This project was generously funded by The Grable Foundation and The Pittsburgh Foundation with support from The Sprout fund as part of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s MAKESHOP Micro Grant Program
Program Overview:
The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, with funding from The Grable Foundation and support from The Sprout Fund and The Pittsburgh Foundation, will provide “Maker” micro grants to organizations who work with children and youth. The micro grants will help youth involved in these organizations to design and produce objects around two themes: Wearables and Rideables. Youth Makers will be encouraged to think broadly about the themes and create items as diverse as a wearable gaming system or cupcakes on wheels.
"What's in your cart?" proposal created by California University of PA (Assistant Professor Aleksandra Prokic) and Avalon Elementary School, Northgate District (Mrs. Karen Klicker) was awarded.
This project is a collaborative effort between California University of PA and Avalon Elementary School of the Northgate District, Pittsburgh, PA.
The goal of this project is to teach students new creative (digital) and technical skills and provide an opportunity for students to apply those skills in building a vehicle. To measure these goals, Mrs. Klicker will conduct a pre-project and post-project assessment. Objectives will include developing problem solving, collaboration, and creative thinking skills. Students will learn how to use various hand and power tools. Students will learn how to use simple machines to construct components and build those components into a system to create a rideable vehicle. In addition, students will:
- gain experience new technologies;
- be exposed to possible career paths;
- learn about on-line technology and the art community through the use of blogs and interactive portals; and,
- discover the importance of environmental sustainability through the use of existing on-hand items.
Students will use the school district’s computers and objects found in their community such as, but not limited to, abandoned shopping carts and bicycles. Software that they will use (Blender) is free and it can be downloaded from www.blender.org . The school already has programs in place for word processing and photo processing. The school also has a digital camera which will be needed to take photos of the necessary views of the found objects.
Project Summary
Children used objects found in their community, such as abandoned grocery carts and bicycles, to build a rideable. They designed and drew a blueprint of the rideable, use 3D software to build a 3D computer model and then build a real prototype.
The project had four main stages:
- Conceptual development: Children looked for interesting objects and photomontage or draw original “rideables.” Children used those illustrations as a layout when modeling in 3D software.
- Learning to use basic modeling skills: Children learned how to build simple 3D objects, applied texture and color, and added shading and highlights to create 3D scenes.
- Learning basic animation and movement: Children rendered still images and short animations.
- Build and test real prototype: Children gathered and assembled found and purchased materials creating full-scale rideable prototype.
Children used the free-to-download 3D software Blender to create digital versions/prototypes of “rideables.” The children created digital models from their original drawings and concepts.