Paper ID #16495

MAKER: It’s Alive! Super Low-Cost Hands-On Activities for Public Engi-neering Outreach to Build STEM Literacy

Dr. Micah Lande, Arizona State University, Polytechnic

Micah Lande, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering pro-grams at The Polytechnic School in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2016

MAKER: It’s Alive! Super Low-Cost Hands-On Activities for Public Engineering Outreach to Build STEM Literacy

Introduction Making is a growing movement comprised of Do-It-Together and building shared activities and projects. The classic Frankenstein story is emblematic of making both thematically as combining physical parts (such as Frankenstein’s Monster) as well as an evolution of a shared cultural story and touchstone (the book adapted to stage to movies). The 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein1 will be observed in 2018, giving reason enough to make such connections. Frankenstein, both in story and evolution, demonstrate “additive innovation”2. Interest in Frankenstein supports further research efforts to communicate and raise conversation about the social-technical literacy that will be developed as part of a larger project to build a transmedia museum. Guided by a learning framework and goals and outcomes to foster a public discussion of science, technology and society, a set of super low-cost, hands-on activities is imagined to support a larger effort exploring the popularity and utility of the Frankenstein story to build science, technology, and engineering literacy. This paper describes some of that thinking as well as one specific activity developed around a scribbling bot deployed in engineering outreach settings to support such a dialogue in the public about science and technology. Art Bots and Scribbling Machines There is quite a library of hands-on activities to demonstrate and explore introductory making activities3. San Francisco’s Exploratorium has developed quite a library of such activities meant for museum visitors and teacher professional development. A popular activity shared by the Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio is the scribbling machine, with instructions available online4. Suggested materials include a small motor and AA battery, along with a plastic container or strawberry basket, along with office supplies like tape, binder clips and rubber bands. For an individual with some understanding of electronics and a dexterity to connect wires themselves, this is a creative endeavor. Trying to scale up to a large group activity incurs cost ($3/motor) as well as in person oversight needed to make a good tinkering experience. The contraption build vibrates around and draws circles and scribbles on a table top. In support of our larger public science and technology literacy research project, we started with this activity as designed by colleagues at the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium and redesigned it to be able to scale and be sustained without much oversight, to be deployed at a wide range of events. It’s Alive: the Scribble-Bot The Scribble-Bot was then assembled to be accessible to all ages and be a reasonable and accessible set of materials. We replaced the motor-battery-switch setup with electric toothbrushes found at a dollar store. This made it easier for even the smallest participants to get their creature going. Additional materials were a foam noodle cut to a 6” length to house the toothbrush on the hollow inside and the markers on the outside. Markers from the dollar store

were purchased with rubber bands. We also gathered paper, googly eyes, stickers, toothpicks and other craft materials like feathers for decoration.

Table 1. Bill of materials and cost for Art Bots

scribbling machine $3.00 motor $0.50 battery $0.25 basket $0.10 rubber band $0.05 offset weight

scribble-bot $1.00 electric toothbrush $0.20 foam pool noodle $0.10 rubber band -- craft supplies

In preparation for outreach events, we divided up the fabrication steps into 4 working stations. Beard5 describes in depth our outreach activities and overall motivation to explore a theme of “It’s Alive!” directly connected to our larger Frankenstein theme. Step 1: Create Step 1.1 Make a creature out of a pool noodle! Use rubber bands to attach three or four markers. These will be your creature’s “legs.” The drawing tips of the markers should face down and extend past the bottom of the tube.

Step 1.2 Decorate your creature! What do you want it to look like?

Reflective Questions We asked “What kind of creature did you make?” and “What is its personality?”

Step 2: Animate Step 2.1 Turn on an electric toothbrush and put it inside the pool noodle. The brush side should face down – you’re going to use it to give your creature a “spark of life.” (You’ll borrow the toothbrush while you’re here, then return it for others to use.)

Step 2.2 Take a worksheet and set it on the table. Uncap the markers and place your creation on the paper. What happens?

Reflective Questions We asked specific to this step “Is your scribbler really alive? Why or why not?,” “Are its scribbles ‘art’? If so, who is the artist – you or your creature?,” and “What is your scribbler turned on by itself and drew on something important? As its creator, would you be responsible?” Step 3: Share Step 3.1 Start an online profile for your scribbler! See event volunteer to help you.

Step 3.2 Later you can go to itsalive.frankenstein.asu.edu to claim your scribbler and add it to our online gallery.

Step 4: Collaborate Step 4.1 Contribute to our giant scribble! You can try adjusting the markers to get different kinds of designs. When you’re done, return your toothbrush and get your scribble sheet embossed.

Creatures Created As part of the outreach activity, the young participants (with assent and consent from parents) were asked to talk about their creatures. As reported by Beard5,

§ 57% reported that their creature was alive

§ 86% reported that the scribbles were art, created solely by the creature (and not them)

§ 50% reported that they would take responsibility for their creature’s positive impact on the world

§ 51% reported that they would take responsibility for their creature’s destructive

impact

Example Pairs of Bots and Scribbles

Figure 1. Example Scribble-bots and drawings.

