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

Finalizing: completing the outcome at its highest possible level of definition

 

SHORT DESCRIPTION

During this activity, participants will try to create two different systems that will enable them to understand what steps they need to take in order to optimally complete their project. This activity will help them take the final decisions on their project and then subsequently continue with its finalization. 

During this workshop, participants will first create an influence diagram and then transform their influence diagram into a moving kinetic sculpture. 

In this way, they will visualize how their final decisions will influence and balance each other, leading them to come up with the best solution to finalize their project. 

 

Influence diagram.

Specifically, an influence diagram is a graph that visualizes the factors that influence a decision at a high level. This diagram will be able to elaborate a high-level overview of the key decisions participants should take regarding the project. It will be able to define which are the best decisions to take, the factors that can or cannot be controlled and the possible results that can be achieved. 

To elaborate the influence diagram, participants should take into consideration the feedback received during the previous focus group activity.

In the influence diagram they should bring together both the feedback received and their personal reflections. This information contained in a diagram will help to divide each action into categories in order to be able to make the best decisions for the finalization of the project. 

What do we do? a random variable – What is the result? and a final evaluation – Do we like it? 

 

Mobile kinetic sculpture.

Mobile sculptures are suspended sculptures that can move through the air. To be constructed, a balance between the various forces in the sculpture is required. In particular, these sculptures consist of layers of suspended and balanced rods from which, in turn, objects are hung. Observing a moving sculpture, one might wonder how it remains balanced, even when it is in motion. 

In this activity, participants will use the information obtained in the influence diagram and create their own moving sculpture.

The mobile will help them artistically visualize how their decisions/outcomes influence each other and how they balance each other.

 

Once this process has been completed and once they have identified what to improve, participants must finish and finalize their project before the following activity.

 

TOOLS

Heavy construction paper/cardstock, Hole punch, Pen, Markers, Scissors, Tape, String, thin wire

 

DURATION

6 hours

 

SKILLS

Observation: having delivered the message does not mean having closed off communication with the outside world; on the contrary, this is the phase in which you can collect the most interesting feedback: this means knowing how to observe the reactions to your work, both taking an empathic point of view and setting up monitoring tools and actions.

Passion: if you can’t teach someone to be passionate about something, you can certainly practice finding a passionate approach to your work: this means being able to identify what about the creative process has most tickled your “emotional strings” and use it as a re-starting point.

 

USEFUL LINKS

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/balance-the-forces-within-a-mobile/#

https://www.marcomahler.com/how-to-make-mobiles/

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