Techtonia M1.1 Report

M1 / DP / Sharing Knowledge Design for Teaching and Learning

TECHTONIA Students: Charlotte van der Sommen , Felix Ecke, Manon Junggeburth, Thijs Roeleven, Coach: Tilde Bekker Client: Blink TU Eindhoven - Industrial Design Date: 07.01.2016

TECHT 2

NIA

Executive Summary The concept Techtonia is part of the project Design for Teaching and Learning at the department of Industrial Design at the TU Eindhoven. The project brief was to either create a tool that supports the teacher in providing instruction or to create a learning environment that supports design-based learning for students. Since we are a group of four master students, it was decided to focus on both of these perspectives and develop one design. By doing this, everybody could bring in their different expertises and also work on topics that were of personal interest.

The aim was to design an openended learning environment that supports design-based learning for children, focusing on individuality of the children, teacher and digital literacy by building on accessible materials in primary schools.

The design was based on literature research, where different aspects about teaching and learning and child development were investigated.

We focused our research on design-based learning and 21st century skills. We also carried out expert meetings with teachers and education experts to obtain further insights.

Furthermore, observations during school visits were made to confirm the vailidity and efficiency of 21st century skills and design based learning.

Our final concept is the boardgame Techtonia, that when used in pri-

mary schools teaches design-based learning in a meaningful and playful way. With Techtonia, students create their own world inside their classroom and work on different problems that occur in this world.

To solve these problems, they carry out design-based learning activities.

In those activities, different topics, mainly in the field of nature and technology, are taught by combining engaging physical elements with digital content. We designed the

topic “Wind Energy� as an example for how Techtonia can be used. An assessment tool for teachers was also created, which involves self-reflection for the students carrying out the activities. In order to realise our concept, a business model describes a strategic plan to implement Techtonia in primary schools in the Netherlands.

During the design process, we went from a phase of background research to a first ideation phase, where we developed initial ideas for the boardgame. In further iterations, we refined the concept using internal and external feedback. In two tests, we validated the usability of our design and investigated how learning goals were achieved.We conclude that Techtonia is a coherent and usable design tool for design-based learning. Further iterations will show how other topics than wind energy can be taught with this method.

It also has to be further investigated how effectively learning goals can be fulfilled. This can be accomplished by more extensive user testing.

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CONTENTS Introduction

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Project Brief.........................................7 Project Interpretation.........................8

Final Concept

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Research Findings

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Wind Energy Topic..........................12

Literature............................................19

Template.............................................13

Experts and Stakeholders................22

Assessment Tool...............................14

Diversity in Learning.......................25

Business Model.................................16

Process

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Conclusion

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Acknowledgements

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References

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Personal Reflections

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Iterations............................................30

Charlotte van der Sommen.............42

User Testing.......................................30

Felix Ecke...........................................44

Prototyping........................................34

Manon Junggeburth.........................46 Thijs Roeleven...................................48

Appendix

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Introduction Requirements for teaching in primary schools are changing, thus design-based learning gets more and more attention in this field. It is a big challenge for designers to create new methods that meet these requirements.

We are a group of four master students, that within the theme ‘designing for teaching’ is designing towards a new teaching method that fits within the needs of modern teaching and learning . The new method teaches children around the age of 10 years old (group 6) about nature and technology in a designbased learning structure where the perspective of the teacher and children perspective is unified. The goal of the project is: “Design an engaging learning environment that supports designbased learning for children, focusing on digital literacy and design thinking.”

Other goals include designing a method that supports the diversity in learning inside the class, but also focuses on the children’s talents, designing an assessment tool that can help and stimulate the children in learning and developing a feasible business model for the method.

This report describes the design process towards Techtonia, an extendable design-based learning method that teaches group 6 in primary schools about subjects within nature and technology in a playful way.

Within the process a range of experts were involved in order to create a rich concept that fits the requirements and needs of different stakeholders.

During the design process there was a close collaboration with Kim Winters, a PABO* student who helped with the educational and pedagogical aspects.

Project brief The project brief given by the squad was the following: “Much has changed in primary and secondary school education recently.

This provides opportunities to create new solutions for teachers and children.

Design challenges: - Design a novel ‘tool for teaching’ which supports the teacher in providing differentiate instruction, e.g. by providing them with better insights in their students’ progress or by supporting them in challenging each student on their own level, and ultimately helping them provide better education to students.

Focus on a more complex part of the challenge, that provides more diversity in how the teacher tracks and supports the students.

- Design an engaging learning environment that supports designbased learning for children, focusing

specifically on digital literacy and design thinking, e.g. supporting engaging design challenges, scaffolding and reflection, and allowing them a quick digital construction toolkit/ platform for easy design explorations. Focus on how different types of digital toolkits influence the supported learning goals, and develop an integrated design based learning process, including the digital toolkit.”

The group consists of four first-year master students, the group worked on both challenges. The group designed a tool for the teachers to give instructions to the children based on their individual needs. The team also designed a design-based learning toolkit that supports the 21st century skills like digital literacy, design thinking, teamwork and reflective learning.

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Project Interpretation This is the group’s project interpretation, based on the Pressure cooker phase and own goals and stakeholders. Every team member had their own reasons to choose this project. So everyone had their own interpretation of the project.

Felix Felix is interested in looking at the business perspective. You can find the business model on page 16. For Felix it was important to design a solution with business potential. Felix has worked as a substitute teacher himself and with his point of view he focused on the teachers’ perspective of the concept.

Pic. 1. Thijs, Charlotte, Manon and Felix

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Thijs

Charlotte

Manon

Thijs wanted to design a designbased learning assessment tool for the teachers so his focus was on the teachers’ perspective of the concept.

Read more about the assessment tool on page 14.

Charlotte wants to help children with learning problems especially dyslexia. Since she is dyslexic herself, she experienced that many ordinary learning methods don’t work for children with problems like dyslexia or autism. Every child learns in its own way and every child asks for a different learning style. Charlotte will focus on the diversity of learning from a children’s perspective. Find more information about this subject in the chapter “Diversity in Learning” (page 25).

For Manon it is important to focus on the strengths of children instead of weaknesses. Every child has a talent and should use it in developing himself but also use it in teaching other kids about their knowledge. By using a bottom-up approach, she will focus on the childrens’ perspective of the concept. Find more information about this subject in the chapter “Diversity in Learning” (page 25).

Together the group also developed a set of points to be addressed. The learning method should be affordable for the schools so it should for instance use things that are already available within classrooms like a smart-board. The learning method should teach children new things in an open-ended and playful way.

The learning method will teach about nature, technique and biology to children around the age of 10 years (group 6). The group wants to collaborate with PABO* students who are experts in the field of teaching younger children, in order to create more depth to the concept.

In short the design brief of the group is: Design an open-ended and playful learning environment that supports design-based learning for children, focusing on the individuality of children and on the 21st century skills by building on accessible materials in schools.

Combined, the group will focus their efforts on building a fulfilling open-ended and playful learning method that supports and include the personal interpretations of the project brief.

Pic. 2. Groupwork

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FINAL CONCEPT Techtonia is a story-based board game for primary schools where children learn about the outside world through the 21st –century skills (Thijs et al, 2014). In Techtonia, learning and playing are combined.

With this new playful method for nature and technology a tool is provided to introduce problems and challenges from all around the world and into the classroom. Techtonia is designed for both the student and teacher. Techtonia is a world which is created by children out of different landscapes, Techcity is a city in Techtonia where the same problems occur as in the ‘real’ world so children can relate everything to their own world.

create their world • The tablets are used to search for information about the different landscapes • The pupils agree on placing the city • The teacher facilitates this by asking why they would put a city where they did

• The teacher places one or more challenges, which represent activities that are either pending or optional for the remainder of the school year.

Different people from Techcity can introduce the problems and guide the children through the challenge and

Each challenge is split up in four lessons: 1. introduction of the topic, 2. getting to know the topic with building a simple example and filling in exercises, 3. use design-based learning (Gomez et al, 2013) to work on the difficult challenge with a provided toolkit by the publisher 4. reflection through presentations.

A scenario for the introduction lesson could be as follows.

• The teacher introduces the different landscapes and how to work with them by using the digiboard • Teacher allows the pupils to

help them to solve it. For example the mayor of Techcity is asking for help because the city is running out of electricity so they need to build wind turbines; in fact it is to make the city self-sufficient. Schools can choose the different challenges they want to work with. Challenges can cover different topics like environmental issues but also geographic and historical topics.

All challenges work with the use of tablets and digiboard to support the digital learning (Zimmerman et al, 2007).

Pic. 3. Techtonia Final Demo Day Presentation

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Wind Energy Topic The first Techtonia challenge that is developed is about a shortage in electricity in the city. This subject receives much attention due to the climate changes and pollution. An increasing amount of technology is used and all these technologies require electricity. In 2013, 82% of all generated electricity is generated by fossil fuels (Bongani, 2013). Using so much fossil energy resources isn’t very good for the environment and therefore many plans are made to use more renewable energy in the future, see for instance the climate change conference in Paris, 30 November to 12 December 2015.

It is important to teach children from a young age about what is going on in the society and what technologies exists. Also Blink uses the electricity topic in one of their educational material. One of the topics Blink addresses is the method wind energy and turbines. The group decided to design for this topic because of personal interest to teach children about renewable energy (see Reflection Charlotte).

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First Lesson

Third Lesson

First, the children receive the challenge token with a QR-code* on it and place it on their self made country. They scan the token with their tablet. Once the children scan the QR-code* they can read the letter from the major of the city (Appendix J), in which the major explains about a big electricity shortage in the city.

The third lesson starts with a look back on the previous lesson, refreshing the knowledge about wind energy. The digiboard will be used for this. The children can hereafterbuild their own wind turbine blades and use a small generator to see whether their design provides sufficient electricity. They should create a prototype and a poster.

A template for the poster is provided.

Filling out this poster is not solely a way of preparing a presentation to the teacher and the class, but also a moment of reflection on the lesson and the results of the activity.

On their tablet, the students can solve different exercises about the topic, using videos, texts and pictures.

At the end of the first lesson, the “placemat” exercise is used to frame the information obtained. Thereafter, the mindmaps created in this method is the foundation to start a discussion about the children‘s findings.

Second Lesson In the second lesson, the catchy example from the previous lesson is recaptured to prepare the pupil in a hands-on exercise that serves to familiarize them with how energy from the wind is obtained.

The students start folding their own small wind turbines that serves to practice the children in working with wind catching structures.

Pic. 4. Building a simple paper wind turbine

Some guidelines and explanations are shown on the digiboard and communicated by the teacher. As an addition, students can use their tablets to find more detailed help in form of a tutorial video if that is needed.

All the individually created wind turbines will be placed in the classroom, so everybody can have a look at each other‘s work.

Fourth Lesson In the last lesson, the students get some extra time to finish their poster and presentation. The presentation is then held with “tips & tops” feedback, so all students are asked to give positive feedback and tips on what to do better. The teacher also provides feedback here.

If everything is done, the children earn a wind turbine token for on their country as a trophy for solving the first challenge. Also, they receive a letter by the mayor of the city as a sign of appreciation in combination with an achievement token.

This is one renewable energy source that the children can learn about. A possible next challenge could be to teach the children about solar energy and the most suitable landscapes to place the solar panels.

Template In order to support the freedom of design-based learning processes, a template for the process was made with the focus on integrating the methodology in classes, as well as,

providing an opportunity for teachers to create their own projects with the structure of theTechtonia projects.

The template is based on the topic of wind energy that served as the content during the user tests.

The template is the result of giving

freedom to the students as well as maintaining the structure and clear steps from start to finish of the project. To accommodate both, the template determines four phases that the students work through. Each of these phases have their own lessons and specific activities in order to

Fig. 1. Obtainable learning goals by using Techtonia

Fig. 2. The four phases Techtonia projects undergo. 1. Discovery – that explores and distributes information. 2. Interpretation – through simple examples and guides shows how the knowledge may be applied. 3. Experimenting – that unlocks freedom and creativity in a design challenge. 4. Reflection – where the insights and practice is documented and presented

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achieve the learning goals that are defined in fig. 1.

Fig. 2 visualises the four phases along with the specific suggestive activities with matching learning goals. This setup is a direct excerpt from the wind energy topic and was created due to the necessity of having an open structure for the Techtonia projects. The template further serves the goal of providing teachers with the opportunity to create interdisciplinary projects, hence the four phases are able to cover a variety of possibilities that aims at solving or completing a project.

The role of the visualised template for projects in Techtonia also served as an exercise for the group to generalise the concept of Techtonia.

One of Techtonia’s key elements are the exchangeable challengetokens and achievement-tokens that together complete the project from beginning to end, visually and physically. In addition, it was an exercise to determine the completion of the concept and search for a way to schematize the concept without its detailed content.

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Assessment tool In design based learning processes, the assessment tool is essential in documenting and evaluating the progress of the students. The goal of the teachers are therefore to observe the students in their skills, knowledge and attitude. Here documentation in the form of exercises and building during the experimentation and collaboration results in opportunities

Fig. 3. Self-Assessment form

for formative feedback and evaluation.

Suggestively, rubrics could work in assessing the design processes in a range of criteria that fit to the learning goals formulated by the Dutch educational system (Schee et al. 2014). However, Techtonia proposes an approach that subtly changes the way evaluation and feedback is given. The assessment tool designed for Techtonia focuses on the self-assessing role and reflection the students undergo during teamwork.

Hereby they learn critical thinking and looking back at their own actions. The purpose of the teacher is therefore to support and guide the children to better themselves in skills they feel they could improve. This is accomplished by formative feedback during the project work and aiding the students in reflecting on their process. This approach is supported and used in higher education, in particularly industrial design students use the criteria tool to assess the design and engineering process Gomez et al. (2013).

To assist teachers in this role of mentoring, an assessment guide is

constructed. See Appendix N. The structure of the assessment guide is divided into three parts Preparation In preparation of a topic integrated into Techtonia, it may differ of what deliverables the topic includes. In the case of the wind energy topic a set of workbooks, place mat exercises, process posters and presentations, documents the process of the students. Therefore, in preparation the teacher lists the number of deliverables that the student can create and fill out during the project.

