Award Abstract # 1735836
EXP: Paper Mechatronics: Advancing Engineering Education Through Computationally Enhanced Children's Papercrafts

NSF Org: IIS
Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
Recipient: CONCORD CONSORTIUM INC
Initial Amendment Date: July 27, 2017
Latest Amendment Date: June 6, 2019
Award Number: 1735836
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Kemi Ladeji-Osias
jladejio@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7708
IIS
 Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: October 1, 2017
End Date: September 30, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $549,532.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $549,532.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2017 = $549,532.00
History of Investigator:
  • Sherry Hsi (Principal Investigator)
    shsi@bscs.org
  • Ann Eisenberg (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Michael Eisenberg (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Concord Consortium
25 LOVE LN
CONCORD
MA  US  01742-2345
(978)405-3205
Sponsor Congressional District: 03
Primary Place of Performance: Concord Consortium
6550 Vallejo Street
Emeryville
CA  US  94608-2175
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
12
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): FY85DRNMJAM4
Parent UEI: FY85DRNMJAM4
NSF Program(s): EngEd-Engineering Education,
Cyberlearn & Future Learn Tech
Primary Program Source: 01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 110E, 1340, 8045, 8841
Program Element Code(s): 134000, 802000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

Professional engineering is a complex, multifaceted activity. Today's engineer needs to be resourceful and innovative, to build models, and to test and improve designs. Moreover, creating a new artifact is often an interdisciplinary effort. The task may well involve elements of computational, mechanical, and electronic construction. As a result, introducing young people to this field is a particular challenge. This project, in response, introduces a new genre of engineering education through Paper Mechatronics, an activity that extends traditional children's papercrafts with novel, accessible, computationally-enhanced tools and materials to create original and compelling artifacts. Through paper mechatronics, children can create true working devices - machines, robots, toys, automata, kinetic artwork - using paper as the foundational building material. This project seeks to pioneer paper mechatronics by various means: through sample curricular problems and projects, novel "smart" crafting tools for paper, innovative design software, and instructional resources. The research will also explore how young people learn engineering with paper mechatronics, and study how novices develop adaptive expertise in this creative and powerful medium. The overall effort will further a style of engineering education that is at once interdisciplinary (integrating elements of programming, electronics, and mechanical design) and realistic, yet also playful and respectful of children's creativity.

This is a particularly opportune time to explore paper mechatronics as a medium for education and engineering. There is a burgeoning landscape of newly-accessible, lightweight computational devices (microprocessors, power sources, sensors, and actuators) that are readily integrated into paper constructions. These elements may now be connected via innovative craft materials such as conductive threads, paints, and inks. Paper mechanical elements may be designed and printed via accessible high-precision fabrication tools such as desktop paper cutters and laser cutters. Design patterns and mechanical building-blocks may be introduced and communicated, and their construction facilitated, by powerful software systems. In sum, the component tools and materials are now available so that youth can create high-quality, expressive, personally meaningful, and even (as expertise develops) challenging engineering projects. Moreover, paper mechatronics has the potential to reach a wide audience in formal and informal contexts because the materials are low-cost, and activities that use these materials can be gender-neutral and appeal to varied populations of learners with a variety of interest and backgrounds. To pursue this idea, this project will make use of workshops and activities at the Children's Creativity Museum in San Francisco as a venue for pilot tests to study the development of adaptive expertise and to gather data on how children understand engineering. At the same time, the project will extend the boundaries of paper mechatronics through the design of software tools, computationally-enhanced handheld devices for working in paper, and experimentation with novel paper-like (flexible) materials for construction. The curricular materials and design software for these projects are planned as open source, with materials using the code to be released under a Creative Commons license, and distributed for free via the Concord Consortium and the University of Colorado at Boulder's Craft Technology Lab website.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Dixon, Colin and Schimpf, Corey T. and Hsi, Sherry H. "Beyond Trial & Error: Iteration-to-learn using computational papercrafts in a STEAM camp for girls" 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , 2019 Citation Details
Oh, Hyunjoo and Hsi, Sherry and Eisenberg, Michael and Gross, Mark D. "Paper mechatronics: present and future" IDC '18 Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children , 2018 10.1145/3202185.3202761 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The Paper Mechatronics EXP project (PaperMech) has advanced theory and practices of equitable and inclusive engineering education using an iteration-to-learn (I2L) framework. The project also created a set of computationally-enhanced tools, materials, and teaching resources to support interdisciplinary engineering using elements of computational, mechanical, and electronic construction with papercrafts. Overall, these tools and pedagogical resources were developed and tested in maker spaces, museums, libraries, community centers, and online workshops. To ensure that PaperMech resources reflected and appealed to varied populations of learners with a variety of interests and backgrounds, the craft-based approach and low-cost materials were designed and refined with input from youth (87% female) and educators,74% of who were women and a majority who worked in Title 1 schools. Both registration for and feedback from PaperMech workshop demonstrated its appeal to a broader population than is historically represented in engineering education and workforce.

