During the mid-break

Since my project is not just about Arduino modules, but it also related to art crafts or even home improvement stuff. I spent more time than I expected to find the parts to make sure that I didn't miss any components that I need for my project before I place the order. Finally, I got all the stuff figured out and ordered during the mid-break. I thought I would use parts from the hairdryer I disassembled to build the smoke effect, but it turned out that I would still need a multimeter to test the voltage, current, and resistance. Therefore, I can only work on it when all my parts arrived. At the main time, I am still refining the design of the final product. In my earlier ideas, which I wrote in my previous blog, I would want to either build a house or a room; however, after I talked to Allison about my individual concept and input data that I want to collect. Allison suggested an idea of making a terrarium, the representation of the earth, and the ecosystem as a whole. It was a great idea!! I thought about the ecosystem concept before, but I didn't know how to present it in the design.

Individual Concept

The team concept aims to teach children about global warming and environmental protection. My concept is letting children know that they can be a part of the movement in their daily base by simply turn off the light when they don't use it and be conscious when using water. My individual focus I want to be narrow it down to children's behavior in the household. My plan is to create a smoke-based interaction depends on the data inputs: not turned off the lights and cautious on water usage(this is what I had for now) would trigger the smoke. Moreover, I would like to create an ecosystem that has the soil and the plant like a terrarium. It has a soil moisture sensor to detect the health of the soil, and temperature sensor to measure the temperature degree. The smoke would create when the user forgot to turn off the lights or be cautious using water. How the terrarium works, the lights create the heat, and when the heat rises, it triggered the smoke. The terrarium acts as earth, and smoke would be the effect of bad habits that causes the earth to suffer. I want to show that every action has consequences, and we couldn't undo what we had done. Of course, when a good habit was built, it will give the terrarium waters, plant more seeds, and add more warms.

My ideal finished product

My ideal finished product would be a beautiful terrarium that has plants, grass, and flowers. I want to build a terrarium that has its own ecosystem with all the sensors and detection would work. It's a small version of the earth. All the wires will be hidden in the wooden house, which is built from paddle sticks. However, I haven't built any of the parts, yet this design might change later based on any circumstances that might occur during the prototyping process.

What am I going to do?

In the next few days, I will work on research to find how to teach children about sustainability, primarily focus on the household. It would be helpful if I can find some information about teaching children about sustainability with things that could easily find in the household since I can't have an in-person interview or user testing. To bring the idea across, it would be hard for children to learn without having any probs. As for me, the best and simplest ideas would be teaching them how to do recycling, and any objects at home can be a prob to teach children if it is recyclable or not.

For the next steps, I want to create an interview and survey questions even though I don't have anyone to do the interview yet, but I hope I could find some from my friends' circle. Since working with children was not an easy task, and parents usually are more conscious. I felt it was the hardest task in this project. However, it would be nice to have some understanding of how children are cautious about sustainability at this generation.