As Beyoncé has eloquently put for us,”… you don’t realize that you can work super hard and give everything you have, and lose.”I think that truly understanding this idea is the key to growing as a person. Sometimes, you do give something your 100% effort, but you still just don’t get it right.

With our maker project, it was very trial and error. We decided to make LED shirts using LilyPads and the arduino software.We waited for a few weeks for all our supplies to come in, and spent some time doing designs, and we decided to design our shirts to support the LGBT community. Next, when our conductivity thread came in, we set to work on combining that with the LilyPads to get an LED to light up. We worked with a very simple code that would just make it blink one color for one second, then stop for one second. Our first big success is when it lit up! It blinked red perfectly. Our next big task was using the code we found and our newly acquired knowledge of LEDS to get it to light up in a rainbow sequence. It turns out the each wire extending from the LEDs (there are 4), each have a different meaning. The longest one is the ground lead, and the rest are red, blue, and green. Each has to be sewn to the fabric with a different line of thread or wire, and then to the LilyPad in order for it to light up. This took a long  time to understand. But in the end, we got it to work.

As we were creating this project, one of the biggest milestones was when we were able to use our shifting light LED code, to make our lights change color every few seconds, and it worked. We were ecstatic! We used a breadboard and wires to see how many LEDs we could hook up on one wire. After we found this, we began to sew the LEDs to our shirts. This was when the trouble started. We knew that if we did it just right, then it should light up. What we didn’t learn till we had already begun sewing is that if any of the threads crossed, the entire shirt would not light up, end of story. After all of the work we had out in, something so small was the reason most of our shirts didn’t end up lighting up. By the end of the project, exactly one shirt lit up correctly. Unfortunately, by the time maker faire happened just a few days later, only the red LED was the one that was functioning properly. So every few seconds it would blink red, and that was all.

So, I guess the moral of this story is to embrace failure. As much as we wish everything could be perfect and have everything that we work hard on to turn out amazing and perfect, that often isn’t the case. But, we can’t let that keep us down. We just got to keep our chins up. Because even if it doesn’t work now, that doesn’t mean it never will. There’s hope in it all.

In life we face many choices and challenges, some might be easy and simple but others might be long and hard. Some choices and challenges may lead to success, and others could lead to failure. Failure. It’s not a good thing, but it’s not a bad thing either.  Let’s face it everyone has failed at least once in their life, because nobody is  perfect. I remember many times  in my life when I failed, because guess what, I’m not perfect either.  I have failed a lot but I have learned from my mistakes (sometimes.)

For example I have failed a lot in my Project Lead The Way class. The class itself can be easy sometimes but it can also be hard. In the Project Lead The Way class you have total freedom. There is no teacher behind you telling you what to do, there are no instructions.  We have to be in charge of ourselves. That can either be a good thing or a bad thing. It could be a good thing if you make the right choices and stay on task, but it could also be a bad thing when you make the wrong choices and don’t complete the task.

I remember one time when my partner and I were working on one of modules. (Modules are 1-2 week mini projects based on a topic) The module was Mechanical Systems and my partner and I had to build two different kinds of mechanisms, using what we learned about gears in a video. In the video we watched before we learned what gears were, what they do, how they impact our daily lives, and so much more. The mechanism my partner and I built were the Cam and Follower and the Bevel Gear. When we first started making both the Bevel Gear and the Cam and Follower, it was very difficult for us, because we didn’t know how to start. Then we asked one of our fellow peers for help and they helped us with starting and they guided us through the challenge. I have learned that whenever you need help you should ask for help no matter how afraid you are and if you have any questions you should ask them. Whenever you face a hard obstacle you have to face your fears, and overcome the challenge.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight” by Unknown

By: Hope C (:

Failure

By: Leslie M.

Failure is the lack of success. Failure doesn’t mean to give up, it just means that you need a new plan or to try harder. Failure can be really easy to accomplish but can be really hard to let go and try again. Failure is a necessary part/step of our projects.

I’ve failed many times throughout my modules/projects, but I didn’t give up, that was just a sign that was telling me to try harder. So I tried harder and I did finish that module/project.

I am now going to talk about a time that I have failed. I was working on the prosthetic module. We were in a challenging place, which was to have the prosthetic leg stay on somebody’s leg without falling off when she walked, so at first we used yarn to tie it around her leg but the problem was that the prosthetic leg would move around when she tried to walk on it. That was a failure, but we didn’t give up. So we thought about another idea which was to use a long piece of rope instead of yarn. At first the prosthetic leg moved around when she walked on it but then we tied the rope around her leg differently and it worked.

