Spring Blue sky, that’s what time it is. For our Blue sky project we had to think of a challenge and solve it. I picked the pets group. The challenge that I wanted to solve was my Bird not being lonely.

We used a cycle to do so. The cycle was called the Launch Cycle. This launch cycle had seven parts to it.
The L stands for Look, Listen, and Learn
The A stands for Ask Tons of Questions
The U stands for Understanding the Process or Problem
The N stands for Navigate Ideas
The C stands for Create a Prototype
The H stands for Highlight and Fix

Here I will show you my Launch cycle and then you will be able experience my work. At the end I will also later add my Launch Cycle book that we are working on in class.

Phase 1

For this first phase of our Blue Sky project we had to pick the challenge we wanted to solve. The goal of my project is to get my bird comfortable when I’m at school. How can I make my bird feel less lonely when alone. I wanted to start this challenge because my bird was always getting lonely, whenever I left. It was an issue for my bird and my family. Fixing this challenge would help my bird and me. My bird is a cockatoo. I have other birds but they are different breed. The other birds are smaller which makes them scared of this bird, leaving him alone. I would also be learning new skills like how to work with wires and audio.

Phase 2

In the next phase I had to ask questions from my clients. Unfortunately my client can’t do that because he is a bird. The next best thing to do was to ask other pet owners about this problem. I didn’t know any other bird owners so I went to pet smart. I went to an employee and asked if there birds got lonely. I learned that at night the birds that are in there alone in their own cage do in fact get lonely, and start to chirp.

Phase 3

This phase was difficult to do because my client clearly can’t tell me what’s wrong. The only interviews I was able to get from him were his actions. This made me have to research a lot of things. I went online and I investigated my potential. At first I wanted to teach my bird how to do something. After I researched I learned that training a bird is more complex and most people don’t have the time. I realized I need to make it way easier . I did some more research, got some more data and was finally able to understand the challenge.

Phase 4

For this phase I did a lot of planning. Brainstorming on how I can make this work. I had to make a prototype to see if it would work. I made the first prototype and I was not fully successful but that’s the point of the first prototype. I then did more brainstorming and I analyzed that if I could get the on and off switch to work like a lever it would be easier for my bird to turn it on.

Phase 5

I remember this being my favorite phase. It was my second prototype and I knew exactly what I wanted to do for it. I was so excited to get my stuff and start putting it all together. I got a light switch, box and all, and I wired it to connect to the audio player. Then I hot glued everything to it’s spot. I got a chopstick and hot glued it to the light switch. So it would work as a lever. When the bird gets on the stick the light switch turns on which turns on the sound. It was going to be perfect.

Phase 6

Revision, one of the most important phases. Experimenting to see if your product actually works or not. I took my product to see if it works. It did work, but I needed to make sure the client could use it. After bringing the product to the bird the bird didn’t want to go on the chopstick. So I had to think of a way to push the bird into wanting to go on the chopstick, and that would be activating the singing coming from the box. Now it was time to think, well birds like mirrors so I hot glued a mirror on the box. The bird was interested but not interested enough. After a little more time thinking I remembered that my bird likes sequences so I glued some on the mirror and chopstick. This got the bird interested in the product. My bird was going to the product on it’s own and using it. That’s when I knew my product was finally finished.

Phase 7

Launching our project, it was finally time. The exhibition night had come and we were all getting ready to launch a. As I’ve said before I was in the Pets group. We decided to make our form of presentation a pet store. Everyone got a spot to present their project. Cat section, dog, and bird. Soon enough it was 5:30 and people started to fill the pet store. Many people were interested in my project but most people wanted the same project but for other animals. That’s how I launched my project to the physical world but I still needed to launch it to the digital world. My blog was the way I had planned. Then I had launched my project fully. This has been a fun project and my bird uses it so it was a win.

Overall, I think Blue Sky has made me a more experienced leaner. I have really enjoyed it and I’m proud of the work I’ve accomplished.