Light-up Stories
Integrating art and electronics via soft circuits to tell a personal story
Lying at the intersection of STEAM learning and self-expression, this project collaborated with Allergic to Salad to design and test tangible learning technologies for an electronics and computing curriculum for middle school students. Allergic to Salad is an organization that teaches STEAM skills via cooking via K-12 in-school and after-school programming.
Target Users:
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Middle school students in the NY schools
Roles
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Learning Designer
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Co-facilitator, Co-researcher
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Guiding How-Might-We Question
How might we integrate art and electronics such that students explore basic electronic components in hands-on, creative, and fun activities to express themselves and share personal stories?
Concept
Using soft (foam) circuits that react to touch to produce light, students express and tell a personal story, representing their hobbies, personality traits, or create their own characters or worlds, or simply their interpretation of it. They use decorative add-ons, feathers, stickers, and marker drawings to help tell their stories and express themselves.
These artifacts may be “finished take-home products,” that students take home and share with their communities, achieving a sense of accomplishment. However, they can also be a part of a “finished in-school installation” where their individual foam circuits come together to create a light-up “quilt,” serving as a visual representation of how each of their individual stories comes together to weave a wonderful community story. The installation may serve as a showcase for parents, caregivers, or other visitors.
Discovery Research
Through qualitative coding and affinity clustering of insights from a structured 30-minute stakeholder interview with the founder of Allergic to Salad, I identified the following themes along with design partner.
Insights
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Developing real-world skills such as communication, collaboration, and trouble-shooting, alongside STEAM learning
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Exploratory, tangible play, hands-on activities, and learning from experimentation
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Building trust, accountability, and a sense of agency among children
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Instilling a sense of accomplishment and confidence
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Fostering a feeling of comfort with science
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Representation, inclusion, and a space to be seen and heard for diverse students
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Chunking concepts based on time, space, and attention limitations
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Ensuring reusability, availability, and cost-effectiveness of materials
Reframed Problem
Bietu, 10, an academically gifted child with a creative bent of mind, needs to engage in exploratory informal learning activities that encourage them to apply science concepts they learn to create artifacts of personal meaning because building and showcasing their skills via these artifacts helps them feel a sense of accomplishment, improves their confidence, and also helps them feel connected to science.
Reem, 11, a bright child with a head full of ideas, needs to find opportunities that provide her structure and guidance to help her channel her creativity into meaningful outcomes that help her in the real world because she thrives in a supportive environment when she is creatively challenged and allowed to take risks and learn from her creative experiments.
Reframed How-Might-We Questions
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How might we structure the activity to ensure that each student feels a personal connection to their foam circuit creation, fostering a sense of ownership and accomplishment?
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How might we integrate art and electronics, encouraging students to incorporate a variety of creative elements such as personal drawings into their foam circuits to express their personalities and stories?
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How might we design the activity to foster an atmosphere where making mistakes is seen as a natural part of the learning process, encouraging students to experiment with electronic components and become comfortable with circuits?
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How might we structure the learning experience to demystify the use of electronic components, making us excited about exploring the world of soft circuits and electronics?
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How might we incorporate collaborative elements into the activity, encouraging students to share their stories with peers and collaboratively troubleshoot any challenges that arise during the creation of their foam circuit projects?
Learning Goals
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Create an artifact of personal meaning by understanding and applying knowledge of simple circuits
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Integrate simple electronics with storytelling to share a personal story using this artifact
Learning Objectives Mapped to Performance Goals
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Examine power sources and output devices and deduce how they work
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Students can make their LEDs light up using the circuit and explain what is happening.
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Explore simple circuits
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Students can assemble their own paper circuit using the components and the template provided.
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Adopt basic circuit-related target vocabulary
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Students can start using appropriate vocabulary to describe specific components, voice what is wrong with their assembly, and ask for help accordingly.
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Apply knowledge of electrical circuits to create a personal light-up circuit that tells a unique story
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Students have a working LED light-up circuit with their personal creative touches to it.
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Showcase your light-up circuit by using storytelling and creative thinking skills to weave a story around it
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Students build an engaging narrative around their artifact and articulate it effectively.
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Guiding Learning Theories
It is founded on Papert's constructionist theories and the notion of "felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity"(Papert, 1991). The 2-part lesson intends to build on situated learning theories, by focusing on both the material (physical) contexts of the learning activities, and their social contexts. Specifically, it builds on Perkins’ (1993) notion of distributing cognition to the surround, by allowing learners to physically manipulate materials and troubleshoot based on feedback.
It also builds on the situative notions of “participation in authentic activities” for meaningful learning, by allowing learners to initially explore the applications of common materials. According to Brown et.al (1989), “The understanding both, of the world and the tool, continually changes as a result of their interaction” (Brown et.al., 1989, p. 33).
Themes
Beyond STEAM learning via tangible exploration, this lesson has explores the following themes:
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Build comfort with electronic components and a supportive environment for experimentation and learning by making mistakes: It intends for students to develop confidence and comfort in handling and manipulating basic electronic components, such as LEDs, and conductive materials
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To appreciate electric circuits and devices in a fun light and overall foster a positive attitude towards science and overcome fears of working with electric components.
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Foster self-expression, creativity, and communication by encouraging students to share personal stories through these circuits
Experience
Pilot Test
A simple LED circuit completed using conductive tape
Middle schoolers building their own foam circuits using LEDs
A completed foam circuit by a middle schooler with decorative smileys and patches
A simple LED circuit completed using conductive tape
Findings
Next Steps
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For best results, the unit should be implemented in two parts, with the pre-lesson preceding the“create” lesson.
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It is recommended that the simple circuit be used first. Then based on ability—not grade—fast-paced learners can move on to the parallel circuit. This is reflected in the accompanying lesson plan.
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For advanced students, it is also recommended that the self-expression stories at the end of the lesson are implemented in a more structured manner, encouraging each student to share their light-up circuit story with the others or in pairs.
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There might be a possible variation of the lesson to also help foster collaboration and communication skills by having them work on a theme in pairs and come up with a story together.
Potential Pitfalls
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In a mixed-ability cohort, there will be some students who will work faster than others or grasp faster. So, while there might be more opportunities to implement the probing questions and reflection moments with them while the others work on theirs, as reflected in the lesson plan, there might be some down time.
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The dexterity of students in using the conductive tape might continue to be a problem where they might need guidance.
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Students might get frustrated if their circuit does not light up after a few attempts, or if they have to troubleshoot for too long, or redo some of their work.
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Students might waste materials such as decorative materials, conductive tape, LEDs by powering them for too long. It is important to keep reinforcing why this might happen and adding reflection moments in case of such events.