An Invention the World Forgot to Make That You Want

What's the Point?

To expand participants' understanding of what designers do and who designers are.

To encourage participants to express their "wildest dreams" about inventions in order to validate and confirm their conceptions of themselves as designers.

To help participants begin to articulate their design ideas through sketching, drawing, and discussion.

To help participants select an idea they will bring to reality and share with peers on and off line, by supporting them in making a series of decisions that result in the refinement of an idea as it is translated into a design -- e.g., identifying a need and/or deciding on the invention's function, identifying an audience for it, figuring out the kind of materials it will be made of, its size, color, etc.

To help young designers begin to use storyboarding and animation to show the sequence of functions for their dream machines.

To help participants experience the "safe" design environment of Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ in which ideas can be tried out

What You'll Need:

Pictures that show several different version of the same "designed" item -- e.g., telephones, devices / machines that can fly, clothes, chairs / things to sit on, toothbrushes, etc.

What To Do:

Display the pictures or have copies available.
Ask participants to identify what they see in the pictures. Maintain a running list of their responses. Encourage them to take notes and/or draw sketches in their design notebooks.
Things designed in More than One Way:
- Encourage participants to find similarities and differences across the listed items. Help them come up with ways of grouping similar items and ways of distinguishing among categories.
- Have an open-ended discussion about things that are designed in more than one way. Talk about things that make designs of the same thing different from one another (i.e. size, shape, features, etc.).
Talk about the reasons for inventing something. Ask: Why was the telephone invented? What would the world be like if there were no telephones?
More Who Designs What: This is a good time for participants to expand their understanding of what designers do.
- Encourage participants to brainstorm a list of the different kinds of designers they are aware of.
- Have a group discussion about designers and what they do. This could begin with the inventor of the telephone and go on to include fashion designers, interior designers, graphic designers, etc. You might add architect and industrial designer to the list if no on else thinks of them.
Dream Machines: Ask participants to use their imaginations to come up with the "wildest" device that they can. Ask them to think about inventing something really "cool" that they would like to have and use. Have them draw sketches of their ideas in their Design Noteboks. Ask for volunteers to share with the group. Encourage discussion of the ideas and questions about the devices / machines.

NOTE: Younger participants may initially have some difficulty coming up with ideas. It will be important to help them come up with ideas. You might want to have them imagine a wizard or magician who can invent anything they come up with as long as they can describe it and tell how it will work. Encourage them to think about their everyday lives and the lives of their families.
Sequence, Storyboarding, and Animation
- Focus in on one of the shared "Dream Machines" and begin to talk about issues of design.
  - Audience / user (who is this thing made for?)
  - What does it look like? What size will it be? What shape will it take?
  - How will it work? What happens first, second, third, etc.?
- Encourage participants to think about the sequence of an action in the functioning of this device. What causes which effects? When they have played with these ideas for a while, help them begin to record an action, in sequence, using storyboards. Storyboarding an action is an initial preparation for learning about animation.
Engage participants with Imagination Place! poster -- side 2.
Discuss the steps in the design process:
- identifying a need,
- coming up with an idea for an invention that will fill that need,
- identifying design options,
- designing and creating the invention.
Encourage participants to consider and think about the relationship between form (what their invention will look like) and function (how their invention will work), about the variety of ways they can approach design, and about the intended audience for the invention.
Explain to participants that they are going to decide on a single device that they would like to make. They will use KAHooTZ to translate their initial sketch. Further explain that they will have several opportunities to design devices / machines for Imagination Place! but for now they need to decide on a single idea to start and stay with.

Working with Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ

Review Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ features and functions, with special emphasis on selecting, creating, and grouping parts.
Show participants how to storyboard an action.
Ask participants to use KAHooTZ to build a simple version of the idea they've put in their Design Notebooks.

Tips & Tricks

Further explorations of the technical options that help young designers create in Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ.

Word Wave

Participants visit Design JournalIdea 1: I have an Idea!and reflect on their design process.

Design Xchange

Participants visit Design Spec 1: A Machine the World Forgot To Make and develop their own imaginative invention.

KAHooTZ Help / KAHooTZ Tech Tips

About Animate -- Learn what animation is and types of animation available.

Linking things together -- Find out what links are and how to create your own.

About Stash -- Find out how to store your collection of Xpressions

Search -- Learn how to find other children, Xpressions and icons.

Design Notebooks

Ask for volunteers to share designs from their notebook. For each, encourage discussion of how the designer dealt with the demands of both function and "form."
Encourage participants to make notes and preliminary sketches for their inventions.
Have participants design a new or improved invention -- a machine/device that the world forgot to make that they want. First, participants will decide on their invention and then make sketches and write a brief description of it in their Design Notebooks. Then they'll need time to work with Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ to implement their idea.
Have participants sketch or write a brief description in the notebooks of their ideas for a new or improved invention.

Just Between Us

Give participants ample time and guidance to think about and create their inventions. If any participants seem unable to advance an idea, spend time talking with them about possible types of inventions -- an invention for helping out at school, an invention to help the whole world, an invention to do a job at home, etc. Also talk about ways to fullfill particular personal needs and the idea of simply inventing something they'd really like to have.

It is important for you to find a balance between helping participants and having them rely on you instead of themselves when it comes to figuring out how to do something in Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ. You should know the program well so that you can work with participants as they try to implement their ideas. Sometimes a "tip" you suggest can mean the difference between success and frustration.

On the other hand, participants should be given plenty of time to master Imagination Place! in KAHooTZ so that eventually they will feel confident in themselves as their first and best resource for solving technical problems. That kind of confidence is precisely what Imagination Place! was designed to foster.

Extension

Participants can work in small groups to research the different fields of design, learn about the work, the skills, and the training required to work in those fields. Groups can make presentations that include examples (or pictures of examples) of the work of different kinds of designers.

Resources

Books on careers in design
Mistakes That Worked
Machines: A Book of Moving Pop-ups
The Way Things Work