When I joined the PLP program back at the beginning of grade 9, the Blue Sky exhibition would always be the topic of conversation between my peers and I. It gives all the chance to show our skills, interests, and thoughts through a very open ended big project. This year, the premise is no different. The only thing that changes between the years is the topic and themes of the exhibitions. This year, for my final Blue Sky,  we based our exhibition off the UN sustainable goals.

 

We would each have to choose a goal and then create a project, or solution to help forward and complete the goal. It says here, on the United Nations website that “In 2015, world leaders gathered at the UN to adopt 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve several extraordinary things by 2030: end poverty, promote prosperity and well-being for all, and protect the planet. The Sustainable Development Goals set a course to achieve these objectives – for people everywhere.” These were very big topics, so we had our work cut out for us for finding a solution.

 

At the beginning of the project we were reintroduced to the LAUNCH cycle, a concept we, as PLP students, have used throughout the years. LAUNCH is an abbreviation for #1 Look, Listen, and Learn, #2 Ask questions, #3 Understanding the process or problem, #4 Navigate ideas, #5 Create a prototype, and lastly, #6 Highlight and fix. One we had a good understanding on the concept we moved onto creating groups based off of each other’s interests. This was the messy part of my project… I was first put in a group with Aiden, Kate, and Isobel. We all wanted to focus in on the eighth UN goal, Decent work and Economic Growth. We spent some time brainstorming a project and we came up with our first pitch. We wanted to research local businesses and find ways to improve their work and salary. We shared our idea to Ms. Whillems who quickly turned it down. It was a pretty unrealistic challenge for four high school students to solve in the short time frame we where given. So, it was back to the drawing board. After our first fail our group split apart due to the fact that we all had different interests and project ideas. It was at this time when I started to become stuck, I couldn’t think of an idea if my life depended on it. I spend days brainstorming ideas that couldn’t work and I started to become weary of the fact that I didn’t have much time left. In desperation I asked for help and Ms. Whillems mentioned doing a project around custodians. At first I thought she was joking, but the more I thought about it the more ideas and solutions popped up into my head. A day later I came back with my project brief. I was going to base my project around seycove’s very own custodians, how I can improve their job,  and make their shift more enjoyable and easier. 

First I needed to do research on who the custodians where, find out what they actually do for their job, and what they do not like about their job. I set up an interview with Seycove’s head custodian, who’s name was Ray. I found out that Ray and his team do a lot more than just sweep the floors and clean the washrooms (which is what most people at the school, including me thought at the time), they basicly maintain the whole school!