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Nucleus: An Interactive, Hands-On, Collaborative Learning Ecosystem for Generation Z.

A Thesis Proposal Submitted to the Faculty Of the Industrial Design Department

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Industrial Design

at Savannah College of Art and Design

Ashwath Anand

Savannah, Georgia

© May 2015

Michael Felix, Committee Chair John McCabe, Committee Member Bruce Claxton, Committee Member

`

I dedicate this thesis to

My mother, my tree of life and

My father, my northern star

`

Acknowledgements

This project has been very challenging emotionally, physically and mentally for me and I

attribute my success to my tribe.

The first part of this tribe are my Professors:

Michael Felix

Bruce Claxton

John McCabe

Sarah Jo Johnson

Thank you for guiding me through this journey. I cannot place a value on the amount of brain

power and time you all have dedicated to me.

The second part of this tribe are my friends and fellow designers at SCAD:

Tyler decker

Alexandra Patron

Nupoor Rajkumar

Jason M Hyland

Shanmugasundaram Selvaraj

Shreya Mehta

Amar Chadgar

Cathy Gu

Dhivyasimhon Shridharan

Ali Murtaza

Eva Dunne

Thank you all for staying up at ungodly hours and going out of your way to help me.

`

Table of Contents

List of Images and Figures 1

Abstract 3

1 Introduction 4

25 Word Subject of Study 4

Claim 4

Background 4

Problem Statement 5

Opportunity Statement 5

2 Literature Review 7

Introduction 7

Research Questions 7

Helping Generation Z Learn 8

Reframing Learning 11

Obstacles for Change 15

Facilitating a New Way of Learning 17

3 Methodology 21

4 Design Process 23

Stage One 23

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Stage Two 25

Stage Three 29

Stage Four 41

5 Observations and Feedback 46

Student Feedback 46

Teacher Feedback 46

6 Conclusion and Future Steps

Works Cited 50

Appendix A 53

Appendix B 57

Appendix C 59

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List of Images and Figures

Fig 4.1 Students interacting at a weekly home schooling session 23

Fig 4.2 Weekly home schooling sessions with a teacher 24

Fig 4.3 Talking to Ms. Maria Williams of Independent Learning Network 25

Fig 4.4 Students interacting with a teacher at Charles Ellis Montessori School 26

Fig 4.5 Observing Students interacting with materials and classrooms 28

Fig 4.6 Two eight year olds solving a math problem at Charles Ellis 28

Fig 4.7 Books referred for understanding Montessori materials 30

Fig 4.8 Handmade paper and cardboard prototypes 31

Fig 4.9 Teachers reviewing the paper and cardboard prototypes 32

Fig 4.10 Teachers reviewing the paper and cardboard prototypes 32

Fig 4.11 Miss Christy reviewing the timeline prototypes 33

Fig 4.12 Students demonstrate how to use the timeline 33

Fig 4.13 Laser cut puzzle pieces exploring two concepts 34

Fig 4.14 Reviewing the laser cut puzzle prototypes 35

Fig 4.15 Teachers from other departments reviewing the Golden ratio kit 35

Fig 4.16 Miss Christy and Tanya reviewing final prototypes 36

Fig 4.17 Mr. Gary Davidson reviewing the final prototypes 37

Fig 4.18 Building a cardboard prototype to house the Golden Ratio Kit 38

Fig 4.19 Finished Cardboard box for Golden Ratio Learning Kit 38

Fig 4.20 Testing final prototype with cardboard box 39

Fig 4.21 Final box being built in the workshop 40

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Fig 4.22 Test session with students using the final learning kit 40

Fig 4.23 Test session with students using the final learning kit 41

Fig 4.24 Designer‟s customer journey map 42

Fig 4.25 Teacher‟s customer journey map 43

Fig 4.26 Designer persona 44

Fig 4.27 Teacher persona 44

Fig 4.28 Student persona 45

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Abstract

Nucleus: An Interactive, Hands-On, Collaborative Learning Ecosystem for Generation Z.

Ashwath Anand

May 2015

This thesis focuses on creating Nucleus, a platform for collaboration between Designers and

Educators to create a better learning ecosystem. Nucleus serves as a forum for discussing

projects and collaboration opportunities, Nucleus also has a gallery of projects for anyone who

is interested to see what has been produced and a section with all of the author‟s secondary

research, available for anyone who wants more details on the foundation of this platform.

Keywords: Education, Toolkit, learning, Generation Z, platform, facilitators, designers, teachers,

Montessori, golden ratio.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

25 Word Subject of Study

I am studying the essential components of learning to develop an interactive hands-on

collaborative learning eco system for Generation Z

Claim

Although going through a formal education system helps children learn essential skills.

This system is based on an outdated and flawed call and response model that discourages

curiosity and self-expression.

Generation Z will benefit from learning how to solve problems and challenges more than

anything else academics can teach them. Creativity needs to be at the core of problem solving

and this can be achieved by creating an eco-system of products and services that caters to their

natural curiosity and help them learn how to solve problems in an iterative, hands-on, interactive

way.

Background

The main inspiration for this Thesis is the author‟s learning experience to make projects using

the Arduino platform. Arduino serves as a common ground for Artists, designers and engineers

to collaborate and work on interesting interactive projects.

In its bare essence, Arduino is a simple hardware product. It is open source so anyone can

develop products for Arduino and there is a massive online community that shares what they

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make and answer questions with nothing in return, all driven by a passion to create, learn and

share knowledge.

