Driving Question: How can I raise awareness about pollution while building community and using videography to document the experience?
Final Product: My summative is a video that highlights all the clean walks and the work I have done with my team, as well as a visual representation of how we can help the environment.
What was your initial idea and what did you want to do/learn with this project?
My initial idea for this project was to involve people I know to take action and do something about the environmental situation here in Morocco. I also wanted to learn how to manage a team and lead them towards the same goal and discover the world of editing.
What are you passionate about that led you to choose this project?
This project is really important to me because pollution is a global issue that we and our planet are suffering from. I wanted to have even just a small impact on my community by acting upon that issue and raising awareness about it.
What do you hope people will get from looking at your page?
I hope that people could get inspired by the initiative I took, and maybe make them aware that even as simple individuals we can make a change.
What are your big takeaway lessons from this project?
My big takeaways are to not give up even if it is hard to perceive, to act upon issues that matter to us and be hopeful because change is possible.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Our goal was to improve effective communication. We worked as a team, and we upheld our working team agreement, which was to be respectful and honest to all group members.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
We learned the core concepts of the design thinking process and how to apply it to other areas of our lives. We learned efficiency and developed a specialist level of teaming and collaboration 21st-century skills.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
Explanation of Summative
Our summative product is the concept design and layout for an app designed to help households cut back on their domestic food waste by providing them with an interface to better manage the contents of their fridge, their dietary needs, and trips to the grocery store. The app would address some of the main reasons for domestic food waste that we identified – overbuying of food in general and poor storage of it in the house (i.e. forgetting about it in the fridge, letting it exceed its expiry date and having to throw it away, etc).
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Our primary goal as a team was to learn how to collaborate effectively online, especially when deprived of the intimacy and information exchange of real human contact. Our meetings were casual yet productive, and we made the most of our situation by calling each other frequently in between to compensate for the lost opportunities we would have had if we were physically together. Another of our goals was to learn how to properly conduct interviews with users – we achieved this first by researching the nuances of good and bad interviews and then interviewing members of our families, the TGS community, etc.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
A large part of our creative process had to do with accommodating various people in our team. This meant scheduling meetings, which included keeping in mind a distance of 7 hours between two of the members’ timezones. In another sense, though, this involved designating roles based on different people’s abilities and expertise, largely to do with technology and software design. Therefore, we learned the importance of using the strengths of the people on our team and assigning them to the areas that they’d be most effective in.
What did this project mean to you?
This project was meaningful in that it brought a group of us students together who didn’t necessarily interact very much outside of school before; it also taught our team much about the real nature of collaboration as something that can be both online and in person.
Driving Question: How can I grow my own indoor herb garden in Finland’s dark winter?
What are you passionate about that lead you to choosing this project?
Being home so much allowed me to reflect on my personal actions and how I was contributing to the environment. I had in the past wanted to do a gardening project however traveling and limited outdoor space prevented that.
What do you hope people will get from looking at your page?
I hope people will be inspired to possibly start their own mini herb gardens and realize that even having limited space won’t prevent you.
What was your initial idea and what did you want to do/learn with this project?
My initial idea was to just grow a herb garden and learn about the various herbs and how they grew from seed.
Did your project develop and change from your initial idea, if so how?
Upon looking at the different learning targets I could possibly utilize I ended up adapting my project into a more of a science project where I explored how different soil types would effect growth. In my research, I ended up using 2 main variables: the soil type and 3 different herb seeds so that I may achieve the best results.
What are your big takeaway lessons from this project?
I think my biggest take away is that it was fun. I enjoyed observing and taking pictures of the plants growing. Watching something grow from seed is extremely rewarding and a beautiful part of life.
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
My goals were a mixture of self-discovery and creative growth. I wanted to learn how to trust my creative instincts while also trying to understand them. I let my creativity flow with this project and managed to map that out in some mind maps and drafts. I spent the term slowly building on this artwork, which was initially going to be a much softer floral piece, and I am super happy with what it has become. You can see my process/growth below.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
I learned a lot about the watercolor paints I was using. I practiced with them a lot and tried different techniques. I also learned that I come up with my best ideas when I’m not trying to come up with ideas, so I took breaks and made lunch or something when trying to come up with an idea. This is called ‘incubation time.’ My biggest takeaway is that I enjoy being creative, and I will continue to build on my artistic skills.
Driving Question: How do local people feel about tourism and environmental regulations in Puerto Galera?
Project Description: A couple of months ago, our family went on a trip to an island in the Philippines called Puerto Galera, so my sister and I decided to film a short documentary. It’s our little passion project to spread awareness on unsustainable tourism in the Philippines. We wanted it to highlight the unique perspectives of four local residents we got the opportunity to spend time with. Hopefully, it gives justice to an island that we and our entire family love.
