School and education are an important aspect in the lives of millions of children all over the world. In fact, going to school is almost a given in most places; it feels just like a normal part of life. But- what happens if that way of life is adjusted? With online school coming into play for almost every kid worldwide, stress and depression are becoming more prominent. This causes a severe downfall in grades, and motivation. 

Personally, my experience has become increasingly difficult. I find it very hard to get out of bed and actually do things, and assignments are much harder to complete/focus on when not in a classroom environment. Work also begins to pile up. Usually, one can get work done in different classes at different points in the day. Now, there’s not a specifically set schedule for students, therefore causing confusion and more anxiety/pressure. However, I do appreciate the help that teachers offer and the guidelines that they do give us. 

From this experience, I’m definitely learning more about time management and independence. I’ve started to realize my time management skills aren’t as good as I thought they were- but, luckily I have friends to help me over facetime and text. I’ll definitely be better at organizing work and schedules when I get back to school, and I feel as if online school will help a lot of students to realize what they need to work on as well. 

Although, I am concerned that kids and teens with mental health issues are going to have a lot of trouble with education now more than ever. They may have just been getting out of a rough patch and finally getting their grades up and meeting new friends, but now that they’re isolated, they could sink back into that same kind of empty hole that they were in before. I think It’s awesome that we have technology to connect people now, and the proper medicine. This would be very divergent if we were to be living in the 1300s- the century in which the black plague killed 50 million people. (Basically half of Europe.). And school isn’t the only thing this pandemic is affecting. Even everyday life has now suddenly come to a halt. I sit at home all day missing my friends and hoping things will be okay in time for what was going to be one of the best summers of my life. I wonder if people in the 20th century would think you were crazy if you told them we’d all be wearing masks in the grocery stores now. 

However, on the bright side of this bump in the road that is history/life, humans are starting to see how the world could be a little different with less pollution and less people running about. For example, in China you can now see blue skies for the first time in ages due to the lack of cars on the streets.Could this be a sign for blue skies that lie ahead? And It’s not just China; In Italy, dolphins are starting to swim into the canals because there aren’t as many boats. Even I, myself, have started to notice that the grass is growing greener and fuller in the park that I live by because there are less kids trampling all over it whilst kicking a ball around. Who knows if this quarantine is an entirely good or bad thing for society, but oh boy, I can’t wait to see where this leads the world.

Podcasts. Now, one may wonder, what are they? Podcasts are digital audios that can be downloaded off the internet to listen to. They usually are recorded as a series, and can be about practically anything. From comedy, to learning about a sea mushroom. Podcasts are an effective tool to communicate a message because they are only voice. Instead of getting distracted by video clips or images, podcasts are purely just talking. This allows the listener to focus on the message more. And, it may get through their heads. Podcasts are also effective because they are usually connected to personal stories, or have fun music in the background that grabs your interest. Recently, our Inlab Design Studio class began working on podcasts. At first, I had thought that we were going to be given a specific topic of sorts to work on, however, the class was soon informed that they could record a podcast on practically anything we wanted. Of course, this naturally caused me some panic. There were so many options/things to choose from… How was I going to decide? I eventually narrowed it down and decided I was going to work on something to do with the environment. Eurica! I chose wax worms. To the average person, this would seem like the strangest thing to research. Wax worms? What is so important about those tiny insects used to fish? Well, believe it or not, those little guys can biodegrade plastic. This is important for earth’s future because it could mean less pollution, and more of a chance at defeating climate change. I want my audience to take away that message from my podcast. But, I also want them to know that for this to work, they also have to recycle and help keep the earth clean.

I’ve failed at many things, however one of my favourite failures was in fourth grade when I fell off my bike and banged my nose on some driveway stones. It was one of those nice sunny days in spring, close to summer. My Mom and Dad were chatting with the neighbors whilst my friends and I played on our bikes. Then, I took too sharp of a turn and felt my life flash before my eyes- as any nine year old would. I hit my nose on the rocks and kind of sat on the warm pavement for a second before getting up to see worried parents. I just smiled and laughed as I had a surprisingly high pain tolerance- and I still do to this day, thanks to whatever deity is out there. However, I was still a little shaken and decided I wasn’t going to ride my bike again anytime soon. Almost an entire year went by before I decided to try riding a bike again- yes, I was that stubborn. I probably should’ve tried it again sooner, but now I love to ride my bike and I’m one of the fastest bikers out of my friends and family. 