Since this feels like a very ideal way to learn, there is a need to expose children between ages of

nine and ten to it. They are part of Generation Z, the next Generation that is going to tackle

challenges of the future. Formal education is probably not preparing them adequately for the

complex problems of their future and children need a platform to explore and expand their

creativity and intelligence.

Problem Statement

Our current education system is based around standardizing knowledge and this does not cater to

childrens‟ natural creativity. The system has a lot of focus on remembering facts and there is no

longer any value in that. Mistakes are punished and that hinders creativity.

The current system has been in question for many years with education experts like Ken

Robinson leading the charge for change. There have always been alternatives like Montessori

schools, home schooling, magnet schools and many online resources like Khan Academy,

Classle and MOOC but still in Fall of 2014 49.8 million students went to public Schools in the

United States. Most of them are typically underfunded and/or overcrowded.

Therefore in spite of a lot of awareness and alternatives, many children are still falling through

the gaping holes that is the education system.

Opportunity Statement

Future challenges need problem solvers, collaborators and creative thinkers. Our current model

of learning is struggling to arm our youngest generation with these skills. As Mentioned before,

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there are many physical and digital learning resources and platforms for anyone who is looking

for alternatives. In theory we could take the best of these components and make a new education

system that works. There are many lessons to be learned from existing alternate platforms and

products can be generated by them, for them. But instead of trying to change a Goliath sized

system, we could just create a new David sized agile, efficient and clever system.

So there is immense value in creating a cohesive package of digital and tangible products and

services for them to aid learning. This service can bring together people who are deeply

passionate about making sure education is heading the right way and don‟t have to wait for big

level policy changes.

Nucleus can be that platform for these people who want to make a change and do not want to

wait for big level policy changes. Change no longer needs politicians, lobbying and years to be

deployed, change needs to be immediate and change needs to cater to the hour‟s need and secure

our future.

Here knowledge will be shared and sought after, questions can be unique and answers can be

individually tailored. All stakeholders involved: students and facilitators can experiment, learn

and share knowledge all while having lots of fun. Mistakes will not be looked down on and will

be considered a stepping stone and a learning opportunity

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Chapter Two

Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of literature related to the differences between education and

learning, the essential components of learning, skills that are essential for generation Z to be

effective problem solvers and what can help them learn these essential skills.

Research Questions

The following research questions were generated to gain knowledge about the components

necessary for effective learning, how it can be achieved and the limitations to achieving them.

These questions lead to articles, papers, books and blogs that were further affenitized to form

four major areas this thesis will focus on.

1. What are the components of an ideal learning environment for children?

2. How have alternate platforms impacted learning in children?

3. How is modern education catering to children‟s natural learning abilities?

4. What is the impact of learning tools available in the market today?

5. How are current systems of learning catering to Generation Z‟s future needs?

6. What is the current role of a facilitator and what does it need to evolve into?

7. What establishments are embracing alternate methods of learning? Can others learn from

them?

These research questions lead to my sources for reading and the notes generated from these

readings lead to four main areas of focus that would form a sandbox for me to play within:

Helping Generation Z learn, Facilitating a new way of learning, Avoiding obstacles for

change and Reframing Education.

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Helping Generation Z learn

Anyone born after the year 1995 is part of Generation Z. In The United States they are currently

25.4% of the total population(Shields 2015) and they are the next generation that will lead the

world and take over from the millennials. Because of the nature of challenges they will face

their process of learning needs to be vastly different from what is offered through traditional

education. In the last thirteen years this has led to an increase in the number of students who

choose to drop of the traditional schooling system and resorting to home schooling and hack

schooling (Tanz 2015).

Generation Z wants to connect through snack size content and likes to communicate through

multiple platforms (Shields 2015). They want access to technology as early as three years of age

( Shilsky 2014) because they have brains that can process more information at higher speeds (

Shields 2015). Over the past few decades our economy has shifted from commodity based

capital to intellectual based capital (kaku 2014) and now more than ever before, the world is

looking for creative and entrepreneurial people (Tanz 2015).

Children going through today‟s education system are not gaining twenty first century skills

because intelligence is now known to manifest itself in more ways than just numbers and words,

it is dynamic, diverse and distinct (Robinson 2009) but these skills are not taught because they

are difficult to assess (Saavedra 2012). Children are like enthusiastic planetarium audiences

(Fuller 2008), they have a fertile mind with sparkling imagination and a willingness to take

risks(Robinson 2011) so we need to make education fun and empowering for them(Leung).

Generation z wants to make a difference and make an impact (Shields 2014) and they need more

focus on schematic thinking than systematic thinking to achieve great things( Robinson 2009).

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Learning needs to incorporate more than just what education has to offer now. The nature of

challenges faced during learning should be ones they will face as professionals (Fuller 2008).

Children are naturally wired for delayed gratification (they will prefer to take 2 marshmallows in

twenty minutes rather than take one right now)(Kaku 2014), and this prepares them for

predicting future problems and challenges (a level three organization) which is very essential to

Generation Z‟s learning process (Kaku 2014). Unfortunately the one size fits all fast food style

standardized education system does keeps them from using these skills because of the predictive

and memory heavy nature of what they learn at school. Education needs to move from fast food

style service to Michelin style restaurants which is individually tailored and adaptive (Robinson

2009).

