The Earth Day My Carbon Footprint 3D Design Hack Jam for Youth at the New York Hall of Science

This post is co-written with guest-blogger Chris Lawrence, Director of Formal and Informal Learning at the New York Hall of Science

"The Earth Day My Carbon Footprint 3D Design Hack Jam is easily the most rewarding day at NYSCI I have had in a while" Chris Lawrence, NYSCI

On April 22, 2011, tweens, teens and families celebrated Earth Day at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) My Carbon Footprint 3D Design Hack Jam. If you have any hesitation about hitching a ride on the "design jam" bandwagon, then you just need to witness the array of projects and hear the experiences that were had by participants at this event.

The event brought together youth from two NYSCI Schools Out Innovation camps that were running during the New York City spring break. Both camps were made up of middle school age youth who had been exploring in detail themes of the Jam such as 3D design, climate change and digital tools. While the camp was a structured informal learning experience, the Hack Jam allowed the youth to showcase their expertise in a much more free flowing and interest driven environment. In addition to the NYSCI campers, there were also NYSCI Explainers and Explainer Interns who work at NYSCI and are involved in both in leading the camps and participating in digital design projects with NYSCI Education staff. These Explainers ranged in age from 15-20. The Jam was orchestrated by the staff at NYSCI and the New Youth City Learning Network, and made possible by the Mozilla Foundation, The MacArthur Foundation, The National Science Foundation and the Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors. However what made it successful is that the teenage NYSCI Explainers took ownership in the event and acted as peer mentors for all of the activities taking place.

"Today was amazing! I came by the "build jam" today and it was really good. A lot of different events went on, and so far this is the biggest build jam i've been into. I just wanted to blog about what a wonderful time i had and how amazing this build jam was :)" blog post from NYSCI Explainer Intern and Virtual Hall of Science designer Yessenia Bautista

Like a music jam, participants at this event, worked on many different kinds of projects and then riffed off of each other to produce a collaborative online 3D exhibition space with the theme of human's carbon footprint on Earth. The event space was organized around work stations:

NYSCI's Virtual Hall of Science is a 3D world built in the Active Worlds software similar to Second Life. Teens had the chance to work with each other to develop interactive exhibits, scavenger hunts and virtual stories all building around the theme of Earth Day. In order to do this, teens used various technologies including Active Worlds, digital imaging software and Google Sketchup. The VHOS team placed the beginnings of two exhibits in the Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors "wing" of VHOS, a map of the United States and blank gallery walls. Hack Jam participants then researched various temperatures through geological time and placed pinned them to the interactive map. Contests were held to see who could place the most data points on the VHOS map, with 15 being the winner! The blank walls were where digital photos were currated and hung to demonstrate what youth were understanding about their carbon footprint both inside and outside the walls of NYSCI. Funding for the Virtual Hall of Science project is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Virtual Hall of Science (NYSCI)

View more presentations from nycln.

Hackasaurus- This station gave participants the opportunity to learn how to locally hack websites, so that they could remix the content and also learn how to develop their own websites. Hackasaurus is a Mozilla and MacArthur Foundation initiative that helps teens learn how to design and develop for the web. Teens who came to this station made hacks and shared them on Flickr like this:

and some, who really got into the project geeked out and made websites like this and shared it in the VHOS exhibition space.

"Jessica showed us how to use Hackasaurus and delete and change elements of a webpage (locally only). The Hackasaurus Firefox add-on is really cool. When we started out, I didn't know how it worked and actually "went backwards" and made my own website before I learned how to hack an existing one." blog post from Jam participant, Ishum.

Digital Imaging- Earth Day is a time to embrace the outdoors, so many teens left the Jam and took photos and videos outside while looking for examples of our carbon footprint. They then creatively integrated the best images into a photo gallery in VHOS, or embedded into participant created websites.

