Background to 4DFrame Contests

The students at our school have already been using 4DFrame in their classes for a few years. As educators, we always strive to further develop our students’ general knowledge, culture, and competence level, partly with the use of 4DFrame material, which arguably offers an enhanced active and hands-on learning experience. Furthermore, the Swedish school curriculum actively encourages teachers to use a more holistic approach when teaching, which can in many ways be facilitated by the use of 4DFrame or other teaching materials. Many have stated that “exploration and hands-on experience is the most effective learning activity for creative education”¹, and this book postulates that at least partly owing to the use of 4DFrame materials, our students have been able to show better assimilated knowledge and in a more sustainable work process. 

Holistic Transformative Education

As previously stated, the advantage of the 4DFrame material compared with more traditional school material such as egg cartons, paper, glue, and PET bottles, is that 4DFrame makes the procedures more natural and mathematically correct. Students will quickly learn that their models will be much stronger and more stable, if they build with equilateral triangles with 60-degree angles instead of long straight pipes. With the 4DFrame material, students can also work with mechanics in a different way than with, for example, LEGO®, where the mechanical parts are already completed in advance.

While engaging in a transdisciplinary pedagogical methodology, students are encouraged to conceptualise some inventions of a specific era that has been studied historically while using 4DFrame as part of an interdisciplinary history and technology class. In this manner, the students can be graded on their progress theoretically and practically as they develop their analytical skills while observing old sketches from famous sources of inspiration whilst also being encouraged to be creative. As a representation of this, 4DFrame has been utilised to help pupils to gestate certain important breakthroughs in technology, as for example James Watt’s invention of the steam engine, pumps, pistons, and gearboxes, and to understand how simple cogwheel systems and differentials work. After a 4DFrame workshop, our students may effortlessly fathom the inner workings of all of these important inventions.

Contest Instructions

Enlightening Imagination is the Swedish National 4DFrame qualification contest for the International Mathematics and Science Creativity Competition (IMSCC) finals, which are held every year at the Gwacheon Science Museum in Seoul, South Korea. The Swedish contest is organised by the Managing Director of Nordic 4DFrame² Mariana Back and different science centres throughout Sweden.³ The 2019 contest was based on an original idea from the inventor of 4DFrame, Park Ho Gul. The goal was to emulate what was done by the participants of a previous experience-based 4DFrame festival in South Korea.

However, the original idea was to come up with creative designs to conceptualise a wind driven power turbine that could generate electricity. According to Park, the goal was “to learn to make energy using wind with the help of models made with 4DFrame tubes and connectors, and to understand how to make electricity with the help of the mechanical gears of a windmill”.⁴

Ho Gul Park

Permission: Ho Gul Park

Enlightening Imagination

However, in the 2019 Swedish version of the competition some elements were added to further stimulate creativity. The Enlightening Imagination “Wind Power Challenge” asked the students to build wind-operated devices, create a machine or construct an appliance that could be beneficial for our environment in the future. In contrast to Park’s original notion, the idea of generating electricity was replaced by the idea of saving energy while using wind power.  The models created by the Swedish participants aged 13–14 were supposed to have at least one or more moving parts that could operate in any direction while interacting with each other with the support of wind power. The jury assessed how the models worked with the help of a wind source, such as an electric fan or a hair dryer. Each team of two participants received a competition kit with 4DFrame material. The participants had an hour-and-a-half to complete the task of building a model, formulate an original name for it, write down, and describe the technical and scientific principles used while suggesting creative alternative uses for their inventions, but very importantly, they needed to blue-print their models on an enclosed A3 form.