Project based learning(PBL) has always been known to foster twenty first century thinking and

innovative thinking (Bender 2012). PBL emphasizes learning on a personal journey of discovery,

which is an up and coming trend in forward thinking learning processes (Edwards 2014). Home

schooling is one way parents are trying to give generation Z the twenty first skills they need

because it is an individualized solution to our rising social need (Tanz 2015). Montessori Schools

also have a very ideal style of learning with the children enrolled in these schools claiming their

“classrooms are innovative” (Fitch 2013). Project based, team based and open ended learning

projects requires cooperative learning (Johnson 2004) and learning transfer (Saavedra 2012).

Both are known to encourage and raise achievements of all students involved. There has been a

50% increase in multiracial youth since 2000(Shields 2015) so this generation will see

collaboration like no other before them. Interaction amongst young children provides context for

social and cognitive learning (Dangwal and Kapur 2009) and again this will be one of the most

valuable skills children can learn while growing up. Hacker spaces for children are perfect for

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getting immersed in real world team oriented projects for children. In Silicon Valley, hacker

spaces and home schooling groups already go hand in hand with amazing results (Shields 2015).

Finally, the Khan Academy model of learning is perhaps one of the most promising new and

innovative ways of learning. Khan Academy lets us create a day – night flipped classroom

(Parslow 2012) where children listen to lectures at home at their own pace and get to do

assignment work in class with a teacher who facilitates learning. This lets facilitators foster

deeper understanding of any and all concepts and lessons ( Bender 2012). Education needs to

shift to a point where facilitators of learning go from sage on stage to guide by the side (Parslow

2012), where their role is not to dazzle students with their own knowledge but to be present and

provide support when needed (Thomas 2008).

In conclusion, an ideal learning environment where all these elements are present the process of

learning for children will be a journey of self-discovery where they go from “I don‟t know” to “I

know something” to “I want to learn more” (Dangwal and Kapur 2009). There is a lot of

awareness on the different and dynamic learning needs of generation Z. Trends from

technology, culture and demographics are shaping future problems and challenges so we must

act now to setup a reliable learning eco system to cater to these needs.

Insights:

1. The best insight from this section is the day-night flipped classroom model of learning.

Teacher- student facilitate , not teach. is very important to facilitate learning and it is such

a challenge when all the contact time is spent on lectures. Lectures are inefficient to

transfer knowledge anyway and we are lucky to have resources to actually reverse this

paradigm.

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2. The claim that intelligence is dynamic, diverse and distinct is very thought provoking.

Perhaps the lack of understanding this idea is why education is still in a „one size fits all‟

model.

3. Team work, collaboration and synergy is perhaps the most important skillset to have to

be able to effectively tackle challenges. This is very difficult to learn when children go

through a system where their core evaluation pits them against one another, trying to

outscore and out rank each other. We need to teach collaboration, not competition.

4. The role of a facilitator is also very interesting to analyze. I believe teachers should be

facilitators of learning and not a cauldron of just knowledge that is being passed on. The

most effective facilitation happens when the facilitators are also learning from students

while trying to facilitate learning.

Reframing Learning

Clearly, with Generation Z‟s changing learning needs, there is a need to reframe how and what

they learn. Project based learning (PBL) has always been known to produce better overall

learning through lots of collaboration (Schultz and Christensen 2004). By making learning

happen within the context of these groups, we can move away from the more inefficient lecture

model. By doing so the knowledge acquired is also organized around the challenge rather than

the disciplines (Schultz and Christensen 2004). In the book „Operation Manual for Spaceship

earth‟, the author talks about the Earth being a spaceship and us its passengers. We can all be

experts in our own specific fields, but only by having a great empathy for what others do will we

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truly become a great species and steer our spaceship to bigger, better, greater things (Fuller,

2008).

It is very important to find a tribe, a small group of people you can learn from at an intimate

level (Robinson 2009). Socially shared learning is known to provide an ideal learning

environment for social and cognitive learning (Dangwal and Kapur 2009) and this directly plays

into the fact that young children should be encouraged to interact and learn with and from each

other (Dangwal and Kapur 2009).

Now more than ever there is a great need for collaboration and good leadership in everything (

Rosefsky 2012). There is a great need for synergy among collaborators; General System

Analysis can be played into this situation. It is a process of weeding out wrong or un feasible

options in the quickest, most efficient way possible (Fuller 2008). This means we can reap the

many benefits from making sure teams have a positive interdependence among themselves

(Johnson 1994). The best way to prepare Generation Z for a future of co creation, synergy and

collaboration would be to encourage cooperative learning, where individuals work together to

seek outcomes beneficial to themselves and the group.

The next important aspect of learning comes from the need to understand skills that will be

important to them as adults (Hall 2013). Because of everything Generation Z is exposed to from

birth, especially its access to technology from a young age, they can multitask effortlessly

(Shields 2015). But Generation Z is known to be smarter than their facilitators sometime, so it

will be beneficial to have a red flag mechanism. This is where a student is allowed to halt all

proceedings in order to bring up a valid contradiction or challenge that was not foreseen by

anyone else, but it will be allowed only once per semester (Collins 2011).

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Now more than ever there is a need for change. Like how the steam engine evolved into the

internal combustion engine of today, the education system also needs to change for the better

(Robinson 2009). Generation Z is intelligent enough to observe and investigate aspects worth

learning about (Dangwal and Kapur 2009). Generation Z will be mostly benefited from teaching

them how to be a part of adult to adult conversations (Hall 2013). All this means, there is a great

need to learn and do while going through education and learning from a young age (Edwards

2014).

