Blue sky has been something I have been looking forward to for a very long time. It is very fun to choose your own question to solve, and I had been excited for it since the mini one in December. In December we had choice but it had to be focused on a small topic but for the big exhibition the choice was unlimited. I worked very hard on this project throughout the many stages of the launch cycle.  The first stage of creation is to look, listen, and learn, and create my inquiry question.

Crafting my question

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to help seniors, solve some of their many problems. Deciding what to help them about was a serious challenge. After brainstorming I still struggled to choose as I couldn’t see something that I could make a difference. It was only after I talked to my grandparents that I discovered a problem that I could solve. That problem is bad posture. There are multiple fixes on the market to fix posture, but none of them are very practical for most seniors. I didn’t yet know my solution but I was excited to start creating an idea I could pursue. There are many solutions selling on the market but all are quite heavy and cumbersome. There is not much improvement in the hip posture industry, in the past few years. I intend on making a difference to at least my grandparents and if I can make a difference to my grandparents friends. I expect to run into problems along the way, in terms of design and functionality. Seniors struggle with a lot of problems and improvements on one of those problems would be great for how my grandparents live there lives. Once I had discovered what I would pursue it was time to begin to start asking questions and to make a plan to solve the problem.

Researching the topic

I started asking questions to both my client and my mentor or expert in my area. This was the most important part the Launch cycle. The answers to the questions I ask will tell me where I will go with this project. I took some simple notes in my small interviews notes.

I learned from my grandparents that they both had had very bad hip posture problem, and it lead them to have even more worse problems that were by the bad posture. They told me that if I could have corrected their hip posture when they were a bit younger it would have drastically decreased their pain they go through today. They said they had tried many different things to correct there posture before but none worked. Some of things they tried before were working but were way too hard to use on a daily basis. Some others were convenient but didn’t really help them. I never had an organized interview with a physiotherapist but I talked to him about my project when I had an appointment. He said that there was quite a void in hip posture correction that was directed at seniors. However he didn’t buy into my hip belt idea. He pointed out some flaws in my idea. He mentioned that making it weighted enough to correct posture while keeping user friendly could be an insurmountable challenge. I did get the feeling that the physiotherapist I talked to never understood the power of growth mindset. He didn’t really think that I could solve a problem at all. He also pointed out that making a belt weight might not even make a difference. With that criticism and advice from them I began to research into how posture works and what can be done to fix it. I learned quite a bit off medical websites on the cause and current fixes for hip posture and I was now ready to start to create my prototypes using the research I had done and the knowledge I had gained. 

Creating the prototype

Creating the prototype was by far the best part of the blue sky experience. I had been looking forward to creating my solution and turning my idea into a physical object. I needed to create at least 3 prototypes that would be improving upon each other. My first prototype was not expected to be perfect and  used only the materials I had at my disposal. I made a crude design of my belt but found it to be very flawed, and needed a quite a few improvements. Some of those problems included, very bad glue, velcro not strong enough, not enough weight, and many many more. That failure was totally fine with me and I used the failure to improve upon it in my second model. In my second model I used different glue, different locking mechanism for the weight, and more weight to make sure I improved from my first model. However this model was no perfect belt either and it needed to be improved as well. The prototyping process worked really well, and allowed me to really improve my belt from prototype to prototype. In my second try I still couldn’t find a good glue to use and it lead me to the idea of using adhesive on the back of the velcro to stick to the belt. I also learned that 2 2 lb. weights was the correct amount of weight to use in my second prototype, and made sure to use that amount in my third and final model. My third and final model required a lot of hard work. I am very proud of my work in completing that belt and I feel that it really showed my research, learning and growth mindset. I was really happy to see all of my work and ideas finally paramount to a final project.

The exhibition

I had prepared to show off my work and process, since the beginning of the project. I had learned from last exhibition that you need to practice your presentation much more than you need to work on a outstanding display. I spent a huge amount of time on my display last time but left myself unprepared to present and the exhibition didn’t go very well. This time I spent many hours practicing and perfecting my pitch so that I would be prepared for the exhibition. At the exhibition I noticed how weak my display was compared to everyone else’s. During the event I did really well at presenting idea and all of that practice had really payed off. I got a lot of people to my station and nearly had no breaks, and i believe that that wouldn’t have happened if I spent any less time on perfecting my pitch. Overall, I had tons of fun presenting my ideas to strangers, and I think they enjoyed learning about it too.