Mini Golf Project
How can we create an entertaining and interactive event for visitors our Autumn Term exhibition? Term: Autumn 2016 No. Teachers: 4 Subject: Art & Design / Science No. Students: 75 Year: 8 (12-13yo) Situation In recent years, we have noticed that visitors to our whole school exhibitions have really enjoyed interacting with exhibits and being more actively involved. Therefore, we are increasingly interested in developing projects that entertain guests and can allow for students to produce games and activities specifically for this purpose. Brief To design a mini golf obstacle that includes an electrical mechanism and is based on an engaging theme that will be part of a four course mini golf course for guests at our autumn term exhibition. Each courses will be made up of 8-10 mini golf obstacles. Audience The audience were mainly parents of students and their siblings, who visit our regular whole school exhibitions. The obstacles were created around a user group aged 4+. Outcomes
Assessment Students were assessed on their understanding of the design process in which they analysed a situation and worked to a brief. They had to research, design and make a product from conception to its final presentation at the exhibition. They were assessed on their design and making skills in drawing, model making and painting/surface decoration. They were also assessed on their scientific knowledge of force and motion, energy transfer and electrical circuits. With all projects, we also assess their generic project skills from teamwork/collaboration to their organisation, effort (grit) and oracy skills. This is a teacher assessment based on observation, assessment data and student feedback. Exhibition The exhibition took place at our Autumn Term whole school exhibition in 2016. An events committee were set up to organise and run the entry/exit to the site, loaning and security of equipment. We asked guests to make a voluntary contribution to our school charity supporting the elderly in Newham. Reflection The initial motivation for this project was led by our new Design teacher, Alicia Ongay-Perez, who had tried a similar project at her last school. Our Year 8s had no experience of the design process so we wanted to use this project to introduce some of the key principles of product design by working to a brief and specification. We started the project fairly late into the autumn term leaving us around nine weeks for the entire project. Working with the science department, we wanted the students to apply a basic understanding of electronics into their designs and be able to explain the principles of force and motion behind the game of mini golf. This was less success than we had hoped because they spent the first part of the project understanding the principles of force and motion followed by the electronics, when we should have probably started with the electronics so they were better integrated into the design. The project was very successful in terms of giving the students the freedom to develop personal themes and this was motivating for many of them. The consequence of this however is that students often have wildly unrealistic ideas, but then I feel that part of our job as teachers to is to work with students and critique their ideas using our own expertise and experience to support them make decisions. Of course, there would be no learning taking place if there were no opportunities for making mistakes. That said, the openness of the brief meant that the design process was longer and the making processes needed to account for more redrafting. This meant that it was unrealistic to have them make everything from the design drawings to the construction of the model to the final decoration so we supported them by constructing a basic wooden armature linked to their design. In some cases, the students also supported with this, but on the whole they were responsible for the design and surface decoration/basic model making. This was more work than we anticipated and, in retrospect, we would try to simplify it by giving them possible armature templates that they could simply construct. Often, I come across purists suggesting that students should do everything in the process. My belief is that we want the students to have a sense of ownership, but that doesn't mean that collaboration with your teacher is preventing learning taking place. Instead, the relationship becomes more akin to that of a mentor/craftsman leading an apprentice. By having student-staff collaborative projects like this, students can work on projects that they would usually not be exposed to and this can only be a positive thing for raising ambition. However, I also believe that there is space for more discrete skills-based projects all about crafting the entire product independently. This was the case in our birdhouse project with year 8s last year. It's just a matter of balance. The final event of managing the mini golf course with members of the public was far more taxing than students anticipated. We quickly realised that the logistics of managing constant queues of parents and young children, loaning out equipment and explaining rules was very complex and the organising team of students were fairly stressed by the end of the two hours. In the future, we will need to have a better rota of roles, but also for staff to manage the queues as it become quite rowdy at times as people were so keen to participate. Overall, this project has a strong legacy and we will look to build on it over the coming years. I believe that it would be good to try this with an older year group, possibly sixth formers, for an outdoor course with a concrete base structure. It could then be used at lunchtimes (under supervision!). |
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