In order to qualify, their wind-operated models had to function properly when put in front of a wind source such as an electric fan or a powerful hairdryer. In the form provided, the pupils had to describe the characteristics of their 4DFrame prototype, while highlighting the technical and scientific principles that they had made use of. The jury awarded points for the quality of their construction and sketch, their creativity, and their ability to work as a team, as well as the mathematical and scientific principles used in their designs. The students were encouraged to use several different mechanical principles that they had learned about in the theoretical technology classes, such as cog wheels, differentials, levers, and gears. The participants were allowed to use a pencil, a ruler, and a pair of scissors, and they were allowed to cut into the material. When their models were completed, all residual material was supposed to be put back in their respective plastic bags. Each team was hence judged on the general tidiness of their workspace at the end of the contest.

Some have argued that “to make transdisciplinary learning as effective as possible, it should occur in a realistic and applied setting”.⁵ This type of opportunity for competition provided by the IMSCC was, to the pupils, just such a realistic and applied setting. The pupils were able to conceptualise their models as being representative of real objects – inventions that would work and be beneficial in the real world. The most interesting aspect observed during the competition was that the participants were not only using the theoretical concepts they assimilated during their technology classes but, as a matter of fact, they were mostly inspired by things they have learned in other school subjects such as: mathematics, geography, physics, history, and home economics.  

Analysis of Data and Observation

In 2020, at the Bilingual Montessori School of Lund, the 7th graders were divided into 18 teams of two, and the 8th graders competed a few days later and were similarly divided into 18 teams of two, for a total of 36 different constructions. Each team had the same starting kit, instructions, and material, as described previously. As the students were building their prototypes and sketching them the teacher observed that most inventions had a clear ‘real world’ purpose and were either inspired by the United Nations Global Goals and/or by historical inventions the students had learned about during their history classes.

The jury members tested each wind-powered device with a fan and eliminated all the prototypes that were not functional. In the end, the top five prototypes were put on a table for final evaluation. Meanwhile, the teacher in charge, who had not participated on the jury, collected data about the types of constructions and their potential source of inspiration and classified them as belonging to different levels of development, as documented below.

Qualitative Levels of Development

As a point of comparison, the constructions for each team were documented according to a series of levels of development. 

• Level 1: The team managed to build a stable structure respecting basic scientific, technical, and mathematical principles.
• Level 2: The team managed to build a functioning wind turbine rotating freely in front of an electric fan.
• Level 3: The team managed to have another mechanical device freely interacting with the windshaft of their construction. 
• Level 4: The team managed to have two or more mechanical devices freely interacting with each other, with at least two that were powered by the windshaft.
• Level 5: The team managed to define a clear purpose for their 4DFrame construction respecting the guidelines of the competition. 
• Level 6: The team clearly demonstrates that they have been influenced and/or inspired by concepts acquired in other non-STEAM-related disciplines, such as history, geography, and home economics, for example.

The example of the wind-powered seed drill will subsequently be used to illustrate how acquired knowledge in non-technology-related subjects inspires creativity consciously or unconsciously (by osmosis).

The Winning Teams

The jury subsequently selected one winner from 7th grade and one winner from 8th grade to go to the National Finals, and both inventions had respected all the different requirements of the contest. The prototype from the winning team from 7th grade was a wind-powered auto-cooker, which clearly stated multiple United Nations Global Goals in their written description, while its sketch conceptualised their prototype accurately. Meanwhile, the winning team from 8th grade was clearly inspired by their history classes about the medieval Dutch windmill, as it decided to build a wind-powered water pump. This shows that both winning teams included different aspects of what they had learned during their classes in technology while integrating important aspects of social sciences, such as history and geography, in their thought processes, which in turn clearly demonstrates that the concepts acquired during their respective history and geography classes were integrated sustainably.

The subjective analysis of each level of development for every prototype built gave us a clear indication that a multidisciplinary approach to teaching technology develops concept acquisition skills and that active learning arguably leads to more sustainable knowledge. Furthermore, by demonstrating how aspects of historical, geographical, and other non-STEAM-related topics are integrated in the creative thought process, the participating students demonstrated that 4DFrame, as a pedagogical instrument for active learning, brings added value to the advancement of STEAM.