Furthermore, allowing the teacher to build the challenge as preparation, provides a better understanding of what is requested by the students, concerning difficulty and freedom for creative thinking. Lastly, the teacher regards at what moments formative feedback could be given to the groups or individuals. The teacher should make an overview of these opportunities.

Formative feedback

Summative feedback

During the projects, the teacher observes the children based on the four phases that each contains the use of materials, expressing attitude and communicating knowledge. The teacher provides help and feedback in situations or opportunities stated by the guide or based on their own expertise. The four phases are Discovery, Interpretation, Experimenting and Reflection.

After completion of a project, the children fill out their self-assessment form, which is a tool to document their performance and self-efficacy in order to aid their reflection. In addition, the self-report functions as a comparison tool with previous projects that helps visualizing the goals and desires to improve different areas depending on their personality

traits (see Fig 3 and 4). This is accomplished by using transparent paper that once on top of each other, compares the different projects and performances in the different areas.

The teacher will then, evaluate and converse in groups or with individual students about the project and performance compared to their last projects. This is with the purpose

to identify things to improve and motivate the student’s interests that they can pursue.

Fig. 4. Comparison Process

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Business Model The business model of this concept addresses three different customer segments, namely the students who go to primary schools and their parents, the teachers at school who use the method, and the primary schools themselves who eventually purchase the product. The business model uses Blink as a channel to reach the potential customers, but it still treats Techtonia as an independent concept that creates, delivers and captures a new set of values that enables for 21st-century learning (Thijs et al, 2014).

Creating Value Tehtonia is creating value for three different customer segments: Primary schools in the Netherlands, teachers who work at those schools and the students of those schools.

Schools can use Techtonia as a sort of branding. Since parents have a certain degree of freedom when it comes to choosing a school for their children, Techtonia can be a unique 16

selling point for a school. Techtonia is a new way of implementing designbased learning into education in a meaningful way. This is the value created for primary schools who purchase Techtonia.

For teachers, Techtonia is an easier way of structuring their lessons and even a whole school year. It also helps them to integrate design-based learning into their lessons easily.

They can use Techtonia during the school year to teach different topics in a new and interesting way for their students and they can use the boardgame Techtonia to give those topics a meaning in the curriculum, so their students are more motivated to work on them.

Lastly, Techtonia is a fun and exciting method that teaches 21st century skills. This is an extra value created for the students, since ordinary teaching methods are often not very engaging and considered fun. For parents, it is often very important that their children are educated according to the newest standards.

Delivering Value Existing channels should be used to distribute Techtonia, since we believe that existing network and knowledge would be beneficial. Consequently, it will be a lot easier to reach our customer segment and eventually deliver value. Our client Blink is a perfect example of such a channel.

Schools that are interested in Techtonia can get the overall framework to build landscapes for free. For each topic, including access to digital material and a physical toolkit, they are charged 13â‚Ź per student per schoolyear. The price is based on a few assumptions that can be found in the appendix. It is a price calculated so that we make a small profit if a school uses a topic for a year, and a larger profit if the topic is used longer. This pricing model is similar to the one Blink uses and therefore fits with the channel we chose.

Teachers are an important stakeholder in our system. They will use Techtonia on a regular basis and therefore become experts in using the method. A feedback loop will

be created that helps us refining and updating Techtonia. On the other hand, it is essential that support is provided so that teachers can use Techtonia as it is intended. Hence, a loop is created where we learn from teachers and teachers also learn from us.

Not only input from teachers is essential when updating and refining Techtonia, but also students and parents can be a valuable source in that sense. Since we believe that the teachers and the students perspective are hard to separate, this approach is in line with our vision about designbased learning.

Capturing Value Addressing key activities, the essential part will be to keep evaluating and updating Techtonia. This means that not only new topics or lessons will be created, but also that existing lessons will be kept updated. The key resource for this will be the feedback loop that will be established with primary school teachers. By running tests and receiving feedback, Techtonia can be further improved.

Partnerships have to be set up to ensure the production and delivery of toolkits which will be used for the different topics taught with Techtonia. It is also a possibility that certain partners are interested to sponsor a school, if they don‘t have enough funds to purchase toolkits.

Since we rely on partners for delivering the toolkits and use Blink as a channel in this model and the main activity will be to further develop and update Techtonia, the cost structure will mainly consist of costs for product development.

The Business Model Canvas Key Partners

Key Activities

Designed by:

Value Propositions

Updating content of existing methods and develop new ones

Partnerships for toolkits Sponsorships

Key Resources

NIA

Integration of DBL methods and a framework to use methods in a more meaningful way

Feedback loop

An easier way of structuring a schoolyear and integrating DBL into primary education

Date:

Version:

Customer Segments

Support for teachers

Channels

Input for updates and new methods

Cost Structure

TECHT

Customer Relationships

TECHT NIA

Schools as main source

Primary schools in the Netherlands

Teachers

Use existing channels of Blink Exciting and fun methods that teach 21st century skills

Students and parents

Revenue Streams

Product Development

Fig. 5. Business Model Canvas, Based on Osterwalder, Alexander and Pigneur, Yves (2010) “Business Model Generation”, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Designed for:

Feedback loop

Input for development of new methods

Framework for free Pay per method

: Business Model Foundry AG

The makers of Business Model Generation and Strategyzer

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Research FINDINGS Literature Before getting in touch with the children it is important to understandthem and their environment so the right approach can be used and research can be tested in practice. The following research is focused on children in group 6, this means the children are around ten years old.

Development Children When we have a look at the development of children we can subdivide three different developments: physical development, social-emotional development and cognitive development.

Physical Looking at the physical development of children from ten years old the transformation from boy or girl to a grown up man and woman can start early. Puberty starts at a different

time for each child. Next to puberty, also their motoric development is something to take into account.

This means they get more skilled in constructing, combining and building things (Hooijmaaijers et al, 2012) . Techtonia supports this with the use of building a country with different landscapes but also in the design-based learning (Gomez et al, 2013) activity the constructing skills are tested.

own identity (Hooijmaaijers et al, 2012). There is a big development in self-awareness. Psycho-analyst Erikson (1997) sees developing an own identity as the basis for having relationships with others.

In Techtonia children have a lot of opportunities to learn from other children because communication and collaboration representsthe core of the method.

Social- emotional

Cognitive

Social-emotional development is closely related to the physical development. Relationships with their friends get more important when they feel their relationship with their parents becomes less important.

The children feel have to stand out and let their opinion be heard (Deley, 2004). In the class the children are looking for a group where they feel comfortable and cool. They use the other children from that group as examples and are searching for their

The cognitive development shows that the memory of children around the age of ten increases dramatically.

They are able to remember things easier and with the use of anchors they are able to extend their knowledge (van der Veen et al, 2008). Finding connections between situations, objects and persons is getting easier and easier for them.

The learning process of children is cumulative, which means they test their experience in new situations and

add the outcome to their knowledge base. Besides this the children also get more aware of a work attitude: they are more self-aware and can motivate themselves (Hooijmaaijers et al, 2012).

Learning development of children In group 6 you can see the different roles children can take on them while playing an associative game. You will observe initiative takers, negotiators, leaders followers etc. The roles show the diversity in class and that you need each role to keep a process running.

Different stages Parallel to the children’s development (physical, cognitive and socialemotional) we see a development in learning. There are eight stages in a learning process (GagnÊ et al, 1966).

The motivation stage starts with an expectation. It is important to make the children curious and excited.

Next is observation, every child will 19

observe differently and selectively this is based on what he already knows but also his background and learning style. In the absorption phase, the brain actually absorbs the knowledge. It is therefore important that the knowledge is stored in their long term memory and use retrieval for remembering. For generalization, the best option is transferring knowledge (van der Veen et al, 2008).

Let the children tell each other what they’ve learned also in discussions and answering each other’s questions.

The last step is feedback. The teacher gives the children a confirmation about what they’ve learned. This can also be an exam. Techtonia focusses on these learning stages where the teacher is playing a large role in guiding the children through these stages.

Essence of learning There are points of attention when it comes to the essence of learning according to teachers (De Vries, 2004): Pupils learn based on the relationship they have with the teacher and pupils learn best when the teacher provides them a structure and shows 20

them how things are related to each other. Techtonia focusses on ‘real’ problems which means the children can relate everything they learn to their own world and experiences.

Pupils learn when they like what they are doing and when they can relate the knowledge they have learned to things in their ‘daily life’. When the children feel great, the learning goes well automatically. It is important that the teacher helps the children when there are difficulties. Next to this external motivation, there also needs to be intrinsic motivation (Ryan et al, 2000): ‘true’ learning is discovering yourself and share your findings with others: ‘real’ learning takes place in rich environments and contexts. The learning should be seen in relation with the social background of the pupils (Edward et al, 2000). Repetition of knowledge and interaction with the teacher improves learning. The children in the class possess important roles in the learning from each other. It is important that every pupil feels responsibility for everything they do. Children learn mostly from each other. The diversity of children in the class should be seen as beneficial.

Diversity in class Every child in the class likes a different method to learn and work with. According to Kolb (2005) we can subdivide all children of the class into four groups: thinker, maker, observer and decider( fig. 6). For each learning style is a different didactic approach suitable. Three learning styles are highlighted by Kolb (2005): Reflective approach: learning by imitation of other children in simulation games. Project education is also a possibility. Techtonia falls into

the category of project education but can also be called a simulation game, because it is using story-telling and is relating and simulating problems from the ‘real’ world. Another approach is the self-study approach: the children make assignments and read books. Before this the teacher always gives an introduction to frame the information. The last one is instruction approach: teacher’s role is to give information through presentation.

Fig. 6. Kolb‘ learning styles. From: Van leertheorie naar onderwijspraktijk. Groningen: Noordhoff.

Learning goals Since 2013 there is a new law ´Toetsing in het primair onderwijs´. This contains compulsory topics which should be in the methods and taught to the children so it can be tested in the end of group 8. Next to the compulsory subjects as language and mathematics is there also a facultative part: geography, history, nature and technology. CITO developed several ´kerndoelen´ which should be integrated into teaching methods (Schee et al, 2014).

Techniek (kerndoel 44 & 45) Techniek gaat over producten die door mensen zijn gemaakt ‘om het leven gemakkelijk te maken’. Centraal daarbij staan de samenhang tussen vorm en functie (van onderdelen) van een product en het gebruik van constructies, verbindingen, materiaal en besturingssystemen.’

(Schee et al, 2014, pp. 21 -27)

Translation of the ‘Kerndoelen’ Psysics (learning goal 42): With Psysics the students explore and research several phenomemons which they can find around them in daily life. Topics that are covered are: power, light and colors, sounds, electricity and properties of materials. The topic

‘Natuurkunde (kerndoel 42) Bij natuurkunde verkennen en onderzoeken leerlingen verschijnselen die ze in het dagelijks leven tegenkomen en die samen hangen met kracht, energie, licht en kleur, geluid, elektriciteit en eigenschappen van stoffen.

Energie: energiebronnen en vormen van energie; omzettingen van vormen van energie; Aardrijkskunde (kerndoel 39,47,49 and 50) Bevolking, wonen en welzijn - de sociaal-culturele invalshoek.

energy covers facts about energy resources, how energy is obtained and can be transformed.

Geography (learning goal 39,47,49 and 50): Geography is about populations, living, social life and social-cultural perspectives.

Technology (learning goal 44 & 45): Technology is about products made by humans to make life easier. With a focus on the connection between shape and functions(of components) of a product and the use of constructions, connections, materials and operating systems.

21st century skills

Fig. 7. 21st century skills. From http://www.basisschool-eigenwijs.nl/21-st-centuryskills.html

Looking back on the history of traditional learning methods at primary schools, the same methods were used and remained the same for a very long time. However,since the computer era started, new channels of information became accessible and children are learning not only from books, but from multiple media sources (Thijs et al, 2014). To keep on learning it is important to adapt to the 21

century we are in, therefore new skills are needed: the 21st century skills.

Communication: benefit from each other’s talents

Nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling describes st the 21 century skills as following: ‘generieke vaardigheden en daaraan te koppelen kennis, inzicht en houdingen die nodig zijn om te kunnen functioneren in en bij te dragen aan de kennissamenleving’ (Thijs et al, 2014, pp. 9). Translation: generic skills and the matching knowledge, insights and attitudew which are neccesary to function and to contribute to the knowledge society.

Social and cultural: be able to relate, learn from different perspectives and get responsibilities

In education several skills are used which are seen as the 21st century skills. Binkley et al. (2010) is describing ten competencies within the 21st century skills which are partly shown in fig. 7.

ICT* literacy: use ICT to learn and get information.

(Thijs et al, 2014)

Creativity: asking the children to think out of box and use their imagination to come up with something innovative.

Critical thinking: be able to select information in a reflective way 22

Working together/collaboration: communication and collaboration are going close together. You have to be able to communicate well for a nice collaboration Problem solving: be able to solve problems and make decisions based on the right information.

21st century skills involve both design-based learning (Thijs et al, 2014) and digital literacy: ‘an understanding of the use of various digital technologies, including social media, digital fabrication techniques, sensors and actuators and computing technologies’ (Bekker et al, 2015, pp.1).

Design-based learning When we are talking about design thinking we can speak of two terms: ‘the learning environment in terms of materials and the digital toolkit, and the learning through reflection process related to the design process ’ (Bekker et al, 2015, pp.4). In Techtonia all different stages of the design process are taken into account and a structure is provided to guide both the teacher and the students through this process. Design-based learning primarily means learning by doing (Stables and Kimble, 2007).

Expert Kim Winters (PABO student) mentions the term ‘hands on brains on’ to describe this.

Experts and Stakeholders In addition to the literature research, experts were contacted during the whole process. This was necessary to gain all the needed information and feedback from several experts due to the many stakeholders involved in this project.

Blink Carla Wiechers is the contact person from “Blink Educatie”. Blink is a publisher of digital learning methods for primary schools regarding nature and technology subjects. Blink is the client of the project. Overall, four informal meetings took place. During these meetings Carla explained what Blink does and what their vision is. Furthermore, the cooperation possibilities between the project group and Blink were discussed during these meetings. During the last meeting the group presented Techtonia and Carla communicated that the project fits very well to the Blink education methods.

For Blink publishers individuality is important within the classroom.

