HOW THE PROJECT ROLLED OUT AND MY INITIAL THOUGHTS
In this project, we spent most of our time in the first week planning and prototyping your original idea ;to build a gazebo and that was the idea that we had our exhibition on but the concept was scraped pretty quick due to the buildings cost. In the end, it would be 3000 for just the raw materials and approximately 5000 including manual labor. There was no way that we could have saved due to how much it was so we have up on it. Saying that we had no choice but to choose a new project.
FIELD TRIPS AND GUEST SPEAKERS
All the guest speakers and field trips gave me all these different inspirations and it helped me a lot in the final product. During the twin buttes field trip, I learned about eco-friendly materials and it was really interesting for me.
WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
I believe Sustainable design is to make the least amount of an impact on the environment as possible. For example, if you want to build a house use as many eco-friendly materials as possible.
project Outdoor prototype
MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE PROJECT
The final outdoor prototype.
A picture our greatest hindrance and the part I put the most work in to.
Outdoor/final prototype DESCRIPTION
interviews and observations
During the interviews, I concluded that most people want a shaded, calm, quiet place in nature to do there work. In almost all the interviews at one point or another, they talked about a peaceful quiet place where they can concentrate. I got a lot the same thots from the observations when it was quiet and calm they seemed content but when it got loud they became unfocused and some even looked stressed. This helped a lot while planning the project.
how I took advantage of the freedom to have tons of ideas
We bounced between a couple different ideas to find the perfect one. Having all this freedom really does give me so much room to fail. But it also helps me to learn from my mistakes.
Prototyping
We started by getting the shade cloth and put it up using paracord to get the measurements of each corners rope. After that, I bought the crimpers and the crimps I needed to replace the paracord with steel cord.
full project DESCRIPTION
how I IMPROVED
During this project, I improved my leadership skills the most. I have always thought of myself a follower never taking the reins of the project letting the people around me make the big decisions. However, in this project that didn't happen in the slightest, all of a sudden I was telling people what to do and how to do It. I was finding the materials and learning how to work the tools. I think a lot of that was due to the fact that this was more experienced the all the people in my group. Me stepping into the leadership role really opened up a lot of options for me and gave me a new way of thinking. Which made this project an amazing experience.
how I need IMPROVEMENT
I feel like we used all the hoham/21st Century Skills in this project and didn't have really left any out but, if I had to pick one it would have to be independent research. I feel like we could have spent more time outside of school researching the products we were planning on buying. We may have finished on time, But if we had spent time after school learning about how some of our materials worked best. We may have a completely different project. we pretty much spent the hole the first-week planning and researching but if we had done that more independently we would have more time to work. We could have ended up with a project that was bigger, stronger and more aesthetically pleasing.
PROBLEMS we fixed
The hardest part of this entire project was getting the materials specifically the crimps and crimpers. The main problem with getting the materials was that we were running out of time so we couldn't order it online and we had to get it from Home Depot. We ended up having to put the `whole structure up on the last day because we didn't have the materials until then. It made it stressful at parts Because we didn't know If we would have time to finish the project. I do think that we spent a lot of the time on this project helping other groups simply because we didn't have the materials. Thankfully Kurt had the steel cord we needed to secure the shade cloth up there fully. Overall that was our greatest hindrance in the project.
PROBLEMS we gave up on
The most obvious problem was lack of funding for the gazebo. But with a price of 5000, it's not that surprising considering that the time limit we had. Still, if we were able actually to build a gazebo it would have been so cool and I regret not being able to do it. But I wasn't only funds that were the problem, the project required Quite a bit of planning and research. We just simply didn't have the time to build a gazebo, it was more a couple month long project than a couple week long project. So we switched ideas, the more to it.
what success looks like
Originally I thought It would use be a good bit smaller and be a gazebo, not a shade cloth but I definitely think that what we have now is a success. I may have had big beautiful Ideas at first but If I had to put it into words our project now is like a blank canvas. It's not extravagant and kind of bland but think of What you could do with it. I'm not saying that I'll continue working on in the future but it's something that future students can add on to. Overall I feel accomplished when I look at it and that's what matters. Sure you build something that that's easy and Quick and get the whole project done fast but that's not something that you are proud of. No project is perfect but if you're satisfied with it it's absolutely amazing by my standards.
advice to future students
My advice to future students is that One Big problem that we encountered was that we planned too big. I think that the best way to do this project is planned small and build off of that Idea. This is all if you don't have the funding for it If you do break a leg. However, if you are in any way missing materials or funding you should scale down your project. This is all my opinion so if you really want to build a big project it's not my right to stomp on your creativity. That said do heed my advice and don't get over your head.