For the last month, we have been working on Innovation Day! Innovation Day is a day when we get to present our projects to the judges. This year our class had the task of creating a structure for an animal in VR and then pitching it as a product. We had the option to work with partners, so I decided to work with my friend Tehila. For our topic, we chose to make a koala structure. We chose them because they are endangered animals and I connected with their situation.
At the beginning of the project, I felt very excited and nervous. I was excited about the topic of the project because I feel that the situation the koalas are in isn’t talked about enough. I was nervous about presenting to the judges because it’s always nerve-wracking presenting, but now that we’re in an older grade and we have a lot of information, the judges asked more questions. Throughout this project, I was surprised by how fast the time went when we were making the board and the co-spaces. I love hands-on activities and experiments, so that for me was the most fun.
This is a picture of our final structure in co-spaces:
I think that to make the project shine, we made the board really organized and colorful. This really helped because almost every person we presented to commented on how nice the board looked. I think next time I could manage our time in class a bit better.
When we presented our project to my parents they were really supportive. I wasn’t nervous because they were the test run for the real presentation. They asked many questions that we didn’t have the answer to, so we went home that night and answered the questions to be prepared for the judges. I think presenting to the parents is a good idea because it prepares you for the real presentation.
A barrier that Tehila and I overcame was figuring out what our building would look like. We wanted it to look visually pleasing but also allow the koalas to find prosperity in the structure. A Koala structure had never been done before until this, so that is something that we had trouble with. Tehila and I overcame this challenge by connecting the empathize with the define aspects of the project. The empathize section is where the creative ideas, and the “colors” come together. Whereas the define section is the research.
I think I learned the skill of time management during this project. I learned it by not using my time wisely in class. That might not make sense, but I learned that it is really important to use good time management so you don’t have to finish the project the night before. We used time management well enough that we didn’t have to finish it the night before, but I think it could have been a little bit better.
This was an amazing project to have worked on overall. I really liked both the aspect of creativity balanced with research in doing co-spaces as well as the written portion. I’m really glad I got to work with one of my friends this year as well. I know next year will be just as interesting and fun!
Noa Tili