I think it is important for kids to have the opportunity to feel accomplished with what they are working on. By keeping working on their projects and making it into a bigger better project kids could help to make a difference, and they could become famous for what they are doing. In electric art kids felt accomplished with the games that they made, and how they helped other kids learn. Basically it’s about what you learned, how you worked on it, and how others saw it and what it meant to them.
I felt accomplished in my maker club a lot of times. It could be like the Little Free STEM Library (LFL) because that is the first thing that came to mind because it’s in front of my face. Last year when we went to the LEAP event, Stephan and I had gotten business cards from people because people wanted us to build more LFLs and put them around the city. I felt accomplished because I didn’t think people would give us business cards, and they did because they wanted more LFLs. LFLs are important because they help other kids practice reading and learn more about science.
This is different from school because at school some teachers make you feel that you can’t be accomplished in life. Here I feel the opposite because we get to make different projects, and at school we don’t get to do it.
It does matter in the community because your projects could go further into different communities. If we were over in the south side where I live, people would be like that is cool, but we could go to the east side and they could learn too. They could learn and make a difference too! Then they would reach out to other communities, and it would just keep growing and growing…
~Autumn, Chief GET City Blogger
Hi Autumn! What a great post, thank you for sharing. Your point about kids needing to feel accomplished is such an important one, and that it is by working hard and for a long time at something, like electric art, that kids can feel that they know and can teach others these skills. Your LFL project with Stephan is so inspiring to the other youth here when I shared with them what you and Stephan built. Keep up the good work! You rock!