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Owen Canavan, a fourth year Technology and Design student at St Mary’s, has designed and created a sensory learning wall for visually impaired pupils.
The project was initiated through contact with a recent St Mary’s graduate, Kevin Stitt, who worked on this subject for his Capstone project. The Capstone is a research-informed and school-related module for final year students to integrate the various elements of their initial teacher education.
The design of the sensory learning wall was a user-centred process based on the needs of the children. In this way it provided the pupils with a voice to give their ideas and feedback.
The project began by Owen meeting with staff and pupils, gathering research and applying findings to the initial design concept sketches and models. Feedback meetings were conducted with the pupils and these acted as updates for the client school and informed design development. Based on this feedback, textures and themes were selected and trialled so that the final design could be refined.
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The design was modelled in Computer-aided Design (CAD) software to develop and enable its manufacture using a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router. |
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Once Owen completed manufacture, application and installation of the project the school pupils were encouraged to engage and offer feedback. |
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