LTH + Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus, 2017

Day 1: Urban Seed Challenge

Design Ideation / Prototyping / 3D Design / 3D Printing

After a brief introduction to the week's theme - Urban Gardening - students discuss what seeds need to grow in an indoor, urban environment, namely soil, water, and sunlight.

We challenge students to imagine ways they might start seeds in and around their Boys & Girls Club building. Quick ideation sketches allow students to communicate initial ideas. Small group discussions allow students to collaborate, critique and offer feedback to one another, and just in-time for some prototyping!

Using coffee grounds from a local shop along with "low fidelity prototyping materials" such as cardboard, tape, paper and clay, students prototype their concepts, then test their ideas and make adjustments.

Using a free, browser-based 3D modeling app called TinkerCAD, students then create 3D models of their designs based on what they learned from their sketches and prototypes.

A quick show-and-tell surrounding the LTH Lulzbot Mini 3D printer further informs students' design and engineering decisions. Students save 3D files for the 3D printer to build!

Day 2: Garden Accessibility

3D Scanning / Virtual Reality / Human Centered Design

If Day 1 is all about a personal urban garden, then Day 2 extends creativity to other people in a human centered design challenge.

Students empathize with one of their club leaders, who happens to be using crutches (or a wheelchair), and imagine how common urban gardening tasks - like watering plants, pulling weeds, and picking veggies - might be more difficult with limited mobility.

We 3D scan the club leader with some help from a Columbus-based start-up tech company, Knockout. This allows us to create a virtual 3D model, which we then import into a virtual reality (VR) sculpting program! After a short how-to demo from an LTH volunteer, students take turns designing concepts to address accessibility issues facing individuals with limited mobility in an urban garden setting - pretty sophisticated stuff!

Day 3: Martian Colony Challenge

Design Ideation / Engineering / Prototyping / Storytelling

Day 3 allows students to take an out-of-this-world perspective on urban gardening - their task is to build Martian spacecraft to establish a self-sustaining colony on the Red Planet!

After a brief inspiration session about life on Mars, student teams apply what they have learned during Day 1 and Day 2 challenges to design, engineer, prototype and test spacecraft.

As a group, we brainstorm the challenges our spacecraft might encounter while on Mars - sandstorms, thin atmosphere, extreme temperature shifts, lack of water, flying all the way from Earth - then assign each team a specific sub-challenge for the day.

Students present their spaceship prototypes to the entire group, then prove their spaceships have been engineered effectively by performing a "float test" - thank goodness we hav enough helium on mars!

Day 4: Smart City Challenge

Coding / Robotics / Urban Planning

Bringing things back down-to-earth, the Smart City Challenge on Day 4 allows students to expand the scope of urban gardening and view the challenge through the lens of an urban planner.

Together, we all learn the basic logic behind coding during an activity affectionately known as "code the human". Students take turns writing simple instructions (like TURN LEFT, or FORWARD 2 STEPS) on a whiteboard for their LTH volunteer "human" to follow.

Next we split into small teams and learn visual coding principles using a Parrot Jump robot and an iPad. Quickly, students figure out how to make their robots perform basic maneuvers on the floor.

Before long, we are able to dive into the Smart City Challenge. Following a short discussion on what we think might comprise a "Smart" City, students move their robots onto a urban plan of their neighborhood. Then, students must think creatively and strategically to develop a program for their robot to accomplish a specific Smart City task. Teams utilize the design process of iteration - make, test, refine - to create their programs in preparation for the final challenge.

During the final Smart City Challenge, all teams must have their robots execute a coordinated, synchronized effort based on their programs! Through all the chaos and fun, many students don't even realize they're becoming programmers in addition to building a broader perspective for issues facing their community.