Design Thinking & Gumption - Part 2 of 2
Before getting back to the topic I started in Last Month's Blog Post - February: Design Thinking & Gumption - Part 1 or 2, I wanted to address how quickly the month has passed by and what is in store for April and May. The students and projects were doing well and most of the projects are coming to a close. We are entering a time of Assessment within the Foundry Makerspace. As usual I have posted progress updates along with Photos at the bottom of this post.
This is timely because within the school year, the District goes into the testing mode for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) (Grades 3rd-8th), Advanced Placement Exams (AP) (Grades 9th-12th), and Keystone State Testing (Grades 9th-12th).
The first week of PSSA's starts on Monday, April 3rd and run until Friday, April 7th. The second week starts on Monday, April 24th and runs until Friday, April 28th. The third week starts on Monday, May 1st and run until Friday, May 12th. Then the AP Exams run for two weeks. They start on Monday, May 1st and run until Friday, May 12th. Then the final part of testing are the Keystones, which last for two weeks. They start on Monday, May 15th, and run until Friday, May 26th.
We'll take some time in April to look at testing and the importance of assessment in education. Within the Foundry, we work hard to also provide assessments at both the Program Level, and Student Level. This is a process that addresses needs in 3 interrelated levels. The first is at the district level, as we look at each STEAM Project as it relates to Common Core Standards and 21st Century Learning. The second is at the teacher level, as the assessment of a STEAM projects helps teachers reinforce goals and learning objectives as they relate back to school course material. The last, and most important need is at the student level. By helping students reflect / understand their own acquired Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs.) In are working in these levels, we at the Foundry constantly work to refine, by studying the connections, seeing a process, and amend the related process models. Again, I'll add to this in my April blog post.
Feel free to skip down to the bottom of this post to see STEAM Making is happening at Camp Curtin Academy Middle School and SciTech High School.
Okay back to the topic of Design Thinking and Gumption. Whenever I work with students on project based learning tasks, or when Design Thinking is involved, I can’t help but think about the term Gumption. Dictionary.com has 3 definition types for this word.
initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness:
courage; spunk; guts:
common sense; shrewdness.
It wasn’t until I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that the term really impacted my perspective of making things. It shows up in Chapter 26, where the the Narrator presents his views on gumption in a mental Chautauqua. Here is an excerpt from p. 272.
“I like the word ‘gumption’ because it’s so homely and so forlorn and so out of style it looks as it it needs a friend and isn’t likely to reject anyone who comes along. It’s an old Scottish word, once used a lot by pioneers, but which, like ‘kin,’ seems to have all but dropped out of use. I like it also because it describes exactly what happens to someone who connects with Quality. He gets filled with gumption
The Greeks called it enthusiasmos, the root of ‘enthusiasm,’ which means literally ‘filled with these,’ or God, or Quality. See how that fits?
A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit around dissipating and stewing about things. He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting ti when it comes. That’s gumption.”
So this term stuck with me during my architectural education because it provided a perspective to push through Creative Blocks the “inability to access one’s internal creativity.” Anytime I reached a point of “I Quit!” I would remember that this was just a minor setback and that I needed to push on. Gumption plays a very key role in the Design Thinking process because there are goals, and to reach those goals, any impediments need to be overcome. This is not easy.
A very familiar example of this comes to mind in J. Howard Miller’s 1943, “We Can Do It!” / “Rosie the Riveter” WWII wartime propaganda poster. There is an interesting side history to this poster as it relates to Naomi Parker-Fraley as the history about it was lost for 7 decades. More about Naomi Parker-Fraley can be found at her website. This image connects well with Women’s History Month, which from 1988 has been celebrated by all U.S. Presidents.
Pirsig’s Narrator continues in the book and relates gumption and quality. That is a topic for another day in the area of making. In my opinion there are two main take aways from the Narrator’s discourse on Gumption. First, that in any endeavor one must recognize the potential for “Gumption Traps.” These, like the Creative Blocks, impeded the process of fixing a problem. This can be applied to any task that might be in front of us. It could be a school paper, a problem with a robot, an issue in filming a segment for a broadcast. The Narrator discusses the concept in the view of repairing motorcycles in an excerpt from p. 274.
“But there’s another kind of detail that no shop manual goes into but that is common to all machines and can be given here. This is the detail of the Quality relationship, the gumption relationship, between the machine and the mechanics, which is just as intricate as the machine itself. Through the process of fixing the machine things always come up, low-quality things, from a dusted knuckle to an accidentally ruined ‘irreplaceable’ assembly. These drain off gumption, destroy enthusiasm and leave you so discouraged you want to forget the whole business. I call these things ‘gumption traps.’
