Rory Final Post

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

I think that the gallery walk through today was a very interesting and engaging experience for my team and I. Getting to explain the entire process individually to parents and peers was very interesting for me, because I am so used to presenting with the rest of my group. I also enjoyed being able to show off what I had been doing for the past three weeks to my parents, because they had only heard bits and pieces of it from what I told them. Mr. Looney seemed to be pretty excited about our final product. He mentioned ways in which we could study the video we took to learn about how the students interact with the sculpture.

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Presentation Reflection - Tim Yi

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

We actually didn't receive that much criticism while presenting our idea; most people just reacted positively to our presentation. Even Mr. Looney seemed pretty happy with all of our presentation and didn't offer many wonders or suggestions. I feel like the reason for this lack of criticism is that playfulness is a particularly novel idea to introduce to the Hawken community. Still, we did receive useful feedback. We were told to consider the location, duration, and time of year of the Creation Station. We had previously given some thought to these aspects of our project--we're planning to have the sculpture in the library around finals week and to have it last from then until the end of the school year. Keeping the thoughts of our audience today in mind, we will continue to consider these factors. We were also asked about the purpose and benefits of the sculpture, so Jacob provided some of the research that he found which supports playfulness and creativity. Throughout the presentation period, I explained our project to anyone interested, as all of my teammates did. I'm glad about receiving such a positive response to our project, but I do wish that we received more suggestions to consider. However, this kind of response does suggest that we could implement this project past the intensive without too much difficulty.

Mikhail's Reflection on our feedback

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Our presentation went very well. I think the group did a great job communicating and Engaging Mr. Looney. He was not only interested and enthralled by our idea, but he also viewed it as a study. Our timelapse game him a glimpse into the minds of the Hawken students, he noticed what kinds of kids participated with the sculpture and when they did it. He thought of it as a psychological study almost, observing the minds of his students. He suggested that we do this every month, or every year at Hawken, or at different places on the campus at different times to increase participation with the sculpture and make it reflect the current vibe at Hawken School. He liked our idea and thought it had potential. Overall I think he gave a us positive and genuine feedback. Moving in a different suggestion we had multiple people tell us that we should make 4 sculptures, one for each house. They all suggested a competition, But I think it should be more focused on the creative and collaborative community building aspect. Ultimately I think we received some helpful feedback that was positive. I think we received support from those who came to our creation station and I'm happy to see that this project may outlive this intensive.

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12/15/17 Final Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED?

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

Today, we gave ourselves a final chance to reflect upon and celebrate the tremendous work we've done in the last three weeks. Presenting to the various parents, friends and members of the Hawken faculty who came to visit allowed for us not only to share the work, but also to understand how that work intersects with the general lives of others. We tied up the elements of the Creation Station with the themes and lessons of the Creative Process Intensive, while defining those topics and making them relevant for our viewers. Many of the viewers had great questions to ask us, and we found answering them a pleasant experience (at least I did!). Explaining the biography of our idea really reinforced its importance to the general creative process.  One of the most memorable pieces of advice we received was that we should multiply and spread the Creation Station throughout the campus. That way, we'd maintain our original plan of eliminating the maker space.

Final Blog - Michael Snyder

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Presentation day went really well. The turnout was more than I expected and we engaged in some very interesting conversations with a few of the visitors (my dad). While I was presenting our product to one of the student visitors, they questioned whether there would be enough balls or not because in the 15 minute break, we went through almost the whole basket. This made me think and come to the conclusion that because this was the first time the sculpture was out, kids were more drawn towards it. After the first few days, not as many participants will contribute thus the basket of balls will not be emptied as quickly. After the crowd of people came through, we presented to Mr. Looney. Mr. Looney appeared to support the idea and he had some great feedback. He noted that the time lapse of the pilot can be studied to discover things such as what genders are more drawn towards it, ow long did people stay, and did certain people tend to personalize the balls more than others. Also, he suggested that this be set up during during a few weeks out of a semester. Overall, this was great feedback that will be used to improve and further iterate our project.

