May 10: Women, Children and the City
May 10: Women, Children and the City
Guest Facilitators: Sulakshi & Rae from Everystory
Today we will be observing a small part of Nagaswatte very closely, and then practice how to brainstorm ideas together. Finally we will build a small prototype of our solution.
You will need:
A printed or sketched base map on a large paper (A3 or A2)
Post-its
felt pens, pencils, eraser, ruler, sketch paper
6” x 6” cardboard to use as a model base (every child should have the same size base)
Colored paper, tape, glue,
Mapping: 15 min
This is the area we will be observing very closely, and thinking about men, women and children use it differently.
Ask:
Do you know where this is? Point at the square drawn on the sheet. (Hint: Next to the bandujeewa playground)
What details are missing? Let’s fill it in together noting as many differences as possible. don’t miss any details. If there is a flower pot missing, or a bump in the road, where vehicles are parked, sketch it on this map. Are there areas that are hotter and cooler? Draw trees that are missing.
Who feels welcome here, who is left out?
Why?
What areas in this map are your favorite? Why? Let’s mark it out with green dots.
What areas in this map need improvement? Let’s mark them out with green dots.
Discuss why some students marked red and green and discuss why… follow up questions by expanding on something they said and ask for more detail. Who uses it? Why? Why does it need to happen that way? Was it always this way? How did it get this way?
Which is the more important area for improvement (red dot) should we focus our efforts on today? (Raise hands for vote)
Brainwriting (as opposed to brainstorming): 15 mins
‘How we might design a better experience of ____________(selected area of improvement that a child mentioned) so that we can turn it into something like a ———————————— (something equivalent to a green dot.. a place for relaxing, a place to cool down, A spa, a cost living room, a flower garden)
Pass 10 post-its to each child. Tell each child that they are to jot down as many ideas as possible on the 10 post it’s. They can imagine that they have one million rupees to make this idea come true. They can include magic, high or low tech if they feel like. If they need more post-it’s they are welcome to come get more. No writing names on the post it’s.
You will play a timer for 2 mins. Ready… set…. Go! play some energetic music.
Try again. 2 more mins.
When the timer/music goes off, arrange each post-it on the whiteboard and all the kids will look at the ideas. Ask them to look at some of these ideas in think of ways to improve it. Try to pick someone else’s idea to improve.
Example: if a kid says ‘a sofa that people can rest on’ you can build on it by asking..what color, what material? Kids might say.. the sofa is filled with ice water, to cool down’
What ideas would have the most impact and potential for delight for women or children? Select 3-4 ideas to focus on.
Quick Prototyping: 30 mins
Divide the class into groups. Each group will work on a model prototype for 1 idea. Groups should be small, and each group will have an adult assigned for support.
Each get a card the size of the little square in the middle of the map.
Only using paper, cardboard, masking tape and string, make a quick prototype of the selected post-it idea.
Discussion at the end:
Arrange all the models together.
How did you feel when you wrote down all those ideas? without thinking about what’s good and bad?
When you look at your prototype, what’s working? What do you want to try differently?
How did it feel to share your ideas with your friends?
New ideas?