learn certain things.

First, he describes the grandfather of one of his fifth-grade students. This man chooses to not-learn English so that his grandson will be forced to know Spanish. Sympathetically, he fears if his grandson does not speak Spanish, they will not know each other in the future.

Kohl comes right out and admits that he too has been a language non-learner.

Herbert Kohl's grandparents only spoke Yiddish. All the adults in his community only spoke Yiddish. But he refused to learn the language. At Hebrew School he managed to only memorize the sounds of the words, not the meanings. I love the story about how he got caught. But I won't spoil it for you who might read the book.

Next he tells about a confident and cocky repeat first grader. Yes, young Barry was held back...in first grade. Luckily, he fell into the class of Mr Kohl.

This kid would not-learn reading. Herbert's brilliant solution was to empower Barry by pretending that Barry was reading really well. Herbert started pretending that it was all a big joke that Barry could not read. In fact, he insisted to the class that Barry was an excellent reader. But the whole time, Herbert would tell Barry what to say, and Barry would repeat while looking at the page. Barry began to enjoy this little game. He was tricked into learning to read. As Herbert says:

I offered him the possibility of entering into a teaching-learning relationship with me without forcing him to give up any of his status, and fortunately he accepted the gift.

Next, Herbert Kohl presents Rick, a boy would will not-learn Algebra. He writes about all the crazy tricks he devised and the ways that Rick avoided learning the subject.

It was at this point in the essay when I got hit hard with brain wave of self realization. I actually got dizzy:

I am an expert not-learner!

I'll admit that I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it. But perhaps it's not just me and Barry and Rick and Herbert.

Ever since I can remember, I would not-learn homework. Some might argue that homework is not a subject. But we can leave that argument for the comments.

My childhood memories are playing in woods, sewers and creeks. Homework could not compete with these afternoon activities. And in the evening, there were television programs that I had to watch!

I've always prided myself in my ability to avoid completing simple assignments. I've justified it by reminding myself, "at least I always test well."

In grade school I learned really well how to not-learn homework.

My worst scheme was pulled a few times in third grade. I'd wait until the end of the class before Math and then pretend my stomach hurt. I'd get sent to the nurse before my furious Math teacher even saw me in the hallway. I'd sit on the floor in the bathroom and pretend to vomit until I heard the bell ring. The nice thing was, it also provided an excuse not to do the next days assignment!

One time I must have been feigning nausea so loudly that I missed the final school bell. My babysitter had to come pick me up.

But this was well worth it to avoid the verbal and emotional lashing that I would have received from Mrs. Iforgetyourname.

My problem, especially with Maths, was that it was so boring to me. I could do their stupid assignments in a few minutes easy, so why even do them. Why not just copy the answer sheet or someone else's answers. I decided it was a waste of my time to do some walkthrough exercise.

Also, the madder my teachers got, the more kicks I got out of not doing the work. I enjoyed my power to stir them up.

As I got older, my skills at not-learning homework got better and better. It did not catch up with me until 9th grade, which I wound up repeating. My habit and ability to not-learn my homework almost kept me from graduating. I'm lucky I even got into college. It was the test scores.

It wasn't until after my first try at college that I came to embrace homework. I started to value education. Luckily for me, homework was was easy to learn. But there are lots of other things that I still not-learn.

I really hope that I can reach out to some of the students that I've identified as not-learning. I also hope I can stop doing that myself.

I started the book last night and Herbert Kohl's advice already helped me in class today. His recommendation to be a "hope-monger", one who peddles hope, seemed to be right on.

I started this morning's class by asking each student what they wanted to be when they grew up. If they did not know, they had to tell me where in the world they would live given the chance.

This simple exercise seemed to bring me a bit closer to all the kids. I genuinely care about these kids and I absolutely have hope, I just hope I can trick them into buying what I'm selling.

First Day of Class

I teach two sections of two classes each week. Monday and Thursday are with sophomores; Tuesday and Friday are with freshman and seniors.

In both classes, after reintroductions with the students we talked about where electricity comes from. I showed this slide:We talked a bit about how electricity is actually produced in each of these cases and which of these activities are considered sustainable. I told them that nuclear is not considered sustainable, but it is pretty clean compared to burning fossil fuels.

We split the groups into teams of 2 or 3 and gave each a LEGO motor, a wheel, a wire and and a lamp.

We demonstrated how spinning the wheel and motor in either direction would produce electricity.

I described how a motor works and we defined turbine as: A device that takes mechanical motion and converts it to electricity.

