Sustainable Design Project Reflection
To introduce this project we went on a field trip up to twin buttes. We looked at sustainable design in houses and in gardening systems. After that we had speakers come in and tell us about sustainable design and how it works. We then dive into looking at what we might want to create by doing a presentation on a sustainable system. I did my presentation on aquaponic systems which was interesting to learn about. We were then given the opportunity to create our own ideas and to build on them.
I thought on our field trips it was really interesting to learn about how people learn to adapt. We learned how to sustainably build and how you have to adapt to meet the user's needs and still work to make it sustainable. The speakers taught us how hard it is to make something sustainable and how it takes a lot of work and adaptability.
I believe sustainable design is doing something in a more effective and better way that helps everyone. This way might not be as easy to do and create but works in the same way and helps both the users and planet.
Our interviews influenced my project in many ways along with my own experiences. From my interview, I took away that students wanted a quiet calm space in nature where they could go to study and just relax. This influenced what I chose to do for my project and how approached creating our space.
In this project, I feel like we had a lot of freedom to make it our own. We were given expectations on what we should do, but we were given the choice of what we wanted to create. They let us work instead of micromanaging every step we took. We were given the task of getting to work and finding our supplies.
We started our design process by prototyping, then split us up into groups based on what we wanted to create. In those classroom groups, we started creating ideas on what we wanted to make. Then we got into even smaller groups and made a prototype. Then we, as a grade showed off all of our ideas and choose what we would like to create and made groups on what we would build. After that we made another prototype and made scale drawings of the space.
A 21-century skill I feel like I grew the most in was adaptability in this project. I feel I adapted a lot during this project because we had to adapt to not having supplies and changing or fixing things when it broke. Adaptability is a very good skill to have because it makes it so you can work in different situations.
I feel like I could have grown on the 21-century skill, effective communication. I could have used more effective communication during this project because I would get frustrated with my group and either just tell everyone what to do or leave the group. I have always had trouble communicating in a group, but I have been getting better at communicating in a group. When working in groups it's hard to agree on an idea which is where effective communication comes in and will help to solve problems.
A time when we had a problem that I helped to solve was when our ladder broke the first time. When the ladder broke it was just sitting there and nobody was working on it so I took initiative and started working on fixing it. I worked hard and got it done before the end of the day. I feel like I did good cause I just started working on it without being told what to do.
I could have done more to help out the group when something went wrong was when our floor didn't fit. When we first put our floor in it didn't quite fit and I didn't do anything to help solve that problem when I could have. In this project, there were definitely parts where I could have done more to help my group but overall I feel like I helped where I could and tried to always be doing something.
I thought success at the beginning of this project looked like finish four tree houses that looked refined and had furniture and speakers in them. I feel like a success now looks like having one treehouse that was sustainably designed and I was proud of. We were able to build one tree house and got it painted. We didn't have much time or supplies to build our tree house, but I feel like we worked hard to get as much as we could do.
The advice I would give to a student just starting this project is to make a plan of what to do and work in a group where you can all collaborate and communicate in. We started off just working without a plan and then once we got toward the end of the project we started not having much to work on. If a student was to start this project I would definitely advise making a plan of what each group member needs to do each day.
I thought on our field trips it was really interesting to learn about how people learn to adapt. We learned how to sustainably build and how you have to adapt to meet the user's needs and still work to make it sustainable. The speakers taught us how hard it is to make something sustainable and how it takes a lot of work and adaptability.
I believe sustainable design is doing something in a more effective and better way that helps everyone. This way might not be as easy to do and create but works in the same way and helps both the users and planet.
Our interviews influenced my project in many ways along with my own experiences. From my interview, I took away that students wanted a quiet calm space in nature where they could go to study and just relax. This influenced what I chose to do for my project and how approached creating our space.
In this project, I feel like we had a lot of freedom to make it our own. We were given expectations on what we should do, but we were given the choice of what we wanted to create. They let us work instead of micromanaging every step we took. We were given the task of getting to work and finding our supplies.
We started our design process by prototyping, then split us up into groups based on what we wanted to create. In those classroom groups, we started creating ideas on what we wanted to make. Then we got into even smaller groups and made a prototype. Then we, as a grade showed off all of our ideas and choose what we would like to create and made groups on what we would build. After that we made another prototype and made scale drawings of the space.
A 21-century skill I feel like I grew the most in was adaptability in this project. I feel I adapted a lot during this project because we had to adapt to not having supplies and changing or fixing things when it broke. Adaptability is a very good skill to have because it makes it so you can work in different situations.
I feel like I could have grown on the 21-century skill, effective communication. I could have used more effective communication during this project because I would get frustrated with my group and either just tell everyone what to do or leave the group. I have always had trouble communicating in a group, but I have been getting better at communicating in a group. When working in groups it's hard to agree on an idea which is where effective communication comes in and will help to solve problems.
A time when we had a problem that I helped to solve was when our ladder broke the first time. When the ladder broke it was just sitting there and nobody was working on it so I took initiative and started working on fixing it. I worked hard and got it done before the end of the day. I feel like I did good cause I just started working on it without being told what to do.
I could have done more to help out the group when something went wrong was when our floor didn't fit. When we first put our floor in it didn't quite fit and I didn't do anything to help solve that problem when I could have. In this project, there were definitely parts where I could have done more to help my group but overall I feel like I helped where I could and tried to always be doing something.
I thought success at the beginning of this project looked like finish four tree houses that looked refined and had furniture and speakers in them. I feel like a success now looks like having one treehouse that was sustainably designed and I was proud of. We were able to build one tree house and got it painted. We didn't have much time or supplies to build our tree house, but I feel like we worked hard to get as much as we could do.
The advice I would give to a student just starting this project is to make a plan of what to do and work in a group where you can all collaborate and communicate in. We started off just working without a plan and then once we got toward the end of the project we started not having much to work on. If a student was to start this project I would definitely advise making a plan of what each group member needs to do each day.