When I was younger I was really into traditional origami, so I enjoyed doing a project that not only allowed me to do something I had not done in a long time, but also step away from traditional styles and modernize the projects I create. This project was a perfect balance of challenging and enjoyable, I found myself planning out a big idea going forward with it and then discovering that it may or may not work, or would have to restructure how the copper tape and battery would have to be laid out on the final origami piece. While at some points it could be extremely frustrating, I found it enjoyable as well because it caused me to have to think three or four steps ahead and picture how I would have the copper tape connect the battery to the LED light(s) while not being disrupted by the folds of the origami and without tearing the final creation.

My process reminded me partly of the Design Thinking Process. I had a problem I had to figure out a solution to from the get go: how to get the LED to light up in an origami piece and then had to work on different options and then scrap them if the options did not work, eventually discovering the best path for the electric currents to work to illuminate the artistic creation. However, in this project I do not believe that my method for working continued to follow the path of the Design Thinking Process afterwards. I did not make additional copies of the project when it did not work, as mentioned in the section of Evaluate, nor did I make a diagram as mentioned in the previous step Build as it was not pertinent to my creative process. As such, though many of the steps are helpful; the Design Thinking Process cycle is not strictly followed nor repeated for this assignment as it was only a one day project. I believe this process would be more suited to this project if it was a two day project. Then the cycle of the Design Thinking Process would be more closely related as it would involve recreating or building anew as now we know how copper wire might work better and eventually would result in making a final creation that displayed an understanding of the materials.

I believe this project is important to have in schools to help provide a more expansive arts program in upper middle and high school programs. These materials allow students to learn how electricity can be used in visual arts projects to add intriguing and new details that they may not have considered before. Bringing in circuitry to the arts classroom in a simple format allows the exposure of exactly how vast art materials are and what artists are using in the real world. This allows art education programs to help cement their importance and value in schools even more by connecting to science class assignments on electricity and lights and expanding middle school art classes beyond just painting or drawing which can sometimes be the only things available to younger students.

When considering how I would convert this activity into my own lesson plan I would consider spending a little more time on the index card trial run that introduced the activity in class this past Thursday. As I think this would be an interesting assignment for students in Middle school around third grade and above, I might have them work on the index card and then have them discover on their own what would happen if they remove part of the copper tape and then place it back exactly with scotch tape to make a sort of switch as generated in class. That way students would spend a little more time experimenting on the flat piece of paper before moving onto the origami. I would provide books in the classroom and options on the computer of different origami options that students could research and try out for themselves. I would also provide copper wire after the demo run on the cardboard for once the students had picked out and made their origami pieces so that they could decide which they wanted to use the tape or wire. Therefore the students would have more chance to explore, experiment and discover with the different materials before finalizing their projects.