Plan

10/6 Create Product- 6 Minutes

10/ 10 Get 3 6th Graders- 25 Minutes

10/ 12 Create Survey- 30 Minutes

10/14 Create 3 Designs- 65 Minutes

10/16 Plan Product- 30 Minutes

10/18 Reflect Stage-10 Minutes

10/19 Use Equipment- 15 Minutes

10/20 The Product- 20 Minutes

10/22 Evaluate- 15 Minutes

Design Brief and Design Specification

10. Write a short statement of what you are going to make, why you are going to make it, and for whom you are making it.

I am going to create a pop up book that explains exactly what the Design Cycle is. It's going to be designed in a way that 6th graders can comprehend and not be perplexed when asked about the Design Cycle.

Formulate a Design Specification

11. What are the requirements for this assignment? 

The requirements for this assignment are that my project actually makes sense, and that it follows the time limit.

12. What are the limitations you have with this assignment?

The limitations I have for this project are that I have to follow the time limit, which is a minimum of 2 minutes.

13. How will you "test" your project?

I will test my project my giving 6th graders a short, 10 question quiz of the Design Cycle, after they've read my pop up book. Then, how they scored will tell me how well I did on explaining the Design Cycle in my pop up book.

Investigation Reflection

So far, I would rate myself a 4. I am not finished with my final product, I haven't accomplished much. I have started but I'm not even close to finishing. I still have a lot to do. So far, I've already chosen the main characters and what the problem is. I have yet to come up with a solution to the story, but I'm still working on it. The charaacters in my story are barely going to discuss what the Investigation part of the Design Cycle is. They still haven't even touched the subject of what the rest of the parts are about. I have an idea of how the story should go, but haven't put it all together. Once I put everything together, and my entire story is together, I would give myself a higher rating; but until then, I'm rating myself a 4 for now.

Plan- Zoo Burst vs. Story Bird

I gave Story Bird a 2 for its' simplicity, because I didn't like it at all. It was very confusing. I had no clue what I was doing when I made my account. It didn't make any sense to me, it was extremely confusing. At first it was okay but after I actually tried making my own book, I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't figure out how to add anything but pictures. Plus, the only way I could have the pictures in there was if I put the pictures as the background.

Having the pictures of the background didn't really make them real pictures. I couldn't resize them, which made it even worse. Not being able to add font also made it worse. I had no clue where the button to add font was, therefore my story didn't even have any words. My story wasn't even a real story, I'm not sure what you can call it. All it had was pictures as the background of the page. I did, on the other hand, know how to change the page. That was it though.

I gave Story Bird a 2 for its entertainment, because it was pretty boring. It didn't really have anything exciting about it. The theme was really calm and pretty boring. It had nothing that would make it entertaining. The only thing that was kind of entertaining was the pictures. The pictures were very colorful. They were the only thing that added some excitement to the website.

I actually enjoyed looking at the pictures, they were amazing. Not only were they colorful, but they were very creative. They weren't like regular pictures that you would find in just any book; they were very detailed. Even though you could only have one per page, I still give it props. They were fantastic pictures that were worth putting in a book. The amazing pictures made up for not being able to put any words.

I gave it a 1 for the font, because I couldn't even figure out how to type. I couldn't find the tool for typing. If you can't even type anything, then that can't be counted as a book. I'm not sure what you can call what I made; certainly not a book. I know there are picture books, but the book I made was far from it. Not being able to add any font was just terrible. I honestly didn't even know what my book was about. The only thing that I understood were the pictures.

And that's because the pictures didn't even make that much sense. They were confusing. Pretty, but didn't make much sense. The books would've been a million times better it did have font. Since I couldn't locate then button, I couldn't add any words whatsoever. My sample book looked ridiculous. How am I supposed to explain what the Design Cycle is if I can't even add words?

I have the characters a 3, because the pictures were beautiful. I couldn't really add any characters, so I used pictures. As I have previously stated, the pictures were colorful and very creative. Even if there were real characters, I still wouldn't even be able to add any font, which would lower the score for the characters. If I was able to include characters, the book would have been so much better.

The only type of characters there were were in the pictures, and I'm not even sure that counts. The characters in the pictures were drawn really good; they looked fantastic. If only they could actually say words, and if only I was able to add real characters, the scores would be so much higher. I actually would've enjoyed using the website. And, I maybe I would use the website for my actual project.

I gave Story Bird a 5 for the color, because the colors were amazing. I didn't see not one white spot on the page. Everything was filled with creativeness and detail. You could literally just sit at the computer screen and look at the pictures for hours, and never get bored. That's how good they were.