I now realize that trying again after failing is a good thing, and I learned to be more careful after that accident. Even though this may seem like a small and almost childish thing to consider a ‘failure’, it’s grown to become one of my favourites because it has the most prominent ‘glow’ in my mind when I think of failure. I think this is due to a growth mindset, and, sure, I still have a fear of tipping over whenever I get on a bike, but I learned from this mistake and now I’m more cautious. 

Usually I have a fixed mindset towards failure and I tend to give up and throw myself into a metaphorical abyss, but lately I’ve been telling myself that ‘I can and will be better next time’, as opposed to ‘I give up’. Hopefully future me has complete growth mindset now, as I’ve learned that it makes me a happier and more productive person.

Our design studio team working on a project that has to do with growth mindset. There were many failures along the way, but in the end we could say it was kind of a success!

Recently, our Innovation Lab class was put to the task of making a Memorial/model on a certain time period in Germany. We presented these Memorials on Thursday night, November 14th. The night started off under the warm lights of the school Media Center where our class had displayed projects on different tables. Parents had filled the room eager to see their children’s (and other’s) Memorial designs. I had a group with Kiera Martin and Frankie Pugliese. We were presenting our model on the Reunification period of Germany, from 1990 to today. We prepared for exhibition in advance to explain our Memorials and the symbolism.

During the showcase, there were multiple times where communication was very important. For example, if one of the group members were stuck on a sentence or couldn’t figure out what to say, we would ‘lean’ on a teammate. It probably sounded something like ‘(name), would you like to elaborate?’. And immediately the other new that was a subtle call for help. Without this type of communication I don’t know if our exhibition would’ve been all that interesting. Personally, I probably would’ve stuttered the whole time- and maybe I wouldn’t have even said anything. Communicating effectively was very important to all of the groups, and it helped us plan ahead when speaking to peers. Even before the showcase, communication was one of the most important aspects during our project.

Our Memorial on Halloween day- there were only a couple touch ups left to do!

To conclude, the exhibition helped me to grow as a learner in many ways. My friends helped me to be more confident while speaking and they always gave me smiles to help me know I was doing well. I also knew what to talk about- which is obviously very important. I could have gone on about our model for hours. The whole thing seemed almost extemporaneous- I could answer almost any question that a parent/teacher etc. asked. I felt really smart and that too played a key role in my confidence. 

I loved the way that Innovation Lab had us present our project as well. For once it wasn’t some silly 20 slide presentation that bored everyone to death with monotone voices. It was really cool when our audience made an effort to actually tell us that they liked our Memorial as well.

The complete Memorial on Exhibition night (artists commentary included!)

Video Journal

Last week on Monday, October 14th our Innovation Lab class took a field trip to the 9/11 Memorial in New York. This fits in our learning for Inlab because we already had received prior knowledge on the event, but visiting the museum made the experience much more real and personal after learning about it in class. I never really knew much about 9/11, especially because I wasn’t alive during the tragedy. But after hearing stories from both my parents and strangers on the screen I know that this event was much more serious than I had originally thought. Our class went on this trip not only to learn more about 9/11, but to prepare us for our upcoming German Memorial project. By going to the Memorial, we were given ideas and inspiration for our own creations so we wouldn’t get stuck on certain details.

This picture on the left shows our group outside at the memorial. On the right, you can see a photo that I took of the ‘plaque’ around the memorial with a birthday rose stuck in someone’s name.

First we visited the main Memorial. They were two fountains with black marble around them to signify where the buildings originally where. Thousands of names were etched into the surface of the marble, and some had white roses stuck in them to symbolize that it was someone’s birthday.These memorials stood where the twin towers used to be, and to see it in person kind of startled me. It was much bigger than I thought it would be, and also very impactful. 