Specific Example: The Seed Drill

As mentioned previously, one of the most fascinating aspects that was observed during the Enlightening Imagination contest of that year was the fact that many teams competing in the creative competition came up with ideas that showed advanced creative solutions while using concepts from older inventions that the pupils had learned about during the previous chapters in their respective history classes. According to Klassen,⁶ a multidisciplinary study is studying a topic from the viewpoint of more than one discipline and solving a problem using a different disciplinary approach, which is what our pupils were putting into action, when they used inspiration from a historical invention, which they previously learned about in their history lesson when creating a new invention for the contest. As the pupils gain hands-on experience in new subjects, their creativity could be enhanced. Once they leave school, they may become certified professionals who are ready to venture into innumerable fields and possibilities, which in turn will boost their confidence in facing the real world.

As an example, we discussed the use of a chronological approach in relation to non-history-related subjects in an article for the International Conference for the Advancement of STEAM. As we analysed the impact of this approach during the Enlightening Imagination contest that will be subsequently described, we stated that “the boundaries between science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics are overlapping to such an extent that they can perfectly fit in a chronological historical narrative where technical innovation is at the heart of the evolution of civilisation, while preparing our students for the challenges of tomorrow. By using the example of the 4DFrame prototype of the Wind Powered Seed Drill we [...] illustrate how this approach to active learning generates sustainable learning and creative thinking”.⁷

Being able to adopt connectivity when electing to use knowledge acquired in one subject-area, while studying another, is a revival of a far more inclusive and constructive pedagogy for a true holistic development of an individual. “Especially when integrating art education in other disciplines, artists need to be aware of transdisciplinary studies in today’s contexts as art cannot be alienated from social sciences, politics, literature, cultural studies and design”.⁸ This type of transdisciplinary connectivity was utilised in the example of the “Wind Powered Seed Drill” that was inspired by Jethro Tull’s invention. The prototype in focus was created by two students in 8th grade. Their invention made it to the jury’s top three in the 8th graders’ 4DFrame contest. These two pupils had learned about the original horse-drawn seed drill invented in the early 18th century during their history classes, and by building a seed-planting 4DFrame device, they demonstrated that they understood the importance of this revolutionary historical invention while creatively developing it further for future real-world utilisation.

Jethro Tull

Credit: Public Domain CC0

When later interviewed about their invention, the two finalists were able to skilfully articulate their original idea going into the competition as being “to make some kind of drill” and that their idea “developed as they were working on it”. They also iterated that a ‘mistake’ had helped to develop their invention even further and that “their second prototype would be much better”. The pupils recognised that in their co-operation “one idea led to another” and that the competition format is a great way to focus their attention on the task and to be more creative than they would otherwise be.

The above extracts from an interview⁹ with two participants in the competition reveal the extent to which an interdisciplinary teacher can use important historical improvements in technology, while challenging students to use their imagination to recreate, improve, develop, or invent machines inspired by the technological devices that they had previously learned about. The pupils taking part in the competition had previously also learned about the agricultural revolution, how it triggered the industrial revolution, and how different inventions had a profound impact on the different civilisations from which they originated. Consequently, they attempted to apply a creative sustainable solution while using their imagination in order to solve the problems that they had identified. The two pupils later developed their invention as having the added function of being used to plant trees. By using wind as a primary source of energy the pupils attempted to demonstrate and illustrate how their ideas for a future sustainable economy had been influenced by the historical inventions that they previously learned about in their history class.

To get this type of synergy through education, it can be advantageous to use a chronological approach in teaching, as the educational narrative will make apparent how ideas and technological devices are part of different cognitive, social, and cultural evolutionary processes. In this manner, pupils can learn to understand that nothing truly useful can be invented without prior knowledge of what has been invented before. It is on these grounds that we argue that a chronological pedagogy highlighting the historical process leading to the improvement of technological devices is an essential part of the advancement of STEAM education.

