Photo Essay The Hanging Garden by Foram Tech Tools for Learning Marina Bers Alice Mello Cavallo Spring 2004

First observation: 3 rd session Foram worked with some fabrics and made a head band for her Mom. She brought a built Lego car from home. Her Mom helped her to improve her previous design built during the 2 nd session.

The idea Foram decided to build a moving or hanging garden on top of her car. She and her Mom have a garden in their house and they love gardens.

Ideas for the hanging garden Build walls around the car and attach a Lego board. Build flowers and make them turn. Add benches and trees. The garden would go around always looking for sun light.

First problem As Foram starts to collect material, one of the facilitators presents her with two Lego boards. One was green and big therefore very appealing to Foram. But….it was a flat board that does not connect to the Lego pieces…she could not build on top of the car unless she glued it.

She would not be able to attach a flower and connect it to a motor in order to make it spin. It made her first design of building walls impossible to implement. I could not change her mind about using the big flat board. Someone said she could glue it… First problem

The last session Foram built a moving garden at the lab, but her Mom helped her to improve it. She had a smaller flat board and she attached it to the back of the car. She had changed her original design of the car.

The challenges Foram tried several ways to attach the garden to the car and it was not easy. She had a hard time to keep it all together without falling apart: car and garden.Trying different ways or designs to attach the garden to the car was a powerful idea for her and her Mom.

Programming the brick I asked Foram if she remembered how she programmed the brick and she said “no”. Once I opened Robolab and asked her to try to show me, she started to re- create and explain what she had done.

Explaining the programming She said her car was moving forward and backward She had programmed it by changing the way the motor turned and timed each way.

What I missed The process of attaching the garden to the car. This was the main design challenge to Foram. The most important part of her learning process was during the problems faced when building the car and connecting the garden to it. Programming the brick.

Final report in Foram’s words My project name is The Moving Garden My project just moves forward and backward It’s important to me because I like to plant a lot. It’s also important because it brings happiness. I decided to connect the garden to the back of the car I did most of the programming at the Curriculum Lab. I needed a lot of help with programming from my Mom and the people at the workshop. The hardest thing was keeping the car together. I learned that you should never get frustrated and when something goes wrong always try again.

Analyzing Foram’s report She changed the name from hanging garden to moving garden. She did not seem satisfied with the movement of her car (she says “just”). It sounds like she wanted to do more and for some reason could not. I wonder if it was because she had initially thought about making the flowers spin and the car move looking for sun light.

Powerful Idea She was personally attached to her project because planting a garden is very dear to her and her Mom. She also connects a garden with happiness and believes that gardens can make people happier. This seems a powerful idea for her as she apply her moving garden as a resource for her community. Gardens are part of her culture. The process of finding a workable design for connecting car and garden.