There are hundreds of different kinds of gumption traps, maybe thousands, maybe millions. I have not way of knowing how many I don’t know. I know it seems as though I’ve stumbled into every kind of gumption trap imaginable. What keeps me from thinking I’ve hit them all is that with every job I discover more. Motorcycle maintenance gets frustrating. Angering. Infuriating. That’s what makes it interesting.”
The second takeaway of the Narrator’s discussion of the word gumption is that gumption must be refreshed or refilled. If we have a low level of internal gumption, a low level of “psychic gasoline” we won’t be able to push through Gumption Traps. I find this extremely important during the making process. If I were to reach a point that I cannot get past, I sometimes fine gumption kicking in. This could be when working with computers that are not doing what I would like them to do, or in construction a part. In the area of 3D Printing, gumption is necessary because of the high possibility of failure. I aways remind myself and students of my favorite quotes, by Mythbuster’s Adam Savage, “failure is always an option.” It helps me to keep the perspective that I should be reflecting on what could be learned from a failure, whether it is my own, or someone else’s. An excerpt from p. 273 continues on the process of gumption filling.
“The gumption-filling process occurs when one is quiet long enough to see and hear and feel the real universe, not just one’s own stale options about it. But it’s nothing exotic. That’s why I like the word.
You see it often in people who return from long, quiet fishing trips. Often they’re a little defensive about having put so much time to ‘no account’ because there’s no intellectual justification for what they’ve been doing. But the returned fisherman usually has a peculiar abundance of gumption, usually for the very same thing he was sick to death of a few weeks before. He hasn’t been wasting time. It’s only our limited cultural viewpoint that makes it seem so.
If you’re going to repair a motorcycle, and adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven’t got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they won’t do you any good.
Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going. If you haven’t got it there’s no way the motorcycle can possibly be fixed. But if you have got it and know how to keep it there’s absolutely no way in this whole world that motorcycle can keep from getting fixed. It’s bound to happen. Therefore the thing that must be monitored at all times and preserved before anything else is gumption.”
I recommend reading more of the book as the Narrator discusses his idea of a college level class called “Gumptionology 101.” Pirsig’s writing is very though provoking. Looking back at it over 25 years later, it still has an impact in how I work. This is where it relates to Design Thinking. In any making endeavor one should develop their own process or workflow. Whatever you would like to call it. It is your own creativity that nobody else can do for you or more importantly take away. It will separate yourself from those who can’t keep things together to push pass the “gumption traps.” In the 21st century, it cannot be stated enough, that this is an extremely valuable skill.
STEAM Making @ Camp Curtin Academy Middle School
SCIENCE:
Trout in the Classroom
This has been a pretty normal month for the fish in Room 308. They continue to grow and Ms. Estright's students continue to monitor the chemical levels and take care of cleaning the tank. There have been a couple more fish that have died. During a spot count, I noted about 55-60 fish. That doesn't include the 8 that took a scooter ride to SciTech on Friday, March 17th. See the story below in the SciTech TIC Section. On Monday, April 10th, the fish will be taking a bus ride over to Messiah College to be released in the Yellow Breeches Creek. This is our combined Trout in the Classroom Release Day. Here a group of students from the science classes of Camp Curtin Academy MS, Marshall Math and Science Academy MS, and SciTech HS will be saying goodbye to their friends. The students will also be visiting the college's Oakes Museum of Natural History.
TECHNOLOGY:
Robotics Club
This spring the Robotics Club just didn't get a chance to start. We've been looking for a Lead Teacher to provide guidance in this area. We are trying to meet to plan out some Summer Workshops that will link to the existing equipment in the STEM Lab that was established this year. The STEM Instructor, Ms. Monaghan, and I hope to outline some goals for the 2017-2018 school year. In the mean time, if you are a student looking to get into robotics, you should check out NASA's Robotics Alliance Project. Gillian Pemberton of Fractus Learning has a great list of 11 Build Your Own Robot Kits for Kids. These kits tend to range from $100-$300. One type that we have used at the Foundry Makerspace is the Ozobot, which is pretty reasonably priced for parents.