Paper Prototyping- Some participants wanted to sketch out concepts before taking their work online, others wanted to draw assets to be incorporated into VHOS after they were photographed, and some teens just wanted to use their hands and draw. This station accommodate all of the designers who were interested in mixed media in some form.

The event was intentionally designed to be messy, so that participants could float around from station to station to play, explore and create. The room was laid out with tables containing digital and analog materials. A LCD screen and two projectors were positioned so participants could share their work and see what other teens were doing at any given point during the event. At many times during the Jam the room was a hot wonderful mess of wires, laptops, butcher paper, crayons, cameras and snacks! The beginning of the event was scaffolded so that teens could move around and experiment with all of the tools available. Many of the youth took this opportunity to explore while others had a clear focus on what interested them. Interestingly within a few hours teens were in control and had both sampled at least a few of the activities while also getting down to some serious tinkering!

An unantipated joy was the inclusion of family members of the youth participants. We had teachers who had come to visit their students in the NYSCI Innovation Camps, parents excited to join the fun and many siblings (ages 2-12!) who saddled up to their brothers, sisters and cousins to learn about and participate in all the making. A head count of participants of all ages topped 75 people by the Jam's end at 6 PM.

The event was successful because teens had a multitude of tools and mediums to explore their interests in science, the environment and digital media and they embraced the casual atmosphere of the Jam as a moment to experiment and share. The Jam incorporated the programmatic work that NYSCI and the NYCLN are doing, however both organizations allowed their work to be remixed in the event so that teens and staff worked on different projects and could collaborate in a social setting. The result was that over 50 youth played in different modalities, self-identified as experts in a variety of thematic as well as technical areas, and established working relationships with peers.

What will you be doing for your Jam?

Youth Design Jams 101: Building Your Toolkit

I’m very excited to announce a new series of posts that I will be writing:Youth Design Jams 101: Building Your Toolbox . For the past 5 months, the New Youth City Learning Network in conjunction with Mozilla, have been hosting design jams focusing on developing a youth maker/ hacker culture. In our jams, we have been focusing on user-testing the Hackasaurus tools, learning about our core audiences relationship with computing and developing fun, casual ways for teens to connect while getting messy with code. As a result, we have had many requests from Learning Network partners and generally awesome community members who want to host a similar jam in their local communities.

I will be creating a collection of tutorials and reference guides that will make the process of hosting a jam fairly simple. My hope is that as you read this, and embark on your own youth design jam adventure, that you will contribute tips and ideas that helped you to craft creative opportunities for youth engagement with technology in open design.

Today's Guide is a 10 Step Plan for Hosting a Youth Jam.

A successful jam takes some time to plan, but with a little elbow grease, your event could rock. At least a month prior to the jam you should have the venue identified, the date confirmed and the core planning team more or less in the works. At least two weeks prior to the jam you should have permission slips disseminated. This is particularly important if you plan on having teens engage in open design, where they are sharing their work on the web and documenting their process.

Invite youth and facilitators who have experience in the field and/or with kids and work with them in advance to develop a game plan or curriculum for the day of the jam. It's good to have some people with technical skills on hand to troubleshoot as well as act as a creative support system. Consider approaching local universities or tech organizations to act as on-site mentors. After the team is formed, assign tasks to all of the facilitators in the room. Documentation, Tech support, etc. Don't have anyone lingering- this needs to be established as an interactive/ collaborative YOUTH space.

Hacking for the sake of hacking, can be fun for some- but not everyone. This is an opportunity to think creatively about incorporating technology into the work that you already do. Is there a project already underway in your organization or neighborhood that you want to build enthusiasm or crowd-source data or content for? Remember, the technology or media should not be the theme of the jam, just a strategy for implementation. Some past jams have included: Hacking Citizen Science, Social Hacktivism and Entrepreneurship 101

The goal of every jam is to make something. Set expectations for outcomes so that both the youth and facilitators know the expectations coming into the jam. Reinforce this with publicity efforts and messaging happening around the event.

