Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Unit question: What makes it designer?
Context
Being able to combine form and function is the aim of all designers. In this design challenge, your task will be to do just that. Students will explore the relationship between form and aesthetics balanced against function and practicality. Students will also explore the nature of design and attempt to discover why designer products are so desirable. Task: To explore the nature of good design, you will design and make a pair of speakers. They could be portable and be powered with a battery pack. They could be computer speakers and be powered via a USB port. You need to decide on a specific client and design to meet their needs.
AOI: Human Ingenuity
Awareness: Understand the importance and impact of design (Form & function)
Action: Create your own ‘designer’ product
Investigate Due: 21st Sept
MYP Technology Objectives
Assessment Tasks Checklist
Investigate Objectives: Identify the Problem. (Research)
Evaluate the importance of the problem for life, society and the environment.
Outline the design brief.
Develop A Design Brief.
Formulate and discuss appropriate questions that guide the investigation.
Identify and acknowledge a range of appropriate sources of information.
Collect, analyse, select, organize and evaluate information.
Evaluate the sources of information.
Formulate a Design Specification.
List the specific requirements that must be met by the product/solution.
Design tests to evaluate the product/solution against the design specification.
Investigate Tasks:=====Identify the Problem. (Research)===== AOI: Human Ingenuity: Investigate the culture of design by:
Watch 'Objectified" and choose 2-3 concepts to explore/explain further. How will this understanding of design effect your designs?
Define 'designer products'.
How are they different to 'normal' products?
Why do we want designer products?
Discus the economic or environmental or social consequences of ‘designer’ products.
Relate the research back to the AOI and Significant Concept.
How do designer products make people feel?
What does design say about personal identity?
Identify a client. Interview them and take photos to show the setting for the speakers.
Outline Design Brief.
Write a design brief outlining the needs, of your chosen client. Talk about the physical environment in which they will be used; the style of the room, physical space, indoor or outdoor, portable/computer/wall mountable? age/gender of users... You will be making "designer" speakers. What will make them designer? Will they be: Quirky & fun Industrial Traditional Anthropomorphized
(aprox 200 words)
Develop A Design Brief.
Write guiding questions: what do you need to understand in order to complete this design task? This will bedifferent for all of you. Only research what you need to for your design situation.
Use Primary and secondary sources of information (where possible). Visit the site where they will/could be used, take photos/measurements, interview a client... Evaluate your sources. eg if a review site, is it reputable? If 'Instructables' who was the author? If Wikipedia, can the info be confirmed? If a 'Designer'' site, what are they selling?
Conduct a product analysis into similar products. (speakers as well as 'designer' products.) Perhaps use Pinterest to create a 'mood-board' of speakers and designer products.
Research into: speaker design, how speakers work, construction techniques, (3D printing, soldering) bass reflex, acoustics, resonance. etc. The practical and functional aspects of making speakers.
Justify and fully reference your sources. For each secondary source (eg a website) evaluate on its value/reliability. Have you used only secondary sources? Are these sites reliable? How do you know?
Please gather as much information from primary sources as possible. (bibliography)
Summarize your research...can you 'answer' your guiding questions? What have you discovered about designer products and indeed speaker design?
Formulate a Design Specification.
Divide your specification into 2 columns; Desired and Required. List the specific requirements of your client. eg:
Must be sleek and futuristic
Must complement the design of my office.
Should be light weight and durable
List the requirements of good aesthetics/design Describe the practical requirements/function.
You should create 5+ design ideas. For each design idea, I would like to see how the idea developed. Thumbnail sketches , annotations, various ideas that develop into the final idea. What was you inspiration? Where did the idea come from?
Evalaute each 'final' design ideas (5+) using the design specification as a checklist.
Select one of your designs and justify/explain why it is the best. Above are some examples of student work. Can you see how they were made and from what material?
Consider that we can use the laser cutter, 3D printer and CNC router when making our designs.
3D Printing!
Plan Objectives: Plan Due: 12th Oct
Plan a Product or Solution
Construct a plan to create the product/solution that has a series of logical steps
Construct a plan to create the product/solution that makes effective use of resources and time
Evaluate the plan and justify any modifications to the design.
Plan your Product or Solution Make a detailed 'Plan of Manufacture' that can step by step guide you through the making of your speakers. Break it up into sections as needed (Sketch-up design, electronic assembly etc).
Include tools, equipment, materials and processes needed. Should be clear enough for someone else to follow.
Create a materials list of every thing you need. (like a shopping list)
Create a Gantt Chart to plan your time using the sections created in the above plan of manufacture.
