what’s up? It’s Aedan here. Another day. A new project. Maker just got that much better. This was just a quick two week project we did in our Maker class called Launch. In just a moment I will explain the Launch cycle. Before that watch a great video about the launch cycle below.

Phase numero 1

Look, listen, and learn. Phase one is all about learning about what the problem you’re trying to solve is. For this stage we did a little bit of research, but mostly listened to Mrs Maxwell and learned about our task. So what was our task? In this phase we got told that we were going to create a sport using certain materials. We got put into groups for this. My group consisted of Fraser, Paisley, and Kiera. After a bit of brainstorming and being fully aware of what our challenge was, it was time for the next phase.

phase numero 2

Ask TONS of questions! I can’t emphasize this stage enough. The title makes this stage pretty self explanatory, but it helps a lot in your final product. Asking tons of questions gives you a better understanding of what to do and the audience your creating your product for. For this stage we did a little survey with the class to get a better idea of what type of sport everyone liked. We found that lots of people like having points, a time limit, and an active moving game. We also asked questions about our own game so we could explain all the rules and have everything under control. After that it was time for step 3!

Phase numero 3

Understand the problem or process. This is where you find out what the problem is your fixing and improving, this is also where you figure out what the process will be to fix the problem. We alsready knew that our goal was to create a new sport, but we also needed to know what made a sport. For this step we looked into different sports and figured out what people liked and disliked about them. This really helped us create the perfect sport because we had a better understanding of what people find boring and what people find exciting. After this step we decided to make our sport very high pace and active because that’s what people found more exciting.

Phase numero 4

Navigate the ideas. This is where you investigate new ideas and start to come up with a solid idea. This is where we started to get into the nitty gritty. We had to start coming up with how you win, a time limit, the playing space, and much more. For this we asked more questions about all the different things a sport must have. After that we started to brainstorm with our groups and actually come up with different ideas for a game. We came up with three different ideas, but were pretty set on one of them.

Phase numero 5

Create a prototype. This is where you actually create a prototype. Due to our lack of time we only really got one prototype, but it was still useful. This step was pretty simple for us. We created the game. We used what we had learnt and created the best game we could, but before we were completely done we had to do one last stage.

phase numero 6

Highlight and fix. After you create your prototype you then have to test it and highlight what’s working and what’s not then fix it. This is to me one of the most important stages. It’s where you do lots of learning from your mistakes then try again. Due to lack of time we just quickly went through this stage. We played our games and then went back to class with ideas of how to improve them. After these six stages it was time to………

LAUNCH!!!!!

Time to show off what you created. This is where we played our games. Our game was called Icecream Ball and it was very fun to play. We made a video explaining the rules then played it with the class. I was very happy with how it turned out, especially with such limited time. Now that we have finished this unit we will use LAUNCH in projects to come. The project we are now headed into is another blue sky project. We will use the LAUNCH cycle immensely during this unit. I really enjoyed this unit and will definitely apply what I have learnt to future projects.

Until next time… Aedan Loughran