Working with your team of Superheros and H.I.T's (Hacker's in Training) - plan out the lesson or event plan. A jam is not a class, it is SUPPOSED to informal and playful. However, this kind of environment still needs to be structured- particularly when you are a) working with new technologies and b) planning for youth under the age of 18. Many of the event plans allow for some dedicated instruction combined with experimentation time. Check out hackasaurus.org and build off some existing curriculum or upload your own and get feedback from the Hackasaurus community of educators, techies and geeks.

Define space in the venue that you will be hosting the jam. Break up the space as much as possible. We don't want this to look like a classroom. Move chairs into a circle. Set up a projector connected to a laptop that everyone can have easy access to share their work. Make sure that laptops have Firefox 4, Safari, Chrome or IE9 installed. And if they are using Hackasaurus tools, have those tools up and running in advance.

Make every attempt humanly possible to define the jam space as interactive. Start out with some thematic ice-breakers to get people talking and defining their identities within the crowd. Go around have people say names and a noise explaining how they feel- something silly. Make a Human Hack Spectrogram: put stickies with positive and negative signs at either side of the room and then a neutral sticky in middle. Tell participants they should move about freely and feel that they can change their mind as people give responses. Some intentionally controversial statements could include:

• I think i understand how the internet works

• I think of hacking as a positive word

• I think of hacking as something I want to do

Explain ground rules for the space: 1. Respect- we define respect in this space- dont talk when other people are talking and honor the fact that people have different opinions 2.Inclusion- collaborating can be fun and creative, let's figure out how. Finally, throw in a curveball-if they have a question or there is a word that they don't know - tell them that they should interrupt that person.

Don't hold back! As soon as possible, start hacking away. Bust a hack- on the big projector with participants. Let participants start hacking away. Participants don't want to hear what cool things they can do, they want to get dirty and figure it out themselves- let them.

Let teens work together in teams, and throughout the jam encourage them to take on specific roles on their project (i.e., visual designer, coder, project manager, documentarian).Have the youth present what they did, encouraging conversation about process and techniques! Everyone should share something useful that they learned- only one sentence to answer and if there is someone who said something interesting, shout it out and let them know that you agree. Embed a light weight de-brief into the sharing out of useful things.

As soon as your jam is over, upload your pictures to a public repository like Flickr. Direct participants to resources so that they can continue making, hacking, building and connecting to peers who they met at the jam. Leverage social media whenever possible. Encourage teens to post their work to virtual spaces that they already populate, whether that be deviantart or facebook!

That's it! Now, with just a bit of elbow grease, you have the tools you need to getting started preparing for your jam. Please post your ideas, tips and suggestions in the comments field!

Drumbeat

"No one in this house is going to pick up the phone! ... and if you do pick up the phone, I am NOT giving you dinner!"

I remember the feeling of great joy and satisfaction that I had when my brother and I not only showed my mother how we would connect to the seemingly mythical Bulletin Board System in the early 90s- but how we would get her buy in to collaborate with us to make the experience last just a little bit longer than possible without her. We started up the computer, booted up DOS, ran our dial in program to access the modem, typed in the command line and told it to dial some magical number-then the fun of running around the house like a maniac ensued. We needed to tell everyone not to pick up the phone- out of penalty of death. When we finally did connect to some service, we would type in the user name and password combination and enter this secret world of the Bulletin Board System.

Everyone who was in this sacred space had some interest or skill in common, but for the most part, we would join the community without knowing we were talking to, or what we were going to be talking about. It took a leap of faith to enter this community, and an even larger level of courage and creativity to publicly put your thoughts out there into this void. But, when you did take that leap- it was exhilarating! Here I was, a 10 year old girl, talking to people about computing, comics and just anything that came to my mind. I felt connected to something that was much larger than my living room in Queens- now, I was talking to people all over the world and, even more amazing than that was the fact that they were talking to me! At the end of the day, we would part ways and possibly never talk to each other again, but we had a moment of connection. My family had this moment. These moments changed my perception of the world and allowed me to conceive of the potential for the future internet and my future life in computing.