The next important aspect of learning is the attitude towards learning itself. The obvious starting

point should be that it should stop being a one-way street. A good place to start would be to

acknowledge the complexity of future problems and learning how to listen hard ( Wholsen

2015). The best way forward in life is to find a point where there is an intersection of what you

are best at, what you are passionate about and of course make sure it drives your economic

engine as well (Collins 2011). Children need to be in their „element‟ to truly unlock their

potential. „The element‟ is that place where the thing we love to do and the thing we are good at

come together (Robinson 2009). One step towards creating a better system of learning is to

change the nature of instruction. This can be done by scaffolding supports for the learning

process (Bender 2012). Punishment plays a big role in learning and when it is used as negative

reinforcement it is known to jeopardize meaningful relationships (Hall 2013). Another way to

tackle this might be to incentivize staying on task or rewarding achievements with esteem. This

sort of positive reinforcement makes sure there is no bitterness and teaches Generation Z to

unleash themselves and explore options without the fear of expression or exploration (Hall

2013).

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Creativity is perhaps the most important component that needs to be of more prominence in

education and learning. More than anything, creativity can teach Generation Z to make clever

judgment when they are facing dead ends (Robinson 2011). For the complex challenges that

Generation Z will face, there is a need for Spontaneity and comprehensive curiosity to learn the

kind of skills that will equip them to face these challenges ( Fuller 2008).

This process of adding creativity as a center point in our way of thinking means we will need to

adhere to a process of preparation , incubation of ideas, illumination through concepts and

verification through testing (Robinson 2011). Expression of ideas is traditionally done though

numbers, words and images, but for those ideas that need more than these, creativity can jump in

and augment ideas to a new level ( Robinson 2011).

There is a big difference between knowing and feeling and that is at the heart of creativity

(Robinson 2011). This plays an important role for children to be able to find their element. Real

creativity comes from being in your most natural medium that lets you thrive and facilitators

need to help Generation Z find this so they can be at their creative best (Robinson 2011). Most

importantly, We as a race need to move from problem solving and need to move towards finding

them and predicting them, creative thinking can help Generation Z get there.

Insights:

1. Creativity needs to be at the center of learning. We need to acknowledge the fact that

creativity is a key to unlocking new approaches to learning and also a new way of

looking at challenges.

2. Forming a feedback loop with children seems to be of great significance. Information is

now abundant and freely available. It is important to learn what children think about

everything they see and what drives their curiosity. Observing the process of problem

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solving is a core part of Montessori schools and this helps teachers guide their students in

a much better way.

3. Problem solving needs to happen in your „tribe‟. Children should be exposed to working

with others so they can pick good team mates to collaborate with and learn to be good

team mates as well.

4. By altering what is at stake or what children should strive towards, the purpose of

learning is instantly transformed. Project based learning leads to a more rewarding and

enriched learning experience over a grade based system.

Obstacles for Change

Change for the better is a necessary step in evolution. When something as big as conventional

education is looking for a change it will be met with a lot of obstacles. The modern education has

many shortcomings as it has not evolved with the changing times. For starters, our education

system is telling Generation Z what to do all day, every day (Tanz 2015). The current education

system is in an outdated, transmission model of transmitting facts (Wholsen 2015) and this is a

system that does not scale very well and it is holding us back as it is not preparing Generation Z

for the complex problems they will face (Wholsen 2015).

Generation Z is now in an education system that is devised for a world that increasingly does not

exist (Edwards 2014). Now more than ever there is a need for initiative and entrepreneurship as

these are considered one of the most important skills to survive twenty first century (Rosefsky

2012) and our current education suppresses these very skills. The biggest take away here is that

being dumb in the existing education system is bad enough but failing to create a new way of

learning is a disaster.

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There are many components that can further augment learning and truly prepare Generation Z for

their future. Through motivation, facilitators need to push students towards learning and personal

mastery and not towards just performance (Fitch 2013). Generation Z is very smart, they can

actually be allowed to assume responsibility for their own instruction and learning (Schultz and

Christensen 2004). We now know that intelligence is dynamic, diverse and distinctive (Robinson

2009) so measuring it in just numbers and words is no longer effective. This means more than

anything, education should teach Generation Z how to discover (Edwards 2014).

There are a few success stories of alternate education methods and models trumping the more

traditional ones. The Arduino Integrated development environment is a recent success story that

was built on the model of “how to teach students to create electronics faster” (Leung). Arduino

makes this work as they have open sourced hardware, something never done before and that has

bridged the gap between the curious and resources they need like never before.

Montessori schools are known to stress importance on the importance of meaningful and

interesting work. The availability of choices in terms of paths that can be taken to facilitate

learning has produced a very effective model of learning (Fitch 2013). Another interesting model

is homeschooling. In many places around the United States it is being taken to in a large way as

it is synonymous with independent learning (Tanz 2015). Creativity is at the crux of Montessori

and Homeschooling as they see creativity as a verb and not a noun (Booth 2013).

Clearly, there is a need for providing a differentiated, individualized education in a classroom

setting (Tanz 2015). A student‟s capacity to co-operate, regulate emotions, delay gratification

and focus attention should be given more preference over grades and test scores (Kaku 2014).

Adhering to a new model of learning can be a frustrating process as learned from institutes that

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have tried to incorporate project based learning into their curriculum on as an experiment

(Schults and Christensen 2004) but these can be overcome through an iterative process of

improvement.