Not that the children don’t work together but that the children develop according to their individual needs and talents. Blink likes to see the 21st century skills (Thijs et al, 2014) created by ‘SLO*’ in a method. This asks for a complete new approach because nowadays and in the past, books were used and accompanied with questions from exercise books.

Blink is interested in working less linear, which means introducing new ways of working with for example digital literacy and design-based learning. Blink educatie values hands-on learning. But schools and students can not immediately switch to a new method, it is a slow and gradual process. Therefore the new method should include old patterns of already used learning styles. This makes also teachers less afraid and nervous, because they want to ensure the students learn sufficiently.

To most teachers, math and languages are the most important subjects but there is a change going on and topics as science, arts, technology and nature are getting more and more focus. In 2015, about 400 schools used the ‘Binnenstebuiten method’

(www.binnenstebuiten.nl).

Blinks wants to have a certain balance in their methods: structure vs openness and practice vs. experience.

From a business perspective, Blinks likes to see a clear and easy communicated concept.

Blink is a digital publisher and often uses digiboards and tablets in their methods. But they like to see a nice mix of digital and psychical content for the new method.

Kim Winters Kim Winters is a third year PABO student, which means that she studies at the teachers training college. Kim follows a subject for which she has to come up with her own design based learning method. By presenting work to each other the group got in touch with Kim. We decided to work together in order to make each other’s projects stronger. Kim met once or twice a week with the group and assisted the group with the pedagogical and teacher’s point of view in the project. Kim helped with the development of the concept and with working out deliverables like the

teacher’s guide.

Kim provided great insights on the teacher’s perspective. In the testing phases, Kim was ready to be the teacher and facilitator during the lessons to the children. Also Kim had experience giving lessons to different groups of children, so she could describe the difference between the children and give insights about the children’s development. Furthermore, Kim had other experts around her, whom could give feedback on the concept. For example, Annemarie van den Broek whom provided helpful insights about the interaction between child and teacher and also took a close look at the learning goals and how they were integrated in the concept.

Erik van der Spek Erik van der Spek is an expert in game design and especially when it comes to serious gaming. In an expert meeting with van der Spek, he showed excitement and noted he was impressed by the concept. He had some feedback on the concept and elaboration in a midterm meeting.

The tiles could be more engaging in the sense that the landscapes, challenges and cities were . In this way the reflection of the children would go more smoothly. The consequences of certain choices needed to become visible so they see why things are working well or not. Another remark was that the problems and solutions presented in Techtonia should be as realistic as possible in order to fluently link to the real world. Van der Spek also mentioned that our process achieves the change education is currently undergoing where surface learning (factual) is transforming into deep learning (problem solving and deepening into the topic).

We incorporate both in our DBL* process.

Mighiel van Diggelen Migchiel van Diggelen is an educational researcher and consultant of the Faculty Industrial Design. He provided, on regularly basis, feedback about the project.

He attended bi-weekly presentations and one expert meeting to provide feedback to all the groups. A research meeting was planned to discuss 23

the literature findings and research methods with the correct choice of keywords. In addition, van Diggelen gave insights on both the teacher and child perspective and the differences.

a harder time to focus in class, so just using one teaching method is boring for them. Methods she uses are: Frontal teaching (Speaking in front of the class, also using the blackboard)

Claudia Ecke

• Videos, pictures with the Smartboard • Overhead projector, e.g. for comparing homework results • Group work, usually with presentations in the end • Experiments, Hands-on exercises • Partner work • Working alone on an exercise • Demonstration of an experiment

Claudia Ecke is a teacher at a “Gemeinschaftsschule” in Pinneberg, Germany. She teaches Nature, Technology and mathematics to children between the age 10 to 17, which corresponds to grade 5 to 10 in Germany. Ecke uses digiboards as an addition to the traditional blackboards for example to show pictures or videos. Videos can be a very good way of explaining different phenomena, sometimes videos can do that even better than the teacher for the imagination of children. This is also because they hear and see and combines two to improve their learning. She doesn’t depend on the board as an interactive tool.

Ecke mentioned that a mix of methods is essential, since the pupils are all very different and have different learning styles. Also, children nowadays have 24

According to her, groupwork can be a very effective method, as long as it is not used too often, since pupils get bored when using it all the time.

Normally, pupils work in groups of 4 to 6 on a task, mostly on nature and technology. Technology topics are always good for group work because you need different expertises in one group to solve something.

Incorporating elements of gaming/ playing always makes a lesson more exciting and memorable for children.

Hands-on exercises in general make the students memorize the topics

better.

Usually, the groups are divided randomly to ensure that there is a good mix between ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ pupils. In general, group work is easier to facilitate when the students are older. Group work is concluded with a presentation by each group. The other students give feedback on the presentation, the

teacher gives an individual grade to each group member.

Saskia Bakker Saskia Bakker is an Assistant Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and is an expert on designing interactions, both of which she has conducted many user test

Pic. 5. School visit

with especially children at primary schools. Therefore Bakker was contacted to talk about the set-up for the tests of Techtonia. She explained how important it is to set the right research questions and goals: what to expect after the test? Also think about all possible things including errors which can happen. Bakker mentioned how important it is to set challenging research questions. In case everything goes well how do you continue afterwards? She also gave us tips for using filming in a classroom environment and use the videos to analyse together with the teacher: coreflecting. Children have difficulty in giving feedback, in the first place they will like everything new in school.

To gain feedback it is good to help them remember the different parts of the test. She suggested to print photo’s of each part and use them in a discussion with the children.

Tilde Bekker Tilde Bekker is the head of the “Design for Teaching and Learning” squad, this means that she is the expert in the field of designing for children, teaching and learning. She

also is the project coach of the group.

Every two weeks she attended a presentation and a meeting where she gave feedback on the development of the project and guided the group in taking decisions within the process.

Iris Douma Iris Douma is part of the “Design for Teaching and Learning” squad. She has a coordinating role within the project. She takes care of organizing the feedback sessions with the whole squad and she provides feedback on the project based on her background in designing for children.

Primary schools An important stakeholder of the project is: “Primary schools”. It is very important for the group to keep track of what primary schools search for in their educational methods, and if the content of the lessons fits to the age of the pupils. Also it is important that the method eventually is affordable for the primary schools and matches the schools’ approach in teaching the children. The group executed two user tests at a Montessori school in

Eindhoven, to test the assumptions that were made in the design of Techtonia (More about this on page 19). In the pressure cooker some members of the team visited primary school to get a first feeling of the classroom environment. In meetings afterwards it became clear that there is a huge difference between schools when you look at being innovative and modern. Most schools are already using tablets and digiboards in the class whereas others are still using books and perceive the digiboard as something new. The team realized how important it is to take into account all the differences and maybe shift the focus of Techtonia.

Diversity in Learning

In order to make the concept complete, it was decided to look into the diversity of children within a classroom. Every child has certain strengths and weaknesses and learns in their own way. It was decided to focus on different ways of learning and to implement these different ways within the final concept.

Kolb (2005) describes diversity in class with four categories (fig. 6): makes, observer, thinker and decider. Every child has it’s own way of learning. A good method should help all children to find a way to gain the knowledge which is required according to the ‘College voor Examens’(Schee et al, 2014).

In order to find out the diversity within current classrooms and to find out how much the teachers are aware of this diversity, a questionnaire was made (Appendix G). The questionnaire was based on overall research questions: • How much do the children differ from each other and how much do the schools differ from each other looking at psychological 25

development?

• Is there an average or is every school really different in the way children develop?

• Is there a relation between the learning styles of Kolb and the psychology development of children?

This questionnaire asks teachers to fill in anonymously about every child what kind of person he/she is according to the Kolb personalities, but also how social skilled the child is, the motor skills of the child, the cognitive skills and how much help the child needs in the classroom (Hooijmaaijers et al 2015). To varify the exceptions in the questionnaires, we also asked what children suffer from dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD*, ADD*, autism or something else. You can find the results also in Appendix.

With the results we can see per child how a personality of Kolb(2005), is related to psychology development of the child. For example: is a ‘decider’ personality also very social skilled and are the motor skills of the ‘maker’ really higher?

Five teachers with very different 26

experience levels who teach group 5,6 and 7, were asked to fill in the questionnaire.

Total amount of children was 56.

This means that many teachers didn’t fill in the form for all the children in the classroom but only decided to fill in half of the class. This makes the test less reliable since we don’t know what children the teachers left out and it might be the case that only a certain type of child is used for the questionnaire. It was very difficult to find teachers who like to participate in a questionnaire which takes some time, as we understand. Around 20 teachers were asked to participate in the test but unfortunately only five responded. This makes the outcome less reliable.

thinker 31 out of the 56 children(55.4%) are more deciders 25 out of the 56 children (44.6%) are more observers 8 out of the 56 children (14.3%) more in the middle.

We can conclude that according to this test, the classroom is very equally divided, most children are between thinkers and observers, and smallest amount of children are makers and observers. Overall, children with dyslexia and dyscalculia need a little more help as expected. But we can also see in the resuls that learning problems and behavriour disorders are not having a clear influence on the social, motor or cognitive skills of the child. Though you can see that the children with dyslexia are more to the background and observe and think over the situation.

Kolb personalities

Teacher’s response

21 out of the 56 children(37.5%) are makers 35 out of the 56 children(62.5%) are thinkers 10 out of the 56 children(17.9%) are in the middle between maker and

The teacher’s are mentioning that the questionaire is not giving a very detailed overview, the individuals are now blended in the group and the teachers find the survey limited because the chance for coincidence is

Questionnaire Results

big. When setting up this survey we knew the result would give an average so we are not suprised by this. But maybe it should have been better communicated in the introduction of the survey what the actual goal of the research was.

User Test Insights During the user tests we also noticed some differences between children in the way they used Techtonia: • In some groups you see a natural leader arise or the children work really well together, there is nothing in between.

• The children don’t finish the booklets all at the same time and some get bored when there is no extra assignment to do.

• One child reads the text on the Ipad totally for himself. While in some other groups one child takes the lead and reads out loud for the whole group.

Implications for Techtonia Giving children all a responsibility.

So making one child within each group responsible for handling the

tablet and scanning the challenge worked very well. This survey can also be seen as a tool for the teacher to get a overview of the class and its different personalities. With making groups, the teacher can decide easier whom to put together to make sure the group dynamics are working well.

The final concept is made very accessible for every child because of the different mediums to access the information. You can read, watch a video, see pictures, listen to the teacher, make exercises and build examples to get to the knowledge.

Every child can find its own way to optimally understand the subject. For instance for children with dyslexia, a movie is more accessible that a long text, while for other children text is the best way to obtain information.

The teamwork in teams of children with different personalities most likely results in interesting discussions between the children. By having discussions they will learn a lot about the subject and from each other.

Pic. 6. Paper Prototype

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PROCESS

Fig. 8. Process Overview

Within this project a bottom-up approach has been used. This means that after the research phase the group started on the same level as our target group: the children and teachers.

By executing two user tests and by involving a range of experts, a good picture of the school environment could be created and their needs became clear. In the period before the midterm the environmental scan was done with involving school visits,

literature research and very important for the process: involving a PABO* student Kim Winters, who helped with the educational and pedagogical aspects. Lots of discussions took place during team meetings, experts meetings and meetings with Kim, which was necessary to stimulate the development of the concept considering the complex and extensive project brief. After the mid-term the first step was to

use the gained feedback from the presentation to further develop the concept. Clear tasks were made after the mid-term and they where divided among the team. Naturally, everyone was involved in the others tasks but Manon and Charlotte mainly focused on the diversity within the classroom and the building of the prototype while Felix and Thijs focused more on working out the lesson template.

Felix made the business model and

Manon and Thijs were also mainly responsible for the user testing.

During this process, Kim came by weekly to share her opinion on our new steps and helped a lot in creating the lesson template and the teacher’s guide. In figure 8 a visual representation of the process can be seen.

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ITERATIONS In the process overview (figure 8) an opportunity to iterate the concept after the midterm presentations was initiated with the intention to develop the concept and prototype.

The concept of Techtonia with its tiles, challenges and digital content underwent an iteration that formed the elements and visual towards using it in user testing contexts. Therefore, reprints and colour updates for the landscapes tiles were executed.

Similarly, the website received an update in form of adding content from Blink’s similar education material. A detailed development of the elements and website can be found on page 34

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USER TESTING The concept of Techtonia was tested in two separate user tests with students in group 6 (age 10) at a montessori school. The concept in form of landscapes tiles, webpage and the topic of wind energy was used in both tests. This following chapter reports the focus on user testing as a vital method to investigate the concept’s durability and strength of the different elements integrated in Techtonia.

Preparation/Approach The point where the concept was ready to be tested was the point when the name Techtonia was found.

The process of locating a school and preparing for the user tests were here after initiated with the aid of Kim Winters, the PABO student working closely with the project.

Up until this point, a set of assumptions required to be tested in regard to the use of the different elements integrated in Techtonia. Firstly, the combination of a set of physical items that through a QR-code* linked to

the digital material that represented the acquisition of information about the topic. Secondly the difficulty of the learning process required to be tested with the appropriate user group. Therefore, a research question and a script (protocol) was made as preparation in advance of the user test (see appendix.D).

Research Question. User test 1.

We wish to investigate the underlying assumption that children at age 10 possess a reasonable understanding of the provided material and activities.

We further wish to test the usability and transitions from digital and physical contexts and see whether digital literacy is perceived as a good tool to use in a learning process.

The research question stated the scope of the user test, with a focus on interaction between the elements and the digital content accessible through tablets. It also served as an objective that narrowed down the aim of the first user test as not everything possessed the same importance.

For instance, the rate at which they filled the workbooks correctly did

not have the same importance as the teamwork and concentration that could be observed while they worked with the exercises in the book. On the contrary, the debriefing and interview with the children after the test remained a priority as well as keeping the roles of facilitator and observers fixed as suggested by (Barendregt et al, 2005). From the structure of the wind energy project, the first user test included the introduction of Techtonia, the Discovery phase and a between phases reflection exercise.

To improve the content and goal of the user tests, S. Bakker was consulted concerning the expectations prior to the actual tests and the approach to analyse the material afterwards. (see page 22) It helped in defining certain areas that was close to impossible to expect an outcome off, and more importantly, to expect the unexpected. Especially, the latter turned out to be helpful as the first user test experienced a set of technical difficulties with the borrowed tablets from the school.