The Frankenstein Story The classic Frankenstein story is of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his efforts to build his creature Frankenstein’s monster, from an assemblage of human parts. Over the course of multiple years, the doctor tries to collect and reanimate life. The origin story comes from a dare by fellow writer Lord Byron to write a horror story amongst their cadre, including Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s story grew into Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, without her name as author, and in 1823 with her name as author. The bricolage6 of life in the story parallels the tinkering or hacking in the engineering space. Additionally, the Franken- meme has been used to describe the unnatural and harmful results from overextending science into nature, such as with Frankenfoods to describe genetically modified foods. The Frankenstein Evolution Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was first published as a book, with some subsequent publications with minor changes to the tome. In short order, plays of Frankenstein were staged with changes small and large to the plot and characters. The 1931 Universal Studios movie Frankenstein5 further added to the canon, inventing an assistant and bringing forward Boris Karloff’s green skinned, flat top head image that has become part of the public consciousness. The doctor’s assistant, in this movie called Fritz but later called Igor, for example, did not appear in the original Shelley book but rather was an invention in this movie. Subsequent Universal monster movies included The Bride of Frankenstein, The Return of Frankenstein, etc. Further instances of the Frankenstein creature in popular culture include The Munsters television show. Additive Innovation Characteristics of additive innovation2 describes the open community of sharing and learning that is in the Maker community. Introduced in this paper as an umbrella concept, Additive Innovation is a mode of collaboration where participants in a community are:

a) inspired by shared artifacts/ideas, b) openly share (and learn about) technology and processes used to create these,

artifacts/ideas, c) design and prototype own modified version of the shared artifact/idea, and d) share their modified artifact/idea back with the community.

The community design process in Figure 1 from the Maker community can illustrate these steps in an additive innovation process.

Figure 2. Additive Innovation Mindset Community Design Principles, from 2 This can be illustrated in the context of the Frankenstein story to create, animate, collaborate and share. Passages from the original novel are listed in Table 2.

Table 2: Examples of Aspects of Additive Innovation Illustrated with Frankenstein Quotes

Create

The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover. [1]

Animate I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet [1, p. 44]

Collaborate A man would make but a very sorry chemist, if he attended to that department of human knowledge alone [1, p. 35]

Share None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science. [1, p.36]

Key Questions and Concepts Our key questions and concepts include driving questions about

§ What is life? § How do humans change life on Earth? § What is our responsibility to other creatures? § What makes us human?

These key questions are imagined in the context of the novel Frankenstein and its evolutions.

1. Inspiring Community

2. Sharing & Learning

Recipes

3. Iterating on Designs

4. Sharing Artifacts

Fostering Science, Technology, and Engineering Literacy The context of Frankenstein is a theme that allows for many means for engaging possible participants in relevant and meaningful ways to support and foster the development of science, technology and engineering literacy. In particular, there is a plentiful opportunity to introduce a discussion through hands-on making activities in concert with these questions. References 1. Shelley, M. W. (2008). Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus 1818. Engage Books. 2. Jordan, S. & Lande, M. (2016). Additive Innovation: Radical Collaboration in Design

Thinking and Making. International Journal of Engineering Education. 32-2. May/June. 3. Maker Education Initiative (n.d.). Maker Ed Resource Library. Retrieved February 1, 2016

from http://makered.org/resources/. 4. The Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium (n.d.). Scribbling Machines. Retrieved February

1, 2016 from http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/scribbling-machines. 5. Beard, B. (2016). Teaching Bioethics with Pool Noodles. Retrieved from:

https://medium.com/imaginary-papers/teaching-bioethics-with-pool-noodles-ec9723baeea8#.jk87xmyyz.

6. Louridas, P. (1999). Design as bricolage: anthropology meets design thinking. Design Studies, 20(6), 517-535.

7. Frankenstein [Motion picture]. (1931). Universal.

Appendix: Project Handout

Make a Scribbler!

START

Gather the following materials: ! Foam pool noodle cut to a 6-inch length (the kind that is hollow, like a tube) ! Skinny markers ! Rubber bands ! Plain paper ! Googly eyes, stickers, and other craft materials for decoration ! Electric toothbrush (with battery)

CREATE

1. Make a creature! Use rubber bands to attach three or four markers to the pool noodle. These will be your creature’s “legs.” The drawing tips of the markers should face down and extend past the bottom of the tube.

2. Decorate it! What do you want it to look like? ANIMATE 3. Turn on the electric toothbrush and put it inside the pool

noodle. The brush side should face down.

4. Uncap the markers and place your creature on a sheet of paper. What happens?

REFLECT Is your scribbler really alive? Why or why not?

Are its scribbles “art”? If so, who is the artist—you or your creature?

What if it turned on by itself and scribbled on something important? As its creator, would you be responsible? SHARE

Share your scribbler and drawing on social media!

! Use the tag #ItsAlive to post pictures

! Search for other scribblers and drawings using #ItsAlive

TRY MORE! Visit our website: ItsAlive.frankenstein.asu.edu

! See what was made at the ASU Night of the Open Door

! Vote for the best scribbler and drawings

! Write a six word story about your creation

! Take a quiz—can you guess who made different works of art?

! Sign up to get future updates on this project