Sustained Investigation #1-"You Are What You Eat"

I decided to base this project off of the idea of making a fish. Specifically a Striper. As spring approaches, the weather is getting warmer and fishing season is very close. I was inspired to make a fish because of Steel Crawford. He loved to fish and spent most of his free time doing it. His passing left a huge impact on my life and the lives of students and teachers throughout the entire school. This is a little token of my remembrance of Steel. The task of this project was to use materials we had at home to create a three part sustained investigation. As I searched through. my house for things my parents wouldn't care about me using, I found straws. In a way, using straws to build this sends a message about the environment- the pollution of straws and garbage in bodies of water that are homes to marine life. The fish inevitably end up eating the garbage and as the saying goes- you are what you eat. I decided to make the skeleton of a striper, and in order to build it I used plastic straws and tape.

I started off by drawing my fish and sizing it on a piece of brown construction paper. Once I had my design laid out, I began to place the straws on the outline and bent, cut, and molded them to fit the outline. It took some time and frustration, but I eventually got it. I did not pay any particular attention to the color of the straws, I just used what I grabbed. I think that adds to the uniqueness of this piece. Once of the hardest parts of making this was cutting the straws at an angle to make the fins. They all had to be cut at an angle so they were going in the same direction.

If I could change one thing about this piece, it would be the taping. It was hard to tape the straws together because they were incredibly light and moved very easily. I had to figure out a way to tape with one hand and hold the fish with the other. Over all, I really like the way this came out and think that from a distance, it looks relatively good!