Experiential Learning with CATalyst Studios

FITS 425: Apparel Production

Course Description: This course presents an overview of the apparel production cycle, product design, creation, and distribution. Various assembly equipment used in the production process along with the importance of the technical package's relationship to the process will be stressed. Students will analyze garment design and construction features in order to understand their relationship to apparel cost and quality. Garment specification, time and motion studies, sourcing and sustainability are also covered. An introduction to the HIGG Index and how it is applied to apparel production will be discussed.

CATalyst Support: Students were designing a football jersey and visited CATalyst to learn about the sewing and embroidery machines, as well as the laser cutters, 3D printers, vinyl cutters, and software available to help create embellishments for their design. One design from the class was selected to be produced and sold in the University of Arizona Bookstore. 

TLS 480/481/482: Children's Literature in the Classroom

Course Description: Analysis and discussion of classic and contemporary children's literature of all genres, and its relationship to language, reading and culture.

CATalyst Support: Pre-service elementary school teachers visited CATalyst Studios to tour the resources with special attention to activities that could be provided in classrooms without access to a maker space or maker technology. Afterward, students attended a zine-making workshop where they learned to assemble and create zines to create an author study of an old favorite author in zine form. 

ENGR 102: Introduction to Engineering Design

Course Description: Introduction to the engineering design process, effective team participation and career preparation. Students are expected to participate in hands-on design projects, understand the nature of engineering design challenges and initiate the development of the personal and management skills necessary for lifelong learning.

CATalyst Support: CATalyst Staff worked with instructors to certify every ENGR 102 student in 3D printing. ENGR 102 is a required course for all engineering majors and enrolls approximately 600 students in the fall and 100 students in the spring. Students complete an online module that introduces students to key terms, materials, and the process of slicing and printing a 3D design as a physical object. Then, then students download the slicing software and prepare a test file for printing. Finally, students register for and attend an in-person, hands-on portion of the certification where they verify that they can successfully perform all the steps of 3D printing. 

ART 467B: Visual Narrative and the Artists Book

Course Description: The objective of the class is to try to re-think our conventional concepts of what makes a book, both in terms of narrative structure and physical form. By looking at something as familiar as the ubiquitous codex book in totally new ways, the course will help students learn to approach all multi-page projects from fresh and new angles. We will investigate various contemporary artists' books in our search to find new approaches of expression in the medium of the book form. The class urges students to try many different structural forms and text/image formats, to be playful, to stay loose, to work hard and not be lazy about 'pushing it further'. We will cover the history of the artists' book field, how it has evolved, it's politics, and the current state of this rich  time-based medium.

Engagement with CATalyst: One of the final assignments in the course requires the students to create a physical artifact, like an art book or other form of visual storytelling, using whatever media and means they choose. Students are introduced to the technology in the CATalyst Studios makerspace with a focus on laser cutters, sewing machines, and 3D printers as a means to create their projects. 

FA 495A/ 595A: Rehearsals in Anti-Racism

Course Description: Rehearsals in Anti-Racism is a Fine Arts course that engages students in personal, political, philosophical, and aesthetic conversations about race, racism, and their intersections with other markers of identity. By using workshop-style teaching methods that engage all the senses in arts-based creative activities, conversations about race move beyond words to something more embodied and participatory. Themes addressed in the course include othering and belonging, bodies and space, surveillance and policing, wellbeing and trauma, social media and truth, and more. Students learn how systemic racism affects their own histories, perceptions, and relationships as well as how to creatively intervene in a world structured by racial inequality.

CATalyst Support: The students came in for a tour of the CATalyst maker studio, VR studio, and Media Recording Studio. Once they had recorded their 360 video they returned to CATalyst Studios for a workshop on how to edit a 360 in Adobe Premiere and export it to Youtube.

TAR 197A/B: Introduction to Voice & Movement for the Actor 1 & 2

Course Description: Intro to voice and movement skills for beginning actor. Vocal clarity & articulation, development of physical & vocal response to impulse explored through mask.

CATalyst Support: In the fall semester the students printed and assembled a black mask to explore how anonymity or lack of identity affected performance. In the sprint the students decorated the mask to resemble an animal of their choice. (Link to video from Kevin?)

MATH 481: Mathematical modeling of fluid flow through and around organs and organisms

Course Description: This course will focus on the mathematical modeling of fluid flows through and around organs and organisms, with an emphasis on topics of current medical and environmental interest. The natural world is replete with examples of cells, organs, and organisms whose shape influences flow to their benefit. For example, the shape of a maple seed generates lift which allows them to disperse farther. The design of the aortic valve prevents backflow during ventricular refilling while reducing disturbed regions of flow. The structure of a coral reef enhances the uptake of nutrients and the removal of wastes. A barracudas body shape reduces drag and allows it to quickly accelerate. In this course, we will mathematically describe the shape of organisms using 3D computer aided design (CAD). We will then use computational and experimental fluid dynamics to resolve the flow around 3D printed physical and numerical models. Mathematical topics will include the use of differential equations to describe fluid flow, numerical solutions of differential equations, image analysis, and the use of computational fluid dynamics software.

CATalyst Support: Students learned about the 3D printing resources at CATalyst Studios. Once they had developed a 3D model that illustrated fluid flow they returned to CATalyst Studios to use the 3D printers to print and assemble their designs into a physical object. 

ESOC 211: Collaborating in Online Communities

Course Description: With the increasing reliance on new media for collaborative work, social connection, education, and health-related support, this course will analyze human collaboration and community processes online. By considering how people create a sense of community, maintain group connections, and cooperate with others to bring about a particular outcome, this class will focus on what humans do, how they present themselves, and how they do the work of collaboration in online contexts. In addition to focusing on how humans work together in online in communities, this course will examine the many theories and interdisciplinary bodies of literature that pertain to `community¿ generally, and `online communities¿ specifically. With a focus on both theory and practical applications, this course gives learners opportunities to think intellectually about technology-based collaborations and to apply course-based knowledge in their mediated social lives. This course is not a technical experience, rather it focuses on the theories pertaining to and the processes in play when humans engage in group collaborations (e.g., gaming, teaching, learning, working, or gaining health-related support) via mobile technologies and online sites.

CATalyst Support: Students are asked to create a multimodal deliverable to be accessed and shared by the entire class. Students use CATalyst Studios to make videos, podcasts, and presentations.

ISTA 301: Computing and the Arts

Course Description: This course examines the ways in which computing and information science support and facilitate the production and creation of art in current society. A particular focus of the course will be to discuss how artists have used advances in technology and computing capacity to explore new ways of making art, and to investigate the relationships between technical innovation and the artistic process.

CATalyst Support: Students attended a presentation explaining 3d printing, focusing on how to slice a 3D model to prepare it to print, and and introduction to vector files and their uses in laser and vinyl cutting.