Last night was the biggest night for PLP students of the year. It is the time when grade 8’s, 9’s, and 11’s come together and present amazing works of creation and invention that they have developed  over the course of two months. That’s right, I’m talking about the Blue Sky Exhibition. Every year, all PLP students are given the task of finding a problem, then coming up with an invention that can solve it, which are then presented to the world (If you want to know more, click here). We’ve actually been preparing for this project since September, and now that it’s finally concluded, there are many exciting and interesting stories to tell. If you want to hear all about them, read on!

My Project

Here is my sales pitch on my invention:

Are you a tween and ever the problem of carrying heavy instruments? Well then this is the invention for you! Introducing Swiftcase, the extreamly protable, awesomely adjustable, coolest new way to transport that heavy instrument of yours! Basically what it is, is a set of four detachable wheels and a handlethat can adjust to fit virtually any instrument case. Yes this includes trumpets, saxaphones, french horns, trombones, base clarinets, and many more! But why buy this over some other old cart that you can shove your instrument in? Well for one, like I said earlier it is adjustable so it can fit so many more sizes than a fixed size cart. It also is way more portable, being able to be taken off and folded into a bag, and would be a lot cheaper to buy. The wheels also have way more freedom to swivel in all directions, allowing it to turn quicker and move over rough terrain better than carts.

My product’s logo

The Launch Cycle 🚀

When a company or inventor is developing a new product to share with the world, they typically follow something known as the launch cycle. This is a process which outlines the key steps of thinking up, creating, and launching an idea to an audience. If you would like to know what the steps of the launch cycle are, and how I completed them, read this post here.

The Exhibition 

At exactly 3:00 p.m on Thursday, the 15th of June, PLP students rushed to the library to begin working on our biggest exhibition of the year. Everything was hectic, as students frantically rushed back and forth gathering supplies and setting up their stands. I particularly had a lot of stuff to set up, and got right to work doing so. I chose a location near the office doors with plenty of space to set up my obstical course. Then, once my project was ready, I set off to help others in need. One problem the tween Group had was that our decor and theme wasn’t as obvious as other groups, so we had to take what we had and improvise. Since we were in the library, we used manga from the bookshelves as table decor and set up a floor hockey station with some hockey sticks we were using as support and a tennis ball.  Although it took a lot of work, by 5:30, we were ready to present.

My exhibition display

When people started coming in, many were interested in my project and obstical course. As the night went on, I realized that I didn’t really need a script and could just explain the key aspects of my invention. I presented at my station from 5:30 – 7:00, and met many future PLP students coming to their first expo like I did a year ago. It’s amazing when I realized that less than 12 months ago, I was gazing with awe at these projects, and now I’m the one creating them. After I was done presenting, I went to go watch the grade 11 debates on human nature, which were really interesting and insightful. When the night was over, I reflected on everything that had happened, and am looking forward to doing this again next year.

What I have learned 

Blue Sky has been an excellent learning experience for me in many ways. For one, it has been a time where I have gotten to put my time management skills to the test. For many other major project’s I’ve done this year, there have been times when I’ve been quite stressed due to time pressures, but due to starting my project early and staying on top of it, I have been able to greatly reduce this stress. I have also learned a lot about group preparation and how it can be quite a challenge for two separate groups to communicate. Something I would like to do differently next time would getting on top of decor a lot sooner and making sure everyone was following the plan. Also, if I am doing something to do with adjusting parts next year, I should probably do more measurements of the things it will need to fit so it doesn’t end up being too small for some larger items (like tubas in this project’s case).

Overall, I’m really happy with my results, and can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year!