By: Yoselin R.

Taking a course with very little instructions is beyond overwhelming. It’s scary taking steps that can lead you to failure. We all want to achieve but only very little amount of us are willing to take the steps that can lead us to the road of success. Like any other human being, we are all too scared to make mistakes.

Thanking a PLTW class that provides tools such as table saws, 3D printers and laser cutters is beyond amazing. Not being able to use all these tools is absolutely terrible. As we began to come closer to building our spin art machine, I was a bit scared to see how this project could turn out. At the beginning of our project, I had never touched a drill or even a driver. As soon as I was informed that we had to screw some parts together, I was absolutely worried of messing up. As I heard a few obnoxious sounds, my first thought was always, “you’re doing it wrong.”  Most of the time, I  just had to push through that unpleasant voice in my head that was always shouting, telling me to give up.

As we began to come closer to the end of the project, everything was doing fine. It was exactly the day of the Make-O-Rama that our project decided to take a left turn to broken valley. Our machine completely stopped working due to the motor not being able to function appropriately. It was exactly at that time that I decided it would be best if I gave up. At that time and place, it just seemed like the easiest decision ever. If it wasn’t for the support and encouragement of my teammates, I would’ve just called it a quit and that would’ve been the end of that. Luckily, it wasn’t. They helped me push through that moment of desire of giving up. After all the hard work we put into our project, we decided to keep moving forward and push through all the hard challenges. At the end of the day, our project was  a great success and all that hard work did pay off. If it wasn’t for my teammates and those bright smiles of all the individuals who tried our project, I wouldn’t have seen a point of continuing to work hard in future projects.

If I had to share any advice about giving up, it would be to always look ahead and work through the rough bumps along the way. If I would’ve given up on my project, I would’ve felt a lot worse about not finishing it than having something go wrong at the last minute. Overall, I have learned that having no instructions can have it’s good and it’s bad. It’s good because it helps you explore a lot more. It’s bad because it creates a sensational feeling of  messing up and not being able to move forward. Lastly, I would like to say that not having instructions, has helped jog my creativity along with improving my problem solving skills.

Savannah W

Success: The Chosen Path

Self-leading has been hard for me lately. I am an independent, confident, 13 year old girl with my phone superglued to my hands. Every time I step out of the house it’s a fashion statement, awaiting a new adventure. Don’t get this mixed up, because I am quite confident; but life absolutely terrifies me. Especially now that I am a teenager, college is a short 4 years around the corner, and a career a short 4 1/2, I have to watch everything I do with a magnifying glass. Every post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram will someday be looked at by a college considering me for a scholarship, or an employer questioning if I am worthy of a job.

It’s scary for me, knowing that every move I make can make or break my future.  In this case, I could do one of two things. I could stop everything, stay offline, and keep a clean record; Or I could live a cliche teenage life and live on the internet, like I do. The main idea of this is that everything I do or post has the potential to fail me in the future; but that doesn’t mean I stop. Success is a chosen path, I choose it by keeping a clean record online.

Having a self lead class has been a challenge for me. The modules are rarely easy, and almost on a weekly basis there is a thought that I have: “why don’t you just give up?” When a module is too hard for me to handle, or a paper too hard to write, we think that failure to follow through and complete would be much easier than struggling through.

My project for the Make-O-Rama was especially hard. My group consisted of 4 people, including myself, and our project was a short film about stress and the effects. We had to interview people of all ages and edit the clips into a short film. I never knew that a five minute movie would take us 8 class periods.

During the process of interviewing, we ran into the problem of not being able to find as many people as we needed to interview. Every class period we would have to come in and find the SD card that we had been using, and that would take 10-30 minutes. Next, we had to transfer the videos onto the mac, and that took ages; because we had a lot of videos. Lastly, we had to edit all these clips into one single short film.

The entire process of the short film was long and complicated, and is one of the hardest projects I’ve ever done. During the creation of the short film, I often had the thought of giving up. I think we all do. It is a natural human thought; when things are too hard, we want the easy way out. It’s daily that we choose success though. You don’t give up everyday on work or life, you carry on and fight through.

So good for you. You’ve chosen success today.

Success is a chosen path, and we’ve chosen it.

Aileen Carrizales

For the past few weeks two other girls and I have been working on a Rube Goldberg machine. When people asked what I was doing for my maker project, I would answer by saying a Rube Goldberg machine. The response that I had from people was a blank stare or they would say “what is that?” so most people didn’t know what it is, so I’ll explain. A Rube Goldberg is a machine that is arranged by different materials. The materials need to be arranged in specific way so that they will work together and eventually get the outcome you want, like the image to the right.

