Educational Technology and Distance Learning | February 4, 2017
Lesson Summary:
Students will practice Innovative Design with a hypothetical, yet real-life problem of redesigning the school locker rooms. Assuming the school environment has outdated layouts for these rooms, the project will give students a chance to use the design process to identify and solve problems.
Students and Subject Area:
This project is a good fit for High School Interior Design, Technology, Drafting or Art IV class.
21st Century Skill: 4b. “select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.”
Common Core Standard: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSG.MG.A.3 – Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).
Materials and Technologies:
Equipment to measure existing locker rooms: classic tape measure as well as eraser or Bluetooth measuring device with phone/tablet. Computer Aided Drafting or Room Planner application if budget allows. Classic sketching materials.
Internet service and computer to research other locker room designs.
Classic drawing materials for idea stages: paper, colored pencils, markers and rulers.
Sports magazines: to cut and paste images from them. Alternatively, sports teams’ websites to appropriate innovative locker room concepts.
Steps for Locker Room Design Project:
1) Introduce the project: Students, the locker room design project will take 5 class periods. Innovative designers use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions. For today’s class, I’d like you to work in groups of four. Please fill out the following worksheet individually:
2) At our second class, we will go to the locker room. We’ll bring our measuring equipment (elasers, Bluetooth measuring devices, tape measures) to gather all the data we need to redesign. Please make an inventory of existing fixtures, in case they can be moved around and reused in your designs. Measure the perimeter of the room, height/width/depth of all fixtures, etc. Record on your tablets.
3) At our third class, we’ll spend some time researching other locker room designs online. We’ll also sketch rough redesign ideas. Students may work in groups, but please turn in sketches individually at the end of class. For homework, please type up at least four bullet points explaining how your redesign will solve problems that you defined on the worksheet.
4) At our forth class, we’ll present our sketches and bullet points to the class. The teacher will re-group the students based on similar design solutions. For the last portion of class, the new groups will strategize how they will combine their sketches and solutions into a final proposal. Are there any bullet pants that may be abandoned? Are there more important ones to accentuate in the final design?
5) Our fifth class will be a work day. Groups may either use Computer Aided Drafting or a draw program to complete their redesigns. Use geometry and measurements to create a specially accurate floor plan. Their bullet points need to be combined and typed neatly at the bottom or side of their rendering. Completed locker room designs should be turned in at the end of the class in .pdf format, into the class dropbox.
Assessment Plan:
Students will be graded according to individual contributions and collaborations in their groups, utilizing a rubric.