My Sophomore Independent Project (Semester 1) has really addressed my Communication Skills. My project was to create a Makers Club for kids who are interested in STEM, like to create things, or enjoy learning new skills. This project required hosting club meetings, communicating with teachers, communicating with club members, and keeping everyone updated. I sent a lot of emails and ended up talking to quite a few people to get the club started.

I am proud that I was able to start the club without a partner. I didn’t realize that most clubs were started by students who had someone else working with them to prevent everyone from getting overwhelmed. Ms. Buchter did help me a lot with starting the club but I still had a lot of things to take care of (club projects, communicating with people to start the club, etc.) I am also proud of this project because I was able to put together so many slides, documents, ideas, and a few blog posts. I loved working on this project because I love to be creative and I love to share the amazing process of creating cool inventions with other people.

This project helped develop my 21st Century Skills more than I had thought it would. I realized that creating a club requires a lot of communication with a lot of people. I had to host club meetings and I was sort of scared about it at first. Luckily, I am close friends with all of my club members (and I was close friends with them before), so hosting club meetings turned out to be much less intimidating than I thought. I had to email back and forth with Dr. Hogeboom to make the idea of the club a reality. Finally, I also had to convince kids to join and make posters.

The most difficult part of this project was probably finding enough club members. We now have a small group of kids, which is really nice because we can put a lot of focus into projects. It was also difficult to find a day that would work well for everyone and I was initially a little shy about hosting meetings. It was difficult to spread word about the club and, even now, I don’t think a lot of people know about it. Finally, getting out of my comfort zone was extremely difficult but very rewarding.

To improve my work, I should make larger and flashier posters to advertise the club. That way, we could maybe have a few more club members. I should maybe also consider a lunch announcement or talking to people and convincing them to join. Finally, I might try thinking up more cool projects that will make people interested.

In the past, I learned about emailing etiquette with teachers and peers. This definitely helped me with starting the club and sending out updates to club members. I also learned about the Engineering process and we have applied that to our most recent club project. I have been using the Brainstorming part of the Engineering process to think up more future projects that we could do. This project has taught me so much and I gained a lot of knowledge that will help me in the future. Thanks to this project, I will be more comfortable hosting future club meetings and even being a leader outside of the club. I found effective ways to communicate with others to plan things and solve problems (blog posts, emails, phone calls, talk in person, etc.). This club has also shown me how to present information in the right way to encourage people to do something (like join a club or make a change). Overall, this club has been a positive experience and I would like to continue having meetings even after the ‘project’ is done.