Since the early 90s, I have grown up a little bit and become a full fledged designer. I now work at the Social Science Research Council on a project supported by the MacArthur Foundation called the New Youth City Learning Network. It was through this position that I was given the opportunity to go to the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival in Barcelona this Fall. Like my childhood experience of entering the Bulletin Board System, I came to the festival with little understanding of who I would be meeting, and quite honestly what exactly I would be doing. Channeling the courage of my 10 year old self- I entered this non- conference like space, and participated in a variety of projects and conversations with people from all over the world.

Since no one knew who I was coming into any given workshop or project, my actions defined me as a "hacker" or "maker". I became one of those people who was using her hands to figure things out. It's funny, because I guess in the Bulletin Board days, I assumed roles or identities as no one was going to remember my name. In the 90s, I was really activated by the ASCII art and making words into visual forms (while my brother found himself entwined in code). Today, I am a designer (and my brother is a programmer) and took on that persona at Drumbeat. The unique thing about Drumbeat was that it was designed to be almost a physical realization of the collaborative communities of the web. Here, programmers, designers, educators and enthusiasts work together to ponder the future of the open web.

I attended a jam session building temperature sensors with blinking lights with the arduino- while thinking about the classroom and educational opportunities for teens and physical computing. It was fun, empowering and super hands-on geekertainment.


I then attended a conversation with Dale Dougherty, founder of Make magazine, and Mr. Maker himself. It was a really interesting talk because we discussed making communities all over the world. I had been familiar with Dale and his DIY and maker enthusiasm from my work with NYCLN and his maker posse at Maker Faire NYC, however we ended up having a great conversation about the potential for maker or fabrication spaces. What kind of affordances do these spaces provide being outside of the school environment? Our group (who were mostly not from the U.S.) wondered if this need for alternative art spaces was an American problem. However, after listening to the full conversation- I believe that this is not about the lack of arts in schools but about forming your own identity through informal learning opportunities. Informal here, being out of the classroom and self-motivated- I like to compare this to the idea of a community garden.


So here I was, in the beautiful tactile Gaudi- crafted city of Barcelona, feeling my way through physical computing projects by hacking into the arduino with a gang of new friends- wondering how I was going to bring it all back to my real world and work in New York. I then attended the session that NYCLN and the Chicago Learning Network was running on local storytelling. It was an awesome session, with a mixture of people from our two networks as well as locals from Barcelona, and other educators from around the world. The premise of the session was simple- go out onto the streets of Barcelona- as a team or by yourself and come back and tell a story that represents your experience of the city. We left the interpretation open and the results were pretty awesome. One group made a poignant 45 second film of children playing soccer, another group used a google map to embed images and stories of their journey, and another team did a he said/ she said story of their time on the streets using twitter and facebook- which culminated in a crowdsourced experience of members from the drumbeat community helping one of the lost participants back to conference.

What was then an interesting turn of events- we then combined with a session on developing badges to discuss how badges could be applied to the activity. So, they used the twitter story to basically "badge".

While this was an interesting experience to be having a conversation as both a maker, as well as someone who supports learning in some form, I have to admit it felt really weird. I had just had this amazing experience crafting the story using casual skills in a non-formal setting and then, it felt like they were just trying to formalize my experience and "grade it" in some form. I am willing to keep playing along with these nascent badge ideas but, as Tim Gunn would say, "I'm dubious."

Regardless, our twitter story won the "multi modal" badge amongst other things. I feel that badges are useless unless they are put out there into the world in some kind of social context. I think that the work that P2PU is doing in now developing out a universal open source badge backpack is really going to help this concept along and I am excited to see where that goes.

