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Project School Locker

By Floyd Mason Jr. | S Design a new school locker

Overview Instructions

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That thin metal box at school where you cram all your stuff? Lockers aren't designed for students today. In fact, the design of lockers hasn't changed since the days of your great grandparents!

But in the School of the Future things could be different. Reimagine the design of a 21st century locker you would need as a Maker. A locker you could use to keep all of your stuff for making!

Let's get started on the challenge to redesign your school locker.

My teammate and I put our heads together to come up with fresh ideas for new school lockers. We think that our ideas will please the students as far as features and benefits go. We basically thought about all of the things that we dont like about our lockers that we have/had here at Butler and wrote them down. After we wrote them down we brainstormed to try to come up with ways that we can improve the lockers so that there are more pros than cons when owning a school locker.

Collect Instructions

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Gather more information about your existing school lockers by taking photos, sketching, conducting interviews, or doing additional research.

Think About

  • What is the purpose of a school locker?
  • How has the way you use a locker changed since you first started school in kindergarten, for example?
  • How many times do you visit and open your locker each day?
  • Do teachers or school administrators have any safety or security concerns about lockers?  What are they?
  • What types of materials is your locker constructed from?

Try This

  • Take photos of a row of your school's lockers.  Open your own locker and take a photo of what's stored inside.
  • Make a list of all the features your locker currently has. (Examples: hooks, air slots, etc.)
  • Make a list of all the items you currently keep in your locker on a typical day.
  • Next to each item, make notes about what 'needs' that item has.  (Examples: my sweaty gym clothes need to kept away from my other things; my iPod needs electricity to be charged; my winter boots need a place to drip dry)
  • Make a list of all the items you wish you could store in your locker, but don’t have room for.
  • Measure the length, height, and depth of your current locker.
  • Measure the length, height, and depth of your backpack, books, coat / shoes, and other large objects you typically keep inside your locker.
  • Measure the width of your school's hallway.  How much of this width is taken up on both sides of the hallway when students stand in front of their open lockers?
  • Read this Washington Post article to learn more about some of the complaints students have with their lockers today.
  • Visit the websites of a few manufacturers to see various types of lockers currently made.  What do you like or dislike about these examples?

Floyd Mason Jr.'s work for the Collect Information step:

Summary
The purpose of a locker is to store things that you either cant or don't want to carry around school with you all day whether it be books, extra clothing, lunch, etc.
This is a good example of what an average student's locker would look like. Most students go...
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Athletic equipment - may be sweaty and smelly so there should be a small section for me to put them...
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As Branden and I were walking to his locker, we saw this locker that wasn't completely closed...
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When you think about it, we have been using lockers since preschool, only back then they were...
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This is today's "locker security system". The school doesn't really do much to...
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Most school lockers are made of very cheap, recycled metal. Whether that be Steel or iron or...
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Brainstorm Instructions

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Develop sketches or models to help you puzzle through new ideas and solutions.

Think About

  • Make a list of all the things you like about your current locker.  Ask several friends for their opinions.
  • Make a list of all the things you dislike about your current locker.  Ask several friends for their opinions.
  • Think about your locker not just as a metal box, but as another type of container.  What other types of containers do you use each day to store stuff?  (Examples: containers for food, clothing, household items)
  • Many animals, insects, and plants use containers to store things (Example: bees use honeycombs).  Check out some of the images in the Inspiration Gallery for other ideas of strorage units.
  • Keep in mind that your newly-designed locker will be one of many along the hallway.  How will these individual units all fit together?  How will several students use their lockers at the same time without bumping into each other?

Try This

  • Based on the information you collected above, brainstorm a list of special features you’d like your new locker to have.
  • Make lots of sketches to get your early ideas down on paper.  Learn from each different idea. 
  • Consider what materials the locker will be made from.  What materials will be durable against the wear and tear of student use over the years?

Floyd Mason Jr.'s work for the Brainstorm Ideas step:

Summary
The first thing that we did was sit down and talk about what we like and dont like about the lockers at our school.
This is a list of things that students like about the school lockers:
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This is a list of things that students dislike about the school lockers.
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Containers that we use everyday.
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List of features of our new locker.
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Develop Instructions

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Now's the time to take what you've learned from the steps above and develop your own solution for a new locker.

Try This

  • Use recycled cardboard to make a full-scale or half-scale prototype model of your locker.  You can't really understand if the locker will hold all your stuff, until you make a quick study model.  Don't worry about making a fancy finished model at this time. Instead, use cardstock, scissors, and tape to quickly create the large 3D form. See how it looks. Break off different sections, add new pieces, and try new ideas. Take photos of your model.
  • Sketch or use software such as Google SketchUp, AutoCAD, or Revit to put your ideas on paper.

Floyd Mason Jr.'s work for the Develop Solutions step:

Summary
Brendan and I ended up changing our minds a lot when deciding what features we wanted in our lockers.
This is what our first set of ideas looked like when we sketched them onto paper.
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Final Instructions

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The final step of the design process is to create a more finished model that communicates your ideas to others.

Try This

  • What color or colors will your locker be? What colors have inspired you?  Add colors to the digital model of your locker.
  • What materials will your locker be made of?  Choose materials and details to add to your digital model.
  • Include a human figure in your final locker model, so we can see how big your locker really is.
  • Upload additional images of your finished locker model to the slides for your project.  Write short captions explaining your ideas.
  • Congratulations on solving this design challenge!

Floyd Mason Jr.'s work for the Final Design step:

Summary
After days of brainstorming and designing and taping and cutting and sketching and erasing, we finally came up with the perfect prototype. This is what our final design looks like.
This is what the final design of our locker looks like.
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