Another interesting direction that education could take is to get rid of „subjects‟ and instead

focus on „disciplines‟ (Robinson 2009). Doing so will require a lot of creativity in facing

challenges, finding opportunities and solving problems. And therein lies the biggest challenge.

Many schools and education systems find it challenging to incorporate this into their system as

creativity is hard to measure, difficult to quantify and nearly impossible to justify.

There are many obstacles in the path for change. But there are ways of overcoming them. There

is more value in creating a new system from what we see and learn than fixing what is currently

broken, especially in the case of our education system.

Insights:

1. The system that is preparing a generation to face future challenges should never be a

major obstacle to future achievements. Changing this system can never happen overnight

and it should be an iterative process which is daring yet conservative.

2. Creative thinkers are formed when they are allowed to seek their own destiny under the

guidance of a facilitator or guide who is comfortable with it. This is one of the reasons

why home schools and Montessori schools are being successful.

46

There are some important takeaways Generation Z can look for from learning to solve future

problems. Children have a natural ability for comprehensive propensities (Fuller 2008), which

means they naturally try and solve problems in a multi-disciplinary way. Facilitators should tap

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into this natural ability of theirs. It has been observed that a lack of an instruction book leads to

the intuitive use of intellect (Fuller 2008) and this leads to teaching children how to learn

(Rosefsky 2012). Moving from how to access information to how to use that information is the

most important skills we can impart on Generation Z (Tanz 2015). This can be taught through

the knowledge funnel model of learning where we go from Exploring a topic to forming a

heuristic to creating an algorithm that will aid future learning (Martin 2013).

Metacognition or awareness of one‟s own learning process has to be at the center of any model

of learning (Schults and Christensen 2004). This model of education will help Generation Z face

complex and ill structured problems in the future (Kolko 2010). The ability to face ill structured

and wicked problems will help Generation Z solve challenges with innovative and creative ideas

(Kolko 2010).

The role of a facilitator is one of the most important factors in an effective learning process.

More than anything, facilitators must influence than dominate the classroom sessions (Thomas

2008). Another big trend in education is the move towards intrinsic motivation which means now

there is more stress on Mastery of skills, autonomy and purpose of learning (Hall 2013). This is

why effective facilitation is challenging for changing learning needs because it is more than just

teaching theory and technical skills (Thomas 2008). Inquiry based learning is one way of

breaking out of the bubble of just teaching theory and technical skills (Booth 2013).

Facilitators can take to the rubber band metaphor for facilitating learning. When a rubber band is

stretched to its limits, it is always a bit longer as it returns to its neutral state (Collins 2011).

Contact time is very crucial to learning ( Johnson 1994) and this is exactly what services like

Khan academy are enabling facilitators to do. They have flipped the classroom around by

sending lectures home and having students do assignments in class while having access to the

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knowledge of a teacher. This way a facilitator can go from a sage on the stage to guide by the

side (Parslow 2012). One way this can be implemented is through active learning, where student

ideas are connected to concrete experiences (Zayapragassarazan and kumar 2012).

Khan academy is a good example of how facilitators can use technology to further augment and

foster learning (Rosefsky 2012). Most importantly, the freedom to experiment is extremely

crucial to creativity and learning from that experience (Robinson 2011) and this is the

facilitator‟s biggest responsibility.

This leads us into how facilitators can augment the learning experience. A starting point is to

question received wisdom (Wholsen 2015) and this doesn‟t mean just tests but in a more

dynamic way, like through a project. The biggest strength a facilitator can have is to understand

how to nurture human talent and understand how talent expresses itself (Robinson 2009). Again,

one of the main skills they need to help Generation Z pick up is curiosity and imagination

(Rosefsky 2012) so the task is to create a learning environment that is fearless and creative.

Technology definitely needs to be integrated throughout the learning process (Bender 2012).

This leads into the idea of a minimally invasive environment or MIE for learning where we use

the learning environment to generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning among

children (Dangwal and Kapur 2009). Overall, to facilitate learning that will help Generation Z

face future challenges, their common sense needs to be questioned and what they take for

granted must be challenged (Robinson 2009).

Insights:

1. Guiding Generation Z to form their own worldview on issues surrounding them is

perhaps what our future needs more than anything.

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2. Incorporating existing resources like technology and platforms that allow us to take from

and give back to should definitely be at the crux of learning as it is a faster way of getting

access to current and meaningful learning tools.

3. Facilitators should be open to learning from the journey of facilitating learning for

others. This doesn‟t mean throwing punches in the dark but more of a serendipitous

journey.

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Chapter 3

Methodology

Secondary research concluded with affinitization and synthesis of all the data generated. The

insights from secondary research formed the foundation of how this thesis project will be

implemented for a real world solution. Secondary research also lead to the decision of working

with Montessori and Home Schools in Savannah.

Stage one of primary research is to conduct interviews with people representing Montessori

Schools and Home Schooling Groups in Savannah. The primary purpose of this stage is to really

understand the inner workings of Montessori Schools and Home Schooling groups in Savannah.

This is to enable the most ideal situation to collaborate.

Stage two is to weigh options to choose who to actually develop the project with based on their

interests, willingness to work on new materials for teaching and practicality. This is crucial

because meeting all stakeholders‟ expectations is very important.