In this process we had a lot of trouble by coming up with ideas, how to build, and what to use. It was very stressful, we had to deal with the amount of time we had and other things we were kind of limited to have. Although we had many tough times, we never gave up. There wasn’t really a “toughest time” everything was difficult to build/assemble. The easiest part was probably painting our machine to make it look neater. Our group worked on this project a lot, we dedicated all the class time we had and we also dedicated time outside of class.

Even though my project wasn’t the best one in the Make-O-Rama, I felt as if it was the best. I say this  because the work we had put into it made me feel really good and proud of it. One of the lessons I learned in this experience is to not give up because hard work pays off.

KICK FLIP FAILURE: Lily Bedford

My  “giving up” moment happened while working the Makers Project. We put so much into our project, and still it was getting nowhere, I wanted to just give up and do modules, but I thought about how drastically my grade would go down and it was just a bit too late to  back out. Without further adieuof due here is my journey through the Makers Project’s up’s and down’s!

What We Learned

1. We learned how to properly secure the frame of the house by precisely measuring the wood and creating 90 degree angles so that the structure would hold up so that we would be able to add in the floors for the house.
2. We also learned to use square clamps so that we could properly put together the frame with 90 degree angles, w. Which also creates nice and snug angles.
3. We also learned how to use the impact driver, hence the name, uses impacted force to drive the screw in the hole.

This what we learned section explains  the  function  tools we learned  to use. Which brings me to the first example of our group wanting to cut corners. Mrs. Sauter had suggested the square clamps, no members of the group had heard of them. We originally just wanted to make 90 degree angles with the squaring triangle, which wasn’t the best choice, but it was very quick.

Once Mrs. Sauter introduced us to the clamps we were a bit  hesitant because, our way was easier and less time consuming (we literally had 2 weeks until the make-o-rama). Eventually we tried it, THE CLAMPS WORKED, and it turns out they worked better than our method of squaring the wood traditionally.

What We Learned

1. We learned how to use an air compressor so that we could attach the walls to the structure of the house, and also so we could start on being able to place in the floors.
2. We also learned how to use the wood stain to stain the wood because when we first started we had forgotten to mix the stain so the wood just got lighter it didn’t change. Then we finally read the directions and looked at the stainer carefully and figured out that we needed to mix it.
3. We learned how to use a leveler correctly so that the wood, would be leveled for us to place in the floors.
4. We also learned how to use the 3-D printer so that we could make some of our furniture for our dollhouse.

The air compressor was a great success, and attached the walls perfectly without leaving the messy hole that a screw would. The wood stain wasn’t as successful, but did give our dollhouse a nice, presentable touch. If the act of applying multiple coats of stain wasn’t so time consuming, then  it’d be more successful. The leveler allowed us to have a leveled floorplan. Yenifer, specifically was the team member to put our 3D printer skills to test, which turned out to makebe great furniture.

PICTURE DOWN BELOW

                             It was an A day and my teacher, Mrs. Sauter, told us that we needed to start on our next module. So I logged on to Haiku and went to the PLTW page. Then, I looked at the engineering tab and was looking at what module I would do next. It was the computer science module. I asked two of my friends if they would like to work on it with me. So when we read the instructions for what we were supposed to do it said we had to pull out these little computer chips that were also called little bits. If you plugged them in something would happen like a buzzer would go off or a light would turn on. This was just one of the challenges because we played around with it. Now we had to make something creative that actually worked.

                            So my teammates and me wanted to do something a little easy. So we wanted to create a lamp that could turn one hundred and eighty degrees. But this didn’t really work out because we couldn’t even make the lamp! It was just to hard because we couldn’t even shape it like an actual lamp. So now we had to think of something else. During this first challenge, the lamp, I already wanted to give up because we almost had it! But it just didn’t work out and I just wanted to finish the project because I wanted to be ahead of the class and start on the next module.

                            So we started brainstorming and Christmas was coming up. So I said let’s make a Christmas tree, stick it onto the main little bits part with tape, and were done. There you go you now have a christmas tree that turns. We can even 3D print the tree! But unfortunately it didn’t work out like that. We had problems sticking it on there and Mrs. Sauter wanted us to make it look nice. She suggested us to create a base for it, but we didn’t have much time. So Mrs. Sauter said she would help us, which created a little less stress for us. But after going through all of it I wanted to give up.

-Marissa Pedroza