Sunday Reflections: I Did Not Succeed, but I Also Did Not Fail

Yesterday I sat in my Teen MakerSpace with four teens and we tried to build a Lego car that would move by voice activitated LittleBits. We did not accomplish this task. In fact, we could not figure out how to attach the wheels in a way that would move.

As we built the car, the teens began telling stories using their Legos. By the end of the day they had built a regular Lego car and a house and were telling an eleborate backstory for Nancy and several other characters. They acted it out using Minifigs and the tale continued to grow as each teen contributed their part.

Later they sat down and colored.

But still there was no voice activated car that moved.

It would be easy for me to think that I failed, but I did not. Sure, I didn’t succeed in building the voice activated car, but I succeeded in several other goals. These teens were being creative in their own self-directed way. They took the reigns and started doing something else that they apparently wanted to do. And while they did it they were social, engaged, and building positive feelings about the libraries. They were in a safe environment with caring adults and engaging in positive behaviors with short and long term positive outcomes.

So no, I did not successfully build a voice activated Lego car. But I also did not fail.

Filed under: Sunday Reflections