Bring a physics concept to a whole new level, the level of young children. For this task students will be asked to design and build an exhibit piece for a children's museum, a place where learning can happen through play and exploration. Dive into the world of children's museums through a research project to understand the types of display pieces that have been designed for use by our smaller citizens. Identify and interview a children's museum employee about the typical user and how to design for safety and education. Pair up with a local school or daycare to arrange a "community test day" where the kids will run these exhibit pieces through their paces for user feedback for iterative improvement.
Because of the popularity of children's museums there are plenty of examples to guide design principles for these exhibit pieces. There are also lots of resources on designing for children both physically and cognitively. Students will be expected to dive into these topics to determine natural constraints for their project ideas.
This project is an open project to allow maximum flexibility for creativity. As a result the learning goals are not as concrete as for some other projects. The only constraint that we're giving the students is the topic, physics education. If the groups are allowed to choose their topic within the world of physics then the physics standards addressed could vary. And accordingly, the ideas that they generate to implement their ideas into the real, physical space could mean that any variety of engineering standards are being met.
As always, there is opportunity for you to drive the instruction in any direction that you choose if you should decide to impose additional constraints on the design objectives. If the students are responsible for maintaining a personal portfolio that tracks how they have met and mastered relevant standards this might also act as an opportunity for them to choose their own constraints to help them fill voids within those portfolios.
Deeper understanding of content comes from preparing learning materials for others. In order to teach we have to think about the content from every angle and curate the messaging to the learner and that process requires operation at the higher levels of cognitive reasoning, i.e: Bloom's taxonomy. We are asking the students to create some physical, educational display and that task will require them to operate in several domains (physics, engineering, education, etc.) simultaneously.
While the project is open ended we do want the student groups to create functional, useful pieces and to show off their work while being able to observe people interacting with their designs. An early stage of the process should include determining when, where, with whom, and how these projects will be shared with others. Will you invite a local daycare or elementary class or do you have enough participants with closer family and friends? Maybe with post-COVID concerns you opt to open it to the public through a time reservation system that allows planning to space out groups more effectively and deeper cleaning opportunities between "shifts." How do you get the word out in such a scenario to get people to sign up and commit to attendance? How do you remind them in the lead-up to the final event? In any case, the key to a successful showcase is to plan and plan again for the pinnacle event.
The coronavirus pandemic that has recently plagued our planet has certainly changed the way that we look at points of contact as vectors for disease transmission. But children still learn primarily through play and physical manipulation of objects in the world. Ask any parent how difficult it is to keep kids from touching anything and everything. So it's important for our educational materials to meet kids at their level but we also have to plan to help keep everyone safe by including measures to keep our learning materials safe and sanitary for all.
The advantage that we have is knowing how to minimize the risks of pathogen transmission. The key to a successful exhibit in the near-term future is going to be one that is low-touch, very few pieces that need to be manipulated and returned, and the parts that are shared between guests easily sanitized between uses.
Ideally this project would result in stand-alone pieces that are self-explanatory for children to use, perhaps with guardian supervision, as it would be in a real children's museum. But if your showcase is for a selected audience and staffed by your students then it could be reasonable that the students "man their booth" and insure that rules for sanitation are followed between uses of visitors from different groups or families. This will also allow the student groups to observe how their pieces are used so that they can collect data and plan for improvements to their designs.
Due to the uncertainty in direction that the students might take the scale of the results might range from things that fit in your pocket to display pieces that require multiple trucks to relocate. So a discussion should be held early in the planning stages to consider factors that need to be considered for moving their work and preparing it on-site wherever it will ultimately be displayed and used. Maybe the test lab is the engineering room and the sky (or ceiling) is the limit! Or if it needs to be moved quickly and efficiently perhaps a smaller scale might be more appropriate.
The range of resources available via the Internet through any variety of web searches is astounding. Along with those obvious resources consider the following opportunities for the students to connect with professionals locally or remotely. These are only several ideas among many, a jumping off point for the students' own ideations.
Local Exhibitions
Design Firms
Industrial Design Programs
Additional Readings
Designing Exhibits for Kids - also meeting kids where they are culturally