I definitely enjoyed my Makerspace experience. The best part of it was the availability of various materials and the fact that no directions were given as to what kind of material to use and what kind of object to create with it.

At the beginning of the assignment I walked around the room to see what was placed on each table. A circuit board kit for kids instantly drew my attention. However, after opening the box and trying to put together different parts, my thoughts went back in time to my school years when I struggled with my physics assignments. I thus left this activity in order to find a material that was more familiar to me and less challenging to work with. I saw a set of cards with little wooden parts that could hold cards under different angles. I found this material attractive because, although simple, it offered many ways to employ it. I have certainly held cards before and it was not a new material for me, but this time I  was looking for ways to create something that could serve a specific practical purpose. This is how I came up with my customized photograph holders that you can see below.

As it did not take me too long to create my photograph holders I decided to join two other students, Ayelet and Diana, who were sharing the desk with me. Although the products of our activity were completely unassociated with one another, we were able to put them together into one piece that we called “Our Village”. Diana constructed a palm made out of lego, Ayelet and I worked on a house for the Lego girl that had a bouquet made out of toothpicks in her hand.

What I learned from this experience is that I definitely have fear of the unknown that manifested itself in my inability to enjoy the circuit board activity. Another thing that I learned about myself is that I prefer working in teams, because I liked the idea collaboration and it was in general much more fun than working on my own. If I was given a little bit more time, I would probably try to overcome my fear and construct a functioning circuit board.