Since Drumbeat, I have incorporated this local learning "incubator" activity into one of the youth oriented design jams for our network. This jam is going to be hosted by the New York Hall of Science. Chris Lawrence, the Director of Formal and Informal Education at NYSCI helped to develop the initial concept for the incubator, so taking it back into our own local setting - in Queens! seems not only appropriate, but important.




Another way that we at NYCLN and CLN are bringing the Drumbeat experience back to our local community and world is by developing out a project called Hackasaurus. The Network's involvement with Hackasaurus was really birthed at Drumbeat. The goal behind this work is to create tools to help teens hack the web, and as a by-product learn web design and development. This is a project that is near and dear to my heart because experiences that you have as a teenager- connecting with the world through a medium that engages you, helps you to not only define your identity- but help establish your identity within the context of the world. This was true for me in the 90s, using the BBS, and even more true now with the web. We are working in collaboration with Mozilla, the New York Public Library and YouMedia Chicago, to develop the tools and the complimentary curriculum so that this experience can be easily implemented by any teacher, mentor, parent of teen. The goal for us is to be transparent about our process so that we can engage whoever from the community is interested in collaborating.



At this point we have user-tested in four hack jams in New York and Chicago and developed a small team of teen designers and developers who are going to do user testing as well as development with us. The jams have been an interesting learning experience and I will try to write about them more in another post.

Drumbeat was an engaging and eye-opening experience for me as well as my colleagues in the New York and Chicago Learning Networks, but really what it did was bring back the 10 year old spirit in me. It reminded me of the importance of ingenuity, collaboration and learning by getting messy and jumping in. However, it also reminded me of how as a family, or a community- learning can be even more fun and powerful. My brother and I learned to become designers and developers over time by engaging with the web through meaningful identity building experiences. It is my hope that with the projects that we are developing through the Learning Networks in conjunction with Mozilla that we can inspire a new generation of learners, ones who connect remotely with collaborators, take risks and inform the world of their unique existence using this flexible and definable medium of the web.

Presentation for Parsons

CUNY on Wheels, PS 43, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance and... OCEANLAB

Yesterday we had a great day at the beach with students from PS43Q. I ran 4 Oceanlab workshops and had the help of my mother, Rose Klein- DOE educator. The workshops went well. Each time I ran the workshop, I became a little bit more comfortable working with students and I felt that much more confident presenting the material. Not being an educator myself, I truly admire the way that teachers can calmly talk to children - without talking down to them, or being intimidated by them. Regardless, I introduced the oceanlab website to approximately 100 students and got some great feedback. I learned that students in this school tap into the social networks of facebook, myspace and twitter. Many use the cell phone as means to search the internet throughout the day.

In a formal setting- such as this classroom on wheels- students were most concerned about learning where they could go to learn how to swim. This makes me think that I need to add more links and informal "lessons".

I am thinking of modifying the Oceanlab site to include areas for research and representation of the informal activities- but then again, I could rely on a facebook page to communicate that content as well.

Here are some photos from the day. I really enjoyed the experience of this mobile learning vehicle and am already talking more with CUNY on Wheels to plan our next event.
Look how neat the bus was!


Water safety learning in action.
We parked the bus right next to the boardwalk.

This is Norma Coleman James, Assistant Director of CUNY on Wheels.

Locative Bike Tour

Here are some pics of the Oceanlab Seamonster Summer Bike Quest. Test 1 complete. Still trying to come up with a snazzier title for this bike game/ tour. Below is a qr code that when participants take a photo of it with their phones, they receive a text message story element. Here, participants are told to read the signs surrounding them and to decide whether Shelly Seamonster should stay here for her adventure at the beach or try another location, because she is not a strong swimmer.

web presentation

My symposium talk: Child's Play

Opening!

