Hello! My name is Landon. I am a third-year engineering physics student. At the beginning of this program I was very concerned about systems and systems thinking. I had a lot of high-level ideas that were incredibly broad and ambitious in scope. I really struggled with iterating prototypes in the beginning because everything I did would take weeks of planning and preparation.
After having run two very large-scale events and having some issues with measuring impact I decided to go in the opposite direction. I would still have a focus on systems change but working from the opposite end. By testing very small-scale prototypes I would be able to test ideas more quickly. This way I could get a better feel as to what was working and what wasn’t.Initially I made posters to go up in the shared kitchens in my community about used paper towels and how they belong in the compost, as this had been an ongoing issue in the community. I hoped by designing this prototype for my community I would better be able to assess if it had succeeded or not. Notably the amount of paper towels in the wrong bins went down.
The next prototype was a pair of shoes. A friend had bought a pair of high heels for a Halloween costume. They were going to throw them out, so I volunteered to take them and wear them as they were my size anyway. I only had about 3 people ask about them, but we had some good conversations about fast fashion and why it can be so harmful.I stuck with my interest in systems thinking throughout the semester and still have my love of working with communities and community members to achieve sustainable education. I do notice that my understanding of systems and systems thinking is more nuanced after this experience. An initiative does not need to be large to have a large impact. After having explored some more small scale prototypes, I felt I was finally ready to implement what I had learned and run an event that combined the best aspects of previous prototypes.
Group Project:
Garbage Patch Kids