In early September 2024, we were excited to be selected as part of Team4Tech’s inaugural Volunteer Micro Matching Program. Having previously participated in their community calls and engaged with their mission, this marked a significant milestone for our organization, allowing us to collaborate with them more closely.
Unstructured Studio
Team4Tech, a U.S.-based nonprofit impact accelerator with global hubs, is dedicated to bridging the digital equity gap in education and providing transformative learning opportunities for underserved communities worldwide.
Team4Tech
As part of their micro-matching program, we were paired with two incredibly talented professionals: Alex Leigh from Canada and Kani Sengottuvel from India. Their unique perspectives and expertise in STEAM learning brought creative insights into activity development. Together, we co-created two low-cost, STEAM-based activities designed to expand our library of creative learning resources. These activities aim to provide engaging, accessible learning experiences for children while fostering creativity and critical thinking in education.
Over the course of several weeks, we met regularly to brainstorm and refine our ideas. As Alex put it:
A memorable moment for me was the start of the ideation phase of the project. I remember thinking, "if we want the students to get into the tinkering thought process during the project, we need to get into that mindset." From there, we tried to see how far we could take ideas and how creative we could get to encourage the learners to be curious and innovative when doing the activities. This was so memorable because it sparked a new appreciation for creative problem solving and "outside the box" thinking.
Our final choices were two activities: Storytelling with Octo Studio and Mapping with OpenStreetMap. The mapping activity helps students familiarize themselves with their surroundings, while storytelling with Octo Studio fosters computational thinking skills. Here’s an overview of these two activities:
Creating Kathputli Stories with Octo Studio
Kathputli is a traditional Rajasthani puppet art form known for its intricate storytelling through puppetry. This activity merges this ancient tradition with modern creative coding using Octo Studio, a creative platform from the MIT Media Lab that enables users to design digital stories and animations. Through this, students can bring their own Kathputli-inspired narratives to life using visual coding.
Mapping the Story of a Neighborhood with OpenStreetMap
This activity combines exploring local places with digital mapping using OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative mapping platform. Participants document their neighborhood’s story by creating a physical map, adding photos and QR codes to highlight different spots, and identifying missing locations on digital maps through collaboration. It’s a blend of hands-on creativity and digital tools, bringing community stories to life.
This collaboration has been an incredible learning journey for all involved. Through our partnership with Alex, Kani, and Team4Tech, we were able to push the boundaries beyond our current “non-technical” focus, incorporating digital tools to develop essential future skills like visual coding and open-source mapping. With storytelling as the common thread, both activities centered around two key tools: Octo Studio and OpenStreetMap.
As Kani shared:
It was truly a great experience, especially learning about the Tinkering methodology and applying it to project ideas and implementation. I’ve gained a whole new perspective on design thinking that I can use anywhere.
In the NGO world, collaboration is a key factor in accomplishing bold missions. Our partnership with Team4Tech felt like two organizations with shared equity-focused values coming together in a way that truly resonated with us.
If you're interested in collaborating on activity development or have similar ideas or training facilitation in this space, feel free to reach out at hello@unstructured.studio! We’d love to explore new possibilities together.