Hat Storage
Hats Off to MayFairs' Innovative Pupils
(click to read article)
CREATIVE. From left Joshua Le Bas, Jayden Wardle, (both year 5) and David Prebble (year 6) with their wall-mounted hat-storage pipes
Each class level came up with different storage ideas.
Typical hat with school emblem
Problems with Hats (click to enlarge)
The cause of the problem
Senior Syndicate – Room 13
Teacher: Andrew Crawford
Room 13 worked with William Gray from Opus International Consultants Ltd.
Introduction
The hat has been specially chosen to cover as much of the child as possible without impeding their movement. The hats are all the same colour with the school emblem on the front. The only feature to distinguish them from each other is the child's name written inside the hat. Parents purchase the hat from school at a subsidised rate.
With the children's safety being paramount the hats have been widely accepted by the children, teachers and parents although there was some initial uncertainty as to how the policy of wearing hats was going to be enforced. The policy has been in operation since January 2002. Now the members of the community comment on how smart the children look and wearing them has certainly developed a sense of belongingl. For these reasons we all wish to keep the policy in place.
There are problems with the hats however. The teachers saw this as a wonderful opportunity to involve the children in a technology project that was meaningful to them.
Defining the Problem
Children interviewed and surveyed a selection of the school's population to find out what problems they had experienced with their hats and then established the frequency of each problem. The most common problems were charted.
Discussion about these problems took place and the statements were refined down to ones that the children thought they could do something about.
It was evident that the main problem stemmed from children not having a definite place to put their hat when they came into the classroom. They all had hooks in the cloakroom but with their bag and sweatshirts on them the hats did not stay on. In the senior classes the children had no set hook and just used anyone. Keeping their hat in their bag with leaking bottles and mouldy bananas in the bottom was not always a good option. Thet take up too much room in their desks and squash the hat (some desks were not that hygienic either). All in all the children, teachers, and parents were not happy with the way the hats were being stored and looked after at school.
The children believed that with guidance they would be able to come up with some solutions that could be constructed to help alleviate the situation.
Brainstorming
From the list of problems that were charted the children grouped the problems that were reasonably similar, for example it was felt that losing your hat and leaving it on the field could be classed as the same problem. This was to narrow down the field for when we established the brief.
The children then brainstormed to create a list of criteria that our solution should aim to achieve. Any suggestions were accepted at this stage and were discussed later. The list was vlong and the children soon realised that it was going to be near impossible to be able to satisfy all the criteria so in groups we set about establishing a priority list of the most important criteria.
Eventually, after much discussion and debate we all agreed on the following criteria.
The hat storage solution has to:
- Keep our hats in one place/remind us where they are
- Stop our hats getting dirty/keep their shape
- Have easy access for us
- Not take up too much room
- Keep our hats safe from others
- Provide a place for each person's hat.
- Keep our hats secure i.e., not fall on the ground
Following this activity children were asked to select one of the criteria and think of as many possibilities for a hat storage unit that they could, that would satisfy that criteria. Any creative possibilities would be accepted. Children were to draw a diagram of their idea. They could then choose another criteria if they had an idea to help solve that one.
Their ideas were varied. We were looking for commonality between some of the designs so that the final solution would satisfy multiple criteria. Here are some of the initial designs.
Criteria 1: To keep hats in one place and to remind us where they are
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Criteria 2: Stop our hats getting dirty
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Criteria 3: Have easy access
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Criteria 4: Keep our hats safe from others
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Other possibilities for criteria
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Next Step
Following reporting back from the initial sketches the children grouped all the ideas into similar concepts such as using hooks, posting your hat into a receptacle, mechanical, electronic, etc. We did this so that children could see that there was more than one train of thought for each criterion and that other ideas could be combined to improve their ideas.
Each group of ideas was then assessed against the established criteria in the hope of finding one solution that satisfied the majority. This step was essential as many of the children came up with very inventive ideas but quite impractical and beyond our capabilities.
We spent a little time discussing what we thought our capabilities were and what the children, with some assistance could make themselves. Our class engineer and I thought it would be far more meaningful if the children actually created something as opposed to having outside people do the final stage.