By understanding the processes that brought mankind from stone-carving all the way to rocket science, it is easier to grasp the essential concepts, when they are classified and organised using some type of timeline. The parallels between anthropology, history, and technological development are undeniable, and teaching history while using a chronological approach is a way to integrate multiple school subjects at once in a holistic manner, which can advantageously be conjugated with Montessori-based teaching methods. To use an old cliché, nobody can know where they are going before knowing where they come from, and this can apply to technological innovation as well.

Maria Montessori

More Examples, Related to the United Nations Global Goals¹⁰

As discussed earlier, some related examples of 4DFrame prototypes such as the finalists’ Wind-Powered Auto-cooker or the Wind-Operated Water Pump demonstrate that they gained experience by building wind turbines made with 4DFrame equipment previously. While clearly describing in their sketch that they were aiming to accomplish some of the most important United Nations Global Goals, they used theoretical aspects in their strategies and creative process. As an example, the 8th graders who had previously built 4DFrame Dutch windmills in class consequently remembered the historical and technological concepts of the evolution of water pumps. Despite the fact that they had learned that the Dutch windmills used Archimedes' screws to irrigate the water of the Polders, they consciously made the choice to use another mechanical concept, which they acquired in the study of history about the Industrial Revolution. As the students assumed that 4DFrame material did not necessarily lend itself well to building a model conceptualising an Archimedes screw, they instead applied the mechanical principles of the piston in order to build their prototype of a pump. In contrast, students in 7th grade, who had previously experimented with 4DFrame windmills in an interdisciplinary music workshop, developed the idea of creating a cooking appliance powered by the wind in order to help the unfortunate people who do not have access to electricity in developing countries. They found inspiration in the United Nations Global Goals, as well as in their regular home economics classes.

This transdisciplinary approach contributes to our students’ ability to reach some of the Swedish National Agency for Education’s knowledge requirements for 9th grade¹¹, such as: “Teaching should give pupils the opportunities to develop their knowledge of historical conditions, historical concepts and methods, and about how history can be used for different purposes.”¹² Meanwhile, the participants complied with all the rules of the 4DFrame Enlightening Imagination contest and underwent a collaborative learning experience that contributed to the development of team-work abilities.

1. Park Ho Gul, The 3rd Soil; 4DFrame, 4DLand (Inc.), 4D Mathematical Science Originality Institute, 2009, p.41.
2. https://www.nordic4dframe.com.
3. For more information, see https://fssc.se.
4. Park Ho Gul, The 3rd Soil; 4DFrame, 4DLand (Inc.), 4D Mathematical Science Originality Institute, 2009, p.63.
5. Wicklein, R. and Schell, J., Case Studies of Multidisciplinary Approaches to Integrating Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, Journal of Technology Education, Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring, 1995, p. 73.
6. Klaassen, R.G., Interdisciplinary education: a case study, European Journal of Engineering Education, 2018.
7. Graham, C. and Longchamps, P., Innovation in convergence education; 4DFrame as a pedagogical tool for holistic active learning A case study from Bilingual Montessori School of Lund, Sweden, In S.H. Paik, K.H. Cho, M. Ha, and Y.H. Kim (Eds), International Conference on the Advancement of STEAM 2020: Borderless Connectivity, pp.7–14, 2020.
8. Samyukta, P., Multidisciplinary Approach in Art Education, International Journal of Scientific Research and Review, Vol. 7, No. 5, May 2019, p.1607.
9. Interview conducted 28 May 2020.
10. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment.
11. https://www.skolverket.se/download/18.31c292d516e7445866a218f/1576654682907/pdf3984.pdf, p.208.
12. Ibid., p. 163 and Longchamps, P., Multilingual Immersion in Education for a Multidimensional Conceptualization of Knowledge: A Case Study of Bilingual Montessori School of Lund, Malmö University Electronic Publishing, 2015, http://muep.mau.se/handle/2043/20207.