Creativity and empowerment through STEAM for Schools program

Leighann Ness Wilson reflects on one of The Cube’s STEAM for Schools programs ‘Prototyping towards an age friendly city: LittleBits’

A few weeks ago we met RoboDog: a robotic companion whose tail lights up and sends a signal for medical attention if it senses its owner is unwell.  We also met the founders of ICU productions who make bionic eyes for the visually impaired and heard a design pitch for a tech-enabled water collection system.

These were just three responses to the question: How might we prototype for an Age Friendly City? This was posed to a group of year 5 students from the Sunshine Coast region during our STEAM for Schools workshop at The Cube.

Asking a class group of 11-year-olds to use empathy begins by examining a series of images and quotes from all over the world taken from The World Health Organization.  Students identify issues, themes and challenges before brainstorming possible solutions.  As per the rules of brainstorming developed by IDEO we encourage our students to practice active listening and collaborate as equals.  We build on the ideas of others; we defer judgement and encourage wild ideas – as they are usually the most fun!

Next we get busy working on prototypes to communicate our design ideas using craft materials and littleBits, interactive building blocks that allow students to create simple and complex circuits using sensors, light, sound and movement.

Recently I attended the Designing for Dementia Symposium hosted by the QUT Creative Industries Faculty.  The overriding message was how design can promote individuality, wellbeing and empowerment.

Cathy Treadaway from The LAUGH Project in Wales demonstrated research that indicates hand-held, playful objects might improve the wellbeing of those living with dementia. Gail Kenning from the University of Technology in Sydney discussed her approach of individualising design by way of considering particular people with particular needs.  This sentiment connected to another presentation on De Hogeweyk’s Village near Amsterdam; a dementia care facility designed with seven ‘house concepts’.  Residents live in purpose-designed houses that emulate and connect to their individual style, personality and lifestyle before dementia.  I’m looking forward to sharing some of these real-life examples with our students in our next Age Friendly City workshop on 9 May.

As a learning experience, Age Friendly City is much more than a bit of creative fun.  Through the process of empathising with and designing for others, I regularly observe our students also experiencing feelings of individuality and empowerment. As we encourage their ideas and applaud their creative problem-solving we are also providing opportunities to connect our students to their own sense of self-worth, the value of which cannot be underestimated.

Echo reverberates across The Cube

“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” Mohsin Hamid

Here we are, the final Echo reverberates across The Cube in hybrid glitch form.

The photo booth is installed, the virtual mirror throbs in anticipation and the Echo character maps across the space. She navigates us, “Come closer”  she says, you are now part of something bigger”.

The last month has seen many creative and technical developments, including the integration of the narratives. They began as fiction and ended as readymades. Real intimate stories from real people. Through the mirror our storytellers confide in you, the user, revealing moments of their lives where they have suffered or overcome hardship. As their narrative unfolds the features of your face slowly morph into their face. They operate you with their expressions and leave you placed firmly in their shoes. This intimate experience forces us to relate and connect with those outside of our normal social sphere. Narrative has long been a tool for empathy, awareness and social change, Echo intends to push this further still by immersing the viewer visually as well as through the imagination.

“Storytelling is both the seductive siren and the safe haven that encourages the connection with the feared “other.” How we relate to stories and storytelling can be seen as an acid-test for empathy.” PJ Manney 2008

As I sit in The Cube and watch people interact I’m seeing the experiment unfold in so many different ways, working for a range of ages and tendencies. Within five minutes these animated experiences jump from the intimate booth to the large screens above and a new digital family begins to breed. The aim of the project is to break down prejudices and connect people through shared identity and expression. Check out this taster video

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Brecht

As the world becomes more complex and digitally connected the role of empathy becomes more and more important as we become more isolated. In the future Echo will continue to build a culturally diverse archive of stories and identities with the intention of finding a new personalised, emotive tool to connect people and tackle the epidemic of loneliness of our digital age.

Echo will be screening at The Cube until Friday 28 April.

 

‘Driving into the Future’ at QUT

This is a guest blog post by Jackie Child, Teacher Librarian from St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School. This post appeared first on tinkeringchild.com.

“Roboticists suggest that driverless cars could soon be driving on Australian roads if road legislations reform and technology matures. Developing systems to deal with inclement weather, improving sensing of pedestrians and bicycles, and less predictable elements are some of the issues that need to be addressed before we experience a driverless society.”

