A few photos from the first Desk Crit

The primary domains of my thesis are informal learning environments, play/game design, and conflict resolution.

Lien Tran’s ‘12 thesis “Gaming The System” was created as a way to playfully distribute information about legal complexities to immigrant youth detainees.

Michelle Calabro’s ‘12 thesis “Equals”, is an interactive sculpture envisioned to provide a context for romantic partners to resolve their various conflicts.

Monica Arias ’12 Thesis “DesignEd” utilizes a students’ extra curricular time to teach design education. The target audience of this project is high-school students and through instruction set lessons, online lectures, and motion graphic instructional videos students are educated about the basic elements of design. This project was created to provide a supplemental design education, as it is often missing from high-school curriculums.

“Rescue” a ‘11 thesis project by Vidya Kadiyam is a game that promotes education and learning about energy conservation. This project aims to create behavioral change by informing young adults between the ages of 18 – 30 about strategies to improve energy conservation.

Max Chang’s ‘11 thesis game “Future Task” provides students with an opportunity to push critical thinking in an informal play environment. This physical board game is used as a tool to open up students thinking and lower their reservations about critical and creative thinking.

­­­Katherine Lee’s ‘10 thesis “KWYJIBO” created toys that were customizable by its users. Lee’s thesis was based on the hypothesis that successful customization tools would foster a connection between the user and what they created. Lee also sought to prove that if this tool can also help incorporate the users feeling or persona, that might lead the user to come to a sense of ownership over their creation. The end result was KWYJIBO plush creatures that were designed online with a customizable online tool

“Ocean Lab” a ‘10 thesis project by Jessica Klein is an educational toolkit that educated elementary school students in the New York City area about water safety while creating a greater connection between these students and the coastal environments that surround them.

Hello,

My name is KJ and the URL to my blog for class is kjthesis.tumblr.com. I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and I now live in Brooklyn. Last semester I was in Melanie Crean’s Thesis 1 Section. I am currently creating a gaming curriculum that teaches some aspects of conflict resolution. When I am not working on my thesis or at work I like to do things outside.