Our School Is Like A Garden

Final 10th Grade Team project.

How Can We Make School Better Together?

What's The Problem? And How Might We Find A Solution?

My partner and I already had similar ideas from our last Make The School Better project and decided to combine them. We believe that the students who struggle with their problems tend to be weighed down and held back by them. Because of this, these students cannot thrive on their own.

How might we create a healthy environment with support to help students grow from their problems and thrive?

Our Design Concept

My partner and I decided on creating a metaphorical art piece of the environment and support because we believed it was the best way to represent our idea. We thought back on kintsugi pottery, then a parent bird teaching chicks to fly from the nest, but agreed on using a garden.

This garden is our school, and we students are the flowers. Many of us don't struggle to thrive and simply bloom, but there are still a few that can't grow on their own. This is why we'll have a gardener to support those wilting flowers. After much love, sun, and water, even the flowers that were once withering can grow from the pain and thrive.

Our Maker Modules

To make our idea real, my partner and I worked separately to create a diorama of the garden. For modules, my partner did all the hard stuff, like Laser Cutting wood for the walls and fence, designing backgrounds in Adobe Illustrator, Vinyl Cutting them as stickers, and probably a lot more that I didn't see her do. I just made flowers out of Textiles Fabric (That I hoped to add LED lights to) and Ferdinand's clothes, as well as a little bit of Video Production.

Link To Video Production

Peer Reviews

Creativity 9.45

"I thought this project was very creative and one of a kind."

"I love the stop motion, very entertain. and it explains your idea very well."

"It wasn't just a room like other people did. It was creative."

"I like the idea with using a metaphor to show your idea."

"Its good and creative and the designs are good."

"I don't usually see a metaphorical representation."

"The project was very unique and different. I haven't seen one like this."

"I loved the video so much it was so cool."

"VERY creative, I enjoy how metaphorical it is and the colors used and the analogy that the students are plants that need to grow :) very pretty."

"It is a very interesting way of conveying the message."

"Because the idea of having a safe space for students to grow isn't new, but the way they approached the idea was pretty unique."

"The design of the layout is very interesting and original."

"We are all growing and that concept of the project looks really cool and unique."

"Because I love the style of the video."

"Never seen a concept of this idea, very creative."

"They created a metaphorical solution instead of making a physical project. I really enjoyed it because it was a very different but effective way to express their idea."

"Metaphors are cool. There was some deep thought involved with this."

"This was something that was different than most people's by a metaphor rather then a model."

"It was really cool using both physical and online parts."

"Your idea was differnet and it was very good."

Reflection

Something our peers really liked about our project was the fact that we created a metaphor, and something our peers found confusing was the fact that we created a metaphor. (I apologize to my partner for basing our project on a metaphor, and that she presented alone.) It's funny how our greatest strength was our biggest weakness, and I believe what this means is to keep up the creativity but make sure it's understandable and effective.

Something we could've done was add more information on how the metaphor would apply to real life, as in the physical safe space, and who would be the support. I think it would help if the animation was longer with more scenes because many peers thought the water was knowledge, not love and care, and there were a few other misconceptions. It may have been useful if the model diorama was larger, too, maybe even the size of a room- then it could be the real thing. Other than that, I think I could've made a smoother, more professional animation and worked more to help my partner.

Since my partner and I have 100 points to split between us, I'll be greedy and keep 30 then she can have the rest. All I was good for was coming up with the metaphorical idea of a garden that didn't make sense, and that's not her fault. She worked very hard and I know I couldn't have even tried creating what we did without her skills.

Like the Kintsugi metaphor I made before, this Garden wasn't completely understood and art can be hard. Because I want to create stories about all sorts of things in life like this, I have to work harder on sharing those stories in a way that everybody can think about. I don't ever want to stop doing what I do, I just need to help everyone understand.