My thesis process according to Phill Retuta

via his blog

1. Visited every public beach in New York.
2. Asked visitors what they thought about the beach.
3. Began research both on the web and in libraries
4. Compiled the history of NYC beaches and water safety
5. Googled everybody with the terms “NYC,” “beach,” “water”, etc. and made calls and sent out emails
6. Did a lot of soul-searching and got over her fear of approaching people
7. Became comfortable making mistakes, choosing topics, and not boxing herself in.
8. Went crazy.

Oceanlab- Some Publicity

Sooo the web address is wrong, and a few other minor details- but it's press! How exciting- the printed word. :) This was published in the April 9, 2010 edition of The Wave- Rockaways Newspaper since 1893.

Amigurumi!

My mother is quite the craftswoman. She crochetted me an octopus in honor of Oceanlab.

First Official Sponsor

Oceanlab has it's first official sponsor- NextEra Energy. They will be supporting school workshops! Yipee!!!!

Filming for the Oceanlab Videopods

The other day we took advantage of the great weather and filmed the video pods at the beach. It was a great opportunity to talk to some real experts about beach life and safety. People showed up from The Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Reel Works, The American Littoral Society, The United States Lifesaving Association, The Board of Education, The Surfrider Foundation, Boarders Surf Shop and local public schools. Here are a few sneak peek photos. More to come....

Rockaway Waterfront Alliance and ReelWorks

The American Littoral Society

Filming with the United States Lifesaving Association and the Board of Education

Surfboards from Boarders Surf Shop on Beach 92nd street

Some Great Feedback

Last week I had my midterm review for my thesis class and then, coincidentally I had a full out crit on my website in my Advanced Web Class. I'll break it down here, because both crits were really useful and truly helped me take my work to the next level.

THESIS CRIT -( Tuesday)
For the midterm review I had three critics- Anthony Deen, Marco Tandefelt and Chris Prentice. Anthony, my studio professor is an architect who focuses on the integration of technology into his work. He is also very interested in community development and I feel that he has been a good advisor for me because of this innate understanding of the connection between public land and it's actual use by residents. Marco is a physical computing professor in the department, and I think because my project is anything BUT physical computing- he was able to offer up some good outsider advise. Chris, is my writing professor for thesis, however she is so much more. Anezka told us that Chris has an expertise in writing grants, and focusing on academic writing. However, I find that Chris is one of the few people who have really helped me to see the importance of my work and how the message of the project could be extended beyond the thesis.

Okay, so enough with the introductions. Here are the highlights of my feedback:

• I need to present my "big picture" ideas in a different way, because it is not communicating all of the legs of the project. Chris referred to this by saying I need a "30,000 ft map" of the project and Marco said that I needed to do a sales pitch, (which for some reason as I was standing up there made me think of Crazy Eddy from tv- we've got cables, we've got widescreen tv's....)
• I need to give clear user scenarios about the project. What would the experience be for a teacher vs a student?
• I need to describe the different levels of goals for different developmental age ranges.
• Everyone responded positively to my new web design (thank goodness I was very n vous about this) but Anthony noted that I now need to refine it in terms of communication vs. design.
• Finally, as I knew, I need to show some of my user testing.

Overall, all of this was really useful. I am going to make some time to meet with Chris and Anthony to talk about how I can achieve these suggestions, and really polish up my presentation for the symposium. The end is neigh!!!!

WEB DESIGN (Thursday crit)
I have to say that this was a refreshing crit. It has been a rare thing to get specific feedback on my designs in this program, usually the crits are focused on concept- which is fine, but sometimes you just need feedback. For this crit, my entire web class gave me feedback, as well as my professor Jay Van Buren. Jay has worked with a variety of clients, and is known for his work with non-profits and fine art institutions.

Highlights:

• think about the bubble background- maybe reducing the amount of bubbles and adding a more obvious gradient to achieve a "wave" effect.
• ABOUT page- split the page up into three pages. This will allow for tiered sponsors.
• TAGLINE- move the tagline to live underneath the logo. This came up in both crits. Apparently, placing it where I did, above the navigation produces legibility issues.
  
