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Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Spark Truck at MICA : a Cross-Country Effort to Educate Youth

Jason Chua (left) and Eugene Korsunskiy (right) of Spark Truck.
Team member Gil (middle) 

The Spark Truck, a mobile work shop touring schools in the continental US,  came to the Maryland Institute College of Art campus September 18th . It was a rainy day, so the guys couldn’t lay out all their equipment on the school quad. So instead our class squished into their modified van. 

The gang checking out the truck. (left to right) Hunter, Gil, Hayley, Angela

Below is a video of Eugene Korsunskiy, one of a team of three, talking about his experience of teaching 10 year olds how to design. 



They're in California on the last leg of their tour. If you're in Manhattan Beach on October 12th look out for them. If not, check out their other tour dates. For more Spark Truck videos check out their Youtube channel.

-Ashley Renee Ferebee

And In This Corner...

...is Group 2 and we have another lovely lady and 2 dashing gentlemen. 

(left to right) Ashley, Gil, and Hunter
A water collection system, visibility of the filtration system, information display signage, and interaction  were also design priorities for our group. However, an exterior spigot, flip out windows and shelf, clear plant boxes, and a rollout activity table were our solutions to modify the water truck.

Exterior Spigot  

In getting people excited and engaged with this truck we decided to hook up a water spigot on the driver's side of the truck. The filtration system is also on that side so it would a short connecting pipe from the output of the filter to the hose. Insetting into the wall of the truck helps to keep the spigot clean from debris and not knocking into things. Coupled with a graphic that outlines the filtration process this hose will encourage people to sample The Water Truck water.

Flip out Window and Shelf

Besides filling up their own cup of water we wanted the scientists to hand out water and other informational material to visitors. Similar to the open window of a food truck this window would allow that. It will be created by a panels that would flip out and also create a ledge. There is opportunity to design a fixture that holds pamphlets underneath the ledge. During the week we'll experiment with other things we can do with the empty space. 

Clear Plant Boxes

To accommodate seedlings in a truck we decided to make shelves along the sides. Some shelves would be fixed and some would roll out so that visitors can check out the plants. When driving the shelves would tuck inside the truck and still receive sunlight from a transparent roof.  

Rollout Activity Table

Highlighted in red is the activity table
To engage the back of the truck we rolled out a table and flipped the back door into an awning. In this section the science students who will tour with the truck can conduct experiments with the public. For instance, they could measure the pH level of different sources of water with pH strips. We tried rigging a sink in the table so that they could dump water used for the experiments back into the filtration system. Nevertheless, not being able to distort the bumper and disrupt the axle of the truck are obstacles. 

Presenting our drawings to the class
So those are our ideas from this design charette. In the following weeks we will add more details to our designs. Let us know what you think of our current design solutions in the comments.

-Ashley Renee Ferebee