Tinker Forest
A collaborative paper circuit activity
Tinker Forest is a collaborative mural of light-up creatures and vibrating motors made from simple electronics and craft materials for Maker Faire Denver 2018
a light-up
and vibrating bug!
I worked as a Research Assistant in the Creative Communities research group based out of the Information Science department at the University of Colorado Boulder. Our research group explores how to engage people in creating, playing and learning together. As a part of my research group, I worked alongside Andrea Devore to plan and implement a booth -- Tinker Forest -- for the Fall 2018 Maker Faire Denver expo.
Planning the Tinker Forest booth involved designing the learning experience, arranging the booth set-up, creating supplemental material, coordinating and training facilitators, and communicating with Maker Faire Denver. Throughout the design and implementation of this booth, we centered the learning experience around our main goal of creating a collaborative environment which encouraged people to make and share together.
Andrea holding
our pretty banner!
Space Design
When arranging the booth, we wanted to create a welcoming space for people to work on their projects. In order to create a safe space with ample workspace, we arranged 4 tables into an "L" shape. We also spent time creating decorations to make the space feel both tinkerable and like a "forest." For these reasons, we cut out paper leaves, designed the mural and arena, and created a sign. The forest floor arena, as well as the forest vine mural, also played important roles in creating a collaborative experience. We placed the arena towards the font of our space and the mural on the wall behind our space to promote the collaborative nature of our work.
Learning Experience
Designing the learning experience involved creating our own prototypes and the user testing the initial learning experience. The final iteration of for the booth involved four basic electronic materials (LEDs, Vibration Motors, Copper Tape, and 3V Coin Cell Batteries) along with a plethora of craft supplies (construction paper, cut-out shapes, pom poms, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, masking tape, etc.).