Evaluate your planning looking for; quality control points, try and predict possible problems (what concerns do you have), time allocation etc. This is a paragraph or 2 evaluation.
Did you change you plan after evaluating it? Highlight the changes & explain...
Design object to be 3D printed in Google Sketch-up. Make sure your have THIS plug-in installed to export the file.
3D printing will be done overnight so make sure you give the skecth-up file and .stl file to Mr Plummer.
You will all need to solder the amplifier circuit .
You might choose to build your speakers from MDF and utilize woodwork techniques.
Use Appropriate Techniques and Equipment
Follow your plan! Make a copy of your Gantt chart, upload it to Instructables and update the chart when you complete a task. Enter the date, and/or new boxes in different colour when you compete a task.
When you complete tasks and the time is different to your plan, explain the reasons why.
Justify any other changes made to your plan, no matter how small.
Follow the Plan
Keep a process journal, with photographs, videos and brief explanations while making your speakers. EACH LESSON!
Explain what went went, what went wrong, what problems you solved and what you need to do next lesson.
Evaluate Objectives:Evaluate Due: 18th Jan Evaluate your Product or Solution
Carry out tests to evaluate the product/solution against the design specification
Evaluate the success of the product/solution in an objective manner based on testing, their own views and the views of the intended user.
Evaluate the impact of the product/solution on individuals and on society.
Explain how the product/solution could be improved.
Evaluate your Use of the Design Cycle.
Suggest ways in which their performance could be improved.
The open-source movement has been developing software for many years. Now computing hardware is open-source!
Unit question: What can I control?
Area of Interaction:Environments.
Context: Open source software has been around for many years. Programs such as Firefox, Apache, VLC, Gimp and Ubuntu have changed the face of computing. In recent years, open-source hardware has become available. One of the first, fully functioning platforms made available is the Arduino. “Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.”
Task: You are going to create a working example of how open source hardware might be used. You are in no way limited in regards to the purpose of your project, but I would expect it to be a “proof of concept” rather than a fully functioning prototype or complete working product. The purpose of this task is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the systems involved and the individual components that make up that system. You are free to re-create an existing project. Accompanying your project, you need to produce a single A3 sized card, explaining how the components interact with each other and possible application(s)
INVESTIGATE
Firstly, create new pages for the ARDUINO PROJECT as we normally do.
On the Investigate page, create a table with the following headings; Component Name, Image, Circuit Symbol, Description.
Complete the table for ALL of the following components; resistor, capacitor, diode, LED, variable resistor, switch, DC motor, servo motor, breadboard, light dependent resistor (LDR), battery, micro-controller, speaker, transistor and inductor
Complete a bibliography.
If you find a great video, that explains things clearly for you, then please upload it and give me a little review. I would expect everyone to find at least one cool video...
eg:
Component Name
Image
Circuit Symbol
Description
Resistor
Resistors are made from a semi conductive material and they resist the flow of electricity through a circuit. Its kind of like how a tap restricts or limits the flow of water through a pipe. How much a resistor 'resists' is measured in OHMS.
To read the value of a resistor (its resistance) you need a special chart.
Note: there are 2 circuit symbols commonly used to represent a resistor. One is American/Japanese (zig-zag) and the other used by the rest of the world.
Notes:
Circuit symbols are used to represent electronic components in schematic diagrams (plans) for how to make stuff.
Not all of the components on your list have symbols.
You should make sure the Description is in your own words. Do the research, watch the videos, read the explanations and write your understanding. If you copy I will not know what you understand about electronics. (and I will make you write out copied work 1000 times!)
Make Magazine videos are bellow to get you started.....SuperGeeks!
DESIGN:
You need to find several different Arduino based projects and evaluate their appropriateness. I would expect that you will need to modify your chosen project in order to create it in the time available. They should be simple projects. Lets learn how to walk before we run
You will be formally assessed on your plan. As always you will need to :
1. Produce a logical plan that could be followed by others.
2. Consider the time needed and the resources (components and materials) needed.
3. Evalaute you plan. What are the critical control points? What steps are you concerned about.
NOTES: The best way to do this would be to read the design instructions you have chosen carefully and to then put them into your own words.
Another student, who knows nothing about Arduino, should be able to follow you Plan. CREATE
This is a two part project.
Part 1 is the creation of the working arduino proof of conceptexample.
Step by step explanation, with images, of the making of your project.
Part 2 is the A3 explanation poster
You poster need to include:
- A brief outline of what the project is and how is might be used "in the real world"
- images of the major components and explanations of what they do. (Micro-controller, LED, Laser, LDR etc)
- Good poster design: 'less is more', good quality images, no large blocks of text, easy to understand language, use headings, arrows and other graphical devices to help explain your project.
