D-Lab Junior
Workshop
D-Lab Junior is a dedicated lab space to design, dream, and discover. The D-Lab experience is flexibly worked into the Lower School schedule to complement learning in the core subjects and provide enrichment for young innovators who thrive with problem-solving challenges that call for creative and working with one's hands.
Depending on the learning objectives, workshops can look a number of ways. Some workshops begin with fine motor skill-building warmups and some, with inspirational media or book readings around a theme of a day. Groups often divide into smaller collaborative cohorts to complete design challenges using an array of tools, described below. Reflection and sharing is always a critical part of the process.
8-Week Course Sequences
This collection of 8-week trimester-long "after the bell" course sequences were designed for students to dig deep into specific areas of interest:
Design Challenges (from home)
When Trinity moved online in the spring of 2020, D-Lab and the Lower School library curated this Library-Research-Technology website with optional design challenges and resources to engage students who were learning from home:
The Incredible, Inconceivable Vehicle Challenge!
Watch My Teacher is a Monster! Is the teacher a monster, for real? What happened at the end? What vehicle did the student and teacher make together? And we don't have to ask what Jack made in If I Built a Car! But, wow, what a car! Take a look at the video to see Jack's invention
.This week's challenge is to make a model of vehicle like a car, plane, or boat!
--> You can use any material you can find at home (cardboard, lego, paper, etc.)
--> Focus on CREATIVITY and make a big, medium, or small-sized model of your whacky, incredible invention!
--> Or focus on the FUNCTION and see how far your inconceivable model can roll, fly, or float! Check out some of the videos below for ideas.
Do It Yourself (DIY) Toys & Games Challenge
The theme of this challenge is DIY - Do It Yourself.
DIY means that, instead of buying a product from the store, we create those products ourselves by seeking out the knowledge and developing the skills. The focus of this challenge is DIY Toys & Games. Instead of buying a toy or a game, what can we make and use at home?
For more Toy invention ideas from PBS Kids, click here.
Whoosh! Invent your water toy!
Much like the Lonnie Johnson, the inventor in Whoosh!, students invented a floating ping pong table and water volleycross in our DIY Toys and Games challenge a couple of weeks ago. With the warm weather coming soon or for those who love taking baths, let's invent water toys this week! Can we combine a robot and a water toy?
Bottle Sprinkler
Find a clean 2 liter bottle. What do you think you need to do next to make it into a sprinkler? Do you see the garden hose at the top of the bottle?
What idea can you add to this creation?
Aluminum Foil River
Aluminum foil and a garden hose! What can we do with this?
Water sponge toys!
They're made using sponges and a rubber band! Can you figure out how to make them?
How may pennies can your boat hold?
The Most Magnificent Thing Challenge
In the book, The Most Magnificent Thing, the young inventor goes through a process of wondering, brainstorming & tinkering for ideas, getting an idea, planning, and making. Was her first creation magnificent? Not necessarily - in fact, the first prototype often gives us more ideas to improve or modify our prototype.
This challenge is open-ended. What do you want to invent? What "invention" would make our lives better or solve a problem?
Some inventions are developed from passion and creativity. The PBS Kids' Design Squad Global has some great resources. Take a look at some of their build challenges and see how you can apply the same concept differently to create your own invention!
Horton Hatches the Egg
Horton showed kindness and care in protecting the egg. With the same spirit, design a contraption that picks up the delicate eggs so that you can carefully place them in a basket. Test and use your invention by having an Easter Egg hunt in your backyard!
The Little Red Fort
Who wants to build something? A life-size fort? A smaller fort for your pet? A prototype of a fort with with simple machines and a vertical run?
Build a life-size fort for yourself, or a smaller one for your pet, a wind-up toy or a HEX bug! You can try to include a vertical maze or simple machines/gadgets to open a gate or to enter the fort. Think of what you want to include in your build - draft a design using paper and pencil!
Use whatever material you have like cardboard, fabric, tubes, lego, popsicle sticks, paper plates, etc. Be sure to ask your parents first!Student Work
the Little Red Fort.mp4Paper Chair Design Challenge
Now that you know which structure can hold up the most books, think of a DESIGN for a repurposed paper chair. Let's be mindful and reuse scratch, newspaper or magazine paper!
Creativity Design Challenge - Not A Box
This book perfectly demonstrates how imagination is stretched to create wild ideas. How many ways can we use a box? Let's think outside-of-the-box!
