Photo Essay

1. Photo Essay The Hanging Garden by Foram Tech Tools for Learning Marina Bers Alice Mello Cavallo Spring 2004

2. First observation: 3rd session • Foram worked with some fabrics and made a head band for her Mom. • She brought a built Lego car from home. • Her Mom helped her to improve her previous design built during the 2nd session.

3. The idea • Foram decided to build a moving or hanging garden on top of her car. • She and her Mom have a garden in their house and they love gardens.

4. Ideas for the hanging garden • Build walls around the car and attach a Lego board. • Build flowers and make them turn. • Add benches and trees. • The garden would go around always looking for sun light.

5. First problem • As Foram starts to collect material, one of the facilitators presents her with two Lego boards. • One was green and big therefore very appealing to Foram. • But….it was a flat board that does not connect to the Lego pieces…she could not build on top of the car unless she glued it.

6. First problem • She would not be able to attach a flower and connect it to a motor in order to make it spin. It made her first design of building walls impossible to implement. • I could not change her mind about using the big flat board. Someone said she could glue it…

7. The last session • Foram built a moving garden at the lab, but her Mom helped her to improve it. • She had a smaller flat board and she attached it to the back of the car. • She had changed her original design of the car.

8. The challenges • Foram tried several ways to attach the garden to the car and it was not easy. • She had a hard time to keep it all together without falling apart: car and garden.Trying different ways or designs to attach the garden to the car was a powerful idea for her and her Mom.

9. Programming the brick • I asked Foram if she remembered how she programmed the brick and she said “no”. • Once I opened Robolab and asked her to try to show me, she started to re-create and explain what she had done.

10. Explaining the programming • She said her car was moving forward and backward • She had programmed it by changing the way the motor turned and timed each way.

11. What I missed • The process of attaching the garden to the car. This was the main design challenge to Foram. • The most important part of her learning process was during the problems faced when building the car and connecting the garden to it. • Programming the brick.

12. Final report in Foram’s words • My project name is The Moving Garden • My project just moves forward and backward • It’s important to me because I like to plant a lot. • It’s also important because it brings happiness. • I decided to connect the garden to the back of the car • I did most of the programming at the Curriculum Lab. • I needed a lot of help with programming from my Mom and the people at the workshop. • The hardest thing was keeping the car together. • I learned that you should never get frustrated and when something goes wrong always try again.

13. Analyzing Foram’s report • She changed the name from hanging garden to moving garden. • She did not seem satisfied with the movement of her car (she says “just”). It sounds like she wanted to do more and for some reason could not. • I wonder if it was because she had initially thought about making the flowers spin and the car move looking for sun light.

14. Powerful Idea • She was personally attached to her project because planting a garden is very dear to her and her Mom. • She also connects a garden with happiness and believes that gardens can make people happier. This seems a powerful idea for her as she apply her moving garden as a resource for her community. • Gardens are part of her culture. • The process of finding a workable design for connecting car and garden.