I think the Creative Toy Task taught me a lot about myself and through this task, I developed the following capabilities: social/personal capabilities, numeracy, and creative and critical thinking.

Capabilities

The Creative Toy Task provided an opportunity to develop my social capabilities as I had to work in a group of four. We had to work together to develop our own schedule to deliver a product by May 27th. To do this we had to work efficiently, rely on each other, make responsible decisions, and honestly reflect on our actions which showed leadership. Before assigning tasks for various members of the team, we had to reflect on everyone’s strengths and passions and provide them with a job that aligns with their strengths (for example, I was interested in making advertising, so I made the posters for the group). It was tough to establish positive relationships with my group members as I didn’t know any of them well but over the Creative Toy Task, I successfully established positive relationships with my teammates which developed my social and emotional skills. Some things I did to try to establish these relationships were; to contribute more in conversations, keep everyone engaged with the topic at hand, and try to keep everyone comfortable with the topics we were discussing.

I also developed my numeracy skills for the Creative Toy Task as we had to figure out what the measurements for the final product were, create vectors in order to laser-cut our products. We used calculations to determine things such as surface area, area, and volume for the various prototypes. This task made me realise how helpful maths can be outside of the maths classroom as this is the first non-maths task that needed us to communicate mathematically without being told. I believe that the true value of maths is found in using the skills and understandings in real-world contexts.

Throughout the Creative Toy Task, I had to think creatively and critically. I needed to think creatively because the whole point of the task was to come up with an original product that would fit the 4-6-year-old demographic, critical thinking was required to seriously and honestly reflect on actions made by our group. An example of where we had to think critically is at the start of Term 2, we were asked to have a serious conversation with our group members and reflect on our actions in Term 1. Our group was the only group that took this opportunity to show self-awareness, talk to each other, and give honest feedback. As for creative thinking, I was involved in coming up with the final product but all other iterations of this product were thanks to my team.