Call for 4-6 thesis workers in Interaction Design (BA or MA), Graphic Design, Product Design and related fields.
INTRODUCTION
Lab-in-a-box is a project aiming the developent of educational materials for primary and secondary schools in the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Natural Sciences, Geography, and Technology. The contents will link theory and practice and will allow for an easy transition between the physical and the virtual through the creation of mixed media exercises.
Furthermore, Lab-in-a-box will be working only with open source technologies (both software and hardware), will become a commercial product, but will also offer alternatives to those not able of purchasing it.
GOALS
The general goals of the project are:
- Introduction of state of the art of technology into primary and secondary education
- Bridging the digital divide in education through the use of open source technologies
Specific goals for the project:
- Creation of a series of experiments to be used by teachers and students in a class equiped with one computer for every 3 - 5 students
- Proposing layout of the educational materials in the form of a collection of books printable on laser printers
- Proposing package design for the whole contents of the Lab-in-a-box, including electronics, mechanics, booklets, and CDs
HOW SHALL THE LAB-IN-A-BOX LOOK LIKE?
It should be a box (literally) containing equipment for a class with 20-30 students to follow a series of experiments within the proposed fields. There should be printed manuals for reference, CDs with the software to be used, electronic components and mechanics for the experiments, documentation and datasheets for those materials, and photographic evidence of already bult examples to illustrate the possible results of the experiments.
The box should be properly layout-ed, with space for all the materials. We have an objective start-up price tag of 600€. The research should include analyzing the possibilities on where to manufacture packaging, printing book material, printing CDs, etc.
TARGET
Target group for this project are primary and secondary schools all around the world.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES
1scale1, as part of previous research work conducted by D. Cuartielles counts with previous experiences in the field both in Spain, and Argentina. Our aim is to start collaborating with the Swedish Educational System during the development of the project as well as continue the communication with Buenos Aires' Regional Ministry of Education.
PRELIMINARY TIME-PLAN
Lab-in-a-box will start in January 2009. We count on having some preliminary meetings with the team members during December. There should be a pilot experiment to be run in Cape-Town (SA) during late February or March. The final result should be presented publicly during May 2009.
The project will continue after that, entering into an evaluation phase and studying methods for translating it to other languages as well as manufacturing possibilities. However the thesis works will be done and we expect to get external funding to support those working with the project from the Summer 2009 as part of a 1scale1 internship.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
The results of this project will be intellectual property of its authors, shared with 1scale1. If it resulted in the creation of a commercial product, 1scale1 would sign a contract with the authors in order to share the exploitation rights of the concept.
All the restults, PDFs, etc will anyway be published under a Creative Commons SA-NC 2.5 license, except for all the software that will be under GPL.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Use this contact form, please be patient, we will answer every one individually. You could also pass by K3's Prototyping Lab and ask for T. Olsson or D. Cuartielles.