Expo/Showcase
After building my Plush I had to prepare for the expo which was a daunting task to complete in 1.5 weeks. I first had to create a trailer and a mini-presentation for a committee of non-STEAM staff members to get nominated for presentation at the showcase. I was 1 of 5 students selected for this on the basis of the story behind the project, completeness, and presentation skills. I then had to prep for my speech by doing sound checks and preparing a script. On top of the showcase prep, I had to repeatedly plan out the layout of my table with 3 of my previous circuits, design multiple posters, put together a name the bear survey, plan a prank for my teacher with the STEAM coordinator, attend weekly meetings surrounding the expo, and help set up the expo space. Despite the stress of this, it paid off by everyone attending being enthusiastic and supportive.
Project thoughts and considerations
The goal of my project was to point out and bring awareness to the lack of suitable options for mentally ill and neurodiverse people in regards to mental health. I recognize that at a high school level, this project won't directly help anyone. Despite this fact, I still created the project as a way to test out an idea that could possibly help people someday. The final project at the expo was different than what it was originally supposed to be. The initial expo setup plan was to have a therapy tent with mood lighting and pillows, however that got scrapped. My plans were more grand than the reality of my project but I'm still proud of my work. A year prior I never would've thought I would be selected for the showcase.
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The most rewarding things about the project all had to do with the expo. Being up on that stage was the best part of the whole year, the audience was more supportive than I could've imagined. I also gained the support of my non-STEAM classmates which was a pleasant surprise for me. Another rewarding thing was the email I got from my teacher 2 days before he announced the selected showcase students telling me that I earned the highest rating out of everyone who auditioned.
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The 3 most challenging things I found with the project were coding, showcase, and ideation. The coding was the hardest of all due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the Arduino IDE coding language. Despite asking for help from multiple professionals about specific issues in my code, I couldn't get it to work. The showcase wasn't challenging because it was hard, but it did take up a lot of time and bled into other areas of my life such as academics when I repeatedly got pulled out of math to do sound checks or putting homework to the side in favor of preparing the speech and slideshow. The ideation stage also was really hard because one of the main parts is determining is your problem is real which is hard when that problem is something that directly affects you. It put me in an uncomfortable situation where I had to defend my experiences to classmates.
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STEAM has taught me many things, but the most prominent value is to be content with the progress I have. Before starting STEAM I was an extreme perfectionist that procrastinated doing any work in fear that it would be bad. In other areas of high school I already had the necessary skills to complete assignments perfectly, but I didn't know how to code, solder, graphic design, laser cut, or digital music composition on any software more advanced than Garage Band. Because of this, some of our projects were bound to be bad. In STEAM a project being good or bad has nothing to do with the goal, the goal is learning a skill. I want to take this newfound sense of contentment into other areas of my life because I'm bound to fail eventually and it's a less stressful way to live.
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