Training the trainers

Those types of programs consist in bringing new skills and contents to teachers so they can then share it in their pedagogical practices with kids and also provide feedback about the development of the activities in special education centres. By dialoguing with teachers and inviting them to practice activities, it is possible to establish a more appropriate approach for children and to transform them into practitioners. Fab Lab Barcelona has been using this approach for several years now within their Future Learning Unit and have initiated this year the program Remix The School, one pilot project for cooperation between creative hubs and educational institutions with the goal of promoting transversal and creative skills transfer.

Remix the School

Path	Target	Duration	Skills
Curiosity	Kids (8-18), teachers 8 - 18	3-to 6 months	Biofabrication, Digital Fabrication

Description Remix The School (RTS) is a project of Fab Lab Barcelona at IAAC that was initiated in 2021 in collaboration with the Escola Sant Martí Poblenou and co-financed by the Creative Flips EU Project. Creative FLIP – Finance, Learning, Innovation and Patenting aims to support healthy and sustainable ecosystems for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs). RTS proposes to implement in the formal and informal educational environment projects with food waste by means of craft and artisan techniques and digital manufacturing. The first iteration of the program runs from January to June 2021. Shemakes co-organized a biomaterial demonstration workshop held at the design museum with the kids of the local primary school associated with Remix the School. This demonstration, based on the concept of rotation stations, was customized for children, with the introduction of a fairy tale about Remix the planet, of adapted recipes and a lot more illustrated feedback sessions. It involved 20 kids with 11 girls, their respective teachers and was facilitated by the Fab Lab team and facilitators from Remix El Barrio. To replicate the workshop, please refer to rotative workshop

Video Demo

Learning outcomes

• Introduce basic concepts of digital fabrication and circular economy through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, active, experiential learning with a socio-emotional approach.
• Train and accompany teachers in the RTS methodology that improves students' self-efficacy towards STEAM through the 5E teaching model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate), maker project-based learning using the principles of circularity , the manufacture of biomaterials and the educational community as a context.
• Redefine through elaboration processes, the preconceptions that we can have about the design of objects and materials.
• To promote scientific, technological and mathematical vocations in kindergarten, primary and secondary school students.
• Improve the social perception of STEAM. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics)
• Encourage learning through social interaction by breaking down the walls of the school, making it more open to the neighborhood and training people in the educational ecosystem to be digital social innovators and drivers of change in their local environment.
• Contribute to the development of teaching digital competence.
• Remix The School trains and accompanies teachers, students and families to develop the following dimensions of learning: Individual; Maker skills, critical thinking and problem solving, initiative and intentionality. Community (Circular); Collective impact, social and emotional commitment.

Target audience and context of use
Our target audience are kids and teachers, schools.

Agenda - Step by Step

STEP BY STEP overview

step 1: Onboarding

• Get to know the school(s) (2-3 weeks )
• Create a bootcamp for teacher(s) (1 day)

step 2: Run a first pilot

• Discover Circular economy, plastic pollution and the maker movement (2 weeks )
• Challenge your alumni to raise awareness ( 2 weeks )
• Training and co-creation with food waste material makers (2 weeks )
• Preparation and inventory ( 2 weeks )
• Cooking ( 2 weeks )
• Observe and care about the biomaterial ( 2 weeks )
• Imagine and design a shape (2 weeks )
• Capture the process ( 2 weeks )
• Reflection ( 1 day )
• Feedback ( 1 day )

step 3: Coaching

• Support the teachers while gathering a community of practice locally

Estimated cost
You might plan some costs for getting the materials and tools but also some fees linked to your collaboration with the place you run the workshop or the designers you wanna involve. Here the inventory used for the first round.

Links to other modules
It can be combined with the other topics within the Sustainability Package of Fabricademy, such as Biochromes and Textile Scaffold.
Tips to facilitate the activity in context

• Work with specific vocabulary, creating for instance a fairy tale to raise awareness around gender problems in innovation
• Create tutorials and recommendations for teachers
• Online tips in sessions with kids: organizing distributed events by classroom.
• Find a common production theme for children to work together, learn cooperative work.

Evaluation Criteria
At the end of the pilot, the teachers were asked for feedback answering the following questions: What worked well? What would you do differently? Has anything changed in your community? Have you applied it to your school’s STEAM curriculum?

References
Links to photos and recorded materials
Remix the School
Repository of guides, videos, canvas...

Visualization Miro board of activities and steps of the overall programs.

Licence and credits

Attribution — ShareAlike CC BY-SA This case-study has been designed by Xavi Dominguez, Ines Burdiles and Santi Fuentemilla from Fab Lab Barcelona. It presents a brief description of Remix The School, Creative Flip EU program, based on previous projects such as Siscode - Remix El Barrio and further developed with the collaboration of the US General consulate of Barcelona.

Towards new adaptations of the program RTS has been reshaped for a new iteration of the program, in a distributed version way. Fab Lab Barcelona will be happy to discuss with you on possible collaborations for replicating it in your context. Here all the information, spanish only for the moment: Distributed Remix

Micro-bootcamp for educators

Path	Target	Duration	Skills
Curiosity	Elementary school teachers	3'5h	Soft Skills

Description
Microbootcamp for teachers is an activity held by FabLab León inside the Shemakes Project for “Training the Trainers'', with a double objective, in one hand to get feedback from the teachers about the adaptability of the workshops in the classroom and on the other hand, to train facilitators to teach these workshops in different contexts.

To have a more enriching experience, the participating teachers came from different educational backgrounds such as museums, elementary schools, universities of education, special education schools, and private educational centers

This activity consists of making and ulterior reflecting of the two pre-selected workshops. Depending on their skills, the teachers will need more explanations because they will teach the workshop later, being aware of these needs

In a first iteration, the pre-selected workshops were:

• E-monster (electronics)
• My favorite backpack (simple digital design)

Development of the activity

For the previous design of the activity, a Canvas model in Miro can be used:

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• When possible, the facilitator could project a presentation as a step by step guide to follow with the participants. In the case of the teachers, this part is very important because they need to provide feedback about the whole activity (documentation, materials, ejecution…)

• Dive into the slides provided for each xworkshop. Be sure that all the kits of materials and tools are prepared, and that the needed software is installed in all the computers. It is also recommended to prepare some thermal vinyl leftovers for making the customization of the backpack.

• Be careful. Check you have all the tools and materials needed and that you will have time to wrap up your tools, set up the logistics for the event room.

• Prepare in advance: (Use the same disposition as used with the kids, the teachers will learn about it and give us their feedback when needed)

  • Kit of materials of the activity
  • 9 computers , 9 tables and 9 chairs (this will depend on covid situation)
  • Covid-19 individual tray containing:
  • Ruler
  • Tweezers
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Wood colour pencils
  • Colored markers
  • Masking tape
  • 1 TV to present the documentation

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how to make the activity
• Learn what Digital Fabrication Processes have been used to prepare the kits
• Learn how to implement an e-textile circuit
• Understand how to customize a textile bag

Target audience and context of use
Teachers from different educational backgrounds such as museums, elementary schools, universities of education, special education schools, and private educational centers and future facilitators for these activities.

Licence and credits

Attribution — ShareAlike CC BY-SA
Microbootcamp for teachers case of study has been designed by Nuria Robles for shemakes.eu. It is based on tMa Foundation and Fab Lab León´s learning experiences methodology focused on Poderosas activities.

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Last update: November 18, 2022