Student 24

Object 1- Daniel Quasar’s 2018 Progress Pride Flag from PrideFest

Modified from the original gay pride flag, the progress pride flag was created specifically for people of color and transgender people within the LGBTQ+ community, whose lives were more marginalized. In specific, the added brown and black stripes incorporate awareness of the HIV/AIDS members. While some argue, flags alone cannot represent the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community, each renewed version of the patriotic flags mainstream the pride culture to even garner the support of straight civilians.

The progress pride flag is interesting because it was through this flag that I (straight) had my first experience with discovering the LGBTQ+ community. I joined the rally against the struggles of members who were closeted or forced to convert through churches through a visually uniting symbol, the flag. My religion and culture sheltered me from the stigma and oppression faced by the LGBTQ+ community. This flag empowered me to adopt social sconsiounsess towards my freedom of self-expression and my role in problem-solving.

The flag ties into the prompt as it demonstrates the progression of the unity of the LGBTQ+ community. It solves the continued issue of discrimination and rejection of the common society who lack a perspective on the hardships of suppressing one’s expression by being a symbol of awareness. The evolution of first wearing rainbows in secret to openly displaying support demonstrates how current knowledge of the flag harnesses the public as a support system rather than one to fear. The problem solving symbol of flagship empowers those who were seen as ‘freaks’ to fight against their history of harassment. Therefore, the history of the flag represents the timeline of LGBTQ trends through each band of color, and these trends can help to predict the next step of self-expression!

Object 2- Parent’s old Magellan Garmin GPS (Global Positioning Device) from the 2000s

The Garmin GPS was revolutionary during the 2000s because it modernized old paper maps for efficient and custom navigation routes of people’s journey globally! However, the GPS was controversial regarding its role in fostering greater economic disparity for those who could afford it and those who could not. Avid trekkers saw this modernization as a shift away from the true joy of following paper maps, while drivers saw paper maps as a hassle to navigate! Universally, however, the GPS solves the repeated issues of the past, problem solving to provide more optimized routes during travels.

This GPS is interesting to the discussion because it was the first piece of technology I encountered growing up. My family could rely upon this GPS while navigating through a flat, new Texas compared to the hill-filled New Jersey we were used to. I was especially intrigued by how my parents would reminisce about using many map pamphlets, and I found it unbelievable that the GPS could do the work of 50 pamphlets, like the tour guide of the world!

The GPS ties into the prompt as it utilizes technology as a tool for producing more efficient knowledge, adapting to long-term issues of urbanization and industrialization. For example, my family simply updated the GPS for local Texas routes as Texas pamphlets were not available in New Jersey. Despite having the same pattern of traditional knowledge, such as lines of roads and labels of road names, the GPS furthered how efficiently extensive knowledge of routes were stored and how sustainably they were made available due to modern knowledge of electricity, replacing paper pamphlets that were discarded in a shorter time than for which they were kept. The GPS’ adapting feature problem solved long-term challenges by recalculating routes if I got lost and updated for all users to include new routes for changing landscapes such as malls or houses. To overcome such rapid industrial advances, the modern GPS adapted to futuristic developments with updates.

Object 3- Destination Imagination (DI) Structure from 5th grade

The mechanical challenge of the DI competition prompted me to create a structure with the least weight that could hold the most weight using limited materials. Similar to manufacturers, I found prototyping valuable, yet, like a scientist, I found the experimentation to yield the better solution.

This structure is interesting to the exploration because of the collaborative process and research it took to arrive at the final structure! 6 team meetings and 5 prototypes later structures, the final structure used circle sticks and paper rather than solely rectangular wooden sticks. Since there is no perfect formula for the structure, the solution may vary from architecture design experts to physics engineering experts. Each approach undergoes prototyping to improve weaknesses during development! The evolution of the structure’s focus from material research to design architecture paralleled my growing knowledge of wood weight to geometries and analytical knowledge.

To link the structure to the prompt, the basis of each prototype depended on the findings from experimentation, better reproducing knowledge of the recorded past as through trial and error, the square base eventually became a circle. Various successes of past prototyping materials and bases were used as evidence of success for the next prototype. This way, the specialization upto the final structure provided me with the best parts of each prototype, advancing my prior scientific knowledge.