• the crab= "awesome", I need to go back and bring that same animated quality to the seagull and oyster. They don't have the same strength as the crab. (Chris also gave me this feedback so I am looking forward to doing this).
• LANDING page- I need to make the current beach conditions more kid friendly.
• There was also the suggestion of moving the characters to live just off the bubble shape. I need to try this out though, because I am not sure how it will look. I like how the whole site looks a bit like a big sticker.

And that's all. I am just going to keep chugging along and make my way to the end of the semester.

CUNY on Wheels has signed on!

A brief bit of exciting news- CUNY on Wheels will be donating a bus for the Earth Day launch. This is exciting, because the Earth Day celebration will be happening totally on the beach, so we are doing some mock workshops that will be on the beach but then we will also be user testing the website on the CUNY buses. These buses are fully equipped with computers and movie screens so it is quite an interesting opportunity. I mean, check out the bus in this picture- it's legit.

7 Scenes Test

A few weeks back I participated in a 7 Scenes test which was part of a MacArthur grant for a project that asked high schools to take part in making design decisions about the neighborhood surrounding their school. I really love the idea of this project. The test that I took part in was really just familiarizing the students (and some of the faculty) at Taft High School in the Bronx with the technology. We walked around with the kids in groups and showed them how to operate the 7 Scenes program on the Nokia N95 cell phones and then we took a walking tour around the school grounds. Prior to the test, the teachers programmed a 'scene' for the students to try out which included some interesting historical tid-bits about their school and the goal of the test was to get the students to think about how they could enhance the scene, and make it more into a game format. The group of students who I lead were extremely articulate and, exceptionally well versed in critiquing technology.


Projects like this are exciting because they use mobile technology to augment the natural environment so that students can see it with a critical eye. I would like to continue to think about ways to implement this kind of project with students in Far Rockaway. It would be fantastic.

Midterm Presentation

This is my last midterm----- EVER!!!!!

The Swimming Song

Presentation for Parks Department

Quiz Game Progress

Here is a little slide show of where I am with the quiz game. Basically I made 15 questions to start. The game is now not leveled. I need to develop the curriculum and then make 30 more questions - 2 more levels of 15. Also- I need to work on the code, the animations for what happens when you get something right vs. wrong, make an intro panel and design the music. I guess this could also be without music.

My Thesis Process

The Director of the masters program that I am currently in (for only a few more months!) asked me to answer a few questions about my thesis process. It was a little strange to talk about my process and give advice to the next group of students doing a thesis because I am still in the middle of finishing all this! Anyway, here it is. If you are a first year visiting this site- please drop me a line and say hello. :)



A classmate of mine, Clay Ewing also was asked to answer a few questions.Here is his moment of fame. It's interesting to hear what he is up to and how far along he came with his project.

Website Creative Brief

I did THIS creative brief and brief competitive analysis for the oceanlab site. I am going to run this by a few of my potential users to get some feedback.

Peer Review Presentation

The presentation went really well. It was a nice small group of people. Only about 4 of my fellow second years showed and 3 first years. Seriously, I am not complaining! This was the most productive peer review that I have been to. Okay, so I was given good feedback on my website. Some suggestions:

-think about using javascript on the LEARN page to put all the content on the page and then let it jump down.
-think about completely separating the navigation for the TEACH page so that it is not distracting to kids using the site.
-for the exhibition, think about doing a demonstration of some sort- get people involved with the topic- if not the project.
-for the exhibition, maybe print out a beautiful user scenario

I think what was clear about my project- compared to the others in the class- was that my piece is not fine art. It's design. I made that decision for my work and I need to figure out the best way to exhibit it. My classmate Rupa suggested that I check out some science museums like the Liberty Science Center to get some ideas for display. Maybe Ill also take a look at the Brooklyn Childrens Museum.