In fact, the colors were the best thing about this website. It was because of the colors, that I even bothered creating my sample book. There was a lot of pictures that ranged in many different colors. Some were bright and cheerful, while others were cold and dark. They could fit any book you were making perfectly. There was a huge diversion of colors. The colors in the picture went together with each other, and everything matched.

The overall total for Story Bird was a 12. It's very low because it was confusing and wasn't worth using. Don't get me wrong, I loved the pictures. It's just that I was very perplexed while using it.

I gave Zoo Burst a 5 for its simplicity, because it was very easy to use. I wasn't confused at all. All the buttons were right where I could see them. It also had a tutorial, which made it even easier. While making my sample book, I didn't have any trouble whatsoever. It was extremely simple.

I don't think it could have been any easier. Everything was in plain view. If you wanted to add a picture, all you had to do was type in the search bar. All the pictures available would come out, and all you had to do was click on them. That's how simple it was. Everything- I mean everything was easy to locate.

I gave it a 3 for its entertainment, because it was fairly entertaining. The website was obviously made for children and not teens and adults. Older people wouldn't enjoy it, but younger ones would.

 Everything was specifically designed for the younger audience. Even though I'm 14 years old, I kind of find it entertaining; better than Story Bird. 

I gave it a 3 for the font, because it wasn't that good. Unlike Story Bird, I was actually able to add font and make it an actual story. I really liked the fact that I was able to change not only the type of font, but also the color and the size. 

What I didn't like was that if you want font in the story, the font would come out in a bubble from the characters. While you're viewing the story, you actually have to click on the word bubble in order to see what the words were.

I gave Zoo Burst a 2 for the characters, because there were certain things you had to chose from. In the search bar, you could type what you wanted in the story. Whatever picture came out could be used as the character. There wasn't a limit on how many characters you could have, however many filled the page was how many you were able to use.

There were some things that I would search for, but wasn't available, such as vampires. So instead of making my story interesting with real characters, mine was about fruit. That was the only thing that I could think of that was available.

I gave it a 5 for the colors, because of all the things you were able to customize. I was able to change the color of almost everything. The only thing that I could think of that I couldn't change was the characters. That was okay though, because I didn't want to change the color of the characters.

I really liked how I was able to change the color of the book's pages. Not only was I able to change the color of the things inside the book, but also the outside. I was able to change the color of the outside, the horizon.

Investigation Reflection-Day 2

On Mrs. Hinojosa's blog,  I clicked on a link that said Find A Tool To Create Almost Anything. From there, I clicked on Writing Tools. Then it showed me a list. Then I clicked on a website called ZooBurst.com. After I created my own account, I made my own sample pop up story book. I thought it was pretty entertaining, for I was able to choose my own pictures, type my own dialogue, and change the color. I very much enjoyed, and thought it was a fantastic website.

 I am going to compare ZooBurst to another website called http://storybird.com/.  After creating my own account, I made my own story, or at least tried to. Story Bird was very confusing, half the time I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew what to do was put pictures. I couldn't figure out how to put any words. Instead of using Story Bird, I'm definitley going to use Zoo Burst.

Investigate-Day 1

I will explain to a 6^th grader what the design cycle is all about by creating a presentation. The Design Cycle applies in the real world by applying the same skills you use in the Design Cycle, in the real world. You have everyday problems, and using the Design Cycle will help you figure them out faster.

This project will serve my community by teaching 6th graders what exactly the Design Cycle is. They will be able to learn and use the Design Cycle in everyday life. This will be very useful for them. They will be able to figure out problems much easier and more productive.

Learning can help my community by giving everyone a good education, which will help them be successful in life. If you don't have a good education, you won't have a good job or have a good life. We live in relation to each other by encountering the same problems. Some problems we do have in similar, and others we don't. 

We can help solve each other's problems. If one of us figures out a problem before someone else, we can help them solve it as well. To teach the 6th graders what the Design Cycle is, by using the Design Cycle. You have to follow and use every step that's in the Design Cycle. You also have to keep documentation of everything you have done, the cycle should be long.  The Design Cycle is the process you use to figure out problems. You use the Design Cycle in everyday life, not only for school projects. It can be very useful and effective when trying to solve the most difficult problems.

Today we had to reflect on how we would teach the Design Cycle to 6th graders. I'm going to teach them through using a scavenger hunt.

 I am going to create a pop up book that explains what the Design Cycle for students.

I chose to create a pop up book because I think it helps kids learn the fastest.  I think my pop up book idea does meet all of the requirements.

Design 1.

Page 1. A penguin asks the polar bear are sitting together.

Page 2. The penguin starts telling the polar bear about a problem he has.

Page 3. The Polar Bear offers the Flipper the Penguin help.