I’ve learned this past year in 8th grade that failure will usually lead to success. Depending on when and how it comes, well that changes a lot. To me you can’t really have success without failure. It’s just like how you can’t reach the top of a mountain without taking the first steps. You may fall a few times but you’ll make it. That’s what I think of when PLTW comes in mind. I don’t think I have ever done a project successfully the first time. I mean maybe it’s just me, but…. I’m gonna say it’s not.

During this school year, I have done multiple projects. I have designed, built, programed and much more. And they’ve all lead to some sort of progress. I remember one of the first modules I did was the birdhouse module. We had to build a birdhouse all on our own and my group struggled because we were the first group in the class to tackle it. We ended up completing it with a really nice birdhouse. I also remember another time me and my friend were supposed to transfer the data of another project onto USBs, and we ended up screwing up the computer and had to stay after class to fix it…. not fun let me tell ya. But those two things have taught me one thing, don’t give up and keep going.

Recently we finished up our maker projects. I had lots of fun and gained much experience but, I’m glad it’s over. My group did a catapult. It was overall simple to make but challenging to have it work and throw the tennis ball far. We had lots of struggles but I’d like to share the absolute worst one with you.

We were about to complete the whole thing. All we needed was the cup that was 3D printing. It was Saturday and everyone was allowed to come and work for about 4 hours. And I remember testing it and being excited cause it was almost done. But then the leg connecting to the base came off. So we thought “Oh no problem, we’ll just glue it back on!” So we were just about to glue it back on when someone comes along and gives us “great” advice. Long story short we ended up having to redo the entire thing because their “great” advice failed. It’s actually funny when I think about it again. It made us connect more as a team and as friends. So I guess you could say failure can also lead to friendship.

I’d say that all of these experiences and even more have taught me that it’s okay to fail, because it teaches you more about yourself and when you eventually are victorious, it’s the best feeling. Thanks for reading!!

By Sammie Seamon

This year has been very different than the rest. Well, technically every year is different than the last, less so in elementary, but nevertheless, this year was different in good and bad ways. Algebra, more projects, more friends, different electives. And also PLTW. This year we worked on modules, and then our Maker Project, which was a dollhouse, that we presented the Make-o-Rama. Now we are working on a skateboard project.

Throughout the year I have been frustrated multiple times, sure, but the time when I wanted to cry was when I was making the dolls for our dollhouse. I have made several different kinds of dolls; cats, gingerbread men, traditional humans, mice and monsters alike. The night before the Make-o-Rama I was on Pinterest, and Lauren shared with me a doll made of wire, with little clothes on them. It was already pretty late, but I persuaded my mom to drive me to Walgreens to get wire and something to make the head. I already had cloth, so that was no problem.

I got to Walgreens and looked through the aisle a bit. My favorite cashier, a nice old lady was managing the aisles so I asked her if they had any wire, non electrical. She shook her head no, and as my face fell I explained to her my doll dilemma. She said she didn’t have any suggestions for me, but I should look around. So I walked around aimlessly with my mom until she suggested we just use coat hangers! It was brilliant, but I still needed a head. I looked in the medical section and saw this kind of toe bandage. It was thick, foam, round, and covered with this felt material with an adhesive backing. I thought, “Good enough..” and went on my way. I could draw faces on the felt, and attach it to the wire body frame. I also had some tools at home to shape the clothes hangers.