My QR code tutorial

Review: The QR Code

I recently discovered QR codes. QR codes are two dimensional bar codes that were invented in Japan. QR is short for quick response and these codes really do just that. All that you need to do is take a picture with your cellphone and instantaneously a text message (or whatever kind of message is embedded in the code) will appear on your phone. For me it was love at first sight. I started thinking about all of the possibilities for encoding my neighborhood, writing secret love letters for my boyfriend, or even just for branding and marketing. My only issue with the qr code - for American users at least- is the qr code reader that needs to be downloaded on to your phone in order to use it. Many phones in other countries have the QR code reader built into their applications and such, but for me with my non- ipod phone- it was hell. There needs to be some better system to get the applications on to your phone. I had to hunt down a site that would have the specific reader for my specific phone. This is not so intuitive. It actually is putting a foil on my romantic code letter goals! However, after this hurdle- it is truly a pleasure to play with and it is a fun way to tap into mobile potential without building an appication.

what I am building

Mocking It Up

Updated Site Architecture

Why the change? I realized that parents and teachers (ahem families and educators) needed to be separate from learning for this to be a kid-friendly site.

Site Architecture

I have been tweaking the site architecture. I went from having 5 sections to 4... among other things. I am still trying to think about what can be more dynamic on the site. However, after my thesis I am probably not going to be maintaining this. So- I am just thinking about what existing API's I can pull from.

Website Interactive Research

I have been re-thinking how to use the oceanlab website. At first I thought that it could just be a container for all of the different kinds of media that are connected to the project. However, after some thought and a good dose of inspiration- I have been thinking about more engaging ways to relate the student visitors to their coastal environment.

Here are some of my recent inspirations:

1. NY Times Interactives for the Style section showing people's houses.

This is pretty cool because it is really just a scene that has clickable hot spots with audio, visual or text embedded into it. It really personalizes the experience in a fun way.

2. Lost Here Felt There

This website features an image of a rainforest with a scroll over-able grid. On the grid you have the ability to click on squares which represent acres that you can pay to protect.The interface is really clean and nice, and its informative at the same time that it is getting you to take action.

3. Urban Plough

Urban Plough is a site that uses google map images of a farm and allows you to scroll through and look at the changes in the environment over the years. Additionally there is information that pops up about the land based on the year and then embedded within the images are markers talking about specific projects happening in that location.

game assets and monsters revised

monster mash

So I have been finally making things! I think that it takes me so long to just get in the groove and start. I remember someone telling me back a few years ago that it is part of my process to mull things over and think about it, plan, conceptualize etc. But to be honest- I hate not making things. I need to jump in and just make things sometimes to get further along in my project. This past week I made a brochure with all of the associated art. Making that art was a huge improvement for me. It helps me to see a light at the end of this tunnel that is thesis.

This past week I also met with the Parks Department to talk about the project. It was a really nice experience talking with them about my work and hearing about their plans for the future of the department. Hopefully more soon on that...

First Day of 2nd Semester Presentation

Obituary for Mel Cuba- Lifesaver

This is Mel Cuba in 1933.

I read this post the other day in the New York Times. It is an obituary for a 99 year old (wow!) man who had saved 4 children from drowning in the Rockaways during his youth. The article briefly discusses how these children came to the beach from an orphanage and then they got caught in a powerful wave. It just shows that there is this constant history of stories about children drowning and the "heroes" who from time to time prevent sad endings to stories- but very few about what can be done proactively to fix these problems.

New Waterfront Park for the Rockaways!

The Trust for Public Land recently announced that vacant land at Beach 88th Street in the Rockaways will be converted into a public park. This is going to be an amazing opportunity for local residents and families to engage with their community and the ever-present coastal environment. This is an important bit of progress for New Yorkers connecting with their natural habitat. This project will hopefully ensure that the waterfront is something that can be accessed by people in a familiar, comfortable and approachable setting.

(image from the Trust for Public Land website)