This was the preamble of the workshop our students attended at QUT. Here’s a video. It is part of the education program provided for schools. It is free and if you are in Brisbane ….it’s a must!! View workshop details.

Our girls proposed and programmed robotic solutions to develop driverless cars using a range of sensors and LEGO robotics. It was the first time for many girls. Leighann and Toby clearly and effectively guided the girls through coding and building their robots to move and use sensors …….. having heaps of fun while learning.

The girls had three challenges to complete with or without sensors. They soon worked out how to find the threshold value for the colour sensor and were able to program their robot to stay on dry land (pale green) to rescue the stranded vehicle.

Another challenge was using the ultrasonic sensor to read depth of light. The girls worked out how to stop the robot t the edge of the table first! Plenty of fun catching it before it fell off, take a look at this video 🙂

The communication tower at the top of Mt Coot-tha required fixing without falling off the mountain! The girls were so excited to see their robots toppling and dancing on the mountain!

Throughout the day the girls enjoyed interacting with the Cube’s screen projects Dino Zoo, Chem World, Physics Observatory and The Arcade, I think the favourite was the Arcade which consisted of three retro inspired games including – Block Breakers, Parabola Pirates and Space Junk.

All girls agreed it was a FABULOUS day of fun and learning!

 

Tuning back in from the reverberating world of ECHO …

A month under my belt and still two to go. The project is growing limbs by the second and each day seems more exciting than the last. Tech wise our facial tracking application is well on the way to having the main functionality working smoothly.  Here’s a taster video of the first stage recorded live from the application with a few treatments added.

The next stage is user interface design and narrative content. It’s time to bring fiction, drama and sound to the work so you might see me cruising around Kelvin Grove campus collecting and researching personal stories. Don’t be shy, come and say Hello and get involved in my project.

Over the next three weeks I’ll use this research to write some intimate stories with the help of the creative writing and drama students.  These narratives will be integrated into the final user experience where you literally see through someone else’s eyes, kickstarting the empathy engine..

Still so much to do but with the support of The Cube and the Creative Industries team, anything is possible!

Putting the fun back into physics!

On Saturday 7 January, 4,200 visitors flocked to The Cube for an extra dose of physics fun to celebrate the opening of the Physics Observatory Summer Holiday Program.

We presented a range of Physics-inspired workshops including Hula Hooping by Vulcana Women’s Circus, live science shows by Street Science, a 3D flight simulator game facilitated by the QUT STEM for Schools team and Physics 101 workshops from QUT Physics Society. The live science shows by QUT Alumni Steve Liddell were a massive hit! Kids were amazed by Steve’s science experiments including exploding balloons with liquid nitrogen and a real hand-held fireball.

Activities from Physics Observatory Holiday Program also ran throughout the day including Physics Wiz Treasure Hunt which allowed families to discover hidden elements of the Holiday Program. Kids were also awarded a ‘Physics Wiz’ sticker! Other activities included Ball Run, which encouraged kids to compare how far and fast balls can travel using tubes and everyday materials on a magnetic wall. Take to the Sky was another popular (paper plane making) activity, which got kids thinking about gravitational forces and how fast and far their planes could fly.

We also announced the winners of the ‘Life on Mars’ Competition. Kids were asked to draw what they imagined life on Mars might look like incorporating what they know about STEM. Banjo Seaniger (8 years) won an Xbox One and Runners up Shaun Gareth (13 years) and Mikayla Daley (12 years) won admission to one of The Cube’s 2017 holiday programs.

Thanks for everyone who joined us for Physics Fun Day and for those who couldn’t make it Physics Observatory Holiday Program continues everyday 10am-4pm until Sunday 15 January. Check out this video for a taste of the program.

RESIDENCY PRESENTATION: THE CUBE AS A SMART SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Hi, Lauren here. I’m wrapping up my two month TRANSMIT3 Residency at The Cube and next Thursday 11 August will be the official opening of the new piece I’ve been working on with the team.

The event will feature an interactive performance installation in which we dine together in a near future where we change feelings like channels on a TV, swipe left for nostalgia, swipe right for glee, and follow each other as The Cube tracks us all.

Stay tuned for my last blog post which details how this event plays out.

 

Public Programs: the year that has been (so far)

Leighann Ness Wilson reflects on her role over the last six months, as The Cube’s first STEAM Education Officer.

