Project overview: 

Welcome! This is a reflection and review of my first exhibition project! 

In case you aren’t familiar, this project was built around James Cameron’s Avatar. The guiding question and prompt, for the project was “What does James Cameron’s fantasy world of ‘Avatar’ reveal about our own society?” The idea for our project was to create a box representing our interpretation of this question.

The theme for my box was humans effect on the natural world, and how unexpected consequences can be fatal to nature.

 I’m excited to share with you the entire experience of the Avatar exhibition, the building process (which is called the Launch process), room decoration with grade 9s, exhibition night, and most importantly my learning and growth through reflection on this exhibition!  

Explanation of the Launch process:

L: The L in Launch stands for look, listen, and learn.

For the project this meant listening to the explanation of how the project would look, and learning about boxes we would create. 

A: The A stands for ask tons of questions. 

We wasted minimal time as we were excited and talking a tad bit quickly (words flying miles a minute). I found this task to be the easiest part given my affinity for verbal communication. 

U: The U means to understand the process or problem. 

We learned about the problem by discussing Avatar and real world issues reflected in the movie. To confirm and prove our understanding we took topics that fit our prompt and brainstormed all related things to the chosen thing like colours, items, symbols etc.

N: The N represents navigating ideas. 

This started back in A as we asked MANY questions regarding the size, shape, and colour of our boxes. We were given autonomy, and full creative liberty to answer these questions ourselves. With our queries answered we created draft ideas for our box, a sketch and notes in the form of a mind map to get the creative juices flowing and create a reliable outline. 

C: The C in the Launch cycle stands for create a prototype. 

I won’t lie, I’m currently trying to figure out if the sketch of our box was the prototype, or if our work on the boxes before receiving peer critique was our prototype… wish me luck as I continue to ponder! 

H: The H means highlight and fix. 

That’s exactly what we did! After peer critique we whipped those glue guns back out and got gluing. This section of the cycle was quick as the exhibition was only a few days off. Good thing for us the majority of work didn’t require much adjusting!

Reflection of the box: (effort, planning, outcome) 

Moving right along let me talk to you, or more accurately write to you my opinion of the effort, planning, and results of my box! I believe that my box looked relevant given the time allocated for in class work. The planning for my box seems disorganized and scattered. However from the perspective of my inconsistently productive brain the plan made perfect sense. “What was your planning process?” Great question! Me and my frantic wacky  self decided that not listening to the teachers guidance booklet was the best possible decision! Logically it was not… surprisingly it worked quite well. I believe it worked well because I was excited about the topic and willing to work hard, especially without a time frame for aspects of work, as I am quite easily distracted and am very forgetful! The effort and product of my box was adequate and I was pleased with my presentation and explanation of my box and the ideas behind it! 

Exhibition night:

The night of the exhibition was a flurry of chaos, improvisation, and random people. The setting up was an experience as we had 1 hour and a bit to throw the room together and pray that it turned out well! (And that’s saying a lot coming from an atheist!). Fortunately, luck was on our side! The room looked awesome by the end, and all that was left was our presentations. To my knowledge everyone’s presentations went swell! I felt proud of my articulation regarding my work! When it was my turn for a break a learned that everyone could be proud of their work as they all turned out great! 

All in all the night was a success!!! 

My unneeded opinion of the 2nd Avatar:

Last and probably least I’m going to give you my unrequested opinion on Avatar: The Way of Water! First of all I’m glad I got to watch Avatar: The Way of Water. On the positive end the visuals were fantastic, really reminiscent of an action movie. However the plot was lacking and far too busy, out of 10 I would rate the plot 6.5/10 and the visuals 9/10. 

Thanks to all the PLP teachers for making this possible! I know it must be difficult but I image it’s also rewarding!! 

I heard from MANY students the exhibition was deadly, so I’m glad I survived my first exhibition and I can’t wait for more to come!