6: The Rain Problem

Day 6, Introductions

A portion of the workshop series was intended to introduce the student to the idea of three-dimensional making. The second part (of what I had perceived as a series of three parts) involved the introduction of a problem.

The problem was veeeeery simple and was initiated a day before, so as to allow some time for thought, and for collecting water-resistant materials. We initiated: ‘You’re walking to class, along Nagahaswatte road...and suddenly it starts raining. There’s no store nearby, but you have several waterproof materials in your bag. Can you use that to create some wearable, waterproof gear?’ (We tried to avoid using the terms ‘umbrella’ and ‘raincoat’ but the students brought it up anyway).

Tomorrow what to you have to bring? Waterproof things!!

What were these things?

Plastic water bottles, glass bottles, classic black garbage bag, colored candy wrappers, a cookie tray, cardboard (not waterproof but students used it in clever ways!) plastic sheets, and plastic bags. I was hoping they’d bring some coconut leaves as it is traditionally used as a roofing material- but alas, they didn’t.

I brought some ‘iratu’ sticks, and the kids helped me de-leaf them (iratu is a thin stick, derived from the stem of the coconut leaf) These were to be used for anything structural. Wool/String was also provided.

Big Project 

For this assignment - we randomly paired the students by asking them to pick a number out of a cup. Luckily, it generated some good teams! There were multiple occasions were an older student got paired with a younger student - resulting in the older student designing the ‘rain gear’ to fit the younger student. Ultimately, as much as we tried to avoid using the terms umbrella and raincoat as such, they designed what looked like umbrellas and raincoats. Even within this framework - the students managed to churn out some nice ideas. 

Proud owners - ready to test their umbrellas out.

The making of

The making of - older and younger student pairings

The Rain Test

This was the fun part of the class, and gave the students the incentive to finish the project. There was one or two groups that had not finished and probably would not have finished had the others been outside, having their rain gear tested. The coordinator of the children’s center, Ms. Pramila was given a filled jar of water to sprinkle a handful of water on each umbrella. Everyone cheered and clapped at the success of not getting (fully) wet. 

The ‘raincoats’ were tricky - no-one thought of how to remove it! So once taken off, it was more or less destroyed.

And then

The following week, it rained during the class, and the kids excitedly claimed ‘Let’s take our umbrellas outside!!’

There was no stopping them.