Not A Box.mp4Design Challenges (at school)
Space Mission
Challenge prompts:
- Add a module to the ISS (International Space Station)
- If you designed a space colony, what would it look like?
- If there was once life on Mars, what do you think it looked like?
- What kinds of jobs could you do related to space? (see 5th grade science D-Lab project: designing space suits)
Tools & media: KNEX, Lego Mindstorms EV3. crafts, GreenScreen iPad app (to document explanation)
Feats of Engineering
Challenge Prompts:
- Height & weight: Can you suspend a heavy river rock 6 inches above the table? Can you support the weight of 4 tuna cans?
- Movement: How much can you jiggle the table before the rock falls? What if you blew a huge fan on it?
- How many pennies can you keep afloat on water without sinking?
Tools & Media: K'NEX building sets, iMotion stop motion app to document construction in fast forward, large fan, various materials (foam, straw, sticks...)
D-Lab Stations & Topic Areas
3D Design & Printing
What is 3D design?
Creating a 3-dimensional model of a physical object in a digital environment.
Proficiency Goal: Understanding how to select, rotate, scale, move, hollow, group, and align shapes with accuracy, zooming in/out and "orbiting" from multiple angles in a digital 3D space.
Tools: Architects and engineers often use AutoCad to create their 3D models and we use a web-based student-version called TinkerCad (made by the same people) on Mac desktops and the 123DDesign app on iPads. Students print their models on Ultimaker 3D printers and can also take screengrabs and screencast videos of their models to archive and explain their work. Some students have chosen to use Sketchup to create 3D houses because they can apply textures (skins) to the surfaces. If the goal is to print their model on a 3D printer, we use TinkerCad.
Applications: Students have modeled vehicles, space ships, furniture, sports equipment miniatures, characters, automata (cranks and cams), and fidget spinners...
Computer Programming
What is "computer programming" and why is it relevant?
Proficiency Goal (on a continuum):
Understand that computers follow a very specific series of instructions (code).
Utilize loops and conditionals for more efficient code that can be responsive, for example "go straight forever until you hit a wall and if that happens, turn right."
Tools and activities:
- Instructing Ms. Evans (while she role-plays a computer) to make a sunbutter and jelly sandwich.
- Navigating Lego mazes using "forward," "turn," "loop," and "if, then" commands
- Writing code to make a student robot successfully walk along a complex path
- Scratch Jr. , Tinker.com, and Tinker Bot block-based programming software
- Learning code syntax with Swift Playground
Reverse Engineering
What's Inside?
How do the electronic items we rely on every day do what they do? What do a hand-blender and a fan have in common? A motor!
Proficiency Goal: Identifying exterior shell connectors like hinges, snaps and screws, strategizing the safest way to open up old electronics, avoiding capacitors and batteries. Using a screw driver with precision. Labelling individual components clearly.
Tools and activities:
Deconstructing a radio, a printer, or remote control, identify all the parts and what they do. Avoidance of cracking or drilling through any hard surfaces, always looking for the story behind how the device was assembled.
The Moving Image: Stop Motion Animation & Green Screen
It's not magic? The truth behind movie special effects.
There are few things more satisfying than peeking behind the curtain to learn how special effects don't use magic but a few relatively simple tricks to create convincing illusions.
Proficiency Goals:
Basic: Understanding time and frame rate.
Advanced: Utilizing non-linear editing (cutting, trimming, repositioning, and stretching clips) allows a filmmaker to control the narrative progression and emotional impact of a story.
Tools:
iMotion (on iPad) for stop motion capture. Green Screen by Do Ink app (on iPad) for removal of solid color backgrounds. iMovie (on iPad or MacPro ) for non-linear editing
Sewing
Sewing machines are wonderful inventions. Two threads -- one from the bobbin below and one from the spool above -- interlock in a repeating pattern while fabric slowly glides under the foot.
Discoveries:
- Sewing takes planning and measurements.
- The foot must stay down when the needle is in motion or the thread will snag underneath.
- You can stitch clean, straight corners by leaving the needle in the fabric, lifting the foot, rotating the fabric a certain # of degrees, lowering the foot, and beginning again.
Hand-sewing is an excellent challenge for younger fingers. Needlepoint mesh or punctured cardboard make for great sewing backgrounds. Discovery: Complete each stitch by pulling the thread all the way taught before starting a new stitch.
