Every year in maker when the third term comes around, we have one project to do. That project is blue sky. Blue sky is a super broad term for a project where a student invents something that would make a positive I’m pact on the world, big or small. This year, the grade nines also had to interview a store to receive feedback on their project. Throughout the process we also had to keep the launch cycle in mind. Launch stands for L- look listen and learn A- ask questions U- understand the process or problem N- navigate ideas C- create a prototype H- highlight and fix. When we were done we would present our work at the biannual PLP exhibition as a year ending presentation of our learning.
About one month ago the PLP 9 class gathered in the library so we could get sort ourselves into topics for the blue sky project. This marked the beginning of blue sky so everyone was very excited and nervous at the same time. Through a lottery system your name would get chosen and you could sign up for a category if it wasn’t already full. I ended up with fashion which I wasn’t super happy with but I thought I could work with it. After talking to my teacher, I was allowed to switch topics to outdoors and sports. I did this because I had a great idea for it. I would create an outdoor offseason snowboard trainer. The trainer would go on a trampoline so you could practice jump tricks. Before I could start prototyping, I had to fill out a pitch form. The pitch from pretty much just double checks the logistics behind your idea so you can know it’s possible. After several drafts of my pitch form I was approved and ready to go on to prototype one.
For prototype one I decided to make a virtual mock-up so I could see it with my eyes and go from there. From there I decided to move to a physical model for prototype two. Prototype 2 took quite a while as I had to cut the wood base of myself and modify the bindings. The process of cutting, sanding and drawing on the wood took several hours so I was lucky my dad had the right tools. When it was done I screwed the modified snowboard bindings to the base for a solid second prototype. I was finally ready to get feedback from a store and move on to the third and final prototype.
After thinking about what store would suit me best, I decided to go with the boardrooms Lonsdale location. This is because it was close, specified to my needs and it turns out one of my friends was going there too so we could do our interviews together. After arriving, the staff let us take audio recordings of the interview and it all went really smoothly. They gave lots of good advice for his to take into consideration for our third prototypes. The interview only lasted for about fifteen minutes and before we knew it we were done and ready to go home.
For my third prototype and final iteration of my product I made major changes. I made the base piece of wood thinner and used plywood to make it stronger, this way it would be closer to the weight of an actual snowboard. I also made adjustments to the bindings so you could use them with regular shoes instead of having to put on hot and clunky snowboard boots. I also made it look nice with a coat of paint and shiny lacquer. I made a keynote for presentation at the exhibition and I was finally ready to show my product to an audience.
As we prepared for the exhibition everyone was really nervous. What would people think of their product and presentation? What would the teachers think? Did it show effort over a one whole month period? Exhibition night was really good good and everything went really well. Over the two hours of public presentation that I did I was able to answer every question the people asked me and people really seemed to like what I made. It felt good to have the exhibition over with but looking back at the process it really makes you think about how you can create high quality work if you’re passionate about it and you have a good inscentive to work.
Looking back on the exhibition I think that it was my best one yet and I’m very proud of the work that I did. I also think that it was one of the project I was most passionate about which really fueled my good work. One thing that I would have done differently if I could go back and do it again would be do more interviews with different store owners to get more well rounded and exact advice. One thing that I think I did well was the actual creation of the prototypes and the physical work I did. Blue sky is always so much different every time even though you are technically doing the same project structure everytime. Blue sky was a great way to end off the year.