The final preparation consisted of going through the elements that could go wrong such as technical

issues and the procedure that could be confusing for the children. To clear the last doubts a short pilot test was performed with three fellow industrial design students that provided with valuable feedback of more unexpected events such as the place-mat exercise might induce discussions, as the areas to write on were different sizes.

First User Test

Results

The first user test involved five groups that participated in testing the first two lessons of Techtonia. The test was performed in the school from 08:30 to 11:00 AM. The five groups were selected from different classes but in the same age group (10 year olds). An extensive summary can be found in Appendix F.

As the focus mainly was on the switch and dynamics of using digital content with a physical framework in form the story based board game Techtonia, it was unfortunate that the application necessary to scan the QR-codes failed to work and the test ended in a mix of tablets and laptops.

Furthermore, a surprise in form of having all five teams at the same time turned into a more chaotic and loud user test, but highly resembling the reality in classrooms. After the initial presentation and introduction to Techtonia the children eagerly created their own Techtonia. As the groups worked side by side, the children received only limited number of landscapes tiles and made it unexpectedly into a competition between the groups to create the best country or complete the setup so they could ask for more tiles.

Overall the first user test confirmed that the content and work methods was appropriate for the age group as the children enjoyed to work in groups, take on roles, use the different tools to think creatively and also to engage in the story delivered along

Pic. 7. Kim presenting Techtonia at User Test 1

with the challenge.

As mentioned before, the use of screens for gathering information had some difficulties but also in the observation, points became clear.

Firstly, they had difficulty in scanning the QR-code though they understood its function and while some groups varied in sharing the tablet/computer, other groups ended up with one tablet user. A notable observation was that larger screens invited more collaboration as everyone could read and see the information on the website.

Furthermore, the tablet combined with the workbooks quieted the groups and it was easier for the teacher to assist the children and observe their progress. Overall, the children showed concentration in order to answer the questions in the workbook.

In the last part of the lesson, the children were given a placemat that they could use to discuss and document what they find most important. However, as it was in the end of the almost 2-hour user test, the children used only little time on filling it out.

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From these observations, a set of improvements could be made to the concept of Techtonia. Namely, the change from a set of loose tiles to a more fixed and storable board game for the group to put away while not in use. In addition, the challenge tokens deserved to be replaced by achievement tokens in order to emphasise the change Techtonia experiences as projects are completed. Lastly, the reflection exercise where the children filled out their main findings about the topic left an ambiguous insight. Due to the length of the user test it was difficult to see whether the children were exhausted at that point or if they did not understand, or not willing to fill out the placemat. The reflection tools could therefore be revisited.

Iteration before second user test

Second user test

Based on the analysis and observations from the first user test a second larger iteration were initiated.

The opportunity to further develop specific elements to accommodate the purpose of Techtonia was used on the tokens, an underlying board to place the landscapes tiles. The tiles themselves also received an update.

While the visual of the landscapes remained the same the material changed from thick paper to MDF*. In addition, the website received an extra menu that contained the building guide for the simple example. The second iteration served in changing some of the circumstances from the previous user test and in same time update the concept’s look and feel.

This stage is visualised in the process overview on page 29 as the building prototype.

The second user test involved the iterated set of Techtonia elements.

As with the first user test a thorough procedure was executed beforehand, as the intention of the user testing received a new scope. The second user test focused on observing the students’ abilities in critical thinking and understanding the link between information from previous lessons, the board and the accomplishment once a project is completed. The second test was further encouraged by game design expert van der Spek, which suggested the concept to contain a stronger connection between the board and the projects in regard to manipulative effects.

Pic. 8. Teamwork during User Test 1

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Research question. User test 2.

We wish to examine how the student’s creativity is integrated on Techtonia and how their design proposals, in the sense of build objects, fits the Techtonia board. Additionally, the reflection of the students should be observed in regard to their ability of recapturing their process that is an essential part of design-basedlearning.

However, during the preparation, the intentions and research question had to be adjusted as the board was not build for implementing the design solutions of young makers that was a mix of functional wing blades and their creativity expressed. The adjustments meant that the strong

Pic. 9. Interaction with tablet during User Test 1

connection between making and linking their design solutions to the story remained only in the form of testing their design on a generator connected to a LED*. A solution that nonetheless worked in the context of creating value and achievement for the children. The second user test focused on three of the four phases the wind energy topic had been built upon. Namely, interpretation where a simple example aims as inspiration, experimenting where the students build their design and show creativity and critical thinking. And lastly, reflection where the process is documented and presented before the other groups and the teacher.

As preparation for the second user test and the different scope, materials were bought for the groups to build a simple example and their own design of wind turbine blades. The materials were sticks, tape, straws and more items that is common in classrooms.

The opportunity to document the interaction with the most recent prototype was also a priority with the aim to capture the important elements in action. Therefore, the process of informing the parents of

the role of the gathered material was initiated.

The second user test involved two groups at the same school as in the first test. The two groups were children that also participated in the previous study and therefore had knowledge of Techtonia.

Nonetheless, the groups received the introduction to Techtonia as the new board and tiles were different from the other user test. The limit of two groups also meant that managing the children and the involvement from the facilitator, Kim Winters, were increased.

A summary of the second user test can be found in the appendix F.

Results As the children explored the new design of Techtonia observations concluded that the improvement worked in the sense of fixing their worlds together that in the end crossed the borders of the board that was constructed as a foundation. The students also expressed excitement as they scanned the QR-code.

The simple challenge was solved slowly at first and the assistance of Kim W. was necessary for the children to complete this exercise. However, as soon as the children accomplished their first simple wind turbine model, a newer, better and of different colour had to be made. The excitement of

Pic. 10. Paper wind turbine built in User Test 2

building the simple example did not continue to the experimenting phase where they could build freely. The lack of excitement further divided the groups into a few focusing on the wing blades and the others continuing to draw or build the simpler model of wind turbines. The testing of the wind turbines on the small generator experienced difficulties as the wings could not turn fast enough without the blades falling or touching the bottle.

As the progress through the last phases continued, the task of using the process poster and prepare the presentation for the other group did not receive much attention. In fact, the students had difficulty in letting the building go as there still were material left to use they continued to build the simple examples. A few children also expressed confusion towards the process poster, as they did not understand what process stood for.

It seems that the idea of creating a world that you help to improve through projects that reflect real life issues through a story based 33

and design based learning structure is well received among children at amontessorischool. While the children proved the right attitude, skills and knowledge to work together, collect information and follow the teacher and instructional guidelines, the user tests can conclude that reflection and the tools to accomplish this did not work sufficiently compared to its importance. Overall, Techtonia engages the children in seeking accomplishment through learning and playing, but needs

Pic. 11. Blade design built in User Test 2

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further work on delivering the documentation to the teacher for evaluation and testing the children’s knowledge. Although a large set of activities was designed to deliver this material, the children’s skills to reflect requires further investigation, in respect to the user tests that in their execution lasted more than two hours. This lengthy study is therefore also a contributing factor to the difficulty of concentrated reflection.

Prototyping

Pic. 12. Tablet interaction in User Test 2

The method consists of several different pieces: the tiles, the city, the challenges, the trophies, the box, the building material and the information on the tablets. All these different pieces had to be built and many different decisions were made while building these pieces.

The tiles The idea of landscape tiles developed into an idea of creating tiles that fit easy and simple together. With the inspiration from the Seafarers of Catan, it was decided to make the tiles hexagons. In order to make the tiles not too chaotic it was decided to make the landscape images very simplified.

We started off with low fidelity paper landscapes in order to test the interaction, size and practicality.

Eventually it was decided to make the tiles more durable so schools could use them over more years. It was chosen to make the tiles out of MDF, because it is easy to shape, strong and relatively cheap material. White spray paint was used to give the tiles a clean look and varnish was used to glue and cover the landscapes on the tiles.

The group decided to make the tiles reusable, but it was necessary that the tiles couldbe hold in place since Techtonia is intended to be used over a long period of time. Therefore, it was decided to make an underground looking fundament from the same material as the tiles and with the same shape to make it look like a whole. The underground is visualized with soil color rocks that refers to the inside of the earth and that creates the effect of placing your own landscape tiles and making your own earth. In order to fix the tiles in place, magnets were used in the underground and in the tiles to snaps them together. They also help to store the tiles when they are not in use.

The city The city went through several iterations. The first city was a simple QR-code paper print and placed somewhere on the country. In the second iteration the city was made in 3D also out of MDF like the tiles, purposely to make it look like a whole. It was just a vertical piece of MDF connected to a horizontal piece of MDF to make it stand straight with

the QR-code on the side. The QRcode was printed on paper and glued to the MDF with the same varnish as was used for the landscape tiles.

In the third iteration, the idea was to insert a LED in the city. So the design was a cube with the QR-code on the top and the skyline of the city lasercut out of the wood on the side of the cube. Later the concept changed a little and the LED was no longer necessary. For the fourth iteration the second iteration was used but then in a separate tile instead of as a pawn. A vertical piece of MDF was placed in a hexagon tile and with prints on paper

and varnish, the sides and the tile itself were decorated and provided with a QR-code. Little houses were added to make the city more playful and dynamic.

The challenges For the challenge token three iterations were used. The first two iterations looked exactly the same as the first two city tile iterations.

The first design was a QR-code on paper and the second iteration was a vertical and horizontal piece of MDF with a QR-code on one side and the

name of the challenge on the other side. In the final iteration the vertical pieces of MDF with the QR-code and the challenge name on remained the same, but it was attached to a transparent landscape sized tile made out of perspex* that could cover a whole landscape tile with a challenge.

This way, the children can choose a landscape tile to be overlayed with the challenge. Because the tile is transparent the children can still see what landscape they cover with the challenge. Also these pieces are finished with varnish to get an overall look for the toolkit.

Achievement tokens

Pic. 13. Building the tiles for the prototype

Once a challenge is completed the children receive a trophy tile. Like the challenge tiles it is a transparent tile made out of perspex that has the same size as a landscape tile. On top of the tile is a recognizable object that has something to do with the challenge it is about. In our case for the wind energy challenge, the object is a small wind turbine.

The box There are two boxes that carry all the different pieces. One box is made for the teacher’s guide, the landscapes, the city and the platform. The other box carries the challenges. The boxes are made out of cardboard that had been laser-cut to the right size and that have a print with the Techtonia logo, and a small description on it that tells what is in there, what it is about and the age group. The first idea was to make the box look like a box that is used for family games, but it was too expensive to make in small quantities. We decided to lasercut the less expensive cardboard and made a wrapper for around the box.

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The building materials For the wind energy challenge the children need to build their own with turbines. Initially, we planned on providing electrical pieces that the children could put together to make their wind turbine, but it was decided that it would be too difficult for the age group and distract the children from the main learning goal. Furthermore, the idea was to use already existing build-yourown-wind-turbine-toolkits, but this turned out to be very expensive and not very open-ended. Eventually, the chose a solution in the middle. The

generator combined with a LED is pre-made and can be easily attached to a water bottle. And the children themselves can make the wings. The group created a couple-piece that the children can use to make the wings connect to the generator. This couple piece has holes that can be used by the children to put skewers in, than they can use all kind of materials they have at school to make the wings of the wind-turbine. For the other assignment the children need pieces of paper, straws and pushpins, which schools commonly have, or can easily find at a supermarket.

The tablets

Pic. 14. Building the tiles for the prototype

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Tablets are necessary to scan the QR-codes and see and execute the challenges. The QR-codes are connected to different websites. Once the QR-code is scanned they will show the website with the content that belongs to that QR-code. The website is made in such a way that it is tablet friendly and the children can find different ways to search for information, movies, texts and photos. Most of the information on the website is the lesson content that comes from the similar Blink topic.

Technology

In the beginning of the project the idea was to use augmented reality to teach children new things and animate the changes Techtonia went through. We wanted to use a technology that is very similar to the technology of the application “Layer�. This means that the camera of the tablet can be used to film a scenery, and the software would recognize certain patterns and would show extra 3D modeled animations. Eventually we didn’t see how this technology would add value to the learning process, and since children already have a lot of imagination, the group decided to use the QR-codes. The addition of the QR-codes and the tablets is that you can provide the information in many different ways. Different children ask for different ways of learning for instance: individual, classical, with the help of texts, with the help of movies, with the help of pictures and in teams so they can help each other and learn from each other.

Pic. 15. Final prototype

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Conclusion During our design process a concept was created for enabling designbased learning in primary schools.

Design decisions were based on thorough research, user tests and own experiences. A tool was created that supports teachers in teaching but also engages children in their learning process. Combining these perspectives was one of our main goals in this project. Based on the design brief given by the project squad, our aim was to create a design that not only supports both teachers and students in design-based learning, but also engages students to become more active in the learning process and eventually make learning more fun for children.

The 21st century skills creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication are a crucial part of design-based learning. Techtonia enables education within these four main skills. We also added the

skills digital literacy and designbased thinking, as these are specific skills that are a part of design-based learning.

From the user tests we can conclude that Techtonia is an and fun activity, that children understand and enjoy playing with, Also the different steps where digital content is combined with physical elements prove to be engaging though not inclusive. From our tests, we conclude that our design is used in the way we intended it to be used by the children.. While the children showed the right attitude, skills and knowledge to work together, the ability to collect information and follow the teacher and instructional guidelines, we can conclude that the reflection tool did not work sufficiently. Other aspects of the 21st century skills where also observed, Techtonia fostered communication between the children, it enabled for creativity and we saw collaboration

between the children. In the template where the whole project is set up, different learning goals and skills are addressed and the research findings of the design are combined.

Limitations and Future Work In this project, a concept was designed that proved to be usable in primary schools. Nevertheless, there are some limitations regarding the validation of the effectiveness of our design.

In the user tests, the reflection phase did not work sufficiently. This was partly because of very long tests and therefore a lack of concentration by the children. An adjustment of the reflection tools as well as more extensive studies have to be carried out here.

We only designed for one topic as an example for what can be taught with Techtonia. Further iterations have to

show how other topics apart from wind energy can be taught with this method. We believe that there are a lot of different options for different topics in both nature and technology and also geography and politics.

A first step towards creating more lessons has been taken by designing a lesson template for new topics.