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Jacob Kaufman Individual Post

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

During our presentation time today, we got a lot of very good feedback from students, parents, teachers, and even Mr. Looney. The piece of feedback that stuck with me the most was something that Mrs. Agar suggested. She suggested that we should make this a house competition as a larger motivating factor for students to participate in the competition. She also suggested that we should do a couple of these a year in order for students to actually be able to participate and get into things. Another piece of feedback that stuck with me was that we should have a lot more balls to the point where each student could add a ball if they wanted to. After we got this feedback Mikhail calculated how big it would be and he determined it would be 15 feet^3. Personally, I thought this sounded really cool and I think that if we do this again I will try my best to make sure that we have enough balls for every student and allow students to make a gigantic structure.

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WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Today our group had a big accomplishment, and was finally able to put our project to the test. We put our Styrofoam base and spray painted balls and toothpicks and sharpies out in a public space with a small paragraph of explanation. Personally, I didn't expect it to do as well as it did. Many people contributed to it, and in addition, it stayed together. For our group, it was really a important moment that taught us that it is a feasible idea. It was a milestone that we were finally able to reach after working towards it for two and a half weeks. In addition, we made a lot of progress in our visual display for the gallery walk. We decided on using the spray painting backdrop as the backdrop for our posters, photos, and prototypes. Our posters indicate our progression of ideas and input from others throughout the intensive.

A poster we made to show the flow of ideas from start to finish.

Day 12 Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED?

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

Today, we found ourselves closing our work in the idea development stage and beginning the action of producing a tangible product. Our beginning consisted of the six of us finally determining which medium we wanted to pursue in our product. We had narrowed it down to two real choices: the square-shaped 3-D building blocks, or the round Styrofoam balls and toothpicks. We ultimately decided on the latter, as it would allow for a more free-form method of the creative process for participants, and we could more easily incorporate a larger idea into it.  The idea began to take shape. Students (and faculty, for that matter; the sculpture is open to everyone!) would choose a "creativity capsule" to add to the sculpture, and the sculpture would grow and grow as our community achieves more and more. The capsules, colored differently to represent various subjects (humanities, math, science, language, athletics, art, and other), would be placed onto the sculpture to represent the creative intersection of all of those subjects. Participants would have the option to write on them (detailing their name/achievement), draw on them, or leave them anonymous. At the end of the day, we had our first set of capsules successfully spray painted to show for our work. Our next step is to bring in materials and finish our research for the gallery walk presentation. Ashley

We spray painted our Styrofoam balls, or "creativity capsules", as Mikhail dubbed them. Our early prototype called for many people to decorate the capsules. This"rejected" idea, the shaped blocks, didn't seem to us as interesting as the rounder alternative. I made this sketch of our Friday gallery walk presentation plan.

Day 11 12/11/17

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Today Mikhail brought in Styrofoam and tooth picks for us to model the possible medium for the structure. While the rest of the group worked on the Styrofoam, Jacob and I took a trip to the Fab Lab and talked with Mr. D. I had made a quick sketch of a different model for the material and Mr. D told us that this model already exists. He referred us to Fab Academy, an online course made by MIT. This course gives demonstrations and lessons about using fab lab equipment. One of the projects was to design building structure blocks such as the ones our group is designing. There were example and descriptions of a bunch of different types. Along with Fab Academy, Mr. D had already made a bunch of building blocks. We took these back to our classroom and tested these out. The Styrofoam was easier to use but can easily break. The building blocks were harder to use but very dense and hard to break. After working on the medium for a two blocks, our group talked with Mr. Greenfield about our research. He encouraged us to use the Hawken database and research cognitive learning through play and puzzles. He taught us how to filter our searches and find more specific results. We returned back to our classroom and started doing research. Overall, getting back into the swing of things was not too difficult but the day went by really fast. I am looking forward to developing our project more and making it tangible.

