Course Content
Introduction
Activities and exercises developed within this methodology aim to increase fundamental soft skills in female students who are currently attending STEM university courses. Following the introduction of "Arts" in STEM - i.e. implementation of creative and artistic thinking - we developed a methodology that helps mentoring students while elaborating different types of projects with the aim to empower their skills through an art thinking process. The proposed methodology follows an input-output process that leads students through the development of a project, where each output activity represents the input of the following activity.
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Technology & STEM
The methodology
WeSTEAM methodology
Useful links
Incubation
In the Incubation Phase the participants carry out research in relation to the topic of their interest and begin to put the foundations for a more concrete and precise idea.
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Creative visualisation
Connections and analogies
Conceptual reworking through photography
Learning questionnaire
Imagination
In the Imagination Phase participants begin to idealize and define the key steps for the development of the project. During this development phase, the first goals and objectives are set.
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Interactive mind map
Your project storyboard
Visual storytelling
Learning questionnaire
Creation
During the Creation Phase, participants begin to concretely develop their product, project, or idea. After a prototyping step, this phase is accompanied by testing moments, where participants begin to understand what works and what should be changed. The testing phase is accompanied by the collection of external feedback, crucial to implement transversal points of view useful for the finalization of the project.
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Shape your prototype
Collecting feedback
Art data visualization
Learning questionnaire
Evolution
During the last Evolution phase participants aim to complete the project and present it to the audience of experts and external auditors. The Evolution Phase is a finalization phase but also a phase that looks to the future, as participants can take the key decisions on what should be changed in order to make the project more successful and to plan potential follow up.
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Strengths and weaknesses towards the finalization
Pitch your project creatively
Wind and anchors of your project
WeSTEAM Methodology
About Lesson

ACTIONS

Prototyping: creating a model of the outcome of a more or less defined level (based on the

complexity of the outcome), but effective to be tested (shown/used/experienced, etc.)

 

SHORT DESCRIPTION

After carrying out the previous exercises and outlining the key steps to follow, it is time to give shape to your prototype. During this activity, participants will have to create a 3D model of the world or scene they want to create. They can choose whether to create it with materials such as cardboard, colours, supports, etc., or to create the prototype with 3D modelling software.

This activity will be aimed at introducing rapid prototyping of immersive experiences. The objective is to build, test and rapidly iterate a game mechanism or project with tools such as ShapesXR, Mozilla Hubs, Lego, paper or a physical space.
The following activity can be divided into five main development phases:

  1. a) Rapid prototyping: Build a small-scale 3D prototype of the world or scene of your concept. Resize it to fit the timescale. Select a key design or mechanism to build in 3D on a 1:1 scale, physical, digital or virtual. 
  2. b) Communication: What does the user need to do? What information does the user need to understand?
  3. c) Observation: Does the experience trigger the things you were aiming for? Would the user try it again? To gather feedback from IRL tests, you need to observe not only what people say, but also what they do and how they react.
  4. d) Fail fast mentality: Things will never go as planned. Tests and failures will yield lessons for subsequent iterations. 
  5. e) Testing: Finding people. Testing. Iterating.

 

TOOLS

3D softwares, Visual art and visual literacy programming software, papers, colours etc, computer

 

DURATION

4 hours

 

SKILLS

Tolerance for failure: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”, says a famous aphorism by Samuel Beckett: this means being able to cope with failures, both on an emotional level, focusing on your sense of purpose, and on a rational level, using failures as a lesson to understand what to improve.

Awareness: in such a complex and multifaceted process, that brings together creativity and rationality, self-expression and decision-making, it is important to keep in touch with yourself: this means being able to understand and express your emotions and thoughts, in order to avoid falling victim to stress and frustration, and to self-discipline in respect to tasks and timelines.

 

USEFUL LINKS

https://www.sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing/sketchup-free

https://stephaneginier.com/

https://www.maxon.net/en/zbrushcoremini

https://processing.org/

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