In this template, we also mention the different learning goals that are addressed and which skills children can develop in the learning process.

It will take more extensive testing to eventually state whether or not these skills are actually developed through our method and if certain learning goals can be reached.

The opportunity to make an application that uses image recognition and stories from the persons in Techtonia could eventually replace the QR-code. The application would further serve as the access

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Acknowledgements point to the variety of information and updates during the projects.

For the diversity of learning, the current results are not very valuable concerning the less amount of participants and the not very reliable input. For making clear statements about the diversity in learning, a new test could be designed, taken into account the remark current teachers/ participants made about the current test. A new test could provide very valuable input that could provide more detailed how the concept could be adjusted to different styles of learning.

In case we want to sell our method to schools, it is important that all the method is reviewed by an educationalist to ensure that every part of the method is educationally justified. Also producing companies have to be found to produce the boxes, the workbooks and the tangible pieces of the method.

MDF - Medium-Density Fiberboard 40

This project involves a lot of experts to create a rich concept. First of all we would like to thank Kim Winters from the PABO Fontys, she was of great help with developing the teachers’ perspective of the concept and giving us insights in both the educational and pedagogical aspects of learning at schools.

We also want to thank Migchiel van Diggelen and Claudia Ecke for their input during the research phase.

Advice and feedback by Tilde Bekker concerning this complex design project was highly appreciated. We also wish to express our gratitude to Iris Douma for facilitating the many

co-reflection moments during the semester.

Finally we want to thank Blink Educatie and Carla Wiechers for the feedback and for the insights they gave us into their methods. With the help of these experts we were able to come up with this concept.

Word List QR-code - Quick reference code

DBL - Design-Based-Learning

ICT literacy Information Communication technology

ADHD Attention hyperactivity disorder

SLO Stichting Leerplan Ontwikkiling (Foundation of curricilum development)

ADD - Attention deficit disorder

LED - Light emitting diode deficit

PABO - Pedagogische academie voor het basisonderwijs (pedagogic accademy for primary school education)

Perspex - Acrylic glass

REFERENCEs Barendregt, W., & Bekker, M. (2005).

Extended guidelines for usability (and fun) testing with children. HCI Bibliography : Human-Computer Interaction Resources. Retrieved 2016, from www. SIGCHI.NL

pirical validation of characteristics of design-based learning in higher education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(2), 491503.

Bekker, T., Bakker, S., Douma, I., Poel, J., & Scheltenaar, K. (2015).

Teaching children digital literacy through design-based learning with digital toolkits in schools. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

Hooijmaaijers, T., Stokhof, T., & Verhulst, F. (2009).Ontwikkelingspsychologie voor leerkrachten basisonderwijs. Assen: Koninklijke Van Gorcum.

Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., & Rumble, M. (2010). Defining 21st century skills.

Melbourne: The University of Melbourne.

Bongani, T. (2013). Deciding the future: Energy policy scenarios to 2050(Vol. 23, p. 8). London: World Energy Council.

Gómez Puente, S.M., Eijck, M.W. van & Jochems, W.M.G. (2013). Em-

Kolb, A., & Kolb, D. (2005). The Kolb Learning Style Inventory—Version 3.1. Boston, Boston: HayGroup, Experience Based Learning Systems.

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology,54-67. doi:10.1006/ ceps.1999.1020 Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game

changers, and challengers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Schee, J., Van Graft, M., Bakker, A., Van Herwaarden, F., Keissen, H., Notté, H., & Wagenaar, H. (2014).

Toetswijzer Natuur en Techniek. InToetswijzer bij de centrale eindtoets PO wereldoriëntatie: Inhoudsverantwoording van de centrale eindtoets voor de wereldoriënterende vakken aardrijkskunde, geschiedenis en natuur en techniek. Utrecht: College voor Examens.

Stables, K. & Kimbell, R. 2007. ‚Evidence through the looking glass: developing performance and assessing capability.‘. In: 13th International Conference on Thinking: Curious Minds Think and Learn by Exploring the Unknown. Norrköping, Sweden June 17-21, 2007.

Thijs, A., Fisser, P. and M. van der Hoeven (2014) Digitale geletterdheid en 21e eeuwse vaardigheden in het funderend

onderwijs: een conceptueel kader (Digital literacy and 21st century skills in primary and secundary education: a conceptual framework). SLO (nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling), Enschede.

Van der Veen, T., & Van der Wal, J. (2012). Van leertheorie naar onderwijspraktijk. Groningen: Noordhoff.

Vries, Y. de (2004). Onderwijsconcepten en professionele ontwikkeling van leraren vanuit praktijktheoretisch perspectief. Dissertatie, Wageningen Universiteit. MesoConsult b.v. Tilburg Studiehuisreeks 57 Zimmerman, J. , Forlizzi, J. and Evenson, S., (2007). Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. Proceedings of SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. San Jose, California, pp 493-502.

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REFLECTION: CHARLOTTE VAN DER SOMMEN I’m a very hands-on designer who designs directly for society and who leans towards leadership and Entrepreneurship within design, so the choice for a track was easily made.

I chose to do the “Design Leadership and Entrepreneurship (DLE) track”.

Project goals Within my project my main goal was to design for diversity in learning.

Since I’m dyslexic, I experienced that many ordinary learning methods don’t work well for children with learning problems like dyslexia.

Every child learns in it’s own way and every child asks for a different learning style. I also planned to focus on the business aspect of the concept, the realization to the real world and the visual communication for the project.

Eventually due to working in a team and taking into account other peoples goals and abilities, I didn’t manage to accomplish all the goals. My focus 42

this semester was on maintaining my idea of quality in the overall concept, making sure that the concept would be accessible for children with different learning demands, building the prototype, maintaining contact with experts, making the video and playing for team leader so now and then.

I succeeded in my main goal of designing for children with different learning demands. Our learning method provides various mediums for children to obtain the information. This way, children who for instance have difficulty obtaining information by reading, can watch a video or make something in order to obtain the same information.

Building the prototype My main responsibility within the project was building the end prototype. I choose to be responsible for this because realization of the project was an important goal for

me and I saw within the group that I had the most experience in making and building. I decided to build the prototype in such a way that it looks like a high quality school method that could actually be in use. For me as designers it is very important to deliver something that is as real, finished and market ready as possible.

I don’t like to deliver half work. By building the prototype, I learned new finishing techniques with varnish and I learned to work with magnets and make an aesthetic interaction by the help of magnets.

Managing design projects Since I can be very perfectionistic and since I have a clear idea on how I want task to be done, I took on role of team leaders many times. This was something new I learned from myself. I never saw myself as such a perfectionistic and persisting person.

I realized that behaving like a project manager came very natural to me, but that I also don’t really like to do it.

I’m still figuring out whether this has something to do with insecurity for feeling the responsibility of delivering good work, or that I just don’t like to be the manager type and want to be more at the background. Next semester I’m going to do a project for the company Buurkracht where I can find out if managing projects is something that I want to do after I finish the master. Within the project this is my biggest learning point.

Teamwork Everyone in the team was very ambitious and had clear ideas of what they wanted to design. I feel lucky working together in this team, though it was not always easy.

Working together with people from all these different backgrounds asked for good communication, which takes a lot of time and effort.

I realized that I tend to expect from people to just understand me, which is not always handy when working in a team. Luckily the team was

evenly matched and with some good discussions and flexibility we always came to conclusions that everyone could agree on. Realizing that I can’t expect people to just understand me helped me in communicating better what my ideas are and becoming more realistic in my expectations to others.

Research Within this semester I followed the mandatory elective “Constructive Design Research”. It was a good preview of what next semester will be like and I learned a lot about different research methodologies.

The main thing I learned is that I’m not very interested in doing research on a very detailed and abstract level.

I like to make things that are direct implementable in people’s lives. I understand that research is necessary to ensure that the product works, which is why I plan on using a field or hidden-design methodology for my research project upcoming semester.

Energy I also followed the elective “Energy,

Economy and Society” at the faculty of “Innovation Sciences”. I choose this subject to research whether the energy theme really is my thing and to learn more details about energy systems, energy within society, renewable energy sources, energy policies and energy economics. All of these things made me only more passionate about the energy topic.

It is my goal with design to make people aware of their energy use. I want to use my design skills to change the behavior of people towards a society that becomes more energy efficient and uses more rentable energy sources. I was very glad to integrate my preferred topic in the current project, by creating lessons to teach children about wind energy as a renewable energy source. I found out that I keep coming back to the energy topic, and that I want to spend the rest of my master education specializing in this topic. This is why I will also focus my research semester on energy. I’m going to do the project “Data enabled Design for Vitality”, a project that focuses on collecting data that is used as input to design for a specific user group. Within the project I can have

the freedom to focus on the behavior of people within the energy theme.

Own company My passion about the energy topic within design started during my B3.2 semester where I designed an object for the company Buurkracht, that helps young families to become more aware of their energy use and teach them how to save energy.

This semester I got the chance to go further with this project. Right now I’m in the middle of starting my own company and making the first plans for working out my concept for the real world. I came up with a logo, a name for my company and already made my first quotation. I researched all legal rules that apply when having a company. I learned a lot about having a business, so even though I wasn’t able to focus on business within my project I learned a lot about translating a concept towards a real business opportunity.

Stukafest (http://www.stukafest. nl/eindhoven/), a cultural event for student that will take place in February. I also spend time working for E-lucid where I sold electrical component to my fellow students, here I learned a lot about different electrical components. I also spend time giving workshops to 3 grade high school children about design and I joined the Education Committee of the faculty where I represent the first year master students.

Extra Curricular As extra curricular activities I spend this semester a lot of time organizing 43

REFLECTION: Felix Ecke I am an exchange student, studying “MSc in Engineering – Innovation and Business” at my home university in Denmark. This means that I have a slightly different background than the other students in my group. I had the pleasure to work together with three other first year Master students, two of which also finished their Bachelors in Industrial Design at the TU. I chose this project because of my interest in teaching and learning.

My mother is a teacher herself, so i have always been confronted with this topic. While I was in a student in school myself, I was often dissatisfied with the teaching methods used.

Therefore I found it very interesting to work on the development of a new method myself. While I was living in Denmark, I was working as a substitute teacher, mainly for primary school classes. This gave me another insight into the school environment.

A lot of the experiences I gained there were very useful in this project.

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Focus Areas Since we were a group of four master students, each of us had a specific focus in this project. Due to my background, I wanted to focus on the business aspect of the project.

This does not mean that I wanted to create an extensive business and financial plan, but for me it was always a priority to see how we can not only create value, but also think about how this value can be delivered to potential customers and how the value can be captured. More precisely, I created a business model based on Osterwalder and Pigneurs (2010) business model canvas. This was done in cooperation with our client Blink and other experts who gave input during the creation of this model. This contact with a realworld client was also a good learning experience for me, since I had to figure out how to best communicate with Carla Wiechers from Blink.

Due to my teaching experience, I

was also one of two students who focused on the teacher perspective of the project. This meant that I was involved in the making of a lesson template, which also explains how different learning goals are reached.

Furthermore, I assisted Thijs in the work on the assessment tool. In the end, the teacher and children perspective turned out to be hard to separate, which is also reflected in our final concept. Coming to this conclusion is also very interesting in terms of design and product development, since it shows that it’s difficult to design for only one stakeholder in a complex system like the school environment.

One of my personal goals in this project was also to further develop my graphic and layout skills, since this was so far only a small part of my education. I for instance created the logo for Techtonia and developed the layout for this report.

Competency Development During the work on the business model for Techtonia, I learned some new aspects about business modelling.

Especially a workshop, where an ID student who previously worked at Business Model Inc. was present, gave me a lot of new insights on how to work with the business model canvas. The creation of different value propositions for different customer segments and the development of new revenue models were some of the things I learned during this session.

I had worked with business models before, so these were interesting new aspects that helped me develop one of my expertises further. Also in my electives, “Activate your Innovation Radar” and “From Creative Ideas to Business” I could work on my skills in this domain by developing concepts for certain user and customer groups.

Another competency I developed during the work on the business model for Techtonia was the

communication with clients. It has always helped my communication skills to talk to people from the business world and it once again did, when we had meetings with Carla Wiechers from Blink. It trained me to ask the right questions in those interviews and also to interpret answers in a way that it helped our project to advance.

Since I did not do that much graphical design in my studies so far, I also wanted to take the chance and develop this competency. I really enhanced my skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign during the work on this project and also in my electives. Purely the work on different tasks concerning this topic but also the collaboration with and the input by the other students in my group helped me here.

Overall Development Looking at my overall development, I can conclude that I developed a lot of my competencies during this semester. This design project gave me the chance to experience a product development process from another angle than I am used to. As an engineer with a focus on innovation and business, design has always been part of my work, but never the focus.

This project gave me the chance to bring in my expertises into a group of Industrial Designers on the one hand, and on the other hand focus on a lot of interesting aspects in a project like I did not do before. This includes a close collaboration with a lot of different experts, intensive user testing and a strong focus on what sometimes seemed to me like minor details.

To sum up, I am glad I got the chance to work in this project with three very skilled design students.This project certainly helped me a lot in my development as an engineer and designer.

Concerning the topic of this project, teaching and learning, I can also use a lot of aspects for my personal development. Since we all carried out a lot of research on how to teach and learn effectively, I can certainly use this for my own way of learning.

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REFLECTION: Manon Junggeburth In my bachelor at ID I did projects in all directions and designed for a lot of different user groups. In my internship I came in touch with social design and I liked to continue with the bottom-up approach in further projects. Karakters, my final bachelor project was focused on children with mental disorders like autism, this was the first time I came in touch with children and I really enjoyed it.

I find it very inspiring to design for children and help them in growing and this is what I want to focus on in my master program. I choose the track ‘research & development’ with the specialization areas: ‘Creativity & Aesthetics’ and ‘User & Society’. In this semester I spent a lot of time on research (literature: mostly about the psychology development of children, qualitative research, expert meetings, writing a scientific paper, conducting questionnaire, usertesting), designing a convenient graphic style for Techtonia, prototyping and building. And besides this also worked on my professional skills: 46

developing a business attitude and communication, presenting and I used my SDL skills to do extracurricular activities to support my learning and understanding of learning and teaching which was helpful for the project.