What were your goals for this project? We wanted our documentary to inspire a call to action on unsustainable tourism. The effects of unsustainable tourism can cause an entire island to shut down, resulting in thousands of people losing their livelihoods. By interviewing the residents of Puerto Galera, we want to show our audience the people that are directly affected by this issue, which will hopefully create a sense of urgency to protect our environment.
What were your takeaways from the project? Working on the project reminded me of how unbelievable our world could be. I was reminded of how important it was to make sure that we sustain the beauty of our environment, especially in a small country like the Philippines. This project was a big wake up call for me and I hope that it can be the same to our audience.
Driving Question:How can I create an eco-friendly product and brand?
Project Description: For this project, I used the design cycle to formulate my own shampoo bars. I also constructed a business factsheet, SWOT analysis, and pricing strategy. With the findings from my market research paper, I created a buyer persona, social media pages and a website to effectively reach my target audience.
Project Reflection: GreenCare was my year-long passion project. I started it because I saw a gap in the current market for green products. Many green brands were only targeting people that could afford a price premium; however, I have always felt that in order for us to make a macro-level shift to conscious consumerism, everyone, regardless of economic background, should have access to sustainable products.
That’s when I came up with GreenCare—a green beauty brand that values inclusivity and sustainability. The entire process has been an amazing (and stressful) learning experience. From the beginning, I quickly realized that I wanted to make shampoo bars because of their potential impact on the sachet market. I also knew I wanted to formulate my own bars to understand my product inside and out. As I continued, however, I soon realized that this would be more difficult than I had thought. In total, it took about four months, many failed attempts, and weird periods of greasy hair to get to a formulation that I was happy with.
To achieve my science A.I. learning target, I researched the biochemistry behind hair and design specifications extensively. I spent days in the kitchen mixing surfactants with essential oils, colorants, and fatty alcohols. After each testing trial, I would ask my family for feedback on my bar so I could improve the next. I failed probably 95% of the time. My bars were always either too dry, too oily, or disintegrated in the bathroom after the first use. It felt hopeless. Nothing worked. I worried that it never would. Then one day, it did.
After analyzing past formulations, finding trends and making conclusions, I finally figured it out. After about eight trials, I discovered a decent formulation for my bars—one that was sulfate-free and had the right ratios to clean hair without drying it. It also stayed intact even after using it for the first time. I felt ecstatic! My mom and sister approved as well. My bars performed all the qualities of shampoo (cleansing and smelling nice) while being completely zero-waste. They’re definitely what I’m most proud of for this project. The biggest takeaway from this project was the lesson of positive risk-taking.
At TGS, risk-taking is a skill defined as “the willingness to make mistakes, advocate unconventional or unpopular positions, or tackle extremely challenging problems without obvious solutions, such that one’s personal growth, integrity, or accomplishments are enhanced”. Through GreenCare, I tackled the extremely challenging problem of formulating my own product. I had to learn that failing was okay. No. Actually, it’s essential. Without those eight attempts, I would have never gotten to the place where I am now. In hindsight, I’m grateful for all those times when I thought of giving up because they make this entire journey so much more fulfilling. Now, I’m not saying that this is the end. In fact, it’s far from it. I know that my entire life will be a collection of failed trials and attempts. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from GreenCare, it’s that the occasional successes make it all worth it.
Driving Question: How can I organize a trash clean up event in my community to positively impact the environment?
Project Overview:
I’ve seen the forest back at home gone through all types of natural and unnatural transformations. Every time I visit, there is a trail of evidence that demonstrates the presence of humans. I think it is extremely important to address the relevance and impact of maintaining these spaces clean. Especially when it comes to a natural reserve that is filled with flora and fauna. My project, Por un Lago Azul, is the beginning of a Trash Clean Up campaign in my community that aims to provide spaces and tools to facilitate reflection. I wanted to organize a clean up event that had a meaningful value for the community that could also meet academic needs.
Driving Question: Why is the average person not aware of food miles? How can I make people more aware?
Project Overview: Over the course of the last summer, I became aware of how many issues there are in modern agriculture. I focused specifically on the issue of “food miles” which are the carbon emissions produced through transporting food from farm to table. That’s where I got the idea for my mastery project.
The core idea of my mastery project is to teach people about the food miles problem and give them ideas on how to counteract it, through a science kit. I made an urban agriculture science kit that uses hydroponics to teach about food miles and how they can be mitigated using urban agriculture.
Throughout this project, I did a lot of research on urban agriculture and plant growth, for the kit, and a lot of research on marketing and branding, as a method of spreading the message
Driving Question: How can we help the students at the Hagunoy East Central School internalize the importance of healthy food choices?
Project Description: For this project, I wanted to answer the question, “How can we help the students at the Hagunoy East Central School internalize the importance of healthy food choices?” My sister (fellow TGS student Gigi) and I organized a garden planting event at the Hagunoy Elementary School. We also created an illustrated story book centered around the theme of healthy eating. The second part of the book featured simple recipes to show the students how to incorporate fresh veggies and fruits into their meals.
