Project Description
I had mixed feelings about this project in the beginning. When I shadowed at Animas last year, the freshmen were in the middle of the ninth grade project, and it was a big factor to why I chose Animas because I was excited for projects like this. I was excited for the project until I was told by last year's freshman that it was frustrating since all the work was for nothing, and what they designed (a new school) didn't have any impact. It's understandable why I was feeling confused about what to feel about the project.
As I was feeling confused what was the idea of sustainability had to do with the project, the field trips weren't really helpful. When Kelley Mathews came in as a guest speaker, a lot of my confusion was cleared and my questions were answered. He talked about what sustainability meant, going more in-depth then just a definition and some examples. Mathews talked about being eco-friendly and renewable, but one part that really stuck out to me was when he talked about the six most important things to think about when building; longevity, function, small, simple, beauty and aesthetics, and the idea that design creates communication. This is what I tried to keep in mind during the designing stages.
After learning all about sustainability and then creating a product that represented that, I came up with a definition that supports what i learned and what i saw. Sustainable design to me is creating a structure that benefits the user while making it aesthetic, long-lasting, and environmentally friendly.
The interviews we did before starting the project really helped give us an idea of what we could create that would benefit every user, and accomplish our goal/how might we statement; HMW create an eco-friendly garden space the benefits our community with aesthetics and produce? Since the beginning, we knew we wanted to do something with an outdoor garden space. During the interviewing process, I gathered that both teachers and students valued organization, comfort, control, aesthetics, freedom, and outdoors. The greenhouse would meet all of these values because they would give a space outside where students could have freedom, with teachers being able to have control at the same time. It would be aesthetically pleasing and would benefit school work productivity while also being a nice place to hang out.
This project was an interesting experience. Before, in school, I had never had the freedom of doing essentially whatever I wanted to (with obvious restraints of time, money, ...etc) but this project allowed for my group to have really cool ideas, and actually get excited for the end product, which I've never really seen before in school (previous to Animas). When I finally realized I could do anything with this project, it opened up my mind to so many ideas and possibilities, that we incorporated into the end product like having a garden that’s not just inside the greenhouse but outside of it too.
When asked what we did physically, construction wise, I can't say much. As I've mentioned, the building stage never happened because of too many uncontrollable variables. At exhibition we ask for donations to see what would happen. How much money could we get toward our goal of $2,000 for the greenhouse? We figured, “If we raise enough money to buy the greenhouse, we could figure out how to heat it and take care of it, specifically during the summer when no one is at school.” In the end, we only got $30 in donations and it wasn't really worth it to fundraise just to buy it by the time the project was ending. Other than measuring out the space we wanted to put it, nothing happened in the physical construction department or stages of the project.
As I was feeling confused what was the idea of sustainability had to do with the project, the field trips weren't really helpful. When Kelley Mathews came in as a guest speaker, a lot of my confusion was cleared and my questions were answered. He talked about what sustainability meant, going more in-depth then just a definition and some examples. Mathews talked about being eco-friendly and renewable, but one part that really stuck out to me was when he talked about the six most important things to think about when building; longevity, function, small, simple, beauty and aesthetics, and the idea that design creates communication. This is what I tried to keep in mind during the designing stages.
After learning all about sustainability and then creating a product that represented that, I came up with a definition that supports what i learned and what i saw. Sustainable design to me is creating a structure that benefits the user while making it aesthetic, long-lasting, and environmentally friendly.
The interviews we did before starting the project really helped give us an idea of what we could create that would benefit every user, and accomplish our goal/how might we statement; HMW create an eco-friendly garden space the benefits our community with aesthetics and produce? Since the beginning, we knew we wanted to do something with an outdoor garden space. During the interviewing process, I gathered that both teachers and students valued organization, comfort, control, aesthetics, freedom, and outdoors. The greenhouse would meet all of these values because they would give a space outside where students could have freedom, with teachers being able to have control at the same time. It would be aesthetically pleasing and would benefit school work productivity while also being a nice place to hang out.
This project was an interesting experience. Before, in school, I had never had the freedom of doing essentially whatever I wanted to (with obvious restraints of time, money, ...etc) but this project allowed for my group to have really cool ideas, and actually get excited for the end product, which I've never really seen before in school (previous to Animas). When I finally realized I could do anything with this project, it opened up my mind to so many ideas and possibilities, that we incorporated into the end product like having a garden that’s not just inside the greenhouse but outside of it too.
When asked what we did physically, construction wise, I can't say much. As I've mentioned, the building stage never happened because of too many uncontrollable variables. At exhibition we ask for donations to see what would happen. How much money could we get toward our goal of $2,000 for the greenhouse? We figured, “If we raise enough money to buy the greenhouse, we could figure out how to heat it and take care of it, specifically during the summer when no one is at school.” In the end, we only got $30 in donations and it wasn't really worth it to fundraise just to buy it by the time the project was ending. Other than measuring out the space we wanted to put it, nothing happened in the physical construction department or stages of the project.
