During Terms 3 and 4 of 2017, three Year 3 students have worked on an engineering project, aiming to design and build an outdoor enclosure for Morris Hall’s adored bearded dragon, Spikey Morris.
From concept to execution, Alexandra Devlin, Daisy Moore and Alice Wiggill worked tirelessly over several months to create the perfect home for Spikey Morris, with the expertise of Mr Tobias Selkirk, an ex-engineer.
The brief was simple – Spikey Morris needed an easily transportable outdoor enclosure. The girls worked through the design processes and proposed a design with both wet and dry areas. Through this process, they developed a sense of self and ownership of their ideas, as well as basic engineering principles and systems.
Materials for the enclosure were purchased using the proceeds from the Morris Hall Farmers’ Market when the girls were in Year 2. They sold fresh produce, grown onsite in the kitchen garden. The frame of the enclosure was built using materials from a recycled wooden seat from Merton Hall. A particular highlight for the girls was the drill lesson Mr Tobias gave them whilst building the frame of the enclosure.
Our girls learnt that design can be a purposeful, creative, and practical process of giving form to ideas. It fostered exploration and the application of relevant information to achieve something of value, engineering each element to the final detail.
“The goal of a designer is to listen, observe, understand, sympathise, empathise, synthesise and glean insights.”
This quote from Hillman Curtis accurately captures many of the skills students increasingly need to succeed – in school and beyond. To ensure our students are capable of thinking critically, considering the needs of others and then developing solutions to solve real problems, design thinking offers a useful framework to achieve this.
Watch our short video above outlining the process, as well as the big reveal of Spikey’s new home. Stay tuned for next year’s Morris Hall engineering creation!