Following the two previous activities it was quite evident to the children that some sort of postage system that was fixed in one place but had easy access would satisfy the most criteria, even if some still preferred robots that came and took your hat off your head!
Further discussion and brainstorming uncovered more problems.
- The postholes should not be altogether as this would cause congestion.
- The hats had to remain in their own cubbyhole for hygiene and also for easy retrieval.
- Having 30 cubbyholes in the class took up too much room.
One child suggested some sort of tube attached to the wall in the cloakroom would solve some problems. Another thought that seeing as we had hooks in the cloakroom, perhaps the tubes could go above the hooks and be named so there was no confusion.
Planning:
What will we make it from, and how will we go about making it?
A couple of big questions for young kids to answer! They were quite keen to go with the PVC tubing and one child whose father was an electrician brought along some conduit. It was too narrow for the rolled up hat to slot into. This was the catalyst for a measuring session. The children had to find all the appropriate measurements:
- Diameter of the tubing
- Length of tubing
- Distance between hooks on the wall
- Height from hook to window sill
Plans were drawn and paper and cardboard mock-ups were created. These two activities proved quite difficult for the children. They knew what we wanted to build and were quite happy to go ahead and make it without drawings and diagrams. Using isometric paper assisted the children draw three-dimensional versions of the solution and many children could transfer this into front and side elevations. The greatest learning outcome from this for the students was the technical language that we introduced and used.
In the end we agreed that the tubes would be attached to individual boards of MDF with the tube sloping at a 45-degree angle. These individual boards could then be attached directly to the wall or onto a longer board in groups of 5 or 6 so they could be easily mounted.
Phone calls followed to establish the cost of the materials we would use. The children found that the tubing would be approximately $90 and the wood approximately $80.There would be sundry items that we could probably find already at school such as paint and screws.
A letter writing campaign followed to seek sponsorship to try to keep the costs down. We wanted to get on with the project so decided not to wait for replies but hope that some offers did come in.
Construction Time
The materials were purchased from local businesses and a major construction day was organised. Fortunately our school has a well-equipped Technology Room with tools and space available. The boards and the pipes were cut to measure. While children were waiting for their turn they would each design the artwork that would cover their unit.
Cutting P.V.C. piping proved quite difficult for the children and teacher, especially as one end needed to be cut at a 45-degree angle. The saws kept veering off on all sorts of angles. We decided to approach a local plumbing firm to see what method they used when having to cut the pipe. They were very helpful and said that they would try and see what they could do. The children cut the pipes in double lengths and then the plumber would cut them in half on an angle. This was a great time and effort saver.
The problem of joining the pipe to the board was solved at this stage too. The engineer and children had designed a small aluminum bracket that could be screwed to the pipe board to hold it into place. Our engineer, William Gray said that his company would cover any of this cost, however sourcing the equipment proved more difficult than first thought.
Instead we found a plastic cap, which fits to the end of the tubing, and a small plastic elbow angled at 45 degrees would do the job just as well and meant that the children would be able to do most of the joining.
The cap was drilled and bolted with a countersunk bolt to the board. The elbow could be glued to the cap and the tube just slotted in. If the tube was turned around the other way so the 45-degree cut was facing out, then it allowed for easier access to the hat.
The children also decided not to glue the tube to the elbow. One problem established earlier was how could we empty the tube if something got put (or poured) down them? Having a detachable tube sorted this out.
All that was left to do was to paint and decorate their construction and mount them onto a board in the cloakroom. This is currently being done at the time of writing this report.
Teacher's Comments
We certainly would not have achieved as much without the expertise in technological practice from William Gray from Opus International Consultants Ltd. Keeping the children focussed on the problems and criteria meant continual brainstorming which I probably would have overlooked or rushed through. This was not a select group of children we worked with but the whole senior syndicate. This in itself was a mammoth task but with the help of 4 engineers the expected outcomes were achieved.
Engineer's Comments
The enthusiasm and interest showed by the children indicated the worth of the programme for IPENZ.