Project Reflection
1. The skill I grew in the most during this project is advocacy. My group in a teacher's words “disintegrated”. We ran into trouble figuring out what to do because it was obvious our plan of buying a greenhouse was unrealistic, so we split up and found little side products to help with. Whenever I didn't have something to do I advocated for myself and got directed toward another project, which led me to painting, ideating, leading, creating, and cleaning.
2. The skills I need to grow in to be the best PBL learner I can are effective communication and collaboration. These continue to pop up with every group project I do anymore. I continue to find myself feeling frustrated in my group, stressed that what needs to get done, won't. I felt like that I was the only one doing work consistently- always researching, taking notes, writing, coming up with ideas, directing our group, etc. When it came time to set up for exhibition, I got little to no help, and while I think my group could've helped me more, I also think sometimes it reflects onto me more so than my crew members. I need to improve my patience with people and ask for help instead of taking charge because my peers aren't slacking-they're just left with nothing to do. I believe I live by the saying “If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself” too strictly.
3. When we were starting the project, some of my group members didn't know what they wanted to do in the project, so I decided we should take a day to go further into research and prototyping to see what would interest each person. Everyone found what they were into whether it was art, aesthetics, plants, structural, or whatever would be more helpful to others.
4. The time when things got hard and I was unable to solve a problem in this project was when it came to the building phase. Ultimately my project failed. There isn't much of a negative connotation with this, but when I think about it, our project didn't go through to the final phase - we didn't succeed in the project goal (to finish it). I couldn't give money to buy the greenhouse we wanted, or give my full attention to it during the summer when no one was there, and other than offering my own money or time, there wasn't a solution that would work that I came up with (ex: even if I found the money, who would take care of the garden?) Eventually there were just too many problems that I couldn't solve.
5. When thinking about success in this project I went through three stages. At first, I thought that success was very much dependent on what the project was, and what was realistic for the project. Halfway through when we couldn't see the unsolved variables yet, I thought that our personal success would look like us, buying the greenhouse, and doing everything we plan to with/in/around it. Now, I feel the same about success, in both situations. I think that it does depend on the project and what's realistic, along with dedication and motivation. I also feel that if we were motivated enough, we could have met what I had as an idea of success for our group.
6. Advice I would give to a student about to start this project is one, make sure you are interested in the idea or project, and two, be realistic and don't lie to yourself. The project gets really boring and frustrating if you aren't interested in it. If you have an idea to make it more interesting, share it! The worst that can happen is your group saying no, but if you don't say anything, you'll never know. They might have loved it. Don't forget to be realistic. This goes for time, personal success/well-being, and the product. Take breaks, be honest about what needs to be accomplished and what can be accomplished, and don’t procrastinate.
2. The skills I need to grow in to be the best PBL learner I can are effective communication and collaboration. These continue to pop up with every group project I do anymore. I continue to find myself feeling frustrated in my group, stressed that what needs to get done, won't. I felt like that I was the only one doing work consistently- always researching, taking notes, writing, coming up with ideas, directing our group, etc. When it came time to set up for exhibition, I got little to no help, and while I think my group could've helped me more, I also think sometimes it reflects onto me more so than my crew members. I need to improve my patience with people and ask for help instead of taking charge because my peers aren't slacking-they're just left with nothing to do. I believe I live by the saying “If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself” too strictly.
3. When we were starting the project, some of my group members didn't know what they wanted to do in the project, so I decided we should take a day to go further into research and prototyping to see what would interest each person. Everyone found what they were into whether it was art, aesthetics, plants, structural, or whatever would be more helpful to others.
4. The time when things got hard and I was unable to solve a problem in this project was when it came to the building phase. Ultimately my project failed. There isn't much of a negative connotation with this, but when I think about it, our project didn't go through to the final phase - we didn't succeed in the project goal (to finish it). I couldn't give money to buy the greenhouse we wanted, or give my full attention to it during the summer when no one was there, and other than offering my own money or time, there wasn't a solution that would work that I came up with (ex: even if I found the money, who would take care of the garden?) Eventually there were just too many problems that I couldn't solve.
5. When thinking about success in this project I went through three stages. At first, I thought that success was very much dependent on what the project was, and what was realistic for the project. Halfway through when we couldn't see the unsolved variables yet, I thought that our personal success would look like us, buying the greenhouse, and doing everything we plan to with/in/around it. Now, I feel the same about success, in both situations. I think that it does depend on the project and what's realistic, along with dedication and motivation. I also feel that if we were motivated enough, we could have met what I had as an idea of success for our group.
6. Advice I would give to a student about to start this project is one, make sure you are interested in the idea or project, and two, be realistic and don't lie to yourself. The project gets really boring and frustrating if you aren't interested in it. If you have an idea to make it more interesting, share it! The worst that can happen is your group saying no, but if you don't say anything, you'll never know. They might have loved it. Don't forget to be realistic. This goes for time, personal success/well-being, and the product. Take breaks, be honest about what needs to be accomplished and what can be accomplished, and don’t procrastinate.