reflection
I had no idea what to expect coming into this class. I had no experience with design at all; all I knew was that I like science type things as well as art, so a STEAM class seemed perfect. I started by making the classic paper airplane. It flies pretty well and everyone learns to make it when they are little. In the course of the first class I went from a paper airplane to a sort of basket woven object. I was pretty proud of the way that my ideas transformed from one thing to another, but I also thought that this was probably a fluke. I assumed that I would not continue to have ideas branch of from one thing to another, but I discovered that I did, in fact, have those ideas.
I don’t remember our next project but I do remember making pretty poorly constructed paper prototypes. In our light project I made several attempts at the light project, which inspired me to make the healing device. The healing device is a good example of my attempts at prototypes. Originally it was a paper tube that twisted and was supposed to condense, but didn’t. It didn’t look great. Then I made a small paper gun which had more of an idea but still looked pretty bad. My next attempt was with foam core and this was more substantial but not pretty. The final foam-core prototype looked good. It had the edges bent in and generally looked clean and smooth and precise. However, I then decided to branch of into the realm of casts. I wanted something less magical and more real, and so that’s where a cast came in. The first cast was ugly, and the final cast was not the most pretty but it was effective and showed my point. If I’d had more time I could have made it prettier, but it ended up far from its original paper tube.
The final project I was more comfortable using more serious materials for prototypes. We went straight from sketching to foam core, and then to a laser cutting. We even got to use the 3D printer which was very cool and allowed our model to look great and more real. My use of and ability to use certain materials really increased in these three weeks. I moved away from paper to more substantial objects, and by the end I used the most precise and hardest to use devices, the 3D printer and laser cutter. I think this class really helped me be creative and gave me creative tools to work with later. I am more confident in my ideas and my ability to create things, which will help me when making a portfolio or just in life as a whole. Overall I had a wonderful time in this class and while all my friends were dreading going to their classes, I was excited to go to mine.