Also in stage two there would be a process of deep diving into the selected group and really

understand the essence of how they function and how best the Project can be developed within

their brand attributes while also being unique. The primary reason for doing this is make sure the

end result of the project is a much more progressive learning eco system while making sure its

not too foreign to the end users.

Stage three is an iterative process of developing a learning kit that incorporates aspects of the

secondary research and attributes of the education group chosen for the project. This process

involves frequent meetings, lots of feedback based design iterations, a deep dive into the culture

and harnessing its energy into whatever is created.

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Stage four involves a synthesis of developing the learning materials and using the process of

doing that to setup a service based on how the example material was developed.

The main purpose of doing this is to setup something that addresses the pain points experienced

during the process so future projects involving the school and other projects can have a smoother

journey.

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Chapter 4

Design process

Stage one:

After the decision was made to work with Montessori Schools or Home Schooling Groups, stage

one involved sending emails to Classical Conversations (Home Schooling Group), The

Independent Learning Network (Home Schooling resource provider) and Charles Ellis

Montessori School.

All three organizations responded with invites to interact with and really understand what they

were about. As mentioned earlier, this stage of primary research included talking to people

working at these organizations, observing how they operate and interact with students and seeing

where possibly collaboration can happen.

Classical conversations:

Fig 4.1 Students interacting at a weekly home schooling session

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Fig 4.2 Weekly home schooling sessions with a teacher

Classical Conversations is one of Savannah‟s biggest Home Schooling Groups. The group gets

materials from an organization called Classical conversations. They have a set of women, most

of them mothers of children who are a part of the group itself who are certified to teach these

materials to the children. This happens once a week or once in two weeks as per need and the

rest of the time is spent by the Students and their parents at a location of their own convenience,

learning what was taught to them that week.

The culture at Classical Conversations is very open in terms of how and what the children want

to learn. They are encouraged to share and present work to their peers constantly and are also

encourages to express ideas and concerns. It was amazing to see the kind of attention and

engagement the students and teachers gave each other.

By talking to some of the mothers, it was revealed that the main reason these mothers decided to

home school was because they lost trust in the public school system. Further conversations also

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revealed that the children were unnecessarily overworked, lost interest in education and had no

time for a life outside of school work, even to play or spend time with family.

Independent Learning Network:

Independent Learning Network or ILN is a homeschool center and resource center for Students

with regular and special learning needs.

Fig 4.3 Talking to Ms. Maria Williams of Independent Learning Network

An interview with Miss Maria Williams revealed how the ILN works. She spoke about most of

the students being ones that have been advised to take homeschooling because of various needs.

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For students with special needs, ILN either takes these students under their wing or they point

them in the right direction towards the resources they would need.

She had a lot of insightful thoughts to share, mostly to do with her take on education and

learning. The ILN is doing amazing work to support the learning needs of many students who

would otherwise fall through the cracks.

Charles Ellis Montessori School:

Fig 4.4 Students interacting with a teacher at Charles Ellis Montessori School

Charles Ellis is a public School that follows the Montessori curriculum. After interviewing the

Principal, Miss Tanya Melville and Head of the Mathematics Department, Miss Christy

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Caughran at Charles Ellis there was a good understanding of what the school strives for and how

open they are to change for the better.

From the very first conversation it was very clear that the principal and teachers at Charles Ellis

always welcome change and are in the culture of service for the Students and are ready to do

extra work to make sure the students benefit from it.

Stage Two:

At the end of stage one based on the conversations, insights and some personal preferences, the

decision was made to work with Charles Ellis montessori to create the new learning eco system.

Stage two started with a deep dive into how the teachers and students interact with each other

and the materials.

It was very interesting to see the sensorial approach of learning in action and very inspiring as

well. There is a lot of stress on how the materials feel to the childrenand the process of how they

interact with the materials is under constant observation and evaluation by teachers at all times.

This is why every teacher is a treasure chest of knowledge with regards to the materials and their

pros and cons.

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Fig 4.5 Observing Students interacting with materials and classrooms at Charles Ellis

Fig 4.6 Two eight year olds solving a math problem at Charles Ellis

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The observation also lead to a deep understanding of how the children use the knowledge gained

from learning with the materials and apply it in challenging situations. Fig 4.6 shows one

moment of magic which really excited the author to work with Charles Ellis. The two students in

the picture were asked to solve a divison problem together. One of them was leading them in the

wrong direction but the other one realised they should use the maerials to make sure they were

on the right path.

This independent, self- correcting way of problem solving was truly inspirational to witness and

it is a glimpse into the great potential of Montessori Schools. Another great quality of this school

is the importance teachers give to the process of learning. The students are not evaluated based

on just the right answers. If one student gets the same answer in half an hour and another one

gets in in two hours, that‟s where the evaluation of a teacher mainly happens.

Charles Ellis was not satisfied with the depth of their materials about the Golden Ratio so there

was a lot of interest from all stakeholders to develop a new learning kit for Golden Ratio.

Because of their exposure to the importance of art and nature the teachers at Charles Ellis were

really excited to pursue the Golden Ratio learning kit and having access to a design student who

had a similar liking for it added to the excitement of starting this project.

Stage Three:

Stage three started with a brainstorming session with Miss Christy to understand what she was

expecting from the Golden Ratio kit. Through her many years of intercating with Montessori

materials and observing children using them, she brought an ocean of knowledge to the session.

During this session two books were recommended to gain more insight into developing

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Montessori materials – Pshychogeometry and Neinhaus‟ Montessori hand book.

