Hello,

Going to earth day I had a few jobs to get done:

• Do every single group’s poster
• Sound for my group: Oceanic Odyssey

For the sound, I had used an underwater sound file that I edited for it not to be copyrighted by changing the levels of the three minute audio clip. With that in hand, we talked to the kids on Zoom and discussed that along with an underwater sound, it would be more helpful to have one of the kids to do a voice over with fun facts so it becomes a more educational experience. Because we were so tight in time between PlayTech and Earth Day, we decided that instead of focusing too much on researching the fun facts, to go a different route. At the end, for earth day, we ended up using the original underwater sound from PlayTech with a voiceover of the kids narrating instructions for the audience inside the dome.

 

I was also in charge of designing AND printing everyone’s posters! At first I underestimated this because for PlayTech I just designed the posters by using a simple template I created and looking up illustrations on my own and having a lot of creative freedom.

This then became a big assignment for me for Earth Day because I had to be on top of everyone for sending me their group’s information, which included the following:

• Group’s name
• STUDENT NAMES + KID’S NAME
• A CATCH LINE FOR THE PROJECT
• Illustrations that kids had drawn for their group

The problem was that a few groups didn’t have the time to submit this information to me, so I had to be creative on what I can do with their group, or ask my professors for help.

With this at hand, I then created the first round of posters for Earth Day. I received over 10 different feedback rounds over the course of the 24h before Earth Day. This was really stressful, but paid off!

Once the posters were done, it was printing time! Printing was a huge problem because the plotters were broken at the UC, so we spent over $100 on printing credits only, and about four hours printing and cutting and putting the papers together. It was extremely tiring.

Then: EARTH DAY

Earth Day for me was a very exhausting and very well accomplished day.

I woke up at 4:30, got ready, took the train down to Union Square at 5:20 to meet up with Harry Castro at Union Square. We then met and made our way to New Jersey. We got there around 7:00 and found nobody but Raquel there.

After waiting around 30 minutes for everyone to show up, we went right into action on moving the dome, then setting it up.

For setting up the dome, I helped Harry with tying up the zip ties on the wood.

I also helped with putting everyone’s posters onto cardboard boxes Tammy brought us- which some, were destroyed by the wind :[

After hours of work and turning the projector on for my group: Oceanic Odyssey, it was game time!

We started having people in, and my main jobs inside the dome were:

• Hit the play and pause button for every group that came in.
• Get people to tell me what they see, what they can do about the trash in the ocean, if they were happy with what they were seeing, etc. Basically: engaging people to actively think about why we were doing this.

Earth day was an incredible experience because I really got to feel what real team work is, and also seeing people engaging with a project I’ve been apart of for a whole semester was extremely satisfying. Earth Day was also exhausting because of the amount of hours and work we put in during that day. And of course, the nasty weather I will never forget.

 

I thought the visit to LCCS was so much fun. I underestimated how intelligent these students are based on their age. It was so inspiring to hear how much they know about climate change and their ways of dealing with the possible solution. I was very impressed by their vocabulary as well and really interested in how we’ll collaborate in the future. The group I worked with were very hyper but definitely knew what they were talking about. I can’t wait to bring creativity, awareness and solution with them!

 

1. What did you learn about we are doing in this studio for the semester? Did anything stand out as something that you like/dislike?

I think for this studio course we will be learning and teaching middle school students from New Jersey about Virtual and Augmented reality. We will be building domes, making games etc. The biggest part of the class (I think) is that it’s a very social and interactive course. Even from class one, we were already working with our hands, talking with our peers, engaging in our designs and conversations and showing what our thinking process is.  I’m excited to be learning about VR/AR because I know almost nothing about it. One thing I’m anxious about is I won’t have any portfolio work out of the course, since I’m so new to what we will be doing.

2. What did you learn about Design Thinking?

So far, design thinking goes beyond solving a problem- it’s about exploring the elements of the process we are in and failing over and over again until a solution arrises. This is simple but mind opening- specially for impatient people like me. Failure is definitely a major part of design thinking and so is asking questions, showing people what we’ve done and accepting feedback.