Scooters
Playground Design Commission Term: Summer 2017 No. Teachers: 4 Subject: Art & Design / Science No. Students: 40 Year: 8 (12-13yo) The Need In this project, we wanted to offer the primary and middle school pupils more opportunities to keep fit and offer something that was not associated with one particular gender. Scooters are very popular and also offer the opportunity to teach pupils about the design process and simple woodworking techniques that are part of the ADT curriculum. Brief To create a set of scooters for the primary and middle school playground that are stable and robust enough to withstand everyday use. The surface design can be personalised to reflect the designer's interests. Audience The audience for this product are pupils in years 1-7, which make up most of the primary and middle school. Outcomes
Successes This was one of the first projects we attempted in the department that might be taught more formally in a design technology department at school. We were keen to embed some key DT making skills defined by our consultant, David Baker, as: measuring, making, cutting, refining and finishing. At the heart of the project was the idea that the product would have an after life and be used by children coming into the middle school. This allowed us to test the scooters with some pupils to see whether it was going to be popular. It was successful in terms of the making skills learnt as the wood work involved was just the right level of challenge in that it stretched students, but also allowed them to make mistakes and it wasn't a great issue if they made an accident as we have a fair amount of spare wood. The students were highly motivated and behaviour rarely an issue. They were very keen to test them out and share their work with others. Challenges There were a number of preparatory issues when we started as we wanted to give the students triangular pieces of wood and did not have the tools to do this easily and had to rely on a timber yard. In addition, sourcing the cheapest and best quality scooter wheels involved many hours on Alibaba and some dubious retail sites. Technically, the project was challenging when dealing with metal and ensuring that nuts and bolts were both securely fastened and not loose. The potential for unsafe scooters was reasonable high and needed to be assessed before use. Finally, the room was not kitted out with wood work benches and we had to use bench hooks adapted to fit and clamp down. Effective as this was, it added a fair amount of time to the way of working and the height of working was not comfortable and probably not very good for the back. Looking Forward The biggest disappointment with this project is that the scooters were never allowed in the playground on a regular basis as the school SLT decided that it was potentially too unsafe. A fair call, perhaps, but then the project was signed off and funded so could have been raised earlier. The scooters have therefore not used as much as they could have been since they can only be used during special events that are supervised and with head gear. We are currently looking to reuse the scooters in other event-based projects so they are a resource that can be drawn upon for other activities that take place in the year. |
|