Developing creative confidence through design thinking, storytelling and animation

In my multidisciplinary class, I was surprised to discover how successful students took to not just learning a complex 3D modeling and animation software, but also their ability to create creative, and interesting projects. At the end of the class, most of the STEM students experience a dramatic increase in creative confidence that they were able to accomplish with their project. This increase in creative confidence potentially can have far-reaching impact as self-efficacy contributes to student persistent, and achievement.

Below are the works created by a multidisciplinary class comprised of students from Art, Communication, Finance, Physic, Engineer, and Computer Science. Most of these students had no prior animation or experience with the complex 3D animation software used. By implementing design thinking into the class structure, students were able to not only able to learn complex 3D animation modeling software but showcased what they learned by creating an entertaining project.

Some of these projects were implemented into the Santa Clara University virtual reality lab, the Imaginarium

Please click on the link for their robot animated shorts.

Finance Final prototype movie

The 3D modeling and animation class incorporates design thinking, story structure, and animation to empowers students to design and model their own robot. Taking the robot students have created they bring it to life through animation. Through animating their self-directed story they face many problems and obstacles during the 10-week class. Students must develop problem-solving skills to help them move forward. The class implemented new and experimental methods of delivering education through hands-on learning that leads to "flow". Some students gain trans-formative results by increased creative confidence base on the end of the class survey. That creative confidence can help them develop more innovative solutions to solving problems in their future endeavors.

Please click on the link for their robot animated short.
Computer Science/Studio Art prototype movie

Please click on the link for their robot animated short.
Computer Science major prototype movie

Please click on the link for their robot animated short.
Computer Science/ The digital age major prototype movie

Electrical/Computer Science/The digital Age major prototype movie

An interesting observation from the multidisciplinary class was that the STEM students performed exceptionally well. Base on the end of class surveys, what was most dramatic was the amount of creative confidence gained from these STEM students. This is clearly seen in the quality of the students below. This finding has many implication future training of STEM majors, by improving their ability to think outside the box and become more creative and innovative problem solvers. Some of these students will be taking their projects into Virtual Reality projects during the next term.

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The students below did not use their own robot they designed and instead use a robot given to them to help them visualize their story.

Please click on the link for their robot animated short.
Physics/Values Science Technology major prototype movie