Education innovation through material innovation in primary education : the grow-it-yourself workshop

In recent years more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics have been incorporated in mainstream public education. Although the benefits of STEM instruction are broadly recognised in secondary school curricula, STEM topics in primary education are rather limited, leaving a gap in manipulative skills building and in preparation processes for the next school level. This paper reflects on the outcomes of a design workshop attended by 12 primary school students (9 to 12 years old) in Belgium. Mycelium, a fungi-based natural material now used in innovative sustainable applications, served as a means to introduce early learners engineering basics through self-made learning tools. Students grew their own 3-D structures to build a 'Grow-It-Yourself biodegradable playground using mycelium as a primary source. The paper stems from an in-progress research that investigates the opportunities of how mycelium as a material innovation can be used as a medium to create innovation in primary education through a learning-by-design approach. Reflections on the workshop's instructional guidelines are included along with an extension of the call for support for primary school teachers delivering STEM topics in their classes

How future proof is design education? A systematic review

Due to a rapidly transforming world, design education needs to adjust itself. To do so, it is essential to understand curriculum gaps in the discipline. This systematic review (n = 95) reports on these gaps and the future readiness of design curricula. The search strategy consisted of both a database search, and discipline-specific journal search in which generalised results about current or future perspectives of design education were found. Structured around the constructive alignment framework, this research found that more 21st century learning objectives focusing on skills next to domain-specific knowledge need to be incorporated, and teaching and learning activities need to be more student-centred and better aligned to industry. Related to assessment, a considerable gap was found in literature on guidelines and means for formative assessment. Design education is not yet ready for the challenges ahead, therefore, the authors hope that design departments rethink their curricula and fill the specified gaps

Tackling curricula reforms as design problems : a review of design curricula perspectives

In recent years, the responsibilities of designers in industry have drastically shifted. One of these developments is that designers are increasingly growing into jobs where they need to facilitate innovation in multidisciplinary teams [1]. Correspondingly, educators advocate for an adaptation of design education in relation to the advances in industry and society [2], [3]. The question therefore is how to design the future of design education, and to what extent can we continue with existing practices when re-modeling education? How can we scrutinise curriculum reforms for developing resilience to the challenging future world circumstances? Traditionally, university curricula are changed by slowly introducing new knowledge through disciplinary research. By researching into and about design, the extent of specialized knowledge grows and alters the content of university curricula. Under this standard practice, programs update one course at a time for the related users (current students and faculty members), but hardly any other stakeholders are involved [4]. Moreover, most curricula reforms are designed at the course or department level and mostly neglect a strategic, holistic, and multidisciplinary approach [5]. By reviewing universities’ practices towards reforming their curricula worldwide, it was found that design programs can in fact benefit from incorporating design research methodologies into those procedures, specifically, empathising, benchmarking, questionnaires, design probes, focus groups, personas, prototyping, and the application of an iterative mindset. In other words, it was suggested that a designerly way of thinking was needed. The term ‘designerly’, articulated in the 1980s by design theorist Nigel Cross [6], hints at the use of design specific ways to know things and find knowledge. Already, Umeå Institute of Design (UID) in Sweden and Aalto University in Finland, utilised this approach to handling their curricula reform by prototyping solutions and making future decisions based on these prototypes [5]. In addition, by implementing a more human-centred approach in which all relevant stakeholders get involved in developing design propositions, this research wants to point out at the potential benefits of a designerly way of developing curricula. By re-considering traditional approaches regarding curricula reform practices, this paper presents recommendations for designing design education to define future university study programs. [1] T. A. Björklund, T. Keipi, and H. Maula, ‘Crafters, explorers, innovators, and co-creators: Narratives in designers’ identity work,’ Des. Stud., vol. 68, pp. 82–112, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2020.02.003. [2] D. A. Norman, ‘When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It: The Future of Design*,’ She Ji, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 343–348, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.sheji.2017.07.003. [3] L. Justice, ‘The Future of Design Education,’ Des. Manag. Rev., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 33–37, 2019, doi: 10.1111/drev.12159. [4] M. Gibbons, ‘What Kind of University ?,’ Lancet, 1997, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(70)90419-8. [5] A. Valtonen, ‘Designing Universities of the Future,’ DRS2016 Futur. Think., vol. 2, pp. 1–16, 2016, doi: 10.21606/drs.2016.205. [6] N. Cross, ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing : Design Discipline,’ Des. Stud., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 221–227, 1982, [Online]. Available: https://larossa.co/cross_1982_designerlywaysofknowing.pdf

MIRRA : a modular and cost-effective microclimate monitoring system for real-time remote applications

Monitoring climate change, and its impacts on ecological, agricultural, and other societal systems, is often based on temperature data derived from official weather stations. Yet, these data do not capture most microclimates, influenced by soil, vegetation and topography, operating at spatial scales relevant to the majority of organisms on Earth. Detecting and attributing climate change impacts with confidence and certainty will only be possible by a better quantification of temperature changes in forests, croplands, mountains, shrublands, and other remote habitats. There is an urgent need for a novel, miniature and simple device filling the gap between low-cost devices with manual data download (no instantaneous data) and high-end, expensive weather stations with real-time data access. Here, we develop an integrative real-time monitoring system for microclimate measurements: MIRRA (Microclimate Instrument for Real-time Remote Applications) to tackle this problem. The goal of this platform is the design of a miniature and simple instrument for near instantaneous, long-term and remote measurements of microclimates. To that end, we optimised power consumption and transfer data using a cellular uplink. MIRRA is modular, enabling the use of different sensors (e.g., air and soil temperature, soil moisture and radiation) depending upon the application, and uses an innovative node system highly suitable for remote locations. Data from separate sensor modules are wirelessly sent to a gateway, thus avoiding the drawbacks of cables. With this sensor technology for the long-term, low-cost, real-time and remote sensing of microclimates, we lay the foundation and open a wide range of possibilities to map microclimates in different ecosystems, feeding a next generation of models. MIRRA is, however, not limited to microclimate monitoring thanks to its modular and wireless design. Within limits, it is suitable or any application requiring real-time data logging of power-efficient sensors over long periods of time. We compare the performance of this system to a reference system in real-world conditions in the field, indicating excellent correlation with data collected by established data loggers. This proof-of-concept forms an important foundation to creating the next version of MIRRA, fit for large scale deployment and possible commercialisation. In conclusion, we developed a novel wireless cost-effective sensor system for microclimates