Tribute Card Assignment and Blogpost

• Address your design process and how design thinking relates to this project

I decided to make a card for my boyfriend and represent our favorite thing to do which is to walk the boardwalk at the beach. My overall goal was to create a pop-up card that when opened, the walking couple popped up and there would be a push-button on the blue side of the card to illuminate all the lights. Unfortunately, my idea was different than the outcome. I first had some difficulty with the wire, I had bought different copper tape and it took me several tries to even get the light to light up. I finally realized that I couldn’t rip the tape and had to do the circuit in one piece of tape. After getting that done, I then placed the lights in each hole where the lamp posts are. I struggled with this because, for some reason, I couldn’t keep the lights lit. So, to counter this, I had to make each light a push button. In my stop motion gif, I show myself pushing each button. Even though it did not turn out like the idea in my head, I had to rethink and change my idea. Overall, it was more difficult then I thought, but I’m glad I was able to think it through and create a finished product.

• Connections to prior knowledge of art and art education

This assignment did not really connect with my prior knowledge of art education in that this was the first time I have learned about paper circuits. I enjoyed working with different materials out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed that the assignment was very expressive and up to us. That connects with my prior knowledge of art education because I’ve to make sure projects are choice-based and to not make cookie-cutter projects where the outcomes are all the same. So this project has completely different outcomes for each student. I also think this assignment challenged me in a good way and I think that is important in that students should be challenged, not to the point of frustration but where it motivates them to rethink and rework a project that may not have gone how they wanted to it too.

• How you might apply what you’ve learned through this project in your future classroom.

I would definitely want to try this project in my future classroom. First of all, I would like to introduce paper circuits because I found it really interesting to learn about them since I never have before. I feel that many students, like me, may also have never experienced these materials so they would be learning something new. I feel that this project will create many different outcomes and students can be very expressive with this project and feel a personal connection with their end product. Lastly, I would like to use this project in my future classroom because as I mentioned before, I was challenged in a good way and feel that many students will have a similar experience where the idea in their head does not come out the way they want and will have to rethink and tinker with the materials to get the outcome they desire or close to it.