March 21, 2018
Creating Connections and Engaging with Students at Chief Leschi
Blog post written by Jasvir Dosanjh
The 7th school joining the design challenge is Chief Leschi located in the Puyallup Valley, Chief Leschi is one of the largest Bureau of Indian Education (BIA) schools constructed in the nation and is operated by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. They are dedicated to serving the educational needs of all Native American students in our area. The 200,000-square-foot school is intended to be a model for Native American programs around the country and show a glimpse into the future of educational technology for all educators. Chief Leschi School serves approximately 750 Native American students from more than 60 different tribes, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. To learn more about Chief Leschi, visit their website.
Research
We started our first visit by introducing the Social Robot Design Challenge and then quickly transitioned into the research phase. We asked the students to brainstorm questions they had for one another in their table groups. We sat with each of the table groups to make sure they had at least two questions to ask one of their peers. The questions the students brainstormed included:
- How would you want a robot to sound?
- What stresses you out?
- What calms you down?
- How often are you stressed out?
- What makes you stress the most?
Despite initially being hesitant to engage in discussion, the students opened up and were honest with one another when they began their interviews. When one of the students asked “Do you want to talk about what stresses you out?” and his partner responded with a resounding “No.” This moment was a reminder of how difficult it is to express your vulnerabilities with someone who you don’t feel connected to or comfortable with. Stress is such a difficult human experience for most of us to share verbally with one another, and this moment was important to keep in mind throughout our discussion.
After the students finished their interviews, they had the opportunity to ask Mimi Lambert and La’Ghea Jackson additional questions about stress for several minutes. At this point in the workshop, the students appeared the most engaged as they asked questions on coping mechanisms for stress and what times of year are the most stressful for students.
To prepare for our next meeting, we created a poster to hang in the lunchroom where students were asked to write down what makes them feel calm and what stresses them out.
Ideation
As a group, we started off by reading what students had written on the poster board.
Some of the answers written on the poster included:
What calms you down?
- Friends
- Walks
- Anime
- Sleep
- Music
- Family
What stresses you out?
- School
- Drama
- Religion
- Homework
- Parents
Transitioning into the ideation phase, the students took stacks of sticky notes and wrote down essential features that they thought their future robot prototypes might have. Once the students had written down their ideas, we organized the sticky notes into an affinity diagram.
The features were split up into the following categories:
What features will it have?
- Have some snacks
- Play music
- Free WiFi
- Have you in a comfortable chair
- Gives you massages
What will it say?
- Tells good jokes
- Not annoying
- Ask small questions
- Make puns
- Respond back
What will it do?
- Walk
- Body language
- Hand out paper to color
- Give you a hug
Finally, after the affinity diagramming the students began envisioning their robots on paper. The students came up with unique creations varying from a robot that looked like Baymax to a boxy design named Bob who would play Netflix and Hulu videos for stressed students in need of a break.
Prototyping
Finally, we began prototyping! Mimi Lambert brought in a bunch of fun materials for the students to use including pillowcases, cat toys, sponges, tiger print fabric, mirrors, tupperware, loofahs and much more. The students eagerly dove into the prototyping phase, working in groups of two to construct very different designs. Students followed their initial sketches and created a realistic-looking dog while the other team began creating a version of Baymax out of cardboard.
One of the teams envisioned their stress robot as a realistic-looking dog while the other team began recreating a version of Baymax out of cardboard. While Baymax from the movie Big Hero 6 was the inspiration, the team then transitioned to customize their prototype to make it more related to stress and the context of Chief Leschi. The second iteration is named Bob.
Testing and iteration
The teams are busy getting feedback on their designs from others in their school. Even during the early phases of design, there is lots of room for iteration. The Robot Bob went through quite a transition and can now move (thanks to being powered by a remote control car).
Wrapping up
As the teams at Chief Leschi put their final touches on their robots, we are gearing up for the Showcase at UW Seattle on March 24, starting at 3pm. We hope you can join us to see all the school robots in person and talk with the student creators, including our teams from Chief Leschi.
