Exhibition Reflection 2010

Focus: Bicycle Infrastructure

I found the exhibition exciting, challenging and fun.

The most rewarding aspect of the exhibition for me was presenting in front of an audience with pride and gladness.

Also an rewarding aspect was finally finishing right in time. I was sick and missed school for several days and it was really hard work to continue.

The most challenging part was the changing during the last 2 days before the exhibition night. Suddenly my teacher announced that there will be no performances on stage. But I already made a keynote presentation to perform live on stage in front of all parents and practiced that for nearly 2 weeks! Now this was cancelled. I felt sad and disappointed. O.K., what to do next?

I had to record my voice and transfer it to the keynote presentation to make a kind of “video”.

I quickly made a collage of a big city map, woolen threads and pictures. I drew a bicycle and the letters for my title. A second challenging part was that the teacher announced that the video and the presentation on the board don’t have the same information.

So I had to think hard what to tell. I explained how I chose my topic bicycle infrastructure and my ongoing actions (cycling as often as possible and looking for classmates for my C&S project to join).

My feelings changed from

• happy, exciting ( I found a topic!) ( that was week one) to
• frustrated (my topic is too broad) in week two to
• happy again but struggling (Mrs Winkler suggested to narrow down my topic. At the end of week three I found my topic bicycle infrastructure.)
• stressful ( catching-up with research and writing , doing 3 interviews in week 4)
• great and happy (writing the keynote presentation and practicing that in week 5 and 6)
• sad and disappointed (2 days before the exhibition night, see above)
• happy and proud the night before the exhibition night ( finished all my work at 22:00)

One great resource for me was my 3 interviews, because they gave me lots of information.

Also one great advice for me was given by my mentor (Mrs Winkler), which was to narrow down my topic.

Mostly I worked independently, because there was no related topic to bicycle infrastructure. Working alone means I can concentrate and work very fast. It also means that I was very independent with my thoughts and actions like 3 interviews, going to the Katasteramt and cycling to school in the morning. I learned a lot doing all on my own.

But working in a group would have meant, working quicker by dividing the interviews and sharing the results. We would have split the amount of typing.

I missed working with classmates, because charing research is even faster at the beginning. During my research I found a website about urban sprawl. I felt happy that I could share it with Kiran. I missed working with classmates, because sometimes it could be very funny and I do like to share my thoughts.

The meetings with the mentor was in a group. There we took turns in being the minuter.

At the beginning the 4 of us had to share one board. We quickly decided and agreed who got which piece. I felt happy with that nice group decision. Later everything changed again.

If I had have been working as a part of a group the results may be different, because all group members have to agree with proposals. There might have been lots of discussions and agreement during the journey. And maybe I would have been not able to put in my thoughts, because others wouldn’t have liked them. So working in a group maybe frustrating or refreshing. It depends on the group members.

I am very exciting to get the C&S project started as a part of a group after summer holidays! It will be refreshing!

The areas i do still feel i need to work on to improve are:

I would like to have the possibility to enter the workshop video or

I would have had to have more time to imagine a music piece or drama.