FUN LEARNING AID FOR KIDS
Objective
For this project we were given a task to create an Enhancing interior of reading space at Ulu Melaka Orang Asli Village, Serendah, Selangor. Six groups are created and each assigned one task to help transform the library.
RESEARCH PHASE
ENGLISH LEARNING AID
Week 1 (4 hours)
Myself and three other group mates were given the task to create two different learning aids that help the kids learn English in a fun and interactive way. So we split into two and brainstormed ideas.
At first we decided to try and create an excersie that teaches the kids about consonant sounds. however, it seemed boring and thought it might be too difficult for them to learn from this, which lead us to going for the bases of learning english: that is the alphabets.
We thought of creating a game like scrabble but we realised it is an excerise that cannot be fixed on the bored and has to be on a table so we scratched that idea and came up with puzzel pieces. Puzzels are known to improve growing childrens cognitive responses, physical skills, emotional skills and improve memory and allows better problem solving.
THE IDEA:
Big block letters will be created on an A1 MDF board and each letter is cut to look like puzzle pieces and made to fit. we plan on laser cutting these pieces as it will be easier to put them in place and will fit with ease. each puzzle piece will have a picture and the word starting with that particular letter as seen in the picture to your left.
THE PITCH
Week 2 (1 hour)
In the second week, we pitched our ideas and got the thumbs up to proceed
REFLECTION (1 hOUR)
Helping kids and seeing the smile on their faces when they see something beautiful at the same time give them a space to either call home, or a space that kids enjoy is one of the main reasons i wanted to do design. When we were given this task of designing a library and creating fun interactive learning aids to help them learn got me excited. It is an essential part of growing up to develop knowledge and have fun at the same time. It is where creativity is built and skills are learnt. The first idea didn't seem very practical. It wouldn't have been a fun activity for them. Aside from that we had several ideas but they also weren't practical and required too much work to build. As a kid i enjoyed making puzzles and seeing the beautiful image come to life. I remember how happy that accomplishment made me feel, so we brain stormed around that idea and came up with this.
For our group (English learning aid), four of my peers, including myself, were given the task to create an activity. The group includes, Maeesha, Alifa, Hiba and myself. Since we had to come up with two different learning aids, we split into two. Hiba and I grouped and came up with the puzzle idea. At first we thought it might be too simple for them but it was a fun way to learn the alphabets and words that associated with that specific alphabet and with all the advantages of helping the brain to problem solve and develop other skills, puzzles were the way to go.
Even though it was a simple idea, there is a lot of things to be taken into consideration; like how the materials would be hazardous for the children, the durability of the mounted activity, the design and aesthetics of the activity, etc
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This is one of the most fun projects I've ever had and I'm very excited to see the final outcome.
Week 3 (1.5 hour)
The 3rd week we had scheduled a meeting with the lecturer so we decided on the materials we were planning on using for the learning aid to discuss further with the lecturer.
For this learning aid, the materials we are going to use is mdf board for the base and laser cut the out line on the board. On a separate mdf board we decided to laser cut the puzzel pieces to make alphabets.
Week 4 (5 hours)
On the 4th week my group mate Hiba and I met up at old town coffee in uni to prepare the auto-cad file for laser cutting. This took quiet sometime as we had to trace all the letters and size it for it to fit neatly on an A0 size board. This was quiet simple but very time consuming. So we took turns to work on it. We finished the tracing and called it a day as we were so tired from working on the other projects. this took us 2 hours.
We then met the following weekend to finish up the cad work. We faced a few problems as we were trying to fit the 26 letters into the A0 and not make the letters small. If the letters are too small the puzzle pieces might be hazardous to the children. We managed to align it properly and started placing all the lines and semi circles to create the puzzle pieces. This took us about 3 hours
Week 5 (5 hours)
On the 24th of May we had scheduled to laser cut. My peers Hiba, Hazel, Maeesha, Alifa and I met up in the laser cutting studio at Taylor's and were shown how to use it. We were initially faced with a problem of our letters not appearing on the system so we had to make a few changes which took a couple of hours. After which we continued to laser cut. This was a very fun process as its mesmerizing to watch the laser cut through the MDF board.
Correcting Errors before sending it out to print.
Sending file to print and adjusting the power of the machine. laying out the MDF board to align with the laser.
Breaking the pieces after printing.
Week 9 (10 hours)
We commenced doing our work in week 9 as we had several submissions due. Our next task after the laser cutting was to print images that correlates with the alphabet and photo shop it into each puzzle piece. This was the most time consuming part of the process as the stock images taken from online had water marks. There were many images without the watermark however the resolution of the images were low and it would turn out to be blurred when printed. therefore we used stock images.This took us about 10 hours to do as we had to find images for each individual puzzle piece of each letter.
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Painting over the watermark.
Adding the images in each piece of puzzle.
We initially decided to go with different primary colours for each puzzle, however we realised that its too distracting and not very pleasing to the eye for the kids and they might get confused and will be too difficult for them to. So we assigned each letter with a different colour.
Week 9 (10 hours)
After printing the images, we had to cut each puzzel piece and stick them onto the laser cut MDF puzzle piece. The circular part of the puzzle piece was a bit challenging but the end result cam out well. The cutting of the pieces alone took us about 5 hours to do. we then had to cut the out line of the puzzle piece to stick to the base. This allows the kids to easily identify which puzzle piece goes where aside from the images and the word shown.
Arranging the puzzel pieces