Our inlab teachers asked us to interpret what the water symbolized, because the videos we watched in class talked about how most people thought the water symbolized tears, or ‘holy water’. I agreed with the former, due to the fact that when I saw the memorial in person I couldn’t help but picture the water representing a nation weeping after countless lives lost. The way the water flowed downwards into the black pit made me want to cry in a way as well. 

This was a surviving pillar from the attacks. Even after all that happened, it stood. People seemed to think of it as a symbol of hope.

Then our class visited the main museum. It hadn’t seemed very big when looking at pictures of it, but when we got there, it seemed like the floors just didn’t end. It was kind of like an infinite staircase, and I feel like it could symbolize the sinking feeling that everyone felt on 9/11. What was even more disturbing was looking around and seeing everyone’s faces. There wasn’t a single smile, and there were even a few people with teary eyes. I thought it was interesting to look at the debris from the attacks, and to see how badly things were torn up. Especially the firetruck down near the bottom floor. It was dented and squished in places, and it was hard to believe that people drove in it once. It also makes you wonder how it got torn up like it was. Did some of the building fall on it? Did it swerve and crash after seeing the attacks? There could’ve been multiple reasons that the firetruck was all messed up.

To conclude, our class did end up learning a lot from this Memorial, and it fueled my group’s inspiration for our Germany project. We were influenced by the impact of this particular museum, and we knew that we would want people to feel the same way about our memorial. My group’s design was also greatly affected by this Memorial and Museum’s design. For example, we added glass to our Memorial after remembering that was a recurring theme in this ‘park’. Now, our Memorial is stronger than ever and we’re almost positive that it’s going to turn out well.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the museum. On the right, you can see the beaten up firetruck I described.

Olivia Leppla

September 18th, 2019

This week’s project was one in which we were told to design our own chairs for specific Simpsons characters in order to match their needs. My character was Lisa, an athlete that never wants to rest until she really needs it. The card I was given told me I had to design her something very comfortable for when she needed to rest. I decided to build her a really comfy chair with an adjustable pillow, and a hover feature. Yes, a hover feature. Even though it can be nearly impossible to make a model float, I still gave an idea of what the chair looked like without the boosters. I only added the hover feature so she could move around the house without using her sore legs and arms. I gave the chair a remote to control the hover feature depending if she wanted it on or not. I think I did a pretty nice job imagining it. 

A big part of the lesson was also learning about iterations. This particular project was very focused on the concept of iterations. Although I had an idea of what this word meant, it still wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Iterations are kind of like different versions of a draft, and that’s exactly what we were doing with chair activity. 

However, I did face a lot of challenges during this activity- especially time management. We were only given a certain amount of (short) time to complete each chair.This was difficult considering we not only needed time to think of what the chair would look like, but we also needed time for glueing and assembling the chair together. I’d say that the most challenging chair to build was the popsicle stick chair. It was difficult because the popsicle sticks didn’t bend, so there was no way to really move them around at will. The hot glue also took a fairly long time to dry on the popsicle sticks as opposed to the other things. 

Finally, when our project was finished we had a debrief. Everyone that had the same client sat at a table and explained their chairs. Again, I had Lisa and it was really cool to see all the different chairs that were designed for the same person. They were all completely different from mine, and none of them were ‘high tech’ like mine was. I remember Emma had a chair with a net in the middle for Lisa, and that Kenan had a bed-like chair. (Kind of like a loveseat.). I can’t really remember Grace’s chair, but the design was almost the opposite of my chair- it was circular and high up from the ground. It was also really cool to look around a see everyone else’s chairs- I started cracking up when I saw Zach’s pipe cleaner chair. 

Overall, I learned a lot from this activity. I learned more about trial and error and how time management can be very, VERY, hard to deal with. I also liked learning about iterations and coming to have a deeper understanding of the word. 

Me cutting out my cardboard chair- you can see my ‘sketch’ and notes in the background.

When our group was sharing our chairs. My chairs were the ones closest to the camera on the light blue construction paper. This picture really shows how different all our chairs were. Also, Kenan’s face is funny.