2016 Spring

The 2016 Spring semester brought Sara and her family to the students at CCA. For the majority of the semester, the students worked on the project Sara’s Glove. The class was divided into six groups consisting of either two and three students. Each group designed, prototyped and shipped the prototypes off to New Jersey for Sara and her family to test and give feedback on. Each group did three iterations total with some teams prototyping two different designs at once. Although the project is called Sara’s Glove some of the students also designed soft interfaces made of fabric and foam based on their observations and conversations with Sara and her family. You can learn more about Sara and her journeys on the website friendsofsara.com.

The student project Sara’s Glove was entirely made possible by Dr. Cortney Bolden who is herself a teacher and works with Safe Passage, an organization who also gave us support and empowers the community promoting STEM education for children and young adults. Cortney reached out to me to design a device a Sara. As I was prepping for this class I realized that I wouldn’t have much time but that it would be a fantastic opportunity for the students. After having a conversation with Cortney it was confirmed that the students had a semester-long project! Cortney was our partner on the other side of the country facilitating the testing of prototypes and giving the students valuable feedback as they advanced down their iterative design paths.

Sara’s Glove challenge in a nutshell:

Design a wearable device or a soft interface that empowers Sara with the ability to “speak” using her intentional movements. Use sound bites of words and/or phrases that encapsulate Sara’s needs. Gather data and design by speaking with and observing Sara and her family.

The students had 12 weeks for this assignment.

While waiting for prototypes to be shipped back, the students worked and completed two other class assignments:

  • the Technique Report which concluded in a written Instructable from each student
  • the Dynamic Textile project where students learned about thermochromic paint and heating elements as well as more soft circuit techniques.

Galleries
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Prototype 1 – Shipment Day!

Prototype 2 – Shipment Day!

Final Presentation Photos

Final Presentation Slides

Nally and Samuel

Elle and Levan

Veda and Aditi

Dana and Zoe

Jherin, Klea, and Kelly

The students kept online documentation of their progress and assignments. You can find their pages in the sidebar and here.