When I got home I looked in my closet for plain wire clothes hangers and found plenty. I took my stash back to the kitchen and set up the hot glue gun. I cut the clothes hangers in half, but when I tried to bend them with the tools, they wouldn’t bend very much even if I worked at it really hard, much less into arms and legs. I tossed them away, now with no wire. I thought we might have some craft wire to make bracelets, but if we did, I had no idea where it might be.  So I looked and looked, and found some wire in a cardboard box behind the albums. I tried bending it with the wire, but it wasn’t stable enough. It was extremely flexible, and when held up straight, it would fall over. It wouldn’t work. So I looked some more and found some silver wire for home appliances. It was the perfect thickness and flexibility. So I got to work. After a while I managed to make one body frame attached a head. I left the sticker that you peel off the adhesive on, just to be safe and minimize stickiness. Then I had to worry about the clothes. How would I make them? I didn’t have time to sew anything good, and couldn’t show the wire frame anyway. Then I had a brilliant idea. I could cut strips of cloth and wrap multiple layers over the wire to give them volume and clothes. So I cut strips of a pretty yellow polka dot cloth, and wrapped them around the “arms” and hot glued the ends so it wouldn’t unravel. She had a shirt! Then I did the same thing with black fabric around the “legs” and “waist” for pants. Now for the face and hair. I cut out red fabric in the shape of hair and hot glued it on the adhesive side. Then on the tan felt, I drew a face with sharpie complete with eyebrows, eyes, nose, and red lips. Then I repeated the whole process with the second doll, except I gave her a long skirt instead of pants, and did a design on them with fabric hearts. But horror of horrors; I put the skirt on backwards! Now instead of the tan felt, the white backing that covers the adhesive was the face! And the white backing was coming off, so I took it off and hot glued it back on. So I was forced to glue the hair on the felt and draw the face on the white backing. Good quality or not, I was done, it was late, and I was tired. So I put them away for the Make-o-Rama, and went to bed.

It was very frustrating. And the fact that it was almost midnight and I wanted to go to bed made the situation worse. But I did get them done, after tons of variations of different dolls. Since they had wire frames, their limbs were movable into different poses, which I thought was neat. I really wanted to trash them and go to bed, but I continued to improve them to the best of my ability. I am really glad I finished them, because what’s a dollhouse without the dolls?

So here we go again. It was a real struggle to be an eighth grader this year. I just finished my maker project; The Maglev Train Model. Like always, I had a problem. That I wanted to rip out my hair. I wanted to cry so bad, but I didn’t. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “Again.”

I had no idea how the maker project was going to turn out, but I knew that something was going to float. I started with designing the train, but that turned out to be an epic fail. Of course that wasn’t when I felt like giving up. I failed, but it wasn’t a big deal. I started designing the train again, but this time I made it a little simpler. Instead of making a “train”, I just made a box instead. I kind of changed the project a little, because the most important part about this maker project is to make something levitate.

My purpose was to show the basics of how Maglev Trains work. This Maglev Train model was supposed to show people how much faster something can travel without friction. Even just 1mm of levitation is enough to travel at lightning speed. Imagine a world where we can just travel from city to city in a matter of minutes, later seconds. Imagine how much time  we can save traveling. Imagine how much money that we can make from convenient and fast travel. Time is money.

After we successfully built some boxes, we started making the track. The process of building doesn’t take that long, but the process of assembling does.

This is the first layout of our train track and the train. The type of magnet that we used for this project played the main role. The way that the magnets are laid out is really important. The first time I tried to make it simple. The tiny box levitated at the edge of the track, but when putting it in the middle, it stopped. The first plan didn’t work, so we completely took out all the magnets and started over. We had to take the glue out. At first we used tape, and it turn out a failure as well. Using tape decreased the magnetic forces from the magnets, so we decide to use hot glue instead.  Working with magnets was so hard, it was even harder than working with a little kid. The magnets would stick to random places, and kept moving around. They wouldn’t stay still.

After the first fail, I thought of another idea, and it didn’t work either. This time, I separated the magnets.

