Star Wars is one of the most powerful series of movies ever to be played. It’s a story that captivates many audiences from young kids to grandparents. It is Sci-Fi film like no other, it appeals to casual viewer and Sci-Fi lovers, and since the year “A New Hope” was released a whole community of star wars fans has risen from the depths. Many people have spent large periods of time studying both the movies and the expanded universe and during the past few weeks I could be classified as one of those super fans of the series.

Along with both grade 8 and grade 9 PLP classes goal was to study star wars and its broader cultural impact to create an intriguing presentation to be displayed at the winter exhibition. As I navigated this project I used the inquiry star as my guideline.

The first step on the inquiry star is connect and wonder. In the case of star wars I began to review star wars content, but I didn’t go deeply into any particular topic. After discussing potential topics I noticed that I was much more interested in a question that was based around the jedi. I thought about the many questions that about them but I was never able to really devote myself into one of them. So I began to learn about how to refine my questions into something invenstagable and one that requires deep thought. To help learn how to create interesting questions, I first learned about the difference between close and open questions. I then learned about the importance of creating an open question that requires deep and engaging thought. After a few days of thought I finally came up with a question that I feel I could study “Are the jedi’s decisions always in the best interest of the galaxy?”

During the second stage you really get to know your topic as you investigate it more thoroughly. As I said in my opening paragraph a whole community forum is at my disposal when investigating my project but as I looked deeper I struggled to find all the answers I needed. My question by nature is a pure thought with no real physical way of interpreting it. I had to learn new ways to research my topic. 1 new trick that I learned was to search specifically instead of a general event. So I studied each individual large event that the jedi order was involved in and then drew conclusions to what the jedi did. I spent nearly an hour on each major event thinking about the decisions made by the jedi and I feel spending that extra time helped me understand the way the jedi make decisions a lot better. The second stage of my research involved connecting the events of star wars to real world. This is something I had thought about from the beginning. In many ways the jedi order is similar to many charities in today’s world. Examples could be the red cross or unicef. They both have impeccable reputation for the good they do in the world, but not many people see them as the business they are.

Now that I knew my topic well it was time to begin to construct my final product.For the case of my project It wasn’t easy to make an object that answered my question so instead I made something that supported my answer. I choose to create a Jedi Holocron (A device that can only be accessed by jedi, it contained knowledge learned by previous jedi.)

It would symbolize the way the jedi are just trying to survive as a  organization. My original plan for creating the holocron was to colour clear film paper blue and green (the colour of a holocron.) Shortly after I began it became apparent that this would not work. I shifted gears and went with plan B, gluing tissue paper to the clear film paper. Throughout the gluing and cutting process I had my worries but by the end I could see it all coming together. The next step was to create a strong base for the cube. My plan for this would be to glue cardboard to brown construction paper, and then cut out the design on each side of the box. Glueing the 6 sides together would complete the box. This step went quite smoothly as the first attempt worked just as I had hoped. The final step was to figure out a way to light my box up. I noticed a set of christmas lights that could be wrapped around a toilet paper roll and decided to try it out. The bonus of using these particular christmas lights was that it was battery powered, so I was able to turn it on and off at ease. I cut a small hole in the bottom so that I could press the button to turn the light on and off with ease. I was quite happy with the way it turned out and I was now ready to present my learning at the december exhibition.

It was now time to present what I have learned to an audience at the december exhibition. In the many days leading up to it was time to set the stage for the exhibition. PLP 8 and 9 were split up into 2 large groups, one which their question based around the dark side of the force and the other on the light side. I found myself on the light side and I worked with my peers to help create a room that emanates an experience that will draw in viewers.  I did not end up making very many decisions for the group because of a some group problems but for the most part I was able to be supportive of the decisions made.  The rough plan was to represent the rebel base on hoth, with one third of the room “outside” on the other representing the actual base. On the day of the exhibition we prepared the room for transformation into something unlike what it will ever be. We covered the walls and classroom objects. We opened up the windows to cool the room down to a chilly hoth like state. After the creation of the room was completed it was now time to focus on our own projects.

When Creating my presentation stand I wanted to make sure my display board was versatile. In the end my magnetic display proved very immovable and was a burden to my presentation but it was a learning lesson nonetheless. My plan was to have one magnetic display board that would showcase photos that i would use when speaking to the visitors, and have the rest displayed in a 3D like manner on the table in front of me. The images would stand beside random jedi memorabilia and my creation, the jedi holocron. I was feeling quite confident in my knowledge and I was prepared to present to the people that would walk by. Throughout the night I stuck to a similar points making sure to change up what I was saying now and then to keep things interesting. Overall I felt I really engaged the viewer by using the many visuals to my advantage. One of the biggest things I feel i could have improved on was to showcase my creation more. As I said earlier the object I created doesn’t necessarily answer my question but it supports my answer, this made it difficult in the first place for the viewer to understand its purpose. Add that to not mentioning it enough made it seem out of place and pointless to my project.