We discussed other inventions that used turbines: water wheels, dams, nuclear power plants, wind turbines and flashlights.

We challenged them to build a hand crank to power a light.

Before class on Monday, I tried to make a hand cranked dynamo light with LEGOs; but I could not find any platforms (the flat LEGO kind) to build on so it did not come out too sturdy. It proved it's uselessness when I presented it as an example and all of their hand cranks were as flimsy as mine. But on Tuesday, we had platforms, so I was able to show the kids how to make a sturdy two gear hand crank that worked. I'll start Thursday's class by showing how to build a proper hand crank.

I showed both classes how a gear chain works and we discussed how bicycles use the same thing. We talked about measuring circumference, diameter, radius and fractions.

They will build wind turbines in the next few weeks, so we talked about gear ratios for our projects. We decided that higher is better.

We also discussed other natural forces that produce power: hydro, solar, tidal. Luckily nobody asked me how solar is converted into electricity. I'm gonna have to go look it up after I post this.

On Tuesday, we had time to show this video where someone shows off a windmill made out of recycled materials.

On both days we closed the class by coming up with a definition of sustainable energy: producing energy with minimal long-term effect on the environment.

On Thursday and Friday the subjects are fundementals of electricity, circuits and voltage. We will use multimeters to measure how many volts their hand cranks produce. They will say "Hello World" with a simple LED breadboard circuit.

So far, the second section is much more difficult. The first section has less than 10 students who mostly seemed to be paying attention. The second section has at least 20 students. The seniors, and the female freshman are paying attention, but there are a few 14 yr old boys don't seem to be really listening. I have a hard time teaching when I am distracted by their distraction! There are only so many times I can yell "Hey!" without loosing my own train of thought. I'll have to figure out a way to deal with this. Advice in the comments, please.

Orientation and Tour of Hunts Point Community

The first day at GreenFab we met all 60 students that will be participating in the program. We introduced the staff and heard each student describe their interests and explain their reasons for taking the classes. Almost all the students seemed to have some interest in design and/or technology. Which is great.

Juan from Outward Bound guided the kids through an exercise where they chose positive words and formed sentences with them. Then they had to design a social contract that included those words. The students chose to draw a flower growing from the ground. The five petals each contain one positive code of conduct. I forget them all; but it's phrases like "respect for others" and "positive attitude". The rain drops that are watering the flower contain the positive words that they came up with in the previous exercise. They are all going to tag the ground under the flower as their social agreement between each other and the staff. I think it's a pretty strong and appropriate metaphor. I'll post a picture once it's done.

After a one hour lunch break we went on a tour of all the unsustainable activities that plague the Hunts Point community. Led by Marta from Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX), it was very informative.

Some of these facts might be wrong. I did not take notes; so I'll do my best from memory.

60% of the food eaten in New York City comes through either the Terminal Produce Market, the Hunts Point Meat Market or the Fulton Fish Market (I like how they kept the old name).

Because of these three markets and all the other manufacturing and waste disposal places in the neighborhood, 16,000 trucks barrel down the potholed streets every day.

Because of all the pollution in the neighborhood 1 in 4 children develop asthma, often severe.

Marta claimed that it is the poorest congressional district in the country.

There are four prisons in the area and the city is going to build a fifth. SSBX is fighting best they can to stop it.

The city is always promising that these projects will create jobs in the area. But local residents are not getting jobs at prisons or fish markets.

We saw where most of New York City's waste gets sent by truck and barge to an incinerator where it is turned into fertilizer. Nasty stuff. Thankfully a blessed breeze saved us from being assaulted by the odor.

Ironically, across from the fertilizer factory there is a bird sanctuary on North Brothers Island.

From the park at the tip of Hunts Point we had a great view of the Floating Pool Lady and Rikers. But my pictures did not come out all that great.

Marta told us a story about Majora Carter, who started SSBX. Some city politician had asked her how they could invite community access to the Bronx River waterway. While jogging in the neighborhood, her dog turned into a dump. Majora felt that her dog was guiding her, so she followed. They discovered the river at the back of the dump. She had found the access. So she cleaned up the dump with $60,000 dollars! Then the city gave $3 million to finish the park. It's nice. There is a concrete canoe fountain and a dock for boats or fishing. Yikes.

The tour stopped there. Next week we start class. We will discuss where the power in the area comes from and talk about sustainable energy creation. We are going to build dynamos out of legos and power up some lamps. We will talk about gear chains, ratios and turbines. Can't wait!