Fig 4.7 Books referred for understanding Montessori materials

At this stage two things were happening in parallel. One was the research into how montessori

materials are made and the other in ideas for how the secondary research could further augment

the experience of using them.

The brainstorming sessions for coming up with materials for the golden ratio toolkit involved

many bright minds from The School of Design at Savannah College of Art and Design including

Tyler Decker, Amar Chdgar, Nupoor Rajkumar, Jason Hyland, Alexandra Patron,

Shanmugasundaram Selvaraj and Dhivyasimhon Sridharan. The final ideas implemented in the

learning kit includes ideas from everyone of these designers.

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First iteration:

The first round of ideas were presented to Miss Christy and were hand made cardboard and paper

prototypes. This set of prototypes consisted of a puzzle that reveals the golden ration curve as it

is put together- made out of cardboard, a viewfinder and calliper made from cardboard and a

filing sheet and some cards that walk the students through the various activities.

Fig 4.8 Handmade paper and cardboard prototypes

Miss christy , some of her fellow teachers and some of the students gave very useful feedback

that could be used in the next iteration.

They liked the idea of the puzzle and were eager to see it in a bigger scale, they were most

excited about the viewfinder and calliper as it served as a self correcting tool and they were not

big fans of the cards telling a story. The idea of a timeline to show major events with regards to

the golden ratio was also brought up.

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Fig 4.9 Teachers reviewing the paper and cardboard prototypes

Fig 4.10 Teachers reviewing the paper and cardboard prototypes

Before more progress was made on the paper prototypes, there was a session to review the first

prototype of the timeline. After seeing the first prototype and getting a good response about the

content, there was a need for a blank version that could be filled in by the students.

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Fig 4.11 Miss Christy reviewing the timeline prototypes

Two students from Miss Christy‟s class gave a demonstartion of how the timeline lesson works

with a Geometry timeline the school already owned. Seeing this was very informative as it was a

good measure for what is expected, what is working and what could be improved.

Fig 4.12 Students demonstrate how to use the timeline

This session concluded with a lot of ideas for the puzzle. We talked about versions with just

square blocks and an etch of the curve on each block and one where the curve and the pieces are

both puzzles and a little bit more complex.

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Most Importantly, we wanted to go for the biggest possible size as that would involve more than

one student to carry. Based on the secondary research, every aspect of this toolkit was designed

to involve team work, co creation, problem solving, real world application and self correction.

Second Iteration:

The second iteration saw the birth of the lazer cut puzzle made from plywood in two different

versions. The cards were also further developed to test how the students can spot rectangles

having the golden ratio using the view finder and calliper. The callipers for this version of testing

were lazer cut from plywood.

Fig 4.13 Laser cut puzzle pieces exploring two concepts

The feedback session for this at Charles Ellis was a big one that involved many teachers from

various departments. Again, bringing with them an ocean of knowledge, this was truly one of the

best feedback sessions.

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Fig 4.14 Reviewing the laser cut puzzle prototypes

Feedback from this session included recommendations for a final version of the puzzle that was a

hybrid of the first two prototypes, something which is in one piece but has a tangible curve that

will aid the sensorial learning style. Recommendations were also made to improve the callipers.

Fig 4.15 Teachers from other departments reviewing the Golden ratio learning kit

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There was also a discussion on how the colouring for the final model should be. A gradient pallet

of purple was chosen as we did not want to use colours like red, green and blue which are

extensively used in existing montessori materials so the children do not get confused. Montessori

add on materials are allowed to have certain other colours and since purple is a popular favorite

amongst many, we decided to go with purple.

Third Iteration

The third Iteration involved another lazer cut with the slightly more pronounced deeper lazer cut

curve. They were painted in shades of purple. A version of the timeline featuring the empty

version with a card sort style lesson was also made.

Fig 4.16 Miss Christy and Tanya reviewing final prototypes

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Fig 4.17 Mr. Gary Davidson reviewing the final prototypes

The feedback session for this version was special as Gary Davidson, the diector for Seacoast

Center for Education was part of it. He is an expert in making Montessori materials and also

trains teachers to use them. His Feedback was very deep and he gave more ideas to improve the

timeline and the puzzle. He liked the idea of the view finder and callipers a lot and encouraged

me to share it at NAMTA (North American Montessori Teachers‟ Association) annual

conference.

With this session of feedback, the decision was made to make the final version of prototypes.

We also talked about having a box to put all these materials so the children could just pick it up

from a shelf, unpack, use and put back.

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Fourth Iteration

This stage started with the making of a box to house all the components of the golden ratio

learning kit. A cardboard prototype of this box ws made to see how best this could be achieved.

The materials were arranged inside the box in the same order a student would use them.

Fig 4.18 Building a cardboard prototype to house the Golden Ratio Learning Kit

Fig 4.19 Finished Cardboard box for Golden Ratio Learning Kit

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With a prototype for the box ready, a couple of trial runs with two nine year old students was

possible during this iteration. As usual there was feedback on the box, a decision was made to

have a sliding lid as the surface would have no handles and the students can use that surface for

something useful.

Fig 4.20 Testing final prototype with cardboard box

The two students thoroughly enjoyed the process of using the kit. Since they had a lot of

difficulty recognising and realising what a golden ratio looked like in real life, the decision was

made to have cards with real world object examples to make it more recognisable. For the same

reason, when asked to draw an object with the golden ratio, they simply juts drew a curve and

could not aply it to anything else.

