How Does a Facilitation on Processes for Making Look Like?

I've begun afternoon consultations for my Secondary TWO students.

Below you'll see how I facilitated 2N1 Angeline Salt & Pepper Storage over a time period of 30 minutes or so. Angeline final concept (not shown), was a skinny (side-view) 'hour-glass' shaped holder made of acrylic, and wood at the top and bottom as support. However there were difficulties in working out how to develop the parts to dispense Salt or Pepper, for re-fill and to able to keep all the little parts intact all the time.

Page 1:

My first task was to help Angeline understand different possible ways to construct the 'hour-glass' concept. She already had it worked out from a series of idea generation and refinement rounds to come out with the two flat 'hour-glass' panels cut out from a single acrylic sheet and covered using a formed acrylic strips at both open-ended sides.

At Secondary TWO, I would expect she might have some technical difficulties in actually making it work. So in the example above, I started clarifying how the base of the holder may be constructed from a single piece of Jelutong wood, which in turn depends on the width of the 'hour-glass' design. And put a note for her that we need to consult the Workshop Instructors to see if 'cutting' a rectangular slot in the wood is possible.

We also discussed that the allowance left after 'cutting' from the slot to the edge of the wood cannot be too thin as that would make the stucture weak. We need to work out the width of the 'hour-glass first'.

Page 2:

Forming the curved acrylic strip shape to fit the sides of the 'hour-glass' needs to be planned carefully. Making use of Angeline's original process to construct the 'hour-glass' the process was further refined including other possible ways to construct it. Throughout page 2, the emphasis is on how formers (a male and a female) could be used to create the exact curve she needs for both sides of the 'hour-glass'.

When you see #1, #2, and so on in page 2, those were referring to the steps I drew on paper as I described how each process can be completed to create the formers needed, and at the same time aims to cut-out the 'hour-glass' shaped design - all in a single process.

It is important to make sure that the shape of the former has exactly the same curvature on both ends on the 'hour-glass' shape. That is why the wooden former and the acrylic 'hour-glass' shape is cut together. Both the former wood and acrylic can be secured together using double-sided tape.

Page 3:

Finally we come to the part to talk about Salt or Pepper dispensing and how to go about making that. The simplest soluton is to find some sort of 'plug' which can be found in some medication bottles, e.g. the PiPa Gao bottle (in Chinese 枇杷膏). That can go to the bottom part. The top part is another similar acrylic strip with tiny drilled holes for 'dispensing'.

Measuring the diameter of the 'plug' will lead you to the width of the bottom 'plug' acrylic strip. After explaining the rationales about giving allowances from the drilled hole to the edge of the acrylic, the width of the bottom 'plug' acrylic strip is quickly worked out.

The rest of the dimenions on the hour-glass body is left to Angeline to work out on her own.

Conclusion:

That was one happy successful consultation session. Angeline was able to show her understanding from the discussion and this is possible because she had already been working on the processes of making for some time. A lot of thoughts were evident through her design journal especially at the refinement phase. The details of measurements and how a single acrylic sheet could be subdivided to maximize material usage, etc is impressive for a 13 year old.

My job was to help her refine and shorten the processes by introducing alternative techniques and approaches that she might not have thought of. Sometimes radically changing the processes.

In the end, Angeline still got to make a decision on the final processes.

Those were my drawings all right... but Angeline would need to bring that home, recall our discussions and come out of her own version.

That's quite a challenge. But I believe with Angeline's keen attitude, the Hour-Glass Salt & Pepper Holder will surely turn out just as designed.

D&T Field Trip 2012 to Ngee Ann City & Orchard Central

Trip #1

TUE, 13 March 2012

9 students = 7*4N2 + 2*5N1/2

Aeneas, Baowen, Nicholas, Toh Hao, Sabrina

Amalina, Farhana, Bernice, Shu Yun

Trip #2

WED, 14 March 2012

9 students = 8*3A2 + 1*5N2

Hafiz, Gubera, Haziqah, Addistia, Eileen

Wendy, Adeline, Xiu Yi, Li En

!! Please make sure you know which trip you are in. Not sure please ask !!

Meeting Place

Bukit Batok MRT Station @ 1200hrs

Field Trip Duration:

1200hrs - 1630hrs

Teacher-in-Charge:

Mr Daniel Lim

Itinerary

Ngee Ann City & Orchard Central

[How about MUJI in ION first, then...]

1st -stop: The Better Toy Store

2nd -stop: ArtFriend

3rd -stop: Books Kinokuniya

4th -stop: Takashimaya Department Store

5th -stop: Molecule Living @ Orchard Central

What to Bring:

• A little notebook to sketch or jot down notes + writing stationeries
• Some $$$ ($5-10$ is enough) as we might be stopping over Foodcourts for discussions and to chill out.
• Umbrella. We'll be walking and walking and walking.
• Lots of enthusiasm. That will make the day GREAT.

What to do, look out for and note:

@ the Better Toy Store

• Category of Toys (e.g. educational, for amusement or entertainment, etc.)
• Age Group vs. Type of Toys (e.g. functions, movements and mechanisms, size, number of parts, choice of material and color, etc.)
• Gender vs. Types of Toys (e.g. color choices, shapes and aesthetics, etc.)
• Age Group vs. Educational Toys (e.g. learning contents, level of difficulty, etc.)
• etc.

@ the Molecule Living Store

• Innovative Concepts (e.g. common stuffs turned innovative, etc.)
• Clever Concepts (e.g. different/alternative ways to achieving common functionalities, etc.)
• Clever Forms and Aesthetics (e.g. clever and meaningful adaptations of forms to functions, inspirations from nature, etc.)
• etc.

Be prepared to write reflections after the trip. =)

IMPORTANT

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, if you cannot make it on the day, please make sure you inform your friend or alert me the day before via Facebook or email.

Additional Information

For those who did not register for the field trip for some reasons, below are websites to the places we are going for your reference and research. Very good information about children toys in The Better Toy Store.

http://www.thebettertoystore.com/

http://www.moleculeliving.com/

Design Coursework - A Bird's Eye View on the Process

An overall view of the design process and how your design journal journey may look like.

Use this as a reference. Read the other posts for more detailed explanations on the different parts of the design process.