Teamwork & communication & planning Teamwork, communication and planning were the keywords of this semester for me. In the previous semester I was mostly working on my own or with other disciplines. I now had to work together again with other designers, with all a different opinion and style which was quite challenging in the beginning. A certain level of trust needed to be build, a planning system developed (I created a timeline, agenda with different colors of post-its and in the end a google drive overview with all activities and ongoing processes) and a approach chosen(divide tasks and make every member of team really

(end)responsible for a certain task) before things were really going well and decisions were taken at the right moments. I tried the several planning systems because I find it important in a team to see what activity is taken care of who is working on it. I am a real team player and I am able to motivate the people of my team. I, as empathic person, always find it important that every person is seen as an individual and works on and with his talents instead of weaknesses. I can, with subtle signals, steer the team and together with Charlotte I took the lead of the process of the project.

In the beginning it was feeling a bit weird and it was difficult to see when to step in but as soon as we said it out loud that we were going to lead the team, things went way smoother.

Besides the communication in the teams it was also a fruitful semester when looking at all the meetings with experts, different stakeholder and also the children. I learned how to transform the wishes of the children and teachers into a concept and

communicate this towards clients and experts.

Prototyping This semester didn’t really ask for a lot of prototyping with technology unfortunately because designing a new method is mostly about designing content, testing and getting feedback and have a lot of meetings with stakeholders. Nevertheless I took every possibility to try out things and make for example paper prototypes to test with. In my elective there was a quick dirty prototype session which I really enjoyed because it stimulates the creativity and imagination: you can already think of interactions really soon.

User I always like to put the user in the center of my whole process and use a bottom-up approach. In this project there were so many stakeholders involved it was challenging to put

the user in the center when you also have a client, schools, teachers etc..

I find user testing always the most interesting part of the design process and an expert (Saskia Bakker) was contacted to prepare the test well.

I experienced the difficulties of designing with and for children and how to set the right research questions (what do you want as result) because everything new you show children for the first time (at school), they will like it anyways. I really enjoyed the testing sessions and it was again a confirmation that I like this user group.

In this semester I learned how to design tools which makes people interact with each other(provoke discussion) instead or only with a product and/or computer. I found this really interesting and valuable.

You can give a product another layer in this way: besides the interaction product-human you also have to design interactions between people.

How to design interactions like that?

In my elective Design for the focused and peripheral interaction I learned about the different interactions, how to recognize them and how to design for them (result was shown in a

Philips Hue light controller).

Research Although this semester was not intended to be a research semester, it had quite a big role. In my elective (constructive design research) I came in touch with different research methods and I noticed I like the field research most where you can conduct qualitative research with the help of for example a prototype. I could use the skills in research methods in my project. Also the writing, I had a lot of opportunities to practice in academic writing (also in this report, I wrote the research part PAGE X) and I have to say that I enjoyed it: I am looking forward for next semester!

Extra

curricular (Self-directed learning)

To get a better understanding of teaching and learning I decided to do an extra activity on that during this semester: giving workshops to high schools(Keurig kiezen dagen at TU/e) to teach students about Industrial Design and also give workshops where I had to guide the

students through a design process.

It was really challenging to get the students enthusiastic and teach them about the design process in such a short time period but useful for input for my project. Besides this activity I was also developing my final bachelor project further witn Nyoyn and Koert Mulders. Nancy Degen (Karakter Nijmegen) really liked the concept of Karakters and wants me to deliver three professional products with a company. This asked for a professional business attitude where I had to present my concept to multiple companies in different ways(pitching, video, booklet). The process of developing is still going on and the things I find most interesting are: the process from prototype to professional product and learn about planning(within a company), working with budgets, and see all the steps involved looking at the development of the product in terms of materials(kids-proof), shape, technology etc.. With the Karakters project I am extending my network and improving my professional skills!

Next steps In the next research semester I will do research at Nyoyn (www.nyoyn.com) . Doing research in a company fits my track ‘research and development’.

Also I would like to be part of writing a paper and join a research team at the university. In the past semesters I found out how much I like to work with children and let them actually learn something. My ambitious, longterm goal is being selected for the ‘eerst de klas’ track (www.eerstdeklas. nl) after my master. Where I can combine management skills, my knowledge in running a process, teaching and my interest in learning.

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REFLECTION: Thijs Roeleven I have through the project designing for teaching and learning had the privilege to work with three other master students, two of which were Bachelors from the old system, and one exchange student from the same university as I received my bachelor in. It is through the hardships and teamwork I can submit my altered vision, describe my achievements and relate these to my competencies.

In my reflection, I will focus the attention towards two of the expertise areas that I feel contributed greatly to the project and my personal goals.

It is ‘technology and realization’ and ‘user and society’. I will also dedicate some words on the assessment tool that I worked on.

I believe one of the best discoveries I can take with me from the project is the answer to the question I stood with before entering Industrial Design. What is the current state of education concerning tools for learning? While it would take too many words to answer this, the project 48

design for teaching and learning provided me with the insight of the changing methods and different learning goals that fit the new era of information. That is the use of “smart” objects and relying more and more on the use of technology in the classrooms, in which the children must learn to develop skills like creativity and collaboration. Skills that are subjective to the beholder and difficult to measure. Therefore, I did not question the need for a different approach to teach the children about technology in a design-based context.

In our user group the cognitive development of the children are only just beginning to use abstract thinking and must therefore rely much on external stimulation when DBL ask them to, in a sense, become innovative. A friend of mine asked me this: Why does the children need DBL in such a young age? What do they learn from it? I understood his point as design involves a range of skills and attitudes that the children are yet to obtain. My argument is

simple; changes need to happen in education, and DBL provide the best structure to meet these requirements.

Besides, with the right tool such as Techtonia, the children are nursed into obtaining these new learning goals and understanding of the world.

In addition, another discovery I take with me is the mentality when designing for education. In my group, we had the manpower to cover both design briefs and focus on both the teacher and child perspectives.

However, in reality, I as a designer must not distinguish between these two perspectives, as they are dependent on each other. I am thrilled to have come to this conclusion. Design for their perspective. Techtonia is a direct result of removing the barrier between teacher and child.

Along with the development of Techtonia, I focused on the assessment tool for the classroom.

It was a personal goal to explore the assessment methods for the children in age ten. However, I

was slightly disappointed when I realised that no popular tool had yet been implemented in regard to selfassessment and evaluation of the 21st century skills. My own verdict on the self-assessment tool and attached guide for the teacher is insufficient.

I emphasise this because of the importance to aid children at a young age towards an understanding that they can be in control of what skills to develop. Skills that sometimes come naturally, but I am attempting to touch the area of intrinsic motivation, something missing in my developed tool.

Technology and realisation is one of my great interests. Is technology improving? Well, only if used correctly. Therefore, I took on the responsibility to explore the possibilities of using solutions to Techtonia. One of the closest competitor to the QR-code was augmented reality. A technology I have worked on before in an internship for a playground company. To combine

that technology with the very influential attraction playgrounds have on children was bold. But it was right there I understood my vision. Pursue the balance of when technology adds to the experience and understand its consequences.

This happened to be a conservative way of thinking. It was my vision until the point of working in designing for teaching and learning, as I through the development of websites for the concept and, at the same time, disregarded the AR technology, believed the screens would remove Techtonia’s engagement and invitation to be played with. I realise now that the children’s use of technology is inevitable. Digital and physical is merging, and if it had not been for this project, I would continuously have fought the idea of making applications or teaching the children about the role of technology in the world. So I adjust my vision; understand what technology replaces or add, and use this knowledge to enrich the experience in a child’s world.

To understand the user and their capabilities is very necessary.

Especially, when it comes to children.

They possess a curiosity and drive to explore that continues to surprise me.

During the user studies, which I was a large part of, I observed how quickly play and competition arise among the children. Truly, learn through playing applies to even ten year olds.

However, the purpose for making a user test is still of great importance, because I must know what to look for. I take with me the time spend on preparing for the user tests and how to perform the test with a large group of users.

Another competency that relates to technology is the user and society.

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Appendix Appendix - A Lesson steps

Appendix - G Diversity in Learning questionnaire

Appendix - M Reflection placemat

Appendix - B Landscape tile Appendix - C Laser cut files

Appendix - S Final Poster Appendix - H Results diversity in learning test

Appendix - D Script user test 1

Appendix - I Assessment guide

Appendix - E Summery User test 1

Appendix - J Letter major

Appendix - N Teachers guide Appendix - T Blink Material Appendix - O User-test Presentation Appendix - P Techtonia Box design

Appendix - K Workbook Appendix - F Summery User test 2

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Appendix - R project Planning

Appendix - Q Price Calculation Appendix - l Challenge on website

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Appendix - A Lesson steps Introduction

1. Introduction Topic

Lesson includes: First letter of the Mayor of your city with a challenge

Lesson includes: Digiboard: * Introducing tiles and game (small introduction to all upcoming challenges) * Explaining landscapes 3D board * Build your own landscape and city (discussion) Ipad & 3D board * Use Ipad to see your landscape coming to life (AR) * Use Ipad to learn more about the landscapes First letter of the Mayor of your city with a challenge

Digiboard * Introduction ‘problem / challengeʼ * Using a catchy and impressing example to ‘surprise the class and make them curious Ipad * Do exercises with using the Ipad as resource - videos - text - pictures - extra links (extra explanation about difficult words) Paper * Using ʼplacematʼ mindmap to frame information * Discussing and summarize all the things the children learned by using the mindmaps

2. Simple example

3. The challenge

Lesson includes: Taking the “catchyâ€? example which which was used in the previous lesson and address the things theyĘźve learned so far, now it is time they themselves experience how wind energy is gained: Ipad & Digiboard * Building simple wind turbine - steps with explanation are shown on the digiboard - if they really have difficulties they can have a look at a tutorial video on their Ipad Paper * They write down on the paper prototype what they know about wind energy * they build the wind turbine * present the prototypes: the wind turbines get a place in the classroom and the children get some time to have a look at them

Lesson includes: Digiboard * Look back on the previous lesson (wind energy) * Explanation toolkit with basic components (wheels, battery, light, wires, speakers)

Digiboard & Ipad & Toolkit * explanation toolkit windmill - Ipad can be used to learn to use the toolkit * combining windmill with basic toolkit to create a solution provided earlier Ipad & Paper & toolkit * create prototype and poster (poster template) * reflection on the lesson and results (process)

4. Reflection

Lesson includes: Toolkit & paper * 15 min. extra to finish poster and presentation * presentation with ‘tips & topsĘź (poster plus prototype)

* the children also give each other feedback 3D board & Ipad * looking back at the landscapes -> something has changed because you solved the challenge! (This is visible on the 3D board) Looking back on the whole project A letter as sign of appreciation of the Mayor

Appendix - B Landscape tiles

Appendix -C Laser cut files

2 mm MDF - For the plateau and the landcape tiles

2 mm MDF - For the city, the landscapes tiles and the plateau

4 mm Perspex - for the challenge tokens

4 mm MDF - For the challenge tokens and the ground plateau

2 mm MDF - For the wind turbine construction and the wind turbine token

2 mm MDF - for the wind turbine construction

Appendix - D Script user test 1

Appendix - E Summery User test 1 In total 5 groups participated in testing the first two lessons of Techtonia. The test was performed in the school in the time span from 08:30 to 11:00 AM. The five groups were selected from different classes but in the same age group.

The children were greeted by Kim Winters, Manon Junggeburth and Thijs Roeleven. Kim was the facilitator of the user test and the teacher of the lesson, where Thijs and Manon acted as observers and occasionally assisting in facilitating the children. The children arrived in 4 groups of 4-6 to the classroom where a presentation of who we are and what we had prepared for them were held. Hereafter, the Techtonia was introduced on a Digiboard. Each of the 6 different landscapes were discussed with the children where they answered to what kind of landscape the icons represented.

The rest of the user test was moved to the cafĂŠ area with round tables, as other classes would use the classroom. The children received a set of different landscapes and asked to build their own Techtonia.

It immediately created a competition among the groups as to whom could create the best world. The activity itself took a few minutes before the groups exclaimed that they had finished. After landscaping, the groups were given a tablet provided by the school with a QR reader application in order to scan the one city that they strategically placed in their Techtonia land. The scanning resulted in a letter from the mayor where some of the groups had one read the message to the others, while in other groups the other children looked over the shoulder of the tablet holder. In addition, some of the tablets failed to install the QR reader and resulted in two of the groups using a laptop instead.

The transition between scanning the city and thereafter the challenge regarding wind energy occurred a somewhat chaotic as only one QR-code was present for four awaiting groups. However, once the group gained access to the content sites it wasn’t long before they were watching the video and exploring the different content sites.

Furthermore, the children showed collaboration and teamwork while answering the handed out exercise work booklets.

Upon inspection of a group’s answered booklets and finding it satisfactory, the group received the placemat along with an explanation of how to fill it out. A realization immediately followed as some groups were larger than 4 and therefore had to adjust the layout of the placemat. At this point, the children had also been active in over one hour, began to lose focus, and became restless. At this point, a fifth group joined our activity and required a brief introduction of Techtonia and how to use the tablets.

This opportunity was used to test whether more than one tablet per group changed the setting of group dynamics. As the last group started their exercise books the other children were, after completing their placemats, gathered in one group to answer a set of feedback questions about the game and activity they had just experienced.

The user test ended with high fives between the children and the facilitator.

As for the fifth group, the same structure was used for the exercise booklets. For the placemat the facilitator took a more involved role in explaining the functioning of sharing knowledge and prioritizing

Appendix - F Summery User test 2 The first user test was about structure of the concept of Techtonia. In the second user test we wanted to test the lessons about the building, presenting and reflecting. To make testing easier, we decided to do this test with only two groups of 5 children so we could keep the overview. The school provided the materials like paper and glue Because the final prototype was finished now, this needed to be tested as well. So one group started with a small presentation by Kim about different wings and a recapturing the previous lessons about wind energy. The other group was asked to build their country again on the Techonia board. The children liked the new design but they liked to have more landscape tiles of each. They were also putting the tiles on the sides where we thought it wasn’t possible to do that. Because of the laquer on the board it was still a bit sticky, the feeling was not ideal and the tiles were wearing out fast.

The other group started on the simple example which started with a short presentation of the teacher (Kim) with a recap of the previous lessons and introducing new information about wings and wind.