My name is Leighann Ness Wilson and I’ve had the privilege of being The Cube’s very first STEAM Education Officer. With a Bachelor of Built Environment from QUT and over ten years’ experience in commercial Interior Design, it wasn’t until having my own children that I decided it was time to pursue my underlying goal to become an educator. My role at The Cube has allowed me to combine two of my passions: design and education. The practicums within my Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning, combined with my new role at QUT, have given me a profound sense of fulfilment. I find the combination of education and creativity both emotionally and professionally inspiring.

2016 so far

Training was first on the agenda for 2016 as we welcomed new and returning facilitators to our Public Programs Team at The Cube. (You can learn more about our methodology and team in the post, Hello 2016, Hello STEAM). Over multiple training sessions, our team were introduced to new technologies and toolsets and discussed how these might be used within the framework of STEAM education to deliver dynamic and interactive educational programs for our Education and Holiday workshops.

A highlight has been the diversity within the Public Programs team itself. I am fortunate each week to work alongside fellow-students and graduates from various QUT degrees across Engineering, Interactive Design, Education and Creative Industries. We bring our unique knowledge and approach to the workshops, which benefit not only our students, but also each other as we develop our skills as facilitators. In addition to onsite staff training, our team spent time with senior software developer and creator of Makkit, Anna Gerber at The Edge, SLQ to learn the basics of Arduino. In April, Brian O’Connell, PhD Student and Research Assistant at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Tufts University, Boston, taught our team the fundamentals of the Rube Goldberg challenge and introduced us to the wonderful world of capacitive sensors.

An interactive firefly created by students at the K8 Symposium

Our Education program

A personal highlight occurs every Tuesday morning, when we welcome a new school group to The Cube. Once a week, during terms 2, 3 and & 4, The Cube hosts a day long STEAM Education workshop for students from grades 5 – 9. It’s great to see the students’ smiling faces as they make their way towards the Science and Engineering Centre to meet us. Students learn about The Cube as a digital interface, and enjoy hearing about the technology behind the screens, and how The Cube studio team research, develop, test and launch projects, whilst interacting with the projects.

Makerspace Professional Development Workshop at The Cube

From a facilitator’s perspective, within our STEAM workshops, I have been amazed by the students’ ability to collaborate, learn new skills and stay focused. Throughout the term, we have met technically savvy students and seen some truly creative solutions for robotic emergency response vehicles, inspiring interactive artworks and compelling ideas on how to make Brisbane a more age-friendly city.

Professional development & community outreach

The Cube regularly hosts professional development programs utilising design thinking and STEAM toolsets. This term, we have welcomed teachers from all over the state as part of the Education Queensland Makerspace Trial and recently ran an interactive design booth as part of the K8 Symposium in conjunction with the State Library of Queensland’s Asia Pacific Design Library for the Out of the Box Festival. At K8, we introduced the basics of circuity to a remarkable group of 8 year olds, as they reimagined the city of Brisbane for the year 2036.

Leighann and Yu at K8

As well as working with the students, I delivered a Professional Development session for primary school educators on using STEAM toolsets within the classroom. I’ve also had the recent opportunity of facilitating a hands-on workshop, for teachers at the Queensland Art Teachers Association conference, which focused on the possibilities of using littleBits in a visual arts classroom.

LittleBits Professional Development with QATA

Reflecting on the past six months, I have realised the broader implications of my learning journey. While I have always been passionate about creativity and education, I am proud to say I have gone above and beyond my comfort zone–from creating touch responsive circuits using a bread board to designing and coding my own wearable technology Halloween costume. Learning through STEAM education has showcased the absolute benefits of learning from and alongside the students.

The levels of engagement in our workshops are testament to the vision and open source approach of The Cube’s Public Programs team. Together we share a passion and belief in the value of creativity in education. We work within a broader community full of like-minded professionals and regularly engage with experts to enhance our approach to ensure we are responding to the needs of 21^st Century learners…and it’s also lots of fun!

 

Hello and welcome, Lauren McCarthy

Hi! I am an artist from New York, in residence for the next two months at The Cube. My practice involves looking at our social interactions, the rules and expectations that govern them, and the effects of technology. I have always been a pretty socially awkward person, and my projects are often attempts to hack my way to better relationships.