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Day 9 Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Today was a really important day for our group as we continued to modify for our idea and prepare for our second presentation to Edward Clapp and the other Harvard professors. After breakfast our teachers gave us around an hour to work on our project and progress our ideas. During this time we discussed all of our different options regarding what we could do to modify and make our project better. In this time we decided that we are going to do some sort of structure that all students will be invited to add to, similar to the Reddit idea that Tim showed us. We currently have two mediums that we are still deciding on; the first is a building block similar to legos (their is a picture on the right), the second is having Styrofoam balls and using toothpicks to connect them together so that students can work together and make a structure out of them. Throughout the day we have debated which medium we should use and we are still yet to decide. After this we went on a scavenger hunt throughout and Boston, and continued to bond as a team. Overall, we were able to discuss, modify, and better our project throughout the course of today, and I personally think that today was one of our most productive in Boston.

Day 8 Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Our day started at Harvard, where we met with several Project Zero researchers to discuss creativity. We noticed that despite sometimes disagreeing, the researchers had a deep mutual respect for one another. We then did several activities with researchers from the Investigating Impacts of Education program. It was interesting that we had to think about what we would do in situations that might not be familiar to us--would we actually do what we said we would do? After these activities, we visited NuVu. Here, we got to see the creative process of students who have dedicated their high school careers to creativity. We noted that the students at NuVu typically kept their driving question the same and focused on iterating through versions of their product. I think I can speak for all of my group when I say that I disagree with this practice--if we had kept our driving question the same, we would still be working with healthy eating, an idea we weren't passionate about. Our journey ended at Artisan's Asylum, where we got to see the works of a wide variety of creative people. We were impressed by the myriad of projects we saw, from paintings to bicycles to robots. Furthermore, many of the creators at Artisan's Asylum were hobbyists trying to escape from their uneventful everyday lives rather than professional craftspeople. This just goes to show that anyone with a vision and dedication can build the things that they want to.

A diagram at the PZ discussion showcasing the elements that go into and come out of creativity Creations at Artisan's Asylum ranged from massive faces... ...to retro arcade cabinets

Day 7 Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? hint: a lot!

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

After presenting and receiving feedback yesterday, we started to realize that we needed to go back and look at the question from another angle. The idea of having a single room might limit where are able to feel creative, when in reality we should be promoting creativity throughout the entire school. Today at lunch, we spent some time throwing around ideas for how we can improve the project. One of these ideas was having a Lego structure that each student is allowed to add one Lego per day throughout the semester. We didn't think that it would be terribly doable, primarily because it would take around 48,000 legos. We still like this idea, but would have to come up with a better way to do it. This idea inspired another idea, a weeklong Lego competition, one structure for each house that we would judge for house points. During and after dinner, we started talking again about one of our previous ideas of expanding the one creative room to the whole school. The basis of the idea is that we place baskets/boxes/bins in various commons and 'hangout' spots around the school. Each container would have an assortment of games including puzzles, origami, crossword, Rubik's cubes, card games, and others. Rory

We visited MIT, where we saw evidence of creativity visually present in almost all the active student spaces' architecture and interior design. We played pool in our game space while we brainstormed new ideas for our project.

Day 6 Reflection

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED?

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

Today marked our group's first day in Boston. I think I can speak for everyone when I say this: we were very pleased to finally be able to present all the work we had been putting together for so many days. Some of us I sensed were nervous to present for Harvard, as I heard some of the same voices repeating the same lines about their respective topics repetitively as we crossed intersections with our heavy suitcases, ate our street sandwiches, and walked into the Project Zero quarters. Personally, I lightly appreciated the travel to Cambridge itself, as it gave me adequate time to mentally refresh myself before I had to remind myself of PlayFair in any way. I often find that a change of scenery with an added level of risk and excitement sparks my ability to recognize and develop the creative aspects innate within myself and others. I didn't quite realize it until I got here--being able to explore the creative underground of Boston both does two main things: it distinguishes this intensive from others, and it gives our group members an ability to make more tangible our various innovative processes.  I think that in our presentation today, we hit most or all of the points that we wanted to, communicating exactly what PlayFair was as well as the journey we took to discover it. It was interesting to me how quickly time went by when students were so engaged in asking a generous amount of questions to each presenter. Though student feedback is of course something to be valued, it makes me wonder where we would be if we heard a bit more from our Harvard mentors in the room. They, for the most part, seemed engaged in what we had to deliver, asking questions that signified interest and a willingness to help. I only wish they had talked more. Preparing for Friday may just be slightly more difficult given the pressure to present something completely or even partially renovated. I don't doubt that our Boston experience will be educational and inspiring--I'm only worried that a lot of the learning and inspiration involved would be an intrapersonal factor, not an interpersonal one. More time to spend with our group would undoubtedly fix this issue. Mr. Greenfield asked a good question that I think we might be able to begin with as we move forward: How can we draw a connection between the toys, games, and activities we include in our play-space to a real-world benefit? What real-life skills does building a Lego set or playing a game against a friend help to develop? Let's discuss.