After the presentation the group could start working on the paper wind turbine through a simple example. They really liked this assignment and wanted to make and decorate more. Even when the ‘real’ challenge was being build, some children continued to build the simpler example. After the simple example the actual challenge was introduced: they have to make wings for the generator. The generator has a LED inside which lits up when turning the gear. While building, some of the children began to raise their voices and actively run around so they received a break before continuing. At this point the process poster was introduced. However it received little attention and the children did not work together in the sense we witnessed in the first user test. Lastly the presentation from each group were held.

Appendix - G Diversity in Learning questionnaire

Testen van de diversiteit in het leren van kinderen in groep 5, 6 en 7 van het basis onderwijs Beste leerkracht, leuk dat u mee wilt werken aan dit kleine onderzoek. Dit onderzoek is opgezet door masterstudenten van Industrial design Eindhoven en een PABO student van Fontys Eindhoven. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om een overzicht te creĂŤren van het verschil in kinderen in de klas en het verschil tussen verschillende scholen. Het onderzoek kan u ook nieuwe inzichten geven over uw klas. We zijn geĂŻnteresseerd in de diversiteit in de klas omdat we bezig zijn met het ontwerpen van een nieuwe lesmethode natuur & techniek welke moet passen in verschillende klas omgevingen.

Alle resultaten worden anoniem verwerkt en alleen gebruikt voor onderzoek doeleindes.

Er volgen nu wat introductievragen: Hoe lang geeft u al les?

Welke klas geeft u les?

Hoelang staat u al voor deze klas?

Hoeveel uur per week staat u voor deze klas?

Hoeveel kinderen heeft u in uw klas?

Voor de volgende vragen heeft u de klassenlijst nodig waarin alle kinderen genummerd zijn. Om de resultaten anoniem te houden gebruiken we in het vervolg van dit onderzoek nummers in plaats van namen van kinderen.

Maker

Denker

1 Beschouwer

De eerste invulvraag zal ingaan op de verschillende leerstijlen volgens Kolb: divergente leerstijl ofwel beschouwer, assimilerende leerstijl ofwel denker, convergente leerstijil ofwel beslisser en als laatste de uitvoerende leerstijl ook wel maken/doener. Om u een idee te geven over je het diagram in moet vullen volgt er eerst een voorbeeld:

Cas is een jongen van 10 jaar oud. Voorbeelden van verschillende bouwwerken zijn voor hem de grootste inspiratiebron om zijn lego kastelen te bouwen. In de klas is Cas een oplettende jongen die alle mogelijkheden aangrijpt om met zijn handen te werken.)

Beslisser Cas is een observerend type die een voorbeeld neemt aan andere kinderen en vervolgens zelf aan de slag gaat met zijn handen. Vandaar dat we hem de volgende positie hebben gegeven. (Cas is nummer 1) Pagina 1 van 4

Appendix - H Results diversity in learning test

Appendix - i Assessment guide

Teamwork can be in this part assesssed

Experimenting

Skills to visualise and create their ideas Critical thinking, communication and understanding of the challenge

Knowledge

Teamwork, responsibility and motivation

Attitude

exercises, drawings and design builds

Materials

Assessment; Teacher’s Guide Each project and covered topic that is used with Techtonia deserves a proper assessment from the teacher. This guide can be followed in assessing the students based on their attitude, delivered materials and on their knowledge insight.

Each phase of the Design based learning method weighs the three areas differently and combines formative feedback and hand-ins with the student’s own assessment on performance and progress.

Preperation Try out the simple example yourself.

List the number of deliverables the students create Plan in which moments feedback is best given

Discovery

When using tablets or computers look for who takes charge in using ICT and shares the information

The students will deliver a design solution to the challenge/project and can therefore be assessed on its functions, creativity and applicability.

Placemat and exercise books are used to document their research findings

When using tablets or computers look for who takes charge in using ICT and shares the information

Reflection

They further fill out their self-assessment which opens for helping the students with reflecting on their performance. In return, the teacher can help guide the students towards improving their performance while working with Techtonia

Presentation is a great opportunity to give feedback on their work throughout the project.

Interpretation

From simple examples the concentration and understanding of the student can be observed

Look for patience and helpfulness among the students Interpretation is about understanding and applying the newly received knowledge, assess whether this knowledge is used

Appendix - j Letter major

Appendix - k Workbook

Page 3

Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Appendix - l Challenge on website

The challenge information provide in the form of text The first webpage when scanning the challenge token

The challenge information provide in the form of a video

The challenge information provide in the form of pictures

Extra information about the challenge subject

Appendix - M Reflection placemat IDEE

PROCES

RESULTAAT

TECHT

NIA

Appendix - n Teachers guide Thema 6.4 Bruikbare uitvindingen Les 1, Introductie Techtonia Bijzondere benodigdheden: Om de landschappen tot leven te zien komen, heeft u de Ipad nodig met de app.

De kinderen schijnen met deze app op het landschap en dan komt het tot leven.

Lesorganisatie: Indicatie lesopbouw: 20 minuten klassikaal 20 minuten zelfstandig 10 minuten klassikaal Na de klassikale instructie kunnen de kinderen, door middel van een discussievorm, hun ideale landschap gaan creëren.

Lesdoelen op het digibord: Dit ga je doen: - Je vormt een eigen mening rondom jouw ‘ideale landschap’.

- Je deelt je mening en er ontstaat een discussie.

- Gezamenlijk komen jullie tot een conclusie.

Daarmee ontdek je: Dat er veel verschillende landschappen zijn en niet alle landschappen bij elkaar passen.

Lesdoelen:

Achtergrond informatie:

De kinderen vormen een eigen mening rondom ‘een ideaal landschap’ en komen samen tot een ‘ideaal landschap’.

http://www.schooltv.nl/video/klimaatzonesvan-de-wereld-waarom-zijn-er-verschillendeklimaatzones/

klimaat heeft alles te maken met de verschillende landschappen die er zijn.

Wat is het klimaat en waarom hebben we verschillende klimaatzones? Dat kun je zien in bovenstaande filmpje.

Wist je dat?

Europa is rijk aan diverse soorten landschappen. Van machtige bergketens, tot glooiende valleien, rivieren en meren, zandverstuivingen en moerassen, bossen en heide, stranden, wadden en zeeën. Er is ook een grote afwisseling aan cultuurland (land dat door mensen in ontwikkeling is gebracht): weide- en akkergebieden, oude landgoederen met boomgaarden en waterpartijen, noem maar op. Al die verschillende landschappen bieden leefruimte aan veel verschillende plant- en diersoorten. Deze soortenrijkdom wordt met een duur woord biodiversiteit genoemd.

Extra’s: Website http://www.volkskrant.nl/foto/de-mooistelandschappen-uit-de-hele-wereld~p3747402/

De mooiste landschappen uit de wereld (artikel uit de Volkskrant).

Filmpjes Verschil tussen weer en klimaat https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E7YMd5N7-oM

Zoek het uit bodemonderzoek)

klimaat

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wFpUPpAqZ5w

(zee

en

Appendix - 0 User-test Presentation

Appendix - P Techtonia Box design

Box 1

Box 2

Appendix - q Price Calculation Pricing Model Techtonia

Please note that all numbers in this sheet are assumptions. Still, they help to create an idea of how to price Techtonia.

Current price for a Binnestebuiten Method group 5 to 8 (per student per schoolyear) 7,85 € Price for one classroom toolkit Students Per student Support per year 100 € 25 4€ 25 €

Toolkit used in our test http://www.glazenmuiltje.nl/4m-windmolen-generator.html

Techtonia Landscape model is for free

60 € comparison with boardgame

Costs:

Schools pay for each topic/method per student per schoolyear (sponsorships or funding could be possible) 13 € The toolkit is kept by the school and support is offered as long as they pay The toolkit is offered through a partner like kiwi electronics, who also offers the support

https://www.kiwi-electronics.nl/

Scenario Toolkit

Other 100 €

Costs

Landscapes Support 125 € 60 € 25 €

13 €

Revenue Price

25 Students

1

310 € 325 €

Years Other costs Per student Students Total per class € 5 25 125 € Based on Blink pricing

Appendix - r Project Planning

Appendix - s Final Poster M1 / DP / Sharing Knowledge Design for Teaching and Learning

TECHTONIA With our design, we want to enable primary schools to integrate design-based learning into their curriculum in a meaningful way. We provide an overall framework in form of board, which enables students to build their own world out of different landscapes. Throughout a schoolyear, the students will face various challenges which are introduced through Techtonia. They will work on these challenges in design-based learning activities and eventually change their world with their designs.

We designed one of these activities, which deals with the topic wind energy. We also provide a template for creating activities for other topics. Fruthermore, a business model shows how we create, capture and deliver value through Techtonia.

Students: Felix Ecke, Thijs Roeleven, Manon Junggeburth, Charlotte von der Sommen Coach: Tilde Bekker Expert(s): Expert name(s) Client: Blink

Appendix - t Blink Material Thema 6.4 les 3 groene energie

e D w u o b n e l o m D in w n e e De jongen Die wie niet rijk is, moet Wie niet sterk is, moet slim zijn. En kwamba waarschijnlijk handig zijn. Zoiets heeft William Kam uikte zijn hersens en gebr gedacht toen hij veertien was. Hij ldberoemd werd! were hij r rdoo handen en maakte iets waa

geen geld William woont in Malawi. Hij komt uit een erg arm gezin. Toen hij veertien was, konden zijn ouders geen schoolgeld meer betalen. William leerde graag en ging daarom naar de bibliotheek van zijn dorp. Met de boeken die hij daar leende, leerde hij zichzelf allerlei dingen.

Ik heb de windmolen nog vaak veranderd.

Kleine aanpassingen, waardoor hij steeds beter werd. Ik maakte bijvoorbeeld vier bladen aan het rad in plaats van drie.

Daardoor levert de molen meer energie op.

beroemd

meer windmolens in het dorp. En hij maakte een waterpomp op zonneenergie. Daar had iedereen in het dorp plezier van.

De jonge uitvinder William werd al snel bekend in zijn buurt. Een Amerikaanse journalist schreef zijn verhaal op.

Zo werd William bekend in de hele wereld. Hij won een prijs en geld voor uitvinders.

Dat gebruikte William om kinderen in zijn dorp te leren hoe ze windmolens en waterpompen kunnen bouwen. William kwam op tv en kreeg geld om naar de universiteit te gaan.

Met de dingen die hij daar leert, kan hij nog veel meer uitvindingen doen.

Een bijzondere jongen, die William!

dat kan ik ook!

Op een dag in 2002 nam Wiliam het boek Using Energy mee naar huis.

Daarin stond een plaatje van een windmolen en een uitleg hoe die molens werken. Hij dacht: als iemand deze machine heeft kunnen bouwen, kan ik het ook! En met het boek in zijn hand bouwde William een windmolen van oude fietsonderdelen, planken en afval.

de radio doet het!

William woonde in een huis zonder elektriciteit. Zijn zelfgebouwde windmolen leverde genoeg stroom op voor vier lampen, een radio ĂŠn een mobiele telefoon. Je kunt je wel voorstellen hoe cool het was om die molen te hebben! Dus William bouwde

52

koperdraad

Eucalyptusboom dynamo van een fiets rubberen band

katrollen

frame van een fiets

bamboestokken zuiger ventilator van een tractor

fietsketting platgemaakte pvc-buizen

Deze dingen werkten op de eerste molen van William.

53

Appendix - A Lesson steps Introduction

1. Introduction Topic

Lesson includes: First letter of the Mayor of your city with a challenge

Lesson includes: Digiboard: * Introducing tiles and game (small introduction to all upcoming challenges) * Explaining landscapes 3D board * Build your own landscape and city (discussion) Ipad & 3D board * Use Ipad to see your landscape coming to life (AR) * Use Ipad to learn more about the landscapes First letter of the Mayor of your city with a challenge

Digiboard * Introduction ‘problem / challengeʼ * Using a catchy and impressing example to ‘surprise the class and make them curious Ipad * Do exercises with using the Ipad as resource - videos - text - pictures - extra links (extra explanation about difficult words) Paper * Using ʼplacematʼ mindmap to frame information * Discussing and summarize all the things the children learned by using the mindmaps

2. Simple example

3. The challenge

Lesson includes: Taking the “catchyâ€? example which which was used in the previous lesson and address the things theyĘźve learned so far, now it is time they themselves experience how wind energy is gained: Ipad & Digiboard * Building simple wind turbine - steps with explanation are shown on the digiboard - if they really have difficulties they can have a look at a tutorial video on their Ipad Paper * They write down on the paper prototype what they know about wind energy * they build the wind turbine * present the prototypes: the wind turbines get a place in the classroom and the children get some time to have a look at them

Lesson includes: Digiboard * Look back on the previous lesson (wind energy) * Explanation toolkit with basic components (wheels, battery, light, wires, speakers)

Digiboard & Ipad & Toolkit * explanation toolkit windmill - Ipad can be used to learn to use the toolkit * combining windmill with basic toolkit to create a solution provided earlier Ipad & Paper & toolkit * create prototype and poster (poster template) * reflection on the lesson and results (process)

4. Reflection

Lesson includes: Toolkit & paper * 15 min. extra to finish poster and presentation * presentation with ‘tips & topsĘź (poster plus prototype)

* the children also give each other feedback 3D board & Ipad * looking back at the landscapes -> something has changed because you solved the challenge! (This is visible on the 3D board) Looking back on the whole project A letter as sign of appreciation of the Mayor

Appendix - B Landscape tiles

Appendix -C Laser cut files

2 mm MDF - For the plateau and the landcape tiles

2 mm MDF - For the city, the landscapes tiles and the plateau

4 mm Perspex - for the challenge tokens

4 mm MDF - For the challenge tokens and the ground plateau

2 mm MDF - For the wind turbine construction and the wind turbine token

2 mm MDF - for the wind turbine construction

Appendix - D Script user test 1

Appendix - E Summery User test 1 In total 5 groups participated in testing the first two lessons of Techtonia. The test was performed in the school in the time span from 08:30 to 11:00 AM. The five groups were selected from different classes but in the same age group.

