- Every year our school conducts a school-wide event called Innovation Day. Middle school students like me participate in a competition where each student presents a project of their own and is given the option to have a partner. My partner is Noa. Noa and I completed experiments together and in the end, came up with a project of our own. It was difficult but we got there. This blog post is a reflection on our hard work, the new skills we learned and overall how we felt through this whole experience.
- Before I started my Innovation Day project I knew it would be a challenge and honestly, initially, I was very nervous. Beneath my nervousness was excitement as well. I was excited about being able to build and experience the building process itself. I love art and being creative so when I got to build I really did my best to be innovative and creative which I enjoyed doing. I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to get it finished in the time we had especially because I was at home for a lot of our work time because I got sick.
While I was at home, sick, I finished our project while Noa worked on and finished our poster board. After that, we both added some additional research to finish it off. In my opinion, the extra work Noa and I did out of school was essential to us finishing the project and I think that is what really took us up in the ranks getting us first place.
Now that we had finished the building and our poster board it came time to present. Getting to school for the presentations was nerve-racking but with encouragement from my teachers and parents, I felt confident that we can do well in the presentations. Overall I am incredibly proud of myself and Noa for achieving what we did.
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Originally, Noa and I had big Ideas. Not all of them worked out but that does not matter. what matters is if you try and try again so we did.
- Noa and I did our best to make this project the best it could be. During the whole process of this project, we attempted to go above and beyond.
- Working with a partner is never easy but I find when you work well with your partner it always turns into something great. Teamwork was an essential part of what made our project so great.
I think communication was one of the harder things for us when it comes to working together. Especially because most of the time I was at home. Noa and I did our best to communicate online seeing as though it was hard for us to meet in person. One weekend, Noa came to my house, but most of the time it wasn’t possible for us to meet each other face-to-face. Even though the communication between Noa and I was rough we got through it and made it work.
- Patience and perseverance are also some of the skills that helped us the most through this project. When our circuit was not compatible with our breadboard we tried again which still did not work so we used what we had to make a new game. By the time the parents were about to arrive we still had no idea how to use what we had for our game.
- The next day A few minutes before the Judes came to us, Noa had a great idea and we switched the whole game up. We immediately started switching a few things up and well it worked. Next Innovation Day I’m looking forward to actually getting to be in school to experience the whole thing.
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What surprised me throughout the process was how easily and quickly the judges came marked our work and went. Before going through the judging process I was very nervous and expected it to be more intense but honestly it was kind of nice to show all are hard work.
After presenting to all the parents I honestly felt a lot better about our project. Noa and I printed rubrics in advance for the parents we presented to so that they could give us feedback for the final presentation to the judges and honestly, I think it paid off.
- I feel that this whole experience has helped me immensely with my public speaking skills and has made me feel a lot more confident in my work.
- Innovation Day was an incredible opportunity for me to really learn about myself and my interests.
- This experience may not be an easy one but at the end of the day, I had fun.
- That is all I could ask for. Can’t wait to find out what we get to make next year?