Role
Project management
Usability study
Prototyping
Product design
Teammates
Oliver Engel
Sakshat Goyal
Duration
10 weeks
Client
Microsoft Education
Advisors
Adi Azulay
Michael P. Smith
Jon Froehlich
Product video
The fine print

Classroom instruction booklet
My contribution
Design prompt from Microsoft Education
Develop a hands-on lesson plan that aligns with the NGSS Science Standards for 3rd to 6th graders.
Objectives:
- Gather evidence and support for the implementation of a market ready product
- Seek feedback from all stakeholders (teachers, parents, students, Microsoft partner
- Convince Microsoft partner that the product proposal meets business goals
Defining the product direction
Educational
Imparts important lessons that aligns with scientific standards
Accessible
Cheap, affordable, and easily assembled in a classroom
Iterative
Not an ephemeral experience - affords experimentation
Ideation and downselection

Ideation finalists
Eliciting feedback from stakeholders
Stakeholder - Students

The prototypes that were tested with 2-5th graders

Students being engrossed with the trebuchet!
Stakeholder - Teachers
Simultaneously we produced a video prototype with a shifted focus. We wanted to elicit feedback on the educational component of the activity and lesson design.Video prototypes of lesson plans by Oliver Engel and I.
Aligning stakeholder feedback

In fourth grade we do an energy unit and this could perfectly tie into the unit, and actually work better than some of our existing science experiments... I would totally purchase this kit for our energy unit next year if you created it.
However, our partner from Microsoft strongly advised us to pursue either the turbine or the speaker, because he feared that the trebuchet activity would descend into chaos and detract from the educational value.

Viability referred to approval from Microsoft Education.
Mid-fidelity prototype
What we tested

Digital interface using Figma

Wizard of Oz setup

Our student participants loved it!
What we learned
Our participants thoroughly enjoyed the activity, and the parents thought the experiment was both educational and fun.- Adding and removing weights was time consuming but exciting
- The participants didn't find the digital visualization to be valuable
- The paper worksheet was redundant and ignored by all our participants
What we changed
For the next iteration of the prototype we would like to make the following changes,- Change the weight holder to a bucket shaped design
- Provide visual assembly and operation instructions
- Digitize the tracking of trial data and variables and remove the paper worksheet
Validation in a real classroom
What we tested



What we learned

I would buy this for one trillion dollars!!
During the post-activity discussion, we conducted a quiz. The students demonstrated very clear understanding of the relationship between kinetic and stored energy. The overall experience was fantastic, and we received some very valuable insights.
- Students were able to assemble the trebuchet in much less time than we expected.
- The activity was a perfect fit for the 4th grade curriculum, as the students learned about stored & kinetic energy in class just 1 month prior.
- The pouch design was difficult to operate, resulting in frequent launch failures.

Richard usually struggles a bit with school subjects and isn't as engaged as the other kids. But he loves building, and it was nice to see him really brighten up today..
What we changed
- We decided to revert back to the cup design for launching projectiles due to operation difficulties.
- We need to include specific challenges and goals so the experimentation is more guided.
- The digital interface should allow the students to tweak and track the effect of different variables across trials.
Final prototype - Data visualization


Final prototype - Physical construction
Final outcome

Oliver, Me, Sakshat at Redmond.