A few years ago, I went on a series of dates with people I met on an online dating site and crowdsourced my dating life by paying workers online to watch a video stream of the dates and tell me what to say and do. (Social Turkers, 2013, http://socialturkers.com)

Thinking about algorithmic enhancement of relationships, together with Kyle McDonald, we made a Google Hangout app that would monitor your speech and facial expression and provide real-time prompts to “enhance” the conversation. (us+, 2014, http://lauren-mccarthy.com/us)

Most recently, I created an Uber-like app and service where you could hire a stranger (I was actually the Follower) to follow you for one day . I’d tail the person based on their GPS data, keeping just out of sight but within their consciousness, leaving them at the end with just one photo from sometime during the day. (Follower, 2016, http://lauren-mccarthy.com/follower)

For this residency, I am focusing on the idea of the Smart Home and Internet of Things, and all of the promises these offer. I am going to turn the Cube into a smart home for QUT students and community, gathering data through its many sensors, and interacting with the people in the space through ambient instructions on the walls. The point is to question and critique the idea of a surveillant space that guides you mindlessly, while also exploring more interesting possibilities.

Often the idea of a smart space or AI is represented by thermostats that adjust themselves and either the complete lack of any human feeling, or a sci-fi fantasy female character.

I’m planning to dig deeper into the process of socialisation. Who are the human authority figures that teach us how to behave and relate to others. Maybe it is your mum or dad, an older sibling, teacher, or friend, or role model. How do these people watch over us and influence us. Could this social intelligence be captured and embodied in an artificial intelligence?

These are some of the questions I aim to explore with this project. I’ll be starting research with a series of interviews and workshops open to the public. Stay tuned for more details if you’d like to participate!

Happy 3rd Birthday (part 2)

To continue our reflection of the year that was, this week we hear from our Public Programs team, Jacina Leong and Elise Wilkinson, with some more of The Cube’s highlights from 2015.

• In May we welcomed educators, curriculum writers, pre-service teachers, and a group of enthusiastic school students from Kelvin Grove State College to Creative Lab: 21^st century learning, our partnership program with the Queensland Museum. Participants were introduced to a diverse range of ways to connect students with STEAM using new technologies and systems (games) thinking. Relive the program by watching the Creative Lab video

• With the support of our QUT Engagement and Innovation Grant, we developed and implemented two outreach programs: Off the shelf: creative coding with littleBits and Off the shelf: creative coding with wearable technology. These programs involved key collaborations with Design Minds (State Library of Queensland), Brisbane City Council Libraries, and Watson Road State School. We’re particularly grateful to Watson Road for allowing our staff to work with a group of their students over a 6-week period. Check out these videos of the programs Off the shelf: Wearable Technology Video and Off the shelf: Reimagining libraries with littleBits Video
• We continued to welcome the great work of Tech Girls Are Superheroes to The Cube, hosting holiday workshops, as well as the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero. Take a look at the pitch video of the winning team
• Who could forget Robotronica? The annual QUT event attracted 15,000+ people to the Science and Engineering Centre, introducing some of the world’s most spectacular robots and interactive design. The Cube team did their part by hosting a series of LEGO Education robotics workshops for kids (aged 8 – 12), and providing an opportunity for younger kids to get hands-on with Buildacode. Kids weren’t the only ones having fun, though. Jacina also got the chance the geek out when introducing Ian Bernstein, Founder and CTO of Sphero (!), and chairing the panel discussion Education or Learning? Consumer or participant? Mind the gap. Here are a couple of news articles about the festival ABC Online story: How Sphero technology brought Star Wars’ newest lovable droid to life and ABC Online story: Thousands glimpse into robot future at QUT

• And, in keeping with our love for all things robotics, last but not least, is FIRST LEGO League! Last year’s challenge saw teams of students developing solutions for a sustainable, greener future. We also welcomed the Hon Leeanne Enoch, Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy and Minister for Small Business, to the event to hear what students had developed. Find out more in this First Lego League blog post

So, what do we have in store for 2016? Plenty. This year, we look forward to:

• Introducing a new set of weekly workshops for Grades 5 – 10 in Terms 2 – 4. View the 2016 Education Program on our website
• Welcoming Brian O’Connell, from the Centre for Engineering Education and Outreach, Tufts University, Boston, to facilitate some of our holiday programs
• Building on our collaboration with Brisbane City Council Library Services through a train-the-trainer model. Stay tuned for more details coming soon
• Hosting the official Australian launch of the LEGO Education WeDo 2.0

But most of all, we look forward to deepening our connection with the community, welcoming new visitors to The Cube, and continuing to provide inspiring, thought-provoking and engaging STEAM learning experiences for everyone.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to our programs. You’re all superstars!