In December, we had our mini exhibition. Last year our theme was the environment, but this year our theme was Star Wars. So naturally, every Friday leading up to the exhibition we watched all the movies, so everyone who hadn’t seen them before could watch them.

Creating an inquiry

Just like the winter exhibition and the blue sky exhibition, the Star Wars exhibition was based around an inquiry based question. This was difficult to do, because before there exhibition I had only watched three of the Star Wars movies. After brainstorming as many questions as I could, I chose my top three, followed by my favourite. Once I got my question approved, it was time to start my research.

How does the power of belief affect your ability to perform a task?

You may be wondering how this question relates to Star Wars. It’s actually linked to the force, and how you have to believe in yourself in order to use it. This question wasn’t exactly a yes or no answer, because most of the time believing in yourself does help accomplish a task, but not always. Sometimes you will fail.
Research
When it came to researching my question, it would be pretty hard to just get all my information off of websites. So I interviewed my hairdresser who used to be a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN), so she knows about what I was researching. I emailed her dome questions, and this was her response:

Can you tell me a bit about the job you had when you were helping others, and some of your experiences?
The job I had that helped others was as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN).  I provided support in community settings for adults living with mental illness.  I was responsible for managing their medications, counselling them, communicating with their doctors and psychiatrists about their health and encouraging their independence with their daily living.  I worked specifically with people who had bipolar mood disorder and schizophrenia and I was there to support them and keep them stable.  Sometimes, their illness would effect them acutely and they would be in a crisis state and would then need to be admitted to the hospital.

What are some things someone could do to turn their “negative thinking” into “positive thinking”
Turning negative thinking into positive thinking can be tough when your beliefs are deeply ingrained.  It is easy to feel powerless when in a negative mindset.  Journaling can help you recognize what thoughts you are telling yourself which contribute to your own mood.  One way to empower yourself is with thought replacement.  The idea is to write down your negative thought, followed by the feeling this thought leaves you with (ie: “I am a failure because I didn’t pass my test.  I might as well give up in this course now.” Feelings: Defeated, depressed, like a failure, sad, hopeless, disappointed). Then write down a replacement thought that is reality based and the feeling this leaves you with (ie: “I can get my mark up by hiring a tutor to help me study for the next test and I will pass the course.” Feelings: empowered, hopeful, relieved).  Realizing that you have a choice to remain negative and defeated or empower yourself to be positive and feel better are motivating reasons to do the work behind this thought replacement training.

Does believing in yourself impact your performance on a certain task?
Believing in yourself greatly impacts the outcome of your performance. We are always telling ourselves messages that effect our confidence.  If we tell ourself that we will fail at something, we will become anxious and fearful.  This negative state sabotages our performance.  If we expect to fail, we surrender control and confidence and run the risk of fulfilling our beliefs.
On the other side, if we set our expectation to succeed at something, and we truly believe that we will, the determination and resilience to persevere through the process will set us up for a positive outcome.

Groups

Just like past exhibitions, we were split into groups for presenting our projects. This year we were split between the light side and the dark side. I was on the light side because my inquiry question was about the force. The light side had 20 people, grade 8 and 9. The light side had the PLP room to set up our projects and decorate. Within main group (the light side) we had 3 different subgroups; environment/science, (movie) tech, and philosophical. We based the placings off of inquiry questions. I was in the philosophy subgroup along with 7 other people.
environment/science
Jessie
Melika
Kailey
Alivia
Gabbie
Fraser
Jordyn
(movie) tech
Owen
Isabelle H
Robin
Sam
Isabelle L
Kiera
philosophical
Kai
Logan
Emily
Tamara
Emerson
Luciano
Grace

We decided that we would decorate the room as the rebel base on Hoth. The tech and philosophy subgroups were inside the rebel base, and the science group was outside the base. We separated each section with blankets, so it was easier to tell where each section started/ended. We also had an “Admiral snack bar” with different food and drinks, like Jedi juice and princess lays. For audience engagement we decided to put on a short skit every 15 minutes, and we also had a pin the lightsaber on yoga station. I was in the skit from the beginning of “A New Hope” because I was dressed as Princess Leia. We tried improv, but it didn’t work, so we just stuck to the scripted skits.

Creating

Of course, I couldn’t just stand in front of a table and talk about the research that I did. That would be pretty boring, and whenever I left my station (to do my skit or to help with pin the lightsaber on Yoda) there would be nothing for people to look at. So I decided to make a poster board and a box with a rock on top, (I’ll explain more about that later). The poster board was mostly so people could know what my project was about while I wasn’t there. I also had a “guessing game” on one side of my poster board, where you would read the description, then guess who it was about. When I was finished gluing stuff to my poster board I decided that it didn’t look like I wanted to. So I decided to paint stars on it, using white paint. The other display that I made was a cardboard box with a rock on top of it. The rock had a magnet on the bottom of it so I could move it with another magnet attached to a stick inside the box. I used this as a way to “demonstrate the force” to my audience. When I made this box I decided to use one of the lava rocks from Iceland, because they resemble “space rocks”. I added a white tablecloth to the box to give it a more finished look, and I added “The Force” to the front of the box with stickers.

The exhibition

At the exhibition we (the light side) decided to dress up. I dressed up as Princess Leia, mostly because my friends wanted me to do my hair in the famous Princess Leia buns, but partially because it was actually related to my project. I linked it to the fact that Leia couldn’t use the force until she believed in herself.
Overall the exhibition was really fun. It also went by a lot faster than the past two exhibitions. I presented to a wide range of people, but my favourite people to present to were the little kids who loved it when they got to “use the force”.

What I would do differently next time

Next time I would either make a better poster board, or not make one at all. My poster board was pretty boring to look at because there weren’t any photos on it. I would also spend less time researching, and more time building.