Fifth iteration

This last stage of development involved printing all the materials on card stock, incorporating all

the feedback from Mr. Gary, Miss Christy and Miss Tanya and also building the actual box that

the kit would go into.

With the help of Tyler Decker, the box for the learning kit was built based on measurements

from the cardboard prototype.A final version of the puzzle was also lazer cut and painted. The

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callipers were fitted with nuts and bolts of matching diameter and length and a final version of

the viewfinder was also lazer cut from acryllic, with the golden ratio etched into it.

Fig 4.21 Final box being built in the workshop

After this, the learning kit was ready for an actual test with students of Chales Ellis montessori.

The lesson was shared with two students from Grade four (nine years old) and Six students from

Grade 5 (ten years old).

Fig 4.22 Test session with students using the final learning kit

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All students thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the Golden Ratio kit. Some of the students took

to the kit with a lot of enthusiasm and some had a luke warm response, but that is very typical to

Montessori materials as children get to pick what they would like to use.

Fig 4.23 Test session with students using the final learning kit

Stage Four

Stage four started with going back to the documentation of the process. The following journey

maps track the process for the designer and the teacher involved in the project for making the

Golden Ratio learning kit. The various painpoints these stakeholdersin the project felt during the

process are addressed in the journey maps.

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Fig 4.24 Designer’s customer journey map

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Fig 4.25 Teacher’s customer journey map

To address these issues, nucleus was born. Nucleus will serve as a platform for collaboration

between design students looking for real world projects and teachers of schools looking to create

new learning materials.

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Fig 4.26 Designer persona

Fig 4.27 Teacher persona

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Fig 4.28 Student persona

These will be the personas for a teacher, designer and a student that will interact with and benefit

from using Nucleus.

The website www.mynucleus.co will serve as the platform. The website contains information on

what nucleus is, has a gallery of projects worked on through nucleus, a section where projects

can be proposed and queries can be posted and discussed and finally a section that shares the

author‟s secondary research so others can benefit from it.

The purpose www.mynucleus.co is to give future designers a convenient platform to access

projects that could be picked up and be worked on at a fast pace and avoid the time they would

spend looking for projects to work on.

The gallery page will give everyone an opportunity to get an idea of what has been done so they

can analyse what has been done, what they can borrow from it and what they do not like and can

avoid. The most essential purpose of this is to keep generating learning toolkits that add immense

value to a student and teacher‟s learning experience. It can also lead to creating facilitators of

learning over teachers.

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Chapter 5

Observations and Feedback

Student feedback:

Most of them felt the amount of time the students got to spend with the Golden Ratio kit was a

not suffecient, the studenst wished they got to spend more time with it.

All students felt it was a really fun experience and enjoyed the hands on experience.

Some lesson they had just learned to real world objects around them generated a lot of

excitement and it made the experience a lot more enjoyable.

One student claimed he felt entertained and also learned a lot and enjoyed the approach to

learning.

Some students felt the pace of the test session was too fast so they were unable to grasp some of

the concepts.

A couple of students felt the callipers were much better as they measure more accurately than the

view finder.

One student expressed concern that this lesson might be too complex for fourth graders andit

would be more suitable for fifthe and sixth graders.

Teacher feedback:

The teachers thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with Design students as it is

something they always seek and enjoy.

In hindsight they wished the children were much more involved in the process.

They would like to explore such learning kits with more subjects.

Technology is something they would like to incorporate more into the curriculum.

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The didactic nature of materials is something they want to explore more where the materials are

self correcting and act as a guide.

They would love to have more projects with a natural environment involved.

They felt the process would need a more solid timeline and hard deadlines that are more planned

and organised.

With a few more refinements they recommended that material can have a production aspect and

presented at the NAMCO conference.

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Chapter 6

Conclusion and Future Steps

In conclusion, the experience of working with Charles Ellis to form Nucleus was very satisfying

for all stakeholders involved. Nucleus helped bring together numerous people who are passionate

about learning and care about the future of education.

To have a chance to be a part of something that some of the brightest minds in the world are also

tackling was also very satisfying for the author.

The author is looking to get more feedback on the usage of the kit in class and make

improvements and even more projects based on it.

The teachers at Charles Ellis already have more ideas for projects they want to do with art and

electronics. While the golden ratio learning kit was developed with mostly one designer over

four weeks, it will be very interesting to see what a group of maybe four designer can do over

eight weeks. This is where a platform like nucleus can help cut a few steps so they can get to the

more important things.

In the future, hopefully there will be more students looking for real world projects involved with

Nucleus and it is very exciting to see how Nucleus can be further improved based on more

usage.

The author will continue to be the admin for the website in the forseeable future. Word of

Nucleus will be spread around SCAD at an initial stage so its scale is very manageable.

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The author will also look into which particular subjects, topics and ideas can be best developed

and designed using Nucleus to truly unlock both their potentials.

Today, Design is changing the world more than ever before and therein lies an amazing

opportunity to design how our future generations learn and educate themselves. Nucleus can be a

stepping stone for that better tomorrow.

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Appendix A

Components of the Golden Ratio Learning Kit

View Finder

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Timelines (Filled, empty and content cards)

Final box exterior

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Contents arranged inside box

Puzzle

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Three part cards

Golden ratio callipers

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Appendix B

Home page

Research page

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Gallery page

Queries page

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Appendix C

Case study on the history of Arduino:

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