PaperMech extended research and resources for creative, narrative-driven engineering to broaden who engages with engineering, as well as what is possible and what counts in engineering education. Research found that for creative open-ended work to be effective, it needs to be scaffolded not just as an entry point, but as an ongoing process of aligning learner goals, expertise and identities with STEM disciplinary practices and tools. By posing iteration as cycles of alignment, not just of product development, Iteration-to-learn enables novices to make use of new narrative-driven tools and engineering practices to form deeper connections and social positions to support longer-term participation in engineering. Research identified effective strategies for engineering practices alongside productive “failure” and alignment of interests and identities. These included using an online simulator and facilitation to support consideration of multiple alternatives and “trial-before-error”, as well as providing resources such as testing stations and paper guides that encouraged and scaffolded novice designers. Facilitation and project structures supported novice designers to notice and test separate parts of systems, and to make “small bets” as they developed ideas and prototypes to keep the design process fluid. These strategies helped learners not only develop knowledge of mechanical and computational systems, but also realize where engineering projects could best fit their existing interests, aesthetics and personal learning goals.

PaperMech has also advanced strategies for asset-based educator professional development. The project has investigated teachers goals and PD strategies that contribute to teacher stretch - efforts to build on and beyond existing pedagogical and content expertise to bring new practices and tools to one’s classroom. Across settings and teaching grade-bands, we found that educators needed to engage in deeper engineering and technology-related learning in order to implement new curricular reforms.  Educators also wanted to engage in cross-disciplinary STEM practices in order to best support their students and to concurrently broaden their own expertise. As with young learners, the creative and interdisciplinarity of PaperMech allowed educators to confidently build from areas of strength and target content areas most meaningful to them and their classrooms. We found these technologies to be particularly important to educators in informal education settings, in rural settings, and in schools beginning to engage with project-based or collaborative learning models. 

The PaperMech project generated and disseminated open-source and freely available resources, including these innovative design software, DIY microcontroller designs, and instructional resources:

  • FoldMecha online mechanical simulator. This open source web-based tool enables users to visualize movements of mechanical parts for PaperMech projects, as well as generates digital files ready for paper mechanical elements that can be printed via high-precision fabrication tools such as desktop paper cutters and laser cutters. Additional files were created for printing gear components using 3D printers.

  • The CardBoard and TinyServo DIY microcontroller designs. These DIY microcontrollers give educators the chance to dramatically reduce the cost of bringing computational crafts to their classrooms, allowing learners to develop hands-on, in-depth knowledge of electronics underlying mechatronics, and also allowing them to bring projects home to share with families and friends. Whereas projects involving expensive electronics often have to be taken apart and/or presented only within school settings, inexpensive microcontrollers can allow projects to act as “boundary objects” that carry identities and expertise across settings, generating new connections and opportunities. 

  • Activity guides, video tutorials, and other pedagogical resources. PaperMech activity guides and videos support educators and learners with themes, activity structures, and scaffolds for engineering design and mechanical construction. Themes supported cross-disciplinary connections (such as the Fun of Flight lesson which asks learners to think about biomimicry and ecological function and form) and development of personal narratives (such as the Mascots and Stories of 2020 lessons which invite students to surface personally meaningful experiences and symbols). Other resources include ideas for adapting templates to varying equipment and goals,, links to mechanical concepts, and activity “placemats” to guide ideation and sketching of mechanical projects. 

These resources are shared on the PaperMech website (www.papermech.net).

 

 

 


Last Modified: 09/10/2020
Modified by: Sherry H Hsi

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