SEED post Tim Yi

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

I believe that social interactions have played the most important role in the development of our idea. More specifically, we made the most progress when we were willing to let go of our own ideas and open up to ideas from others, whether they be from teammates, teachers, or classmates from other teams. This was especially true when we decided to switch our project idea. If we hadn't been receptive to the advice we received, we wouldn't have been able to switch our project to something we were more passionate about. The feedback we give each other has also played a key role in our creative process. Whenever we work together, we bounce ideas off each other, offer concerns, and suggest revisions. Through this constructive criticism, we have become a team that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Feedback from within and from outside our group lets us refine our idea to be more feasible, more detailed, and more original. Social interactions will certainly continue to play an important role in the second week of our intensive, during which various creative people will offer their own insights into our project and become part of the biography of our idea.

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Michael SEED

Most Important Part of SEED (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

My experiences have been the greatest contribution to my creativity. In the beginning of the week, I chose the healthy eating topic for my project. This was because dieting and health eating has been an enormous part of my life ever since I became gluten free in the fifth grade. Every meal and place I go to, I have to watch what I eat. Eating the incorrect food will result in me getting very sick and as result, over the years, I have learned about healthy eating habits and watching what I put into my body. This experience has allowed me to feel passionately about the topic and contribute greatly. Along with my strict diet, my parents have shared articles and books with me with the intention that I will eat healthier to improve my overall energy. I have been involved with athletics ever since I could walk and my parents have supported me at every point along the way. Part of this support is providing healthy food for me. This has taught me that what you eat can improve your abilities in both athletics and school. A different viewpoint has emerged from my parents trying to get me to eat healthy. During discussions with my group, I can provide a different viewpoint and look at the topic from a different perspective. Even though, we changed our topic, my experiences still influence my work. Until my brother left for college, I would take my mind off my schoolwork by playing ping-pong with them during the evenings and weekends. Experiences like this help me connect with the topic and prove more assistance to my group.

Jacob Kaufman Individual Post

WHAT DID WE DO? WHAT'S NEW and CHANGED? (reflection and description of event / activity)

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts, photos, videos, drawings, sketches)

Personally, I would say that social interactions definitely had the biggest impact on myself during my time so far in the Creative Process intensive. Although social interactions has had the biggest impact on myself so far in the intensive, I would also say that the other three categories of SEED (experience, environment, and discovery) have also been extremely influential so far. Throughout our process social interactions with the teachers, group members, and other students, have helped my creative work the most. The first instance of social interactions having a huge impact on myself during this intensive was on the very first day in our first activity when we were doing making movements and sounds because that was a really good activity that made me feel more creative and I thought it was a great starting activity that helped our class be more creative. The time that social interactions had the biggest impact on me was when we presented our idea to the teachers and the rest of the class. From this experience my peers and teachers gave me great feedback, that truly made me want to be more creative and help change our group's project. After we presented for the second time in front of the class, and we got a lot of feedback, that was when our group was stuck at the bottom of the U. That was when I really started thinking and talking about our project with my group, and whether or not we should change our project. After speaking with Mrs. Ricci, and having a social interaction with her and my group members, that was when I really got on board with switching our question, especially if we switched it to something that involved play. In conclusion, social interactions with my teachers, group members, and class mates, have had the biggest impact on me out of all the SEED categories, especially all of the feedback and inspiration that they have given me during our social interactions.