For the past year, we have been experimenting with how young children play. This time we wanted to experiment with the way that young children play with Air.

The first pilot we tested was called “Ceiling Waves”,

It consisted of a large piece of fabric was attached to the tower, the other end was down on the floor with a handle so kids could experiment making waves. Objects were placed beside it to see if kids could bounce them.

The kids really liked doing this. It was really powerful to see a small child manipulating such a big object. Many kids tried putting objects on the fabric and bouncing them off. It took about two minutes for one child to have the idea to go to the top of the tower. It was funny, because he forgot to bring up the balls, so once he got up there, he had to come down and get the balls – delayed exhilaration!

Really liked the collaborative aspect of this pilot. While one person was up, the other had to be down, and they had to call instructions to one another. While two children where bouncing balls back and forth, another child went underneath and was delighted to see the shadows of the balls bouncing on them.

Another exhibit that we tried was called “Kite Flying”

We hung a kite and let the kids manipulate how high and low it flies. It was placed directly in front of a wind current for added animation. Kids loved pulling the string, often they didn’t even know where the string went. If kids pulled the string too hard the kite would get stuck on the top beam. I really liked this aspect of it. Having the string as thin as it was influenced the kids to be more gentle with it. Although this caused another problem, as it was hard to see and the kids would trip over it. I really liked seeing a kite flying indoors.

Next we tried a pilot called “Air Pump Table”

There were two different sets of “launching” stations: One with continuous air stream, the other with an air hand pump.
The hand pump was really interactive. It made a squeaky sound that the kids really liked playing with. Some kids didn’t stay long enough to try to understand what the pump did, they just ran up to it and pumped it, delighted by the noise it made.

Other children tested different materials to float or make fly with the help of the air. Some kids took the pvc pipe and created an air maze. The kid that was working on this even said, “I like this. It makes me feel like an inventor!”

Reflection Sailing

 
On the surface of the air hockey table are several island pieces which can be moved around to different locations, and a sailboat which is an air hockey puck with a small sail attached.

This didn’t really work, as kids just wanted to play air hockey on it instead of pretending they were sailing from island to island. That was ok. Competitive games like air hockey promote cooperation, among players, which in this case happened to be complete strangers.

Things we learned: air is magical! Ok it isn’t, but because we can’t see it it makes things fly and float, which IS magical, kind of. I also liked how most of the experiences were vertically, most of the things that we tested went up and down, which didn’t take up a lot of real estate and got kids looking up.

We tested a few other pilots which were well received. It was wonderful to see so many kids on a day were we were closed. Thank you to all the homeschool parents and kids that made the long way here on such a cold day!

The question that both kids and parents wanted to know was if these “pilots” were going to become exhibits. That we don’t know, but the behaviors that we witnessed will definitely help to shape the exhibits in the new creative kids museum.

Evelyn

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We tried a pilot during E&I where we attempted to make our own light bulbs out of found materials. Our efforts kind of mirrored Edison’s experimentation with filaments (hair, bamboo, bits of wood.) I’d post pictures only unlike Edison’s attempts this one never got out of the lab (and that’s saying something for a pilot.)

A mind-blowing link Katherine sent me about 10 minutes ago sent me through a spiral of links until a Japanese site taught me the real way to make your own light bulbs.

In case you’re interested, here you go. This one’s for you, Dan.

http://www.hosobuchi-lamp.co.jp/

It looks harder than what we had in mind for the pilot.

hand made light bulb

-dana!

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I had been thinking about using found materials to insulate yourself for a long time. I’m not sure where the idea came from—maybe the unconventional insulators folks use when making Art Shanties (imagine an ice fishing hut covered in a layer of stuffed animals).

This time last year late one afternoon there was a snowstorm. After an exhausting week full of interviewing designers we armed ourselves for an adventure outside. I dressed in some disposable painters coveralls and fishing waders, Kris nabbed some coveralls and a reflective vest and Joleen (a former Exhibit Developer) had us wrap her in cling wrap. We put on goggles and giant sunglasses, grabbed cafeteria trays (we used to have more cafeteria trays than you can imagine) and went sledding. It was super fun, but we all got super cold. We came back inside after a few runs down the hill in the Amazement Park and made improvements to our outfits. Eugene finished whatever he was working on and joined in (with plastic wrap pants) and Katherine wore a giant vinyl caftan that doubled as a sled.

volunteers insulate themselves

A few days later we tested the exhibit with visitors. A high school girls’ basketball team from Lethbridge were the first to play with it. They giggled a lot and wrapped each other in newspaper and plastic wrap. Then they went outside and ran around like crazy in the snow to test their outfits. Over the course of the weekend a few visitors tried this exhibit, but most shied away. A couple of adult visitors walked by and said, “Well, we don’t want to do that but kids would like it.” (By the way, that is my least favorite comment people make when we’re testing exhibits–it is both condescending to kids and the activity.) I tried a few different iterations, but Insulate Yourself didn’t make the cut as a stand-alone exhibit. We’ll try it as a program—for people who share the value that looking ridiculous = coolness it’s great, and a Discovery Leader could spot those groups when they’re around.

-dana

Here’s a video of the NSC Exhibit Developers insulating themselves. Katherine gets credit for taking the photos, that’s why you won’t see her lovely vinyl poncho in any of the shots.

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Everything came from something else for this pilot. It’s a hybrid of two other things we’re interested in: logic circuits and player pianos. We came up with the idea of making a programmable player piano, because (we hope) it will be an intuitive way for people to play with circuits. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow if we were right.

Next, the parts. I salvaged a toddler’s electronic keyboard we already had. This keyboard is a trooper; we’ve used it in 2 pilots and as a sample project to teach soldering. A spinning drum was cannibalized from a seismograph Kris made a couple of months ago out of a coffee can and K’nex. The switches have been used countless times and the thumbtacks had been previously used as thumbtacks.

You can program a song by arranging thumbtacks around the drum. As the drum spins, the tacks bump against levers, making them close a circuit. The circuits trigger the guts of the keyboard to play tones. So if you put three thumbtacks in a row under one lever, spinning the drum will make it play the same note three times.

Thanks to Mark for helping clean up the electronics and making it look prettier.
Come to the Prototype Lab tomorrow afternoon (Friday 12-3pm) to play with our circuit pilots!

-dana!

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