Tuesday’s studio session

A brief recap

Theme: digital sensation(5 senses) + creative learning

Goal: Aiming to teach primary school students to learn about environmental protection and sustainability in their everyday school life by a playful, open ended interactive way.

One sentence: to create an interactive globe to help primary school students develop a habit to classify garbage in their everyday school life.

NOTE: everyone should start their report back with a quick description of their concept (individual concept or focus in team project)

my own project is focus on creating a interactive globe to help primary school students develop a habit to classify garbage in their everyday school life.

What is the one BIG question you have about the Prototype deliverable?

Since it has become completely individual project, I'm not sure the prototype I'm working on is enough or not to meet the standard/requirements for the prototype demonstration due on next week.

What is your one key aim for your prototype (or part of the prototype)? This is the main thing that you want to have working or completed or figured out for your prototype.

The key aim for my prototype is to test the basic function and make sure the key interaction methods actually work. And the user could get the idea and concept that I try to pass to them.

Input:

by using ultrasonic sensors x 4 (2 for each of the bin)

Outputs:

put everything in a plain white paper lantern (diameter=20cm):

1 neo-pixel ring will enough to reflect the light on the whole globe
vibration sensor(motor and motor controller) - to stimulate the shaking of the globe
piezo(sound sensor module) - make simple tone to play

What concerns or needs do you have for getting it done?

I still need sometimes to figure out all the sensors and components need to be used for the prototype. And the code also need sometime to figure out how to put every single part of the code I have so far together and make sure they can work pretty well together.

The user research is another I am worry about. The team haven’t been response to the solution to this crucial part in out design process. I will try to ask everyone again this week to see what we do about it.

Show us what you have been working on - this can be via the video on Zoom or a photo/video into the studio channel on Slack.

I just got the Axilary kit delivery yesterday afternoon, so I haven’t started to give it a go for the components I want to use yet. But now I have got all the basic materials and sensors, so I'm about to start building the prototype from today.

Prototype building in progress

After getting the Auxilliary Kit delivery on Monday afternoon, I started to try different sensors and components in the kit after the Tuesday studio session. I first gave it a go to the Neo-pixel led ring, which will be used as the main visual expression tool for my prototype. By utilising the Adafruit NeoPixel Library, it turns out pretty good. But I still nee to figure out the suitable light design for the earth. I will keep trying to code my own light design for the paper globe next week.

As for the main body part of the prototype, I tried to find the existing product form the shops. However, I didn’t find out the suitable one to work as the stand/support base for the globe. Therefore, I decided to seek the help from my friend who own the 3D printer to build my own stand. The bottom of the stand will be able to hide all the wires and Arduino and breadboard parts. The top of curve part will be able to hang the paper globe. It took almost one day to finish these two components by the 3D printer. It was quite fun to design a 3D design by using the software.

After gathering all the materials and electrical components, I started the actual prototype building process. With the help of my friend, the diagram of both system and circuit have been done. It really helps me to have a general idea of how should those sensors and wires should be link together and how I should organise everything tidying on the breadboard. The image on the middle is the final result of the prototype building process at the end of this week. The aesthetic of the globe will be add next week. At the moment I'm thinking of draw the rough shape of the continent on the globe to give the user the basic idea that this globe is the representation of earth.

User research up to date

On Fridays workshop session, Eddie, Kuan and I decided to conduct the initial inquiry in the next week. This would be included as the main part of the user research, as a team- based process and result. Since it’s difficult to get access to the primary students at the moment, Eddie proposed that he could conduct the user interview with his little sisters and cousins back in home. The details regarding to ethical issues with conduct interview with children under 18 years old will be confirmed with the tutor before any further action being taken. During the team discussion session, we set the primary goals and questionnaires together as a team. So that the result of user research may cover both team concept and individual project's scope, and each team member could use include the user research as part of their "user research" in the prototype document.

I did a bit more research on the current situation of recycling work at school in Queensland.

Works have been done in Brisbane:

Waste Smart Kindy | Brisbane City Council

Waste programs for schools | Brisbane City Council

Teacher resources - recycling and reducing waste | Brisbane City Council

Instructions for conducting a solid waste audit | Brisbane City Council

School waste audit bin descriptions | Brisbane City Council

In Mackay region:

Mackay Regional Council - Information for schools

Mackay Regional Council - Household collection

Based on the team discussion, I set up the document of user research for the team. Other team members also contributed to add questions into the document. By the end of this week, we've gathered 20 questions. Jay also volunteer to conduct an extra interview with his younger sister. That's a good news for the team. However, those are definitely too much questions for a child interview. And some of the questions are too much or too difficult to answer even for adults. Therefore, before next Tuesday's studio session, we will try to filtrate the interview questions again. Then the interview should be carry on according to the team schedule.

Link to the Google doc

Aim: to discover primary students' knowledge and attitude towards garbage classify system in Australia

Questions: 10 questions have been come up with by me during this week.