M4 Field Activity¶
Scopes Lesson¶
Reflection¶
Collaboration: Reflect on how you worked with colleagues or FLA participants during the Field Activity. At what stages of development and testing did the collaborator contribute? Please be detailed in your description. How did your collaborator’s perspective change the way you developed the lesson?
During this stage we worked together with Amaria Hernandez another FabLab student and a colleague of mine at American School of Guatemala, she is a STEAM teacher for elementary and I’m a visual arts teacher for middle school. While working on this project she was focused on the engineering process of the lesson and as I’m also a musician I was also focused on the sound element of our lesson and how this sound can imitate nature and be ideal for this representation. We did some research on how the instrument was build and I had one at home that I brought to school for students to experiment and brainstorm ideas about its design. Amaria pointed out how the specific alignment of the sticks instide the rain stick was going to change the sound level of the rain sticks that students were going to build.
Instructional Challenges: What challenges did you encounter while teaching this lesson? How did you address or plan to address them? How are diverse learners’ needs being met in the lesson plan facilitation?
I think one of the biggest challenges was that we’re still learning how to use tools like micro:bit; for this specific lesson our plan was to measure the sound level. I think it was difficult because micro:bit doesn’t really measure decibels but LUFS and LUFS are veru subjective. I investigated a little bit more about how to use a different device that could measure decibels and send a specific signal to micro:bit to generate a reaction but we didn’t have the tools and I would have had to learn more about the coding for it which I think could be very challenging because of my lack of experience. For the instrument design and making of I think diverse learners can be met by gicing students different options to work with to decorate their instruments for example; or for the coding reaction instead of showing some leds maybe adding a sound for students that are more auditive than visual, or even a tactile reaction.
Integrating Disciplines: Where does your lesson plan fall on the continuum and why? How might you move the lesson plan along the continuum to the next level? Multidisciplinary Interdisciplinary Transdisciplinary I think this lesson is interdisciplinary because there are different approaches through different sections of the lessons, there is the art approach mixed with the engineering when creating the instrument. There’s also the technology approach by using the micro:bit to measure the sound level through testing their instrument and making the necessary changes to stay within the solicitated range and documenting and mapping their instrument design (where the toothpicks are placed for example) and how different types of tube, or decaoration affects the functionality of the instrument. I to think Moving towards to Transdisciplinary project for this project might have to be for older students and a specific mission or challenge to reach a specific purpose. Also including real sound level measurement of raining natural phenomena.
AI Usage: If you used AI, describe how it was used and in which steps of the Field Activity. We used AI to understand better the relationship between LUFS and decibels and also making a conversion that would help us get specific LUF number to use in the micro:bit sound meter to achieve the desired results for the ideal rainstick sound.
Reflect on the course in general: How has your teaching changed as a result of this course? What are some concepts that you would like to learn more about? How can you support other teachers in your practice to use digital fabrication with their students? After this course I have been presented with an infinite bank of ideas of how to mix art with engineering, or art with electronics, or art with real life problem solving and this has been an amazing experience. I still fell like I’m making some baby steps son this field and that I need to gain more experience. The good thing is that at the school I’m working at we’re acquiring the materials to have a makerspace that will make expermentation process possible. Next school year I’ll be implementing a “Product Creation: Design Masters Studio” elective course for eighth graders in which I’m planning to use all the technologies learned at this course and experiment more with students by solving real life problems and bringing the technology at the service of others in and out the school. Now that I have some experience collaborating with other teachers or even understanding how art is linked with all of these concepts, knowledge and abilities I can say that collaboration is the key and that all ideas can be turned into great projects for significative learning.
Tools¶
- Micro:bit V2 (preferred for built-in microphone) with battery pack
- Laptop/tablet with MakeCode (teacher-prepared starter project recommended)
- Cardboard tube (paper towel or mailing tube) or clear plastic tube
- Rice, small beans, beads,chickpeas (separate small containers to try)
- Tape, paper, crayons for decoration, end caps (cardboard)
- Toothpicks
- Glue