Design, Develop, Create

Friday 24 November 2023

Exercise: Construction

DesignConstruction from Allen Higgins on Vimeo.

Preamble:


  1. Do the Lego Mindstorms familiarisation exercise first (see slides)
  2. Then have individuals make their own sketches of a lego robot that can guard a "base",

Objective:
To experience the different activities and issues that can arise in teams constructing a shared object in accordance with a well specified design.
To enable people to get to grips with a particular technology ecosystem to enable reasoned judgement and design thinking relevant to other related exercises.

Preparation:
1x copy of the design/construction document per group.
1x LM construction box.
Index cards, pencils, paper.

Instructions (45”):
e.g. A group race to construct a driving base.
Provide a brief introduction to the construction environment and capabilities of the tools used. 

Outputs:
A completed driving base.

Interjections:

  • At intervals team members have to 'rotate' around the workbench. 
  • About 15' into the exercise pause and reflect how they have ended up organising themselves. Would you choose a different arrangement? Roles? Spatial arrangement? Move things around? Leadership? Democratic?
  • About halfway to completion offer the colour booklet.
  • About 30' into the exercise pause and reflect. Ask 'what is the design? The guide? Which page? The finished product? The small details? The ideas? Did anyone notice errors? What was the impact of colour? Any improvisation? Coping with missing parts?

Debrief:


Class of 2014/15 FT 


Group ID
Time (mins)
a
1 hr 13'
b
non-finish


Class of 2013/14 PT 


Group ID
Time (mins)
a
24'
b
non-finish
c
29'
e
27'
f
non-finish
g
non-finish
h
non-finish
i
23'
j
non-finish


Class of 2013/14 FT 


Group ID
Time (mins)
a
non-finish
b
non-finish
c
non-finish
e
20'
f
non-finish
g
'1'? non-finish
h
non-finish
i
31'
j
non-finish

Class of 2012/13 
Group IDTime (mins)
a20
b35
c40
e29
fnon-finish
g42
h47
i40
j34

Class of 2012 
Group IDTime (mins)
1non-finish
2non-finish
333
440
533
625
728
834