Part 1 — Introduction - Daniel VERON
Contents of Part 1 - Schedule / Supervision / General Principle / Outings / / The Senior Mentor / An approach in four situations / Procedure / Final Objective

Behind Things aims at bringing the children from six fifth-grade (CM2) classes in Seine-Saint-Denis to present their reading of the world (past, present and future) through objects of their everyday home environment.

Therefore, the working situations proposed to them must:
• Allow them to become acquainted with the "genealogy of objects" and in broader terms, with the elements that form the basis of design.
• Provide them with hands-on activities: assembling, disassembling, do-it-yourself.
• Allow them to debate and to question themselves so they can form their opinions. Lead them to produce something (comments, questions or concrete creations) that will be displayed to the public.

Schedule Considering the school holiday dates (start of the school year on 2 Sept., All Saints Holiday on 22 oct.), the whole classroom project should be carried out between 8 September and 18 October, 2003. In concrete terms, this represents 6 weeks. We plan to organise 4 or 5 working sessions and one half-day outing.

Supervision  In-class "workshops" are conducted jointly by a young designer and the teacher. In addition, 6 "senior designers" act as mentors.

General principle  In each classroom, the work is organised around four (or a maximum of five) "situations", one "outing" and one meeting with a "senior mentoring designer".

Outings One outing is organised for each group and it must allow students to complete their research work. It can be a visit to a museum (for example, the Pompidou Centre, the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Arts and Trades Museum), a design gallery, a store or a manufacturing place. It can be a visit to the ENSCI (National Superior School of Industrial Creation) if in line with the work carried out.

The Senior Mentor  he corresponds with the class and their designer and monitors their work. S/he meets with the class at least once and discuss with the children's "productions" with them. This meeting can be held at the time of the final exhibition or during a special session in the classroom.

An Approach in 4 situations
What is a situation ?

• A "situation" allows students to tackle a key topic.
• A "situation" is developed over one (or a maximum of two) two-hour (or even two-and-a-half hour) sessions.
• A "situation" is a "stand-alone" project that can work independently from other situations.
• A "situation" can be developed in group work or through individual assignments.
• A "situation" comprises 2 phases:
1• An information, research and discussion/debate phase;
2• A phase for the "production" of what will be part of the final exhibition.

These two phases are, of course, connected and do not necessarily correspond to separate times. For example, a series of flash cards may bring about a number of comments and questions from the group that will be displayed.

The "production" does not have to be something produced directly by the students. It can be:

• The translation of the students' suggestions into a drawing or an installation made by the group's young tutoring designer.
• Formatting of a series of questions or comments made by the students.

Following are two fictional examples on the theme of the "alarm clock" that will provide a clearer idea of what we mean by "situation".



1°) "History of an Object Situation " : Work carried out individually or in pairs – Information/Research/Debate Phase

Introductory Discussion:
How do you imagine people would wake up on time a hundred years ago?
Was it necessary ?
Is it necessary to know exactly what time it is ?

Completed with flash cards, a series of photographs of alarm clocks over the last century (from the cuckoo clock to the digital clock radio)

"Production" Phase:
A series of writings by the students starting from the question: "How do you like to be waken up in the morning ?"

Note: These texts must follow a specific format (constrained writing, e.g. number of lines). The writings are handed in to the teachers. How does it work ? Work in groups of 5 or 6 pupils Information/Research/Debate Phase

Disassemble a mechanical alarm clock
Disassemble a (quartz) digital alarm clock
Debate: How does it work? Which mechanisms no longer exist?

"Production" Phase : A series of weird objects built using the parts of the disassembled clocks.




Procedure 
Each class develops 4 "situations".
Each situation is characterised by a title, a theme and a method.

For example, the procedure could go as follows:

• 1st situation: History of an object (e.g. alarm clock),
or of a function (e.g. "to play").
• 2nd situation: How does it work? (Starting from a given object, see above).
• 3rd situation: My environment today
e.g. my room today
• 4th situation: My environment in the future
e.g. my house 25 years from now

Notes:
The first two situations are developed starting from the same object (or function). For each class, this object is selected among 3 (or up to 6) suggestions.
On the other hand, the last two situations will be the same for all classes

Final Objective
As a reminder: beyond the pedagogical objective, the idea is to produce through each situation the elements that will form the basis of the final exhibition.
The exhibition contents and form (installation, display of objects or drawings, sound exhibit…) are yet to be specified:

• It will depend on several external parameters.
• It will also depend on the expected audience…
• It will depend on the scenographer's choices (and on the scenographer selected)!

In any case, although the students are the content designers, they are not the (only) producers of what will be exhibited.


(suite) Part 2 — Scenario - Jean-Louis FRECHIN