The children were greeted by Kim Winters, Manon Junggeburth and Thijs Roeleven. Kim was the facilitator of the user test and the teacher of the lesson, where Thijs and Manon acted as observers and occasionally assisting in facilitating the children. The children arrived in 4 groups of 4-6 to the classroom where a presentation of who we are and what we had prepared for them were held. Hereafter, the Techtonia was introduced on a Digiboard. Each of the 6 different landscapes were discussed with the children where they answered to what kind of landscape the icons represented.

The rest of the user test was moved to the cafĂŠ area with round tables, as other classes would use the classroom. The children received a set of different landscapes and asked to build their own Techtonia.

It immediately created a competition among the groups as to whom could create the best world. The activity itself took a few minutes before the groups exclaimed that they had finished. After landscaping, the groups were given a tablet provided by the school with a QR reader application in order to scan the one city that they strategically placed in their Techtonia land. The scanning resulted in a letter from the mayor where some of the groups had one read the message to the others, while in other groups the other children looked over the shoulder of the tablet holder. In addition, some of the tablets failed to install the QR reader and resulted in two of the groups using a laptop instead.

The transition between scanning the city and thereafter the challenge regarding wind energy occurred a somewhat chaotic as only one QR-code was present for four awaiting groups. However, once the group gained access to the content sites it wasn’t long before they were watching the video and exploring the different content sites.

Furthermore, the children showed collaboration and teamwork while answering the handed out exercise work booklets.

Upon inspection of a group’s answered booklets and finding it satisfactory, the group received the placemat along with an explanation of how to fill it out. A realization immediately followed as some groups were larger than 4 and therefore had to adjust the layout of the placemat. At this point, the children had also been active in over one hour, began to lose focus, and became restless. At this point, a fifth group joined our activity and required a brief introduction of Techtonia and how to use the tablets.

This opportunity was used to test whether more than one tablet per group changed the setting of group dynamics. As the last group started their exercise books the other children were, after completing their placemats, gathered in one group to answer a set of feedback questions about the game and activity they had just experienced.

The user test ended with high fives between the children and the facilitator.

As for the fifth group, the same structure was used for the exercise booklets. For the placemat the facilitator took a more involved role in explaining the functioning of sharing knowledge and prioritizing

Appendix - F Summery User test 2 The first user test was about structure of the concept of Techtonia. In the second user test we wanted to test the lessons about the building, presenting and reflecting. To make testing easier, we decided to do this test with only two groups of 5 children so we could keep the overview. The school provided the materials like paper and glue Because the final prototype was finished now, this needed to be tested as well. So one group started with a small presentation by Kim about different wings and a recapturing the previous lessons about wind energy. The other group was asked to build their country again on the Techonia board. The children liked the new design but they liked to have more landscape tiles of each. They were also putting the tiles on the sides where we thought it wasn’t possible to do that. Because of the laquer on the board it was still a bit sticky, the feeling was not ideal and the tiles were wearing out fast.

The other group started on the simple example which started with a short presentation of the teacher (Kim) with a recap of the previous lessons and introducing new information about wings and wind.

After the presentation the group could start working on the paper wind turbine through a simple example. They really liked this assignment and wanted to make and decorate more. Even when the ‘real’ challenge was being build, some children continued to build the simpler example. After the simple example the actual challenge was introduced: they have to make wings for the generator. The generator has a LED inside which lits up when turning the gear. While building, some of the children began to raise their voices and actively run around so they received a break before continuing. At this point the process poster was introduced. However it received little attention and the children did not work together in the sense we witnessed in the first user test. Lastly the presentation from each group were held.

Appendix - G Diversity in Learning questionnaire

Testen van de diversiteit in het leren van kinderen in groep 5, 6 en 7 van het basis onderwijs Beste leerkracht, leuk dat u mee wilt werken aan dit kleine onderzoek. Dit onderzoek is opgezet door masterstudenten van Industrial design Eindhoven en een PABO student van Fontys Eindhoven. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om een overzicht te creĂŤren van het verschil in kinderen in de klas en het verschil tussen verschillende scholen. Het onderzoek kan u ook nieuwe inzichten geven over uw klas. We zijn geĂŻnteresseerd in de diversiteit in de klas omdat we bezig zijn met het ontwerpen van een nieuwe lesmethode natuur & techniek welke moet passen in verschillende klas omgevingen.

Alle resultaten worden anoniem verwerkt en alleen gebruikt voor onderzoek doeleindes.

Er volgen nu wat introductievragen: Hoe lang geeft u al les?

Welke klas geeft u les?

Hoelang staat u al voor deze klas?

Hoeveel uur per week staat u voor deze klas?

Hoeveel kinderen heeft u in uw klas?

Voor de volgende vragen heeft u de klassenlijst nodig waarin alle kinderen genummerd zijn. Om de resultaten anoniem te houden gebruiken we in het vervolg van dit onderzoek nummers in plaats van namen van kinderen.

Maker

Denker

1 Beschouwer

De eerste invulvraag zal ingaan op de verschillende leerstijlen volgens Kolb: divergente leerstijl ofwel beschouwer, assimilerende leerstijl ofwel denker, convergente leerstijil ofwel beslisser en als laatste de uitvoerende leerstijl ook wel maken/doener. Om u een idee te geven over je het diagram in moet vullen volgt er eerst een voorbeeld:

Cas is een jongen van 10 jaar oud. Voorbeelden van verschillende bouwwerken zijn voor hem de grootste inspiratiebron om zijn lego kastelen te bouwen. In de klas is Cas een oplettende jongen die alle mogelijkheden aangrijpt om met zijn handen te werken.)

Beslisser Cas is een observerend type die een voorbeeld neemt aan andere kinderen en vervolgens zelf aan de slag gaat met zijn handen. Vandaar dat we hem de volgende positie hebben gegeven. (Cas is nummer 1) Pagina 1 van 4

Appendix - H Results diversity in learning test

Appendix - i Assessment guide

Teamwork can be in this part assesssed

Experimenting

Skills to visualise and create their ideas Critical thinking, communication and understanding of the challenge

Knowledge

Teamwork, responsibility and motivation

Attitude

exercises, drawings and design builds

Materials

Assessment; Teacher’s Guide Each project and covered topic that is used with Techtonia deserves a proper assessment from the teacher. This guide can be followed in assessing the students based on their attitude, delivered materials and on their knowledge insight.

Each phase of the Design based learning method weighs the three areas differently and combines formative feedback and hand-ins with the student’s own assessment on performance and progress.

Preperation Try out the simple example yourself.

List the number of deliverables the students create Plan in which moments feedback is best given

Discovery

When using tablets or computers look for who takes charge in using ICT and shares the information

The students will deliver a design solution to the challenge/project and can therefore be assessed on its functions, creativity and applicability.

Placemat and exercise books are used to document their research findings

When using tablets or computers look for who takes charge in using ICT and shares the information

Reflection

They further fill out their self-assessment which opens for helping the students with reflecting on their performance. In return, the teacher can help guide the students towards improving their performance while working with Techtonia

Presentation is a great opportunity to give feedback on their work throughout the project.

Interpretation

From simple examples the concentration and understanding of the student can be observed

Look for patience and helpfulness among the students Interpretation is about understanding and applying the newly received knowledge, assess whether this knowledge is used

Appendix - j Letter major

Appendix - k Workbook

Page 3

Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Appendix - l Challenge on website

The challenge information provide in the form of text The first webpage when scanning the challenge token

The challenge information provide in the form of a video

The challenge information provide in the form of pictures

Extra information about the challenge subject

Appendix - M Reflection placemat IDEE

PROCES

RESULTAAT

TECHT

NIA

Appendix - n Teachers guide Thema 6.4 Bruikbare uitvindingen Les 1, Introductie Techtonia Bijzondere benodigdheden: Om de landschappen tot leven te zien komen, heeft u de Ipad nodig met de app.

De kinderen schijnen met deze app op het landschap en dan komt het tot leven.

Lesorganisatie: Indicatie lesopbouw: 20 minuten klassikaal 20 minuten zelfstandig 10 minuten klassikaal Na de klassikale instructie kunnen de kinderen, door middel van een discussievorm, hun ideale landschap gaan creëren.

Lesdoelen op het digibord: Dit ga je doen: - Je vormt een eigen mening rondom jouw ‘ideale landschap’.

- Je deelt je mening en er ontstaat een discussie.

- Gezamenlijk komen jullie tot een conclusie.

Daarmee ontdek je: Dat er veel verschillende landschappen zijn en niet alle landschappen bij elkaar passen.

Lesdoelen:

Achtergrond informatie:

De kinderen vormen een eigen mening rondom ‘een ideaal landschap’ en komen samen tot een ‘ideaal landschap’.

http://www.schooltv.nl/video/klimaatzonesvan-de-wereld-waarom-zijn-er-verschillendeklimaatzones/

klimaat heeft alles te maken met de verschillende landschappen die er zijn.

Wat is het klimaat en waarom hebben we verschillende klimaatzones? Dat kun je zien in bovenstaande filmpje.

Wist je dat?

Europa is rijk aan diverse soorten landschappen. Van machtige bergketens, tot glooiende valleien, rivieren en meren, zandverstuivingen en moerassen, bossen en heide, stranden, wadden en zeeën. Er is ook een grote afwisseling aan cultuurland (land dat door mensen in ontwikkeling is gebracht): weide- en akkergebieden, oude landgoederen met boomgaarden en waterpartijen, noem maar op. Al die verschillende landschappen bieden leefruimte aan veel verschillende plant- en diersoorten. Deze soortenrijkdom wordt met een duur woord biodiversiteit genoemd.

Extra’s: Website http://www.volkskrant.nl/foto/de-mooistelandschappen-uit-de-hele-wereld~p3747402/

De mooiste landschappen uit de wereld (artikel uit de Volkskrant).

Filmpjes Verschil tussen weer en klimaat https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=E7YMd5N7-oM

Zoek het uit bodemonderzoek)

klimaat

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wFpUPpAqZ5w

(zee

en

Appendix - 0 User-test Presentation

Appendix - P Techtonia Box design

Box 1

Box 2

Appendix - q Price Calculation Pricing Model Techtonia

Please note that all numbers in this sheet are assumptions. Still, they help to create an idea of how to price Techtonia.

Current price for a Binnestebuiten Method group 5 to 8 (per student per schoolyear) 7,85 € Price for one classroom toolkit Students Per student Support per year 100 € 25 4€ 25 €

Toolkit used in our test http://www.glazenmuiltje.nl/4m-windmolen-generator.html

Techtonia Landscape model is for free

60 € comparison with boardgame

Costs:

Schools pay for each topic/method per student per schoolyear (sponsorships or funding could be possible) 13 € The toolkit is kept by the school and support is offered as long as they pay The toolkit is offered through a partner like kiwi electronics, who also offers the support

https://www.kiwi-electronics.nl/

Scenario Toolkit

Other 100 €

Costs

Landscapes Support 125 € 60 € 25 €

13 €

Revenue Price

25 Students

1

310 € 325 €

Years Other costs Per student Students Total per class € 5 25 125 € Based on Blink pricing

Appendix - r Project Planning

Appendix - s Final Poster M1 / DP / Sharing Knowledge Design for Teaching and Learning

TECHTONIA With our design, we want to enable primary schools to integrate design-based learning into their curriculum in a meaningful way. We provide an overall framework in form of board, which enables students to build their own world out of different landscapes. Throughout a schoolyear, the students will face various challenges which are introduced through Techtonia. They will work on these challenges in design-based learning activities and eventually change their world with their designs.

We designed one of these activities, which deals with the topic wind energy. We also provide a template for creating activities for other topics. Fruthermore, a business model shows how we create, capture and deliver value through Techtonia.

Students: Felix Ecke, Thijs Roeleven, Manon Junggeburth, Charlotte von der Sommen Coach: Tilde Bekker Expert(s): Expert name(s) Client: Blink

Appendix - t Blink Material Thema 6.4 les 3 groene energie

e D w u o b n e l o m D in w n e e De jongen Die wie niet rijk is, moet Wie niet sterk is, moet slim zijn. En kwamba waarschijnlijk handig zijn. Zoiets heeft William Kam uikte zijn hersens en gebr gedacht toen hij veertien was. Hij ldberoemd werd! were hij r rdoo handen en maakte iets waa

geen geld William woont in Malawi. Hij komt uit een erg arm gezin. Toen hij veertien was, konden zijn ouders geen schoolgeld meer betalen. William leerde graag en ging daarom naar de bibliotheek van zijn dorp. Met de boeken die hij daar leende, leerde hij zichzelf allerlei dingen.

Ik heb de windmolen nog vaak veranderd.

Kleine aanpassingen, waardoor hij steeds beter werd. Ik maakte bijvoorbeeld vier bladen aan het rad in plaats van drie.

Daardoor levert de molen meer energie op.

beroemd

meer windmolens in het dorp. En hij maakte een waterpomp op zonneenergie. Daar had iedereen in het dorp plezier van.

De jonge uitvinder William werd al snel bekend in zijn buurt. Een Amerikaanse journalist schreef zijn verhaal op.

Zo werd William bekend in de hele wereld. Hij won een prijs en geld voor uitvinders.

Dat gebruikte William om kinderen in zijn dorp te leren hoe ze windmolens en waterpompen kunnen bouwen. William kwam op tv en kreeg geld om naar de universiteit te gaan.

Met de dingen die hij daar leert, kan hij nog veel meer uitvindingen doen.

Een bijzondere jongen, die William!

dat kan ik ook!

Op een dag in 2002 nam Wiliam het boek Using Energy mee naar huis.

Daarin stond een plaatje van een windmolen en een uitleg hoe die molens werken. Hij dacht: als iemand deze machine heeft kunnen bouwen, kan ik het ook! En met het boek in zijn hand bouwde William een windmolen van oude fietsonderdelen, planken en afval.

de radio doet het!

William woonde in een huis zonder elektriciteit. Zijn zelfgebouwde windmolen leverde genoeg stroom op voor vier lampen, een radio ĂŠn een mobiele telefoon. Je kunt je wel voorstellen hoe cool het was om die molen te hebben! Dus William bouwde

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koperdraad

Eucalyptusboom dynamo van een fiets rubberen band

katrollen

frame van een fiets

bamboestokken zuiger ventilator van een tractor

fietsketting platgemaakte pvc-buizen

Deze dingen werkten op de eerste molen van William.

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