Let's Grow | Educational Design

"The Anthropocene is a newly proposed epoch, or geological time period, defined by humans’ effect on the environment…

We are not separate from nature, we are nature, and our decisions affect all life on earth." - We are Nature exhibition, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Problem Overview

Let's Grow

Interactive Growing Experience at UPMC Children's Hospital

Overview

The food that we eat has a direct impact on our physical health and how we feel. Yet so many of us are disconnected from our produce and the environmental impact of the food we eat. Our team set out to create an interactive learning experience for 8-12 year old visitors and patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Children's Hospital. Our goal is to empower children to feel comfortable growing their own produce and contributing towards making healthy food choices once they leave the hospital.

How can we educate children about the process and impact of growing healthy food on the environment and our physical health?

Role

Interaction Designer

Duration

March - April 2018 | 6 wks

Team

Carlie Guilfoile, Chen Ni

Context

Learner Experience Design

Taught by Stacie Rohrbach

Contributions

Problem Analysis 

Expert Interviews

Brainstorming

Physical Prototyping
Visual Design
Interaction Design

Tools

Photoshop, Illustrator, InVision

The Challenge

We were tasked by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) to design a learning experience outside of a traditional classroom to support youth in gaining a deep understanding of the relationship between their actions and the environment.

The Process

We visited UPMC and spoke to their staff to identify areas of opportunity. Our learning and design objectives were tailored to the local context. We tested our concepts through speed dating storyboards before prototyping the full scale experience.

The Result

We presented the final experience to the CMNH and UPMC Staff, and it was positively received.

Problem Prompt

DESIGN PROCESS

We started our design research by interviewing people to investigate how they perceived the connection between human and environmental health. Soon we realized the connection they made was rather limited—most of them mentioned air pollution but not much beyond that. On the other hand, UPMC Children’s hospital has an initiative to bring environmental conscience to the hospital to help improve health outcomes. Seeing it as a great opportunity, we visited the hospital and talked to their staff members.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SPACE

Design Process

After interviewing the staff from UPMC, we learned that the hospital was working on an edible garden initiative, but had not thought about involving the children/patients. We thought this was a great opportunity to contextualize the learning experience and to provide tangible engagement. Knowing the opportunity, we started to investigate ways that could help our audience draw connections between food and health.

Our audience are kids aged 8-12. Based on the information we gathered from the experts while talking to the Phipps Conservatory about their growing programs, they are at the prime age for exploration. It is a time when kids build their independence and make connections between themselves and the world around them through personal interactions. We synthesized what we learnt so far and came up with the following overarching learning goals and the design principles to guide our project.

GENERATING AND DEVELOPING CONCEPTS

We explored a variety of ideas at the beginning. As we speed dated our ideas, we got vital feedback that allowed us to assess the merits of each idea and use our findings to guide the makings of prototypes.

Developing Concepts

Style Guide

STYLE GUIDE

FINAL RESULT

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Final Result

Let’s Grow contains a series of learning activities placed in the cafeteria hallway at UPMC Children hospital and their edible garden. The design artifacts help children draw a concrete connection between what they learn through the hallway activities, the food they eat in the cafeteria and the growing plants in the edible garden.

Hallway Activities

Placed along the hallway,

the set of activities gives the audience contextual information about the edible garden, educates them about organic gardening and the health benefits, and empowers them to use the knowledge they have learned to contribute to healthy food selection at the hospital.

Part 1. Poster

The poster serves to introduce the garden to our audience and the reason why the hospital has decided to start an edible garden. It also introduces the phases of harvest, so that our audience can anticipate ways to engage with the garden throughout the year.

Part 2. Interactive Game

Children in the hospital don't have the option to get directly involved in the gardening because of the health and sanitation, but our digital growing game allows them to get involved and learn about the growing process of the selected plants through a different kind of first hand experience. All the digital produce is connected to what will be grown at the children's hospital garden. Kids playing this game choose vegetables to grow and are guided through the growing process with feedback, hints, and facts that increase their knowledge of how to care for plants into maturity.

Part 3. Voting Wall

The voting poster empowers the audience to contribute to the future of the hospital, specifically to the health of the people in it. Visitors and patients alike will engage by exploring the fun facts about the plants that will be planted in the garden. They will also learn about options for a fifth, undecided plant and can vote for a plant they want to see be included in the edible garden.

Part 4. Take a Seed

The garden signs sit directly in the garden beds. They help the audience draw connections between human health and nature by learning about topics related to health and produce such as how organic foods create positive impacts.

The hallway activities end with a fun challenge to grow one’s own plant. It represents the beginning of a new learning experience, where children can personally care for the growth of a seed. The experience also has the potential to generate rich conversations with family as they help their child use the knowledge they've gained to raise their plant.

Part 5. Outdoor Garden Signs

Learning Theories

The conceptual models below take reference from learning theories introduced in the class, that we adapted to represent how our design comes together to form an impactful, educational experience. Functioning as the user's learning journeys, the models illustrates the sequence, hierarchy, depend, and relationships among all facets.