StartSmart

I joined the Back To Basics Contest because I wanted to express my creativity, by creating something fun, with everyday materials and tools we all have at home, with the purpose of helping, facilitating, and making it enjoyable for the educational experience of all students. Throughout the process, I faced a variety of challenges. For example, identifying the need of the users, developing the possible solutions, selecting the most promising solutions, brainstorming, communicating the design, and lastly, succeed in creating the best need for the users. Despite facing many challenges, I kept a positive attitude, which led me to the creation of StartSmart. This creation is a pocket size 3D wooden square, that in all four sides includes something fun and educational, as well as helpful towards the educational experience of all students. For example, a Tic Tac Toe that can be played with a companion, a chalkboard with a chalk included, that can be used for HangMan, Pictionary, etc. Two clothespin with the use of holding notes, and lastly, textured stickers, used for fidgeting when dealing with anxiety.

Supplies

• 7 x 7 x 3½ wooden box
• Twelve white beads
• Nine transparent beads
• Blue glittery foam
• Orange glittery foam
• Two 3½ x 6 x 3½ chalkboards
• Three barbecue wooden sticks
• One medium size black elastic
• One white chalk
• One black elastic
• Orange & Blue stickers
• Two clothespins
• Thirty six texturized stickers

Step 1:

First, I made sure I had a clear vision of what I was hoping to build, helping me figure out what I wanted to do, and the actions, as well as activities, that I needed to do in order to accomplish my objective. Then, the following step was to gather all of my materials at home, and purchase those that I was missing. Now that I had materials, I decided to start off by building the Tic Tac Toe. First, I grabbed three wooden barbecue sticks, measured their lengths, and cut them, making sure they fit horizontally inside the wooden square. Then, I separated both the twelve white beads and nine transparent beads into three groups; three transparent and four white in each. The transparent beads were going to be used to glue the tic tac toe symbols, and the white beads were going to be used to divide the transparent beads from each other. After, I used a whole puncher for the blue and orange glittery foam, cutting nine blue and nine orange, (the foams were going to represent the tic tac toe symbols, and would be glued to all the nine transparent beads.) Now that the foams had been glued on to the transparent beads, all three groups were inserted onto the three wooden barbecue sticks (with a pattern of white bead, transparent bead, white bead, transparent bead, white bead, transparent bead, white bead.) last, I glued all three wooden barbecue sticks with the beads, onto to the front side of the wooden square.

Step 2:

Second, I decided to build the chalkboard area of the StartSmart. My first step was to get two small chalkboards and figure out how I wanted to place them. Next, I glued them one on top of the other, onto the back part of the wooden square. Now that that was ready, my upcoming step was to place the white chalk onto the lateral side of the wooden square. In order to do this, I used a black elastic, sowed one end onto the other (making sure the chalk could be sustained just right), and glued it onto the lateral side of the wooden square.

Step 3:

Third, I decided to add the clothespins onto the other lateral side of the wooden square. I did this by first picking out both colors which I thought would best look, and then simply glued them on; making sure there was enough space between them, that way many notes could be placed.

Step 4:

Fourth, I decided to add the texturized stickers, used for fidgeting when dealing with anxiety. First, I gathered all four different colors of stickers, and then one by one, glued them onto the top part of the wooden square. I strategically decided to glue them in a zig zag style, that way the user could feel more of the texture.

Step 5:

By the end, all of the added elements united. Composing something absolutely incredible, the StartSmart. A useful creation built with the purpose of helping, facilitating, and making it enjoyable for the educational experience of all students. Just as simple as Tic Tac Toe, chalkboard, clothespins, and textured stickers, were the results of solving the users problem.