Ecological Probes for experiencing nature

Summary

Through this teaching activity, the students gain an understanding of how they impact and are impacted by more-than-humans. They do so by creating ecological probes and using them to explore a natural environment in a sensory and intuitive manner. The students thus obtain a starting point to find tangible ways to involve the more-than-human world in their design.

Motivation

Students need to develop a sensitivity towards the more-than-human world to inform more-than-human-centered design. By letting the students come in closer contact with non-human entities and reflect on the qualities of these entities, they can develop a sense of appreciation that motivates them to consider the ethical implications of their designs beyond the human impact. They do so by creating ecological probes that provide a tangible method for exploring and empathizing with the more-than-human context and discovering detailed and concrete examples of non-humans in their habitat and how they are impacted by human action. Exploring an environment through these sensory-stimulating ecological probes can bring stakeholder maps, including natural ecosystems, to life through detailed experiences and observations that can further inform and inspire designers.  As a method, the ecological probes approach can inspire students to develop probes specifically fit for the environment of exploration in their design projects.

Learning outcomes

After the teaching activity students should be able to:

• Make (pre-designed) ecological probes to explore a natural environment’s qualities. Reflect on the experience of exploring the natural context through probes and make sense of it. 
• Consider and reflect on the impact of their actions on non-humans in the environment. Imagine new or improved ecological probes suitable for their project. 

Teacher guidance

Preparations:
Gather all materials needed for creating the probes:

• Fabric scissors
• Crochet hook
• Punch needle
• Yarn
• Rope
• Light-colored organic fabric
• Organic fine knitted fabric (like an old t-shirt)
• Printer
• Transfer sheets
• Pins
• Sewing machine
• Iron and board

Step 1: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 60-120 min
The teacher introduces students to a brief overview of the activity’s objectives, the concept of more-than-human, the importance of considering more-than-human perspectives in design processes, what ecological probes are, and the added value of a sensory exploration of the natural environment/context of a design.

The teacher also shares the expected timeline of activities and when homework is expected to be finished.

The teacher can combine all instructive activities into the first class, after which the students do homework and bring their findings to a final class for collective reflection and analysis guided by the teacher. Another option is to spread the instructions over multiple classes and let the students work in class so that the teacher can support them as well as the students can support each other.

Step 2: Group work, Group size: 1-4, Time: 120-480 min
The teacher instructs students to inspect the DIY instructions for the ecological probes and to follow one or multiple to create their ecological probes:

• Kneepad with exploration activities
• Ankle floss texture
• Kneecap texture
• Heavily textured kneecap
• Stretchy lower leg floss texture

The teacher can support students with the techniques or with choosing an appropriate probe. Students can do this activity individually, in pairs or in small groups of students making the same probes to allow them to support each other. This activity can be started as a group-making session but might need some guidance to make it suitable as something the students organize individually. The students are encouraged to document their work visually (pictures, videos).

Step 3: Homework, Group size: 1-4, Time: As needed
Finish making the assigned probe before the next activity. 

Step 4: Instruction, Group size: All, Time: 20 min 
The teacher instructs students to use the probes in specific contexts for duration X for X times. The teacher can give examples for students on how to approach this exploration (refer to literature) and suggest things to try (e.g., trying different kinds of terrain to compare). The students are encouraged to document their exploration visually (pictures, videos).

Step 5: Homework, Group size: 1-4, Time: 30-120 min
The students execute the explorative field study with their probes according to the teacher’s instructions and their intuition before the next teaching activity.

Step 6: Instruction, Group size: All, Time: 10 min:
The teacher instructs students to first reflect individually on the experience and to attempt to make sense of their data.

Step 7: Homework, Group size: 1, Time: 60-180 min
Students individually reflect on the experience and make sense of data.

Step 8: Share in class, Group size: 1-4 and All, Time: 60-120 min
The students are asked to discuss their findings in groups that have the same probe. The teacher then asks the students per group to present their discussed results to the class and facilitates a reflection with the whole class about how this activity informed their perspectives and how they could use this in their work.

Here are some guiding questions: 

• What is an insight that you got due to the use of an ecological probe? 
• How did the probe influence how you perceived the environment?
• How will you use your insights and learning in your future design activities?
• What did you learn about the more-than-humans you encountered?
• How would you change the probe to improve the exploration or to explore something else?

Questions for assessment

Use any of the questions from the guided reflection in step 8 that you have not discussed yet.

Recommended readings

Rosén, A. P., Normark, M., & Wiberg, M. (2022, October). Noticing the environment–A design ethnography of urban farming. In Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (pp. 1-13).