SHOWCASE
I never really believed that I had an ounce of creativity inside of me until I had entered into the Master of Arts in Education Program at Michigan State University. This program has been eye-opening, has pushed me to my limits and then beyond, and shown me that I could be so much more than I ever believed I could. The best work I have done throughout this program is displayed below. I was asked to pick a problem that I saw in today's approach to learning and then asked to find a way to attempt to help fix that problem. Below lies, what I believe to be the best thing I have ever created. I hope you enjoy seeing my journey throughout this project and understand why I feel that it is so important to my cause.
Click images to view the full project process.
Identify
This is the part of the project in which I thought about and addressed the issues I felt needed the most attention, from my own perspective. After taking a look at those around me and a look at myself, it was fairly easy to decide where my focus was going to lie. Knowing the how difficult this issue is to deal with, I felt I had the perspective needed to tackle this issue with the insight and strength that was needed.
Empathize
This was one aspect of the process where I was able to shine. Not only have I learned much about emapthy through my Bachelors program, I had been living with anxiety for a number of years. I had no problem empathizing with students who suffer from anxiety disorders. I was, however, able to gain some perspective from people who have different forms of anxiety. To do this I reached out to my friends and family on social media. Unfortunately, I knew more people with anxiety disorders than I could have ever imagined. While I had many people that reached out to me and said they would like to be help, I decided to interview Christine. Christine is currently a high school student and I wanted to hear about her experience, being a high school student that suffers from an anxiety disorder. It was no surprise to me that she informed me she missed many days of school because of her illness and it also really made me sad for her. I felt she was not receiving the proper education because she was living in constant fear of when she would have her next panic attack. This was something I knew I had to try and fix.
Define
I knew that I really wanted to help students who suffer from anxiety disorders get an adequate education and the best way for me to approach this was to look back on what I had learned during my own struggle and take things from there. Originally, I had my heart set on bringing awareness to the problem. I feel there is a stigma attached to mental illness and it's an ugly one. It was my goal to help teachers and parents understand how these illnesses can negatively impact their students and children. I thought about the different ways I could do this, such as providing classes for educators and parents but for some reason, this just did not seem to be enough. I wanted to make students comfortable in the classroom, so that they would have a chance to excel. Don't get me wrong, I still believe that awareness is very important to this issue but my problem of practice took a surprising turn.
Ideation Part 1
The first part of my ideation process was to define the problem of practice, mental illness in students, and explain why I felt this problem was so important to solve. I think went on to define a couple of areas that I believed would help with the issue. The two areas I had chosen were raising awareness about mental illness and focusing on nutrition. My reasoning behind focusing on these aspect was due to the fact that I feel the struggle students with mental illness face is often overlooked and/or most people do not have a clear understanding of how detrimental it can be to students’ progression in their education. I also chose nutrition because throughout my time dealing with my own mental illness, I have found that nutrition can or harm a person’s mental well-being.
Ideation Part 2
The second part of my ideation process was a brainstorming session with a friend of mine who also suffers from anxiety. I felt that if anyone could really help me with solving this problem, it would be Michael. His form of anxiety differs from mine a great deal, so to get another person’s perspective on this issue was very beneficial to my process. During the interview, Michael had provided me with some great feedback that pushed my thinking even further.
Ideation Part 3
For the third and final step of my ideation process, I kept a journal for 7 days and filled it with any ideas I could think of, good or bad, to solve this problem. I wrote down everything, no matter how ridiculous it sounded because sometimes the most ridiculous things develop into some of the most brilliant and I didn’t want to miss out on something that could truly help students with mental illness. I did not sit down and brainstorm, rather I did not force myself to think about the problem at all, this is call the incubation period. Ideas would come to me during the most random moments and usually right around the time I was about to go to sleep, so it was very helpful to have a pen and paper next to my bed at night.
Prototype
Image curtosy of Thundershirt.com
Upon brainstorming, I had two different things come into my mind, the Thunder Shirt which is a shirt that was created to apply deep pressure to dogs when they have anxiety during car rides, thunderstorms, or any other situation that leaves them frightened, the other thing that came to my mind was the Squeeze Machine (http://www.therafin.com/squeezemachine.htm). The Squeeze Machine was invented to help people with Autism, when they are experiencing heightened anxiety, and also did so by apply deep pressure to the user. What made me favor the Squeeze Machine over the Thunder Shirt was the fact that it allowed the user to control the deep pressure that was being applied.
I understand that a dog cannot control how much deep pressure they need and that their owner is not aware of how much to apply either but what still, this idea stuck with me. I started thinking about ways that I could combine the two inventions and this is how I came up with the prototype of the S.U.P.E.R. Shirt. This shirt was designed with the focus on young children, mainly because I wanted them to have a way to control their anxiety at a young age. I believed that if they had control over their anxiety at such a young age, it would not have a stronghold over their entire lives. I would have eventually wanted to expand the product to teenagers and adults, so that I could help a wide variety of people. The idea for the shirt was for it to work much like a blood pressure cuff, in that the children would have control over the deep pressure that was applied to their torso. They could increase the intensity as needed and release it when their panic had subsided and would do so through the use of a watch or a bracelet. I felt the need to incorporate superheroes into the making of these shirts because I felt it could lead the children to have a sense of fearlessness and help them draw inspiration from the superhero they admired the most. Also, most kids think superheroes are cool.
Testing
Testing may have been the most difficult aspect of the design process for me because I just had no idea how to approach it. I had spoken with a few people about the prototype but without knowing how deep pressure worked on people with anxiety, they could not really say as to whether or not they would be interested in trying one. I finally decided to have the two people, who volunteered to help me, wrap ace bandages around their torsos when they believed they were about to walk into a situation that would heighten their anxiety. This testing had mixed results, one user felt too constrained, while the other believe it may have helped him but was not sure if it was all in his head or not. They both stated that they would be willing to try the finished product, if one was ever made.