Maker Lab 1: Design Lab

Assignments

Participation (10 points)

A class is a place where we study together. Your participation will help make this a great class.

To get full participation points:

Attend every class session. This is a short course and there are no excused absences outside of medical exemptions with a doctor’s note, modification from the Student Access Office, or a religious holiday.
Don’t be late. Don’t leave early.
Do the readings. Come to class prepared to discuss the readings. If it’s obvious that you didn’t do the readings, or made little effort to engage with or try to understand them, you will lose participation points.
Maintain the lab. We are all responsible for maintaining the maker lab, closet, and our materials. Help us set up, help keep things clean and organized, help us put things away.
Be bold. This is a class about creativity and “making”. We want you to take risks, to try new things. This is not an easy thing!
Be kind and respectful. We love a spirited debate, strong opinions, and learning new things from each other. But those practices only work if we offer our respect to the other participants and assume they are operating in good faith, too.
Keep an open mind. Disagree with the instructors and other students after fully attempting, engaging, and considering the materials and context.
Try first, argue later.
Communicate. Read your emails. Post on Discord. Talk to your partners. Let the instructors know if there’s a problem or question. Tell us how to make things better.

You will reflect on your participation in your artist’s journal. Write a little bit about your accomplishments, goals, and things your would like to improve in how you engage with the course.

Post your reflections to your portfolio. You are welcome to make these pages only visible to the instructors, but you can also think of this as a public, personal reflection like you might find in a blog post.

Online Portfolio (15 points)

You will create an online portfolio that will be used throughout the Master’s in STEAM Teaching and Learning. While the portfolio will house many of your assignments, you are also responsible for designing a site that reflects your identity as a maker and educator.

The portfolios will be created using Google Sites with your Adelphi email account. You will be responsible for maintaining the site permissions and making sure that it is available to the instructors and other students in the class, and that some aspects (at least) are fully public. Everyone is encouraged to use Google Sites, but if you have a strong preference for another platform, you can use it once you have instructor approval.

Your portfolio will be evaluated on how well you demonstrate your ability to use the features of your online platform, you ability to achieve a consistent and professional design and user experience, the quality of your content (well edited writing, thoughtful images, clear audio, etc), and the overall creativity and originality of your site.

See examples from the Summer ‘26 Design Lab:

Artist’s Journal (5 points)

Everyone will keep an artist’s journal during this course (and after, we hope). The Journal is a place for you to record thoughts, plan designs, sketch ideas, and reflect. There will be some “assigned” journal entries (see above and below), but mostly it is meant for your own benefit. Journaling might not be for you… but for the purpose of this course, try it out with an open mind.

To “grade” your journal, you will upload photos of key pages to your online portfolio and post a brief (300-500 word) reflection about how you used it, and what you thought of the journal.

Public Art Encounters (5 points)

New York is full of public art: famous sculptures, big shows, street art, hidden and half forgotten works, and more. You will document at least 3 public art works that you encounter. At least one of these should be “sanctioned” work and at least one should be “unsanctioned” work.

Document your encounter in your journal with at least one sketch of each work, and notes on the context, your experience, and thoughts on the work. Further document your encounter with photos and/or videos. Consider things like the medium of the work, the scale (aka size), the materials, when it was created, how it was funded (or not).

Upload your documentation to your online portfolio.

Reading Responses (15 points)

For each of the online weeks there are a set of readings. You should write a brief reading response (~300 words) for each week on your portfolio. Your response should have a point of view and be interesting to read. Think of it as a mini-essay with an original thesis. It should connect to the other readings, refer specifically to the texts, and draw on your experiences in this and other courses, your own classroom, and the world. If something is unclear, confusing, or “wrong” (in your opinion), you can say that as well. The online posts will form the basis for our in-person discussions.

If your response sounds like it was written by AI, you will receive zero points for that week.

STEAM Collage (15 points)

You will use materials provided in class and “found” materials that you bring in to create a collage that explores your own connections to science, math, and technologies. You are free to explore your personal experiences, the big ideas in the field, the impacts of STEM on the world, aspects of teaching and learning, or other threads that you wish to investigate.

Use this opportunity to explore the expressive power of art and creativity. Remember that you are not creating a science poster or presentation. Artistic works are open to multiple interpretations, incorporate ambiguity, abstractions, beauty, surprise, and novelty. They elicit an emotional, sensual, and affective response as much as a logical or intellectual one. Take some risks and try something new in this project. 5 of 15 points will be awarded purely for “risk taking” (regardless of the outcome).

Collage guidelines:

consider color carefully: most of your collage should come from a limited color palette; a few accent colors can be used to focus attention
unifying elements (repeated patterns, flowing shapes/lanes) help connect the different parts of your collage and lead the viewer through your work
do draw or paint directly on your board as needed
do (sparingly) incorporate materials available in the lab if they meet your theme
do cut stencils for your collage
do not (not permitted) print new images for your collage
don’t cover your entire board with a single background material
don’t be afraid to leave empty space
you may incorporate found items that you bring in, only with instruct permission

Escape Room Puzzle (25 points)

We are going to work together to create an educational escape room around a STEM topic. You will work in a team of 2-4 students to design a puzzle that fits into the overall escape room narrative and aesthetic.

Your puzzle design will show your ability to use the tools and processes of the maker lab for educational purposes; your ability to translate STEM content into a create, game-based learning experience; and your ability to work collaboratively with your team to meet your goals and deliver your fully working and tested puzzle on time. Your will document your creative and design process as part of your journal and online portfolio.

Escape Room Visits (5 points)

You will visit at least 2 escape rooms outside of class. You can choose any escape room that suits your interest and time. Have fun with the experience, but also consider the design of the puzzles, the overall narrative, the aesthetic experience, and the materials required. Reflect on the experience in your journal, including any inspiration for your own puzzles and themes. Document your visit (without spoilers) on your portfolio.

You must complete the first visit by Oct 1, and the second visit by Nov 1.

Museum Visits (5 points)

You will visit (at least) 2 museums outside of course hours: once STEM museum and one art museum. Each visit must be at least one hour long. You must keep journal entries for each visit that logs the museum, the date and time of the visit, and key exhibitions or works that you engaged with. You should also document your visit with sketches, photos, and/or videos. You will create an entry on your online portfolio for each visit. Your entries should reflect on the visit in terms of course readings and discussions, including considering how the museums work as public pedagogy, the learning design, the aesthetic experience, politics of the museum, etc.

You can use your library card (New York, Brooklyn, or Queens) to get a free culture pass to many museums in the city. Even if you can’t take advantage during this semester, it is a great resource. IDNYC is another great resource for museum and other cultural access in NYC, and it can double as a library card.

The instructors will post other interesting museum exhibits and events on Discord as well as invitations to join us for informal, optional field trips during the course. You can also check out the NYC Arts Calendar for further ideas and events.

STEM Museums

You must visit at least one of the following “STEM” museums:

Art Museums

To dive deeper into our study of art, creativity, and aesthetics, you should visit an art museum. You can hit one of the “big” ones (Met, MoMA) or look for a place you haven’t visited yet.