(7.5) “Try Again Boo-boo”

Yesterday I got the opportunity to talk to a class of middle school students (7th graders), and it went pretty well! Bringing candy absolutely helped. I really enjoyed talking with them, but I also still don’t feel like I have a clear path forward.. I wish I had more time to talk with them. I’m hoping by writing this out maybe I’ll have more ideas?

I handed out blank sheets of paper and pens, and asked them basically to write down any ideas or thoughts they had for me. I told them the premise of my project and asked what they think I should do or shouldn’t do, what would they call it, what form would it take, and asked them to draw a poster or write out what they’d put on a poster. A lot of them took a long time writing, and I didn’t want to cut them off so I tried just letting them write for as long as possible — “Try Again Boo-boo” was my favorite name suggestion. Then I got out the candy and asked them what causes they care about and why/how they came to learn about them. They seemed pretty eager to share – the responses included homelessness, racism, preventing suicide, black lives matter, and mental health.

Then I asked what physical ‘things’ are popular with them now, and gave examples of how fidget spinners were really popular when I was in high school, and how pop sockets are like a thing now, and they were really excited to tell me what they like and don’t like. Minecraft was very popular, they said they like Apple products, the shows On My Block, The Mandalorian, and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (phew), and someone was very passionate about My Hero Academia. I also asked them about social media, and they told me Facebook and Twitter are for old people. They said the main platforms they’re on are Instagram and Snapchat, and they seemed divided on Tik-Tok. I didn’t have enough time to show them my direction(s) but I think after trying some more things tonight and crits tomorrow I’ll create more and send out a survey or ask if I can talk with them again? If I can’t come in again, I think if I sent the teacher pictures of my directions and asked to have the class vote they’d be able to do that for me and I don’t think it’d take up too much class time?

Going through their papers afterwards, I tried to write down things that came up more than once:
Minecraft
Video games/gaming
Social media and website were suggested as my platform
Being able to send anonymous messages to alert teachers and staff of bullying

Trying to look at things holistically, gaming came up a lot in discussion and in their papers, so I’m going to see if I can do anything with that.. I’m just not sure how this will fit into what I have? Maybe I can fit a “choose your own adventure” sort of thing in to a social media application or poster series? Or tweaking messaging, or maybe including that health status bar or hearts to show lives that video games have? Or I change everything and somehow use Minecraft to send a message?? Or taking on a more blocky feel like Minecraft? I need this crit but I haven’t had much time to create before tomorrow.. we’ll see what I come in with. I’ll probably do more after tomorrow and put it on slack or ask classmates to look at my stuff again.