Education and OSH (1:30-2:45)

Session Title:
Date: 23-Mar-2017
Attendees (who was there?):

  • David Bild
  • Julián Castro Bosisio
  • Jeffe Van Holle
  • Teon Brooks
  • Thomas Maillart
  • Tara Tiger Brown
  • Aakriti Thapa
  • Tobias Wenzel

Overview of topic (3-6 sentences):
We discussed how to facilitate learner-centered environments and we shared problems, tips and resources from our diverse experiences.

Notes:
Thomas: we should bring the students from Switzerland to learn from makers in Kumani Hive
Teon/Tara: we have areas within US communities that don’t have access (e.g. LA and VA)
Tara: check privilege at door in the makerspaces (Beverely Hills and East LA)
Teon/Jeffe: people are afraid to break things…in makerspaces need to allow space for people to experiment and break things
Thomas: In teaching need to get away from transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, and teacher judging students, but rather co-creation with students and teachers.
Aakriti: girl only circuitry in Nepal (18 girls, 3 day workshop)

Tips for facilitators working with learners of any age:

  • teacher give up control of the class and let class decide the agenda
  • LA Scratch club: students teaching other people scratch
  • put yourself at the same level of the students (solder together)
  • facilitation not about knowing everything (girl only circuitry in Nepal (18 girls, 3 day workshop))
  • change the mindset of teaching: it’s okay to not know the answers, but you still need to have a base knowledge

What type of hardware are we using?

  • Teon: Eye tracking device [found online] (playstation eye, LED)
  • Teon: EEG machine (plans online)
  • Tara: makerspaces in libraries LA, many libraries, menu of options & supplies for librarians (needs to be reusable, inexpensive, and easy to obtain)

How do we scaffold learning in OSH?

  • Tobey: very difficult to teach everything, so bring together people from disparate disciplines, don’t explain everything
  • Tara: bring in expert mentors, but hard to do that everywhere (e.g. rural areas) so bring in remote mentors

What are some of the science fields we apply hardware to?

  • social psychology (Thomas)
  • env monitoring, food science (tara)
  • biophysics, biolab equipment (Tobias)
  • alignment with formal science curriculum (Aakriti)

Documentation/communication (how to encourage learners to do this?):

  • part of the process, but kids aren’t used to doing it
  • video blogging/reporting
  • having the video club come into to do interviews
  • providing an audience for the work
  • documentation post-work never happens, need to schedule/build in to the course (mind cleanup just like workshop cleanup)
  • TMPI cycle (Aakriti)
  • small blog posts each week --> collective report at end of the course