CHECK THIS LINK FOR COOL DIY SPEAKERS IDEAS
LINK for help with Product Analysis.
LINK to the Design Museum, London.
Significant Concept:
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.What makes it designer?
Context
Being able to combine form and function is the aim of all designers. In this design challenge, your task will be to do just that. Students will explore the relationship between form and aesthetics balanced against function and practicality. Students will also explore the nature of design and attempt to discover why designer products are so desirable.Task:
To explore the nature of good design, you will design and make a pair of speakers. They could be portable and be powered with a battery pack. They could be computer speakers and be powered via a USB port. You need to decide on a specific client and design to meet their needs.
Human Ingenuity
Action: Create your own ‘designer’ product
Investigate Due: 21st Sept
Identify the Problem. (Research)
Develop A Design Brief.
Formulate a Design Specification.
Investigate examples here!
LINK
AOI: Human Ingenuity:
Investigate the culture of design by:
Watch 'Objectified" and choose 2-3 concepts to explore/explain further.
How will this understanding of design effect your designs?
Identify a client. Interview them and take photos to show the setting for the speakers.
Outline Design Brief.
Write a design brief outlining the needs, of your chosen client. Talk about the physical environment in which they will be used; the style of the room, physical space, indoor or outdoor, portable/computer/wall mountable? age/gender of users...You will be making "designer" speakers. What will make them designer?
Will they be:
Quirky & fun
Industrial
Traditional
Anthropomorphized
(aprox 200 words)
Develop A Design Brief.
Write guiding questions: what do you need to understand in order to complete this design task? This will be different for all of you. Only research what you need to for your design situation.Use Primary and secondary sources of information (where possible). Visit the site where they will/could be used, take photos/measurements, interview a client...
Evaluate your sources. eg if a review site, is it reputable?
If 'Instructables' who was the author?
If Wikipedia, can the info be confirmed?
If a 'Designer'' site, what are they selling?
Conduct a product analysis into similar products. (speakers as well as 'designer' products.) Perhaps use Pinterest to create a 'mood-board' of speakers and designer products.
Research into: speaker design, how speakers work, construction techniques, (3D printing, soldering) bass reflex, acoustics, resonance. etc.
The practical and functional aspects of making speakers.
Justify and fully reference your sources. For each secondary source (eg a website) evaluate on its value/reliability.
Have you used only secondary sources?
Are these sites reliable?
How do you know?
Please gather as much information from primary sources as possible.
(bibliography)
Summarize your research...can you 'answer' your guiding questions?
What have you discovered about designer products and indeed speaker design?
Formulate a Design Specification.
Divide your specification into 2 columns; Desired and Required.List the specific requirements of your client.
eg:
List the requirements of good aesthetics/design
Describe the practical requirements/function.
Perhaps use Dieter Ram's "Good design is...."
Perhaps use Alessi Design Formula
Design and explain multiple tests for your completed product.
How will you know it is 'designer'
How will you know if they meet the needs of your client?How will they perform? Under what conditions?
ID Sketching
Sketch-a-day
speakersketches.jpg
speaker_sketches.jpg
ID Creatures
Design Objectives===DESIGN DUE: 21ST SEPT===
Design a Product or Solution
Exemplar student Design work HERE
Step-by step guide on how to make these cool LED 'flashing to the beat' Pipe Speakers!
Design a Product or Solution
You should create 5+ design ideas.
For each design idea, I would like to see how the idea developed. Thumbnail sketches , annotations, various ideas that develop into the final idea.
What was you inspiration? Where did the idea come from?
Evalaute each 'final' design ideas (5+) using the design specification as a checklist.
Select one of your designs and justify/explain why it is the best.
Above are some examples of student work. Can you see how they were made and from what material?
Consider that we can use the laser cutter, 3D printer and CNC router when making our designs.
3D Printing!
Plan a Product or Solution
Exemplar PLAN work
Plan your Product or Solution
Make a detailed 'Plan of Manufacture' that can step by step guide you through the making of your speakers. Break it up into sections as needed (Sketch-up design, electronic assembly etc).
Did you change you plan after evaluating it? Highlight the changes & explain...
Try: Toms Planner!
amp.jpg Click on this link to see an image of how to solder your amplifier circuit.
Create Due: 14th Dec
Create the Product or Solution
Use Appropriate Techniques and Equipment
Follow the Plan
Create examples HERE
Pump up the Volume Criteria D.docx
- Details
- Download
- 122 KB
Instructables links:
Create the Product or Solution
Use Appropriate Techniques and Equipment
Follow the Plan
Evaluate your Product or Solution
Evaluate your Use of the Design Cycle.