This gave each pole an equal amount of force throughout the train track. The only problem then was that the box just levitate and was pulled track. This plan didn’t work either, so we took everything apart and tried again. This time I arranged that magnets differently, again it didn’t work. I had to take everything apart again. This project was mostly about trial and error. I didn’t really have a set plan in mind, everything that I tried and everything I could think of didn’t work. In my mind, I was constantly thinking about a solution for this problem. Like, why did the train keep attracting to the track? When I walked to class, I thought of a solution to that problem. I tried to work it out, and when it didn’t work, I had to start over again. The whole time in this maker project, I was constantly failing. It just didn’t want to work. I failed so much to the point where my teammate thought about quitting the project, and trying something else. My teammate tried using copper wire and the battery, but it didn’t work. The process of assembling, gluing the magnets onto the woods, and taking it off again and again, was a pain the butt. I want to cry really bad, but I didn’t. I kept on saying, “Again.” and, “again.” I failed, but I tried again. I’m constantly trying to find a solution, because everything can be possible if you at least try. I also believe that if I do or try to make anything, I’ll complete it. I get really upset if I can’t accomplish my task. The thought of giving up really frightens me.

The day before, the project was due. I tried a totally different plan, and surprisingly, it worked!! I realized that the train wouldn’t stay still, so I also had two bolder lines with magnets running through them.

This way, it kept the train from flying off the track.

This is the final layout of the train track with magnets. I think that this project is a test for me to see if I can be creative and do something without the teacher’s help. In the end, this project was my endurance test, to see when I decided to give up. But I won,, because I didn’t throw this project in the trash, instead I worked on it until it was completed.. And we finished.

Failure. We all experience failure in life. Failure isn’t just a once in a life time thing…it happens all the time. To get over failure each time you just have to pick up your head and push through it. Failure is the key to success, you’ll learn from your failures.

I’ve experienced failure…many times. One time when I experienced failure in PLTW when my group and I were working on mechanical systems. Mechanical systems wasn’t the easiest thing…it’s actually kinda hard. My group and I had a hard time figuring out how to put things together and the way things were suppose to be. It was starting to get harder than we thought, we wanted to give up…we couldn’t figure out how to put things together. After a while I starting to get frustrated I wanted to give up and call it a other failure…but at this point failure wasn’t an option, the only option was to try again and try harder and not give up and not call it an other failure.

Failure wasn’t an option at this point, and neither was giving up. We had to figure out what to do…and that’s what we did. We helped each other figure things out, we worked together to finish. We work hard to finish and not give up again.

When we finished, we finished as a team. We didn’t give up…we didn’t call it an other failure. We were really happy that we were able to finish and not give completely. Failure wasn’t our option, so we didn’t give up.

~Ora Edwards

Failure and success come together. They are like a package. You can’t have one without the other. I have constantly had to face dealing with failure in this class. But with all that failure, lots of success has come out of it.

For example, on our Maker Project, we took a wrong turn and some bad advice and managed to ruin a lot of our pieces. We were building a catapult. A teacher told us to cut holes in our base to insert the holders into for greater stability. While trying to remove the glued on holders, we broke one of the feet off and no longer had the file to laser cut a new holder. Also, our measurements were off for the holes in the base so we could no longer use our old board. We had to make a new base and had to hot glue the foot of our holder back on. But in the end, we did everything we needed to do and had a finished catapult ready for the Make-o-Rama.

Throughout this school year, we have done many other projects (modules) and some of those have had failure with them as well. My favorite modules were in the engineering category. This led me to decide to pursue the Engineering Pathway in high school. Of course, the “package” held strong for those too. We had to overcome lots of obstacles, but this has caused me to learn how to be resilient and push through hard situations. But through this, I have had lots of success, some turning out better than others.

Overall, PLTW was a pretty fun, and I have enjoyed coming to class.

I Failed (Kind Of?)

  Failure

[feyl-yer]

noun

1.an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success

2.nonperformance of something due, required, or expected

3.a person or thing that proves unsuccessful

~dictionary.com

There are many things that I have done this year that I felt I would fail at, tests, homework, spanish class. But if I had to choose one thing that I thought would fail this year is this module that I did at the beginning of the semester, it was called Mechanical Systems. When I first started the module I was happy and full I pep, I was completely sure that I could do the module in a relatively short amount of time with really good results. I was… sort of correct… I guess you could say that it wasn’t a complete fail.

Let me tell you the whole story. *fades out slowly*

“Hey guys we need to finish this project or our grades will suffer!” I told my groupmates.

