At Bethlehem College, the year 10 iSTEM class was one of the very first STEAMPunk classrooms implementing the program. Their driving question was “How can we, as designers, design a product to help a student with a disability access our school?” The girls were then supposed to use CAD/CAM to develop a product to be 3-D printed that could help alleviate an issue a student with a disability may face.
The program started with an empathy walk where students went through the school either in a wheelchair, using crutches, or with a blindfold. Following this walk, students debriefed and discussed where they faced difficulties and began to draft a design.
One group noticed that the bubblers were set too far back for a student in a wheelchair to easily access. To address this problem, they developed an Elephant Tap. The Elephant Tap is a small plastic device that can be stuck on the end of a bubbler tap. The water flows into the device and is then diverted outward through the elephant’s trunk toward the user!
This project was a beautiful example of empathetic, human-centred design. These young women were able to recognize an issue that could be easily overlooked and developed a simple, cost-effective solution to make a classmate feel more included in the school community and it exactly encapsulates the heart of STEAMPunk Girls. Bravo, girls!