- Suggest ways in which their performance could be improved.
Pump up the Volume criteria E.docx
- Details
- Download
- 139 KB
>Evaluate your Product or Solution
Evaluate your completed speakers using the Design Spec as a checklist. (Complete sentences)
Test your speakers in a practical way and record their performance
Get an evaluation from the intended user.!
Reflect upon the impact of design speakers upon the market place
Describe, in detail, how you could improve your design. (Form and Function)
Evaluate your Use of the Design Cycle.
Reflect upon your efforts at each stage of the design cycle.
Evaluate example found HERE
10 principles of good design
Failed Invention
Unit 2: ARDUINO PROJECT: Hardware Hacking.
Significant Concept:
The open-source movement has been developing software for many years.Now computing hardware is open-source!
What can I control?
Area of Interaction: Environments.
Open source software has been around for many years. Programs such as Firefox, Apache, VLC, Gimp and Ubuntu have changed the face of computing. In recent years, open-source hardware has become available. One of the first, fully functioning platforms made available is the Arduino. “Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.”
Task:
You are going to create a working example of how open source hardware might be used. You are in no way limited in regards to the purpose of your project, but I would expect it to be a “proof of concept” rather than a fully functioning prototype or complete working product. The purpose of this task is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the systems involved and the individual components that make up that system. You are free to re-create an existing project. Accompanying your project, you need to produce a single A3 sized card, explaining how the components interact with each other and possible application(s)
INVESTIGATE
Firstly, create new pages for the ARDUINO PROJECT as we normally do.
- On the Investigate page, create a table with the following headings; Component Name, Image, Circuit Symbol, Description.
- Complete the table for ALL of the following components; resistor, capacitor, diode, LED, variable resistor, switch, DC motor, servo motor, breadboard, light dependent resistor (LDR), battery, micro-controller, speaker, transistor and inductor
- Complete a bibliography.
- If you find a great video, that explains things clearly for you, then please upload it and give me a little review. I would expect everyone to find at least one cool video...
eg:To read the value of a resistor (its resistance) you need a special chart.
Note: there are 2 circuit symbols commonly used to represent a resistor. One is American/Japanese (zig-zag) and the other used by the rest of the world.
Notes:
Circuit symbols are used to represent electronic components in schematic diagrams (plans) for how to make stuff.
Not all of the components on your list have symbols.
You should make sure the Description is in your own words. Do the research, watch the videos, read the explanations and write your understanding. If you copy I will not know what you understand about electronics. (and I will make you write out copied work 1000 times!)
ARDUINO TUTORIALS
LadyadaSciGuy14
Tronixstuff
Arduino Homepage
There are many resources for components:
Search Youtube.
The Electronics ClubBBC Bitesize.
Technology Student
Arduino HomepageMake Magazine videos are bellow to get you started.....SuperGeeks!
DESIGN:
You need to find several different Arduino based projects and evaluate their appropriateness. I would expect that you will need to modify your chosen project in order to create it in the time available. They should be simple projects. Lets learn how to walk before we run
INSTRUCTABLES
FLICR
DELIICIOUS
MAKE
Spooky ideas
Simple projects from the Arduino homepage
When you have found 4 POSSIBLE projects, please briefly evaluate each and justify your final choice of project.
Best ideas will be simpler ones.
Links to projects that I think should work!
Instructables Arduino Contest
Laser 'tripwire'
Mobius Latern
Mood Light
Annoy-a-tron
Digital Dice
Larson Scanner or "Cylon Eye!"
Control a servo motor with light (or Laser)
Mini Keyboard or 'drum kit'
Earthquake detector
'Simon' follow me type game
PLAN
You will be formally assessed on your plan. As always you will need to :
1. Produce a logical plan that could be followed by others.
2. Consider the time needed and the resources (components and materials) needed.
3. Evalaute you plan. What are the critical control points? What steps are you concerned about.
NOTES: The best way to do this would be to read the design instructions you have chosen carefully and to then put them into your own words.
Another student, who knows nothing about Arduino, should be able to follow you Plan.
CREATE
This is a two part project.
Part 1 is the creation of the working arduino proof of conceptexample.
Step by step explanation, with images, of the making of your project.Part 2 is the A3 explanation poster
You poster need to include:- A brief outline of what the project is and how is might be used "in the real world"
- images of the major components and explanations of what they do. (Micro-controller, LED, Laser, LDR etc)
- Good poster design: 'less is more', good quality images, no large blocks of text, easy to understand language, use headings, arrows and other graphical devices to help explain your project.
Arduino Project Book!