Enabling Kids’ Creativity through
a Media Lab and Program
Pixel Lab
Challenge
Help City Year, an education non-profit part of AmeriCorps that partners with public schools around the U.S., envision an environment and experience that enables student success at P.S. 96M, a NYC Public S.T.E.A.M school
Outcome
Transformed an under-utilized computer lab into Pixel Lab, a media and technology lab and program for students to express their innate creativity across media, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Role
Co-led the user research and strategy by designing the two visioning workshops and Reveal Day. Collaborated with brand designers, strategists, architects and interior designers to translate strategy into design. This was pro-bono work done while at Gensler.
1. Understanding the Students and City Year Corp Members
Two vision sessions were held to envision what this underutilized space could be. Through a session with City Year Corp Members and students themselves, we discovered that students are passionate about technology (coding, video production, social media), the arts and storytelling. However, there is no formal outlet for them to express this during the school day.
Corp Members Session
The City Year Corps Member session aimed to understand the culture of P.S. 96M, and their relationship to the students. We designed a journey mapping exercise to understand a typical day in the life of a Corps Member, and a card exercise to understand the culture of P.S. 96M. From this session we learned how students are passionate about technology.
Student Session
For the student session, we used an exercise that involved the students designing and creating their own type of technology based on prompts we had developed. For example, ‘Imagine you just started P.S. 96M and you don’t know any of your new classmates. Invent a tool that will help you get to know your classmates more.’ One student groups prototype was called the ‘Friend-making Robot’ that helped create conversation between students who didn’t know each other.
We learned:
Student Interests: Students are tech-saavy (coding, video production, social media), have a strong interest in the arts, and are confident and comfortable presenting.
Variety in Classroom Settings: Physically changing the room helps the students focus.
Collaboration: Students value mentorship and cross-grade interaction.
PS.96M Culture + Identity: P.S. 96M brands itself as a STEAM school, incorporating both technology and the arts.
2. Designing a Media Lab Environment
In order to create an environment for experimentation and invention with media and technology, the space was designed to reflect the full lifecycle of creation, from creating & processing to lounging & viewing. The space serves as a platform for students to explore and express their creativity.
Our insights led to the following project goals:
Multi-Use Space: Create a versatile space that can support multiple uses and functions, for both the City Year Corps Members and the students
Learning Lab: Create a space where students will dream beyond the walls of the classroom to experiment, invent, create, make and present
Dream It, Build It, Pitch It!: Create an inspiring space where students can utilize technology to work together and practice team building, communication and problem solving.
Collaboration & Engagement: Create a space where student of all ages can come together and co-create.
Before and After
3. Developing a Media Program and Playbook
Beyond delivering just a space, we needed to help create a sustainable media playbook to help equip students, Corp Members, and teachers with new superpowers that the Pixel Lab can support. As a result, we developed a media program to be implemented as an after school offering within the existing City Year after school program.
The Pixel Playbook was developed to describe how to use all of the technology, how to develop content for a story, and how to film and produce a story.
4. Activating a Reveal Day Experience
In order to immediately create a sense of ownership over the space for students and City Year Corps Members, we designed an Reveal Day experience that had a variety of pop-up stations throughout the space that were designed to activate new behaviors and perceptions.
Green Screen Photo Booth: Focused on teaching students how to test and shoot with technology and green screen and create different media backdrops
Livefeed Photo Booth: Focused on teaching students how to instantly shoot and upload media
Scavenger Hunt: Designed to encourage exploration through a game where students had to find hidden lion decals (the school’s mascot) to spell out a full word.
Lettermaking Station: Focused on creating a space to write thank-you cards and draw
