Inquiry Project: Make a Shoe

This Design activity was originally facilitated by Jason Reagin at the Texas IB Schools Workshop, but I'm totally inspired by it (coughSTEALINGITcough) and using it as a big opening for a unit on sustainable materials. :)

My colleagues were divided into groups of three, and given the task: make a shoe that works. Seems pretty crazy, right? I first thought of companies like TOMS, who make simple shoes that support sustainability in other countries. Since IB is about thinking globally, I also made a world connection to how the USA wastes textile materials like rubber. As the Librarian/Tech person, I want my students to think about waste and recycling, and to develop a problem-solving disposition towards this nebulous problem. 

In Jason's session, we were challenged to take on the role of the students and experiment with the IB Design Cycle to facilitate critical thinking. I have written this post as a "reflective lesson plan" that addresses standards/content from the IB MYP Unit Planner, so if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. I'm also brand-new to IB, so I invite all feedback, even if it's just "hey librarian, that makes no sense."

The Challenge: How can you make a functional and appealing shoe that has at least 1/2-inch sole? (Only parameter!)

UNIT INFORMATION
Key Concept: Systems - making students think about how recycling systems affect the world    
Related Concepts:  PE/Health (adaptation/environment)
IB Area of Interaction: Approaches to Learning
Branch of Technology: Materials
Inquiry Questions:
Factual - What happens to our shoes when we're done with them?
Conceptual - How can we reduce the volume of non-biodegradable textiles in landfills by making more environmentally-sustainable (or biodegradable) shoes?
Debatable - Will people actually buy these shoes?

INVESTIGATIVE INFORMATION: According to The Environmental Protection Agency, only about 15% of post-consumer textiles (such as shoes, clothes, bags and belts…) enter the recycling stream, while 21 billion pounds – about 70 pounds for each person on Earth – ends up in landfills each year. 
Thank you Girl Scouts of Atlanta - this is a great facts sheet!

Measures of Success
1) Function - does it work? and 2) Overall appearance - is it attractive?

Given Materials: 6 file folders, 1 glue stick
When I asked if we could use other materials, our presenter Jason gave me the sly response of, "These are the only materials I'm going to give you." This sort-of winky permission allowed my partners and I to go digging in our bags for other things, which I think would be engaging for kids.
***Added Found Materials!: Stapler, Paper Towels, Scissors

Drafting process.

Inquiry Process: Flummoxed with the materials, my team started with Google Images as a tool for inspiration. My team had two people with a fashion background and engineering, which gave us a small leg-up on the beginning part of the inquiry process. My background in graphic design wasn't helpful at this point, because we were focusing on functionality, not aesthetics. We first decided a target audience (who the shoe would be for), and also the function of the Shoe. These were important inquiry questions before even starting, and a facilitator may have to guide middle-schoolers to think about this before starting. We decided on making some comfortable menswear, since everyone else around us were making elaborate sandals.

Next, we had to struggle through the 1/2-inch sole parameter - how do you accomplish that with paper? So we experimented with "springs" made out of file-folder cardboard, but found that they weren't strong enough to sustain the weight. I think we experimented too much here, which could eat up students' time.  However, we jacked some paper towels from the bathroom (found materials!), and found that rolling them had a similar "airwalk" quality that the springs had.

Failed springs, composition of the sole. 

Final Prototype: We decided to market our final product as "Cloudwalkers" - a reference to our base material. Easy to slip on after working out - walking on a cloud, weathering the storm! To model the product, our whole session had a fashion show to show off our products, which could be an awesome culminating activity for the unit.

You KNOW you want to buy these!

Formative/Summative Assessments: I would strongly focus on the Year 1 "Investigate" criteria when assessing, because it's my content area as a Teacher-Librarian. I want students to effectively frame the problem, because my kids often have zero background information for global issues. They need that info before they even begin to solve the "problem," which is that we produce shoes that aren't biodegrading in landfills. The Formative Assessment would be plugging in the research, which I would likely have the kids submit to me through Edmodo. The Summative would be developing a design brief, which is where I would plug in my Element of Choice. Giving students choice in design brief gets those aesthetic students on board if they're not good at physically making the shoes, like me. I obviously blogged for my design brief for this assignment, but another group made a fabulous iMovie with their iPad. 

- 2 minute iMovie
- Google Presentation

Reflection/Overall Impression of the Activity: This is a super high-engagement unit I would definitely want to implement. I totally see this activity translating from adults to middle-schoolers. The inquiry process is a critical part of the lesson, it's an authentic design task, and it has so much potential to connect to global topics.

For a Library?: Projects like this transform School Libraries into Makerspaces, which is a great direction. It positions the Teacher-Librarian as a facilitator, not a gatekeeper (!!), and gives them the opportunity to support STEM content. (Since everyone thinks we all read picture books.) The 21st-Century T-L can use both devices and books to drive the research process: they can put students on computer-based research, and also put out nonfiction texts about shoes, cultural dress, or engineering material.

Wondering: I wonder how the activity changes if you add more "parameters," so to say. The instructor will likely get more creative results if they give fewer parameters, but some students really need the parameters to stay on task.