“Okay, okay. We’re coming.” They responded rolling their eyes. I just grinned as we started to work.

“Okay, so I have the picture of the last version of the eggbeater we made. So… Lets get to work!”

~this time skip is brought to you by potatoes~

“This isn’t working!” I said forcefully, annoyed with the first design my group had come up with. And the second… and the third…

“We’ll figure it out.” Fatima assured me, resting a hand on my arm and taking the failed eggbeater from hands. She set it down on the table. “So, what isn’t working this time.”

I sighed forcefully and pointed out the flaw, “Every design that we try doesn’t’ work on the horizontal plane, we have to do something in order for the gears to connect to the source of power.” I shook my head and glared at the failed eggbeater, beginning to disassemble it.

“Is there a way to place gears next to each other at an angle, so that the gears move each other?” Arabia asked.

“Like a beveled gear?” Fatima suggested.

I shook my head again, “No we already tried that remember? The gears that we have on hand are large enough to work in this frame.” I got an idea, and looked down at the loose parts strewn across the table. “But, maybe. It could work…” I mumbled.

“You have an idea. What idea is it? Cause the last time you had an idea-” Fatima began.

“Trust me it should work.” I assured her, though not very well from the look in her eyes. “Trust me. Its a good idea. A brilliant idea if I say so myself.”

~this time skip is brought to you by ultimate fails~

“MUAH HA HA! IT WORKS!” I cackled happily.

“How does that even work using gears?” Fatima looked at me doubtfully.

“Simple, see where the gears touch each other at a 90° and the friction from that interaction, drives the beater part of the egg beater.” I explained. “Now lets hurry up and take the video before it stops working,” I laughed as their eyes widened. “But, really, it will stop working.” 

~https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4d/fa/33/4dfa3374acb5f16763e5697798769a41.jpg

So that is the time that I took a shortcut that eventually failed, but when it worked,

it fit the criteria that it had to meet (kind of). Besides we had fun doing it so it wasn’t a complete fail. Right?

~Almina Orbach \(*’(00)’)/

FAILURE

Failure means not being able to succeed in a task. It doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, it can actually be a pretty good experience. It can open up your mind to maybe think about new ideas and it can make your task turn out way better than intended.

One of my failures was when my group and I were trying to build a birdhouse. We were trying to stick the pieces of plywood together by using wood glue and nails, and we accidentally glued the wrong parts together. It didn’t make our birdhouse come together in a neat way so we had to find a way to remake our idea. First of all we had to take the birdhouse apart carefully without breaking the pieces of wood. We were able to pull the pieces of wood apart without breaking them so then our next step was to find a new design. We looked at our ideas and we brainstormed of new ways to glue the house together. We came up with a design and we tried again. In our second try we were able to get our birdhouse together and finish it up by painting it. It finished up looking better than we thought of.

From this experience I learned that failing at times can be a positive thing and at times thats all you probably need, you need a fresh start.

-Angelica G.

Failure-is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.-Wikipedia

Recently we have been building our maker project, I was in the process of making a animal stool. I had this great idea of how it would be made and the design of every little detail. I failed to thoroughly think through how the steps would be assembled. Then it occurred to me, no person would step on this without breaking the stool or himself. So, I guess it was time for more brainstorming. I thought that maybe I should just create the frame of a stool and add sides to that. Yeah, that would take to long so I took a short cut. Probably not the best idea but due to the Maker-O-Roma coming in like, 2 days, I had no other choice. This short cut work way better than I could have thought, meaning the stool was very sturdy.

If I were to do another cute stool I would start with the frame then add the detailed and colored sides. But the point is, that I didn’t try and fail at this project, then the stool would not have gotten better. Same with all the products in stores. Without the competition we wouldn’t keep innovating our technology.

“You’ll never be brave

      if you don’t get hurt.

You’ll never learn

       if you don’t make

             mistakes.

You’ll never be successful

       if you don’t encounter

             failure.”

Quotediary.me

-Savannah Currey