ARTS:
AV Studio Morning Broadcasting
The Third Marking Period created a shift in the students working in the AV Studio. Because of the way the schedule works, some of the students have moved on to another interest group. There were 4 students that remained to show the new students how to run the equipment. The students are looking forward to the next Sports Challenge so they can get behind the camera and film their school. The students have been brainstorming on how to modify the intro reel to include the new students. Ms. Monaghan has also begun to recruit an AV Crew for next year. If you are interested, please stop by the CCA STEM Lab in the Library.
STEAM Making @ SciTech High School
SCIENCE:
Trout in the Classroom
On the evening of Monday, March 13 the warm weather that we were experiencing was interrupted by a Nor-easter Blizzard. This provided 3 Snow Days for the Harrisburg School District. I finally got back to into the both of the schools on Friday, March 17th. During this pause from the snow, I was able to coordinate a TIC Fish Transfer from CCA to SciTech. This happened on the 17th and the 8 trout traveled in the storage area of my scooter. Ms. Sunada Roberts and her class were able to receive the fish. None of the fish that they received in November made it through the winter. Ms. Roberts' group of students will be joining the other students at Camp Curtin Academy MS and Marshall Math and Science Academy MS on the April 10th Trout in the Classroom Release Day at Messiah College.
TECHNOLOGY:
Scibots Robotics Team
With the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge Season completed on Saturday, 2/25 in York, PA, the SciBots Robotics Team shifted their focus onto the 3rd Annual Harrisburg High School Arts Celebration of the Arts. Mr. Steps was asked to be included in this event, demonstrated the art of robotics. If you are wondering how robotics and art mix, I suggest you read my Foundry Makerspace blog post from February. In the post I discuss how making relates to Design Thinking. The SciTech Faculty and Foundry Makerspace members showed their creative skills by building little "SciBugs" for the sign display.
ARTS:
AV Studio Morning Broadcasting
George Elo has been working through Broadcast Curriculum in teaching students the essentials of news and reporting. He is teaching them the basics of what makes news and how to write stories. The technical side of putting together a broadcast is the easy part. The difficulty is in putting together all the pieces for the news. He and the students visited the WITF News Studio during the middle of March. The opportunity to visit an actual newsroom really left an impact on the students.
STEAM Making @ Susquehanna Art Museum
Art & Technology
The connection to SAM started back in November of 2016 when Ross Tyger, the Director of the VanGo traveling exhibit, reached out to me about my current work in 3D printing. Ross was putting together a traveling exhibit for the VanGo that highlighted how Art & Technology are intertwined. I discussed the practical engineering work at SciTech in helping the SciBots Robotics Club build parts for their robot. During the school year I was trying to go beyond the “printing of plastic trinkets” that I saw being done with most 3D printers.
Because of my background in Architecture and Urban Design, I had been following 3D printing since I saw the first Fused Filament Fabrication at MIT in 1998. I remember stopping in at the Architectural Department HQ and William Mitchell (Dean of the Architecture Department) invited me and a few other students to the side outside his office as he held a 3D printed temple in the palm of his hand. He explained that the Department had acquired their first 3D printer (probably not the first on the campus) and planned to use it for a Los Angeles studio project that Frank Gehry would be teaching through Distance Learning. Distance Learning was the early term for Online Learning in the '90s, that has been popularized in online education (synchronous and asynchronous.) I remember seeing the printer in action as the students printed a 3D site model from plastic, which consisted of 8”x8” tiles. They were joined together to fill a 4’x4’ space.
While I was teaching architecture and GIS classes at HACC back in 2010, I decided to order Makerbot’s Thing-O-Matic for the architectural studio. This is where I learned the practical application of 3D printing. My brother, Kevin Shoaff, a former student, John Tunney, and I built the device and managed to get it printing in 2011. Since then I have been working to help students build their visual communication and design thinking skills. As you know through previous Foundry Makerspace blog posts, I see these as essential skills for the 21st Century - in the areas of Virtual Reality and 3D Printing.
Ross has been printing away with the DeltaPrintr Go, that we purchased to be used at SAM and be part of VanGo's Art and Technology traveling exhibit. Approximately 10,000 students in the Central PA region will learn more about how technology can be a tool just like a pencil, paintbrush or camera.
During the month of March, Ross has spent his time printing sections of a sculpture to display in the lobby of SAM. Some of these prints take 4-6 hours to complete. It is a pretty impressive work of art. Please stop by, but don’t tell him that I’ve given the answer to the unknown sculpture - The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike of Samothrace, the Hellenistic sculpture of Nike - the winged goddess of victory)