As the school year draws to a close, there was just enough time for one last great project: the Annual PLP Spring Exhibition, Bluesky. Bluesky is a very unique learning experience as it allows each student to show off everything they’ve learned in the past year in the form of a single project. The exhibition itself is similar to the Star Wars exhibition which we did in December, however, Bluesky gets its name from the fact that this project provides countless opportunities. The only restriction and limit is your imagination and the blue sky above! For this project, us, meaning the grade 8s needed to invent or create a product that would help a non PLP peer. This was to not only help us learn about other peers outside of PLP, but to also teach us to serve others which is something my parents highly believe in.

Bluesky, like many projects follows the L.A.U.N.C.H. Cycle. Just as a reminder the L.A.U.N.C.H. Cycle is a cycle in which you get to learn and from it, produce your best work or product. If you wish to learn more about the cycle, try clicking on this link or taking a quick look at the video below.

Bluesky begins with looking, listening and learning. This is when you look around and pay close attention to problems people have. To better explain this post, project and process (that was a whole lot’a Ps right there🙃), I have broken down the project into the six stages of the L.A.U.N.C.H. Cycle. To show the process of my project and to shorten the amount of reading (cause c’mon, who really likes to read paragraphs about my school life) I’ve created a designer’s journal which contains all the steps in making my product: Tricky Tutus.

While the project was quite tricky and on a time crunch, the actual exhibition was a blast. To prepare for this, I decided to display my tutu on a mannequin and create a slideshow rather then a poster board. This was just because I created a poster board last exhibition and wanted to try something new. I’ve attached the video of my slideshow which contains most of my research and knowledge I ended up needing for the project. It also shows my prototypes and an overview of my interview with my client.⤵️

Friends made the stress worth it

Once the open house got going, people were flooding into the room. Both the grade 8s, 9s and 10s were split into groups depending on their project. I was grouped with grade 8s Paisley and Fraser, grade 9s Luca and Kai and grade 10s Mimi, Robbie and Sydney. The 8 of us made up the mental health group and we were quite excited to share different ideas on how to decorate the room and what foods to bring. We decided on a beach theme as people go on vacations to relax and get their minds off of stress and ordinary lives. We also organized a little activity for visitors to do. Science our theme was to be stress free, my group and I had set up a make your own stress ball station. This allowed guests to not only learn about how to relieve yourself from stress but it also gave them something they could take home with them and benefit from. The people loved the vibes of the room and the snacks and it was a constant flow of people right to the end. Not only was the exhibition a fun learning experience, it was also a great time to share with friends.

Make your own stress ball activity!

Refreshments and snacks found here!

The beach!

Clean up took forever!

While the exhibition itself was fun, cleaning up, as usual, wasn’t. As the most decorative group, we had the most to set up and clean up. Each group was dismissed separately and of course, ours having the most decor was last. Although I was at school until almost 9pm, it was kind of worth it to see the room all transformed. It truly was a great experience. And luckily it was a great experience as I have about 3 more Blueskys to go! What I would improve on for next time would be to maybe better rehearse what I would say to my audience as the first few times were a little rough, however, my speech got better as the night went on, and lucky too as that’s when my parents showed up! I would also better plan my time management so I don’t end up stressing last minute over my prototype. Maybe borrowing Lucy’s product would help with that! Overall though, it was a fun and memorable night. Until Next time!

Nik in a tutu- a humorous sight.

Shoving our faces with food before the exhibition!

Lovely Lauren in a gorgeous tutu!

Luca showing off his mad ballet skills!