My first takeaway was directly from Madelyn, "if you still can, get to know your grandparents. Ask them questions, record your conversation and cherish it. Learn about them" That is something that really hit me home because I only have one grandparent left and I am definitely going to really get to know her before I can't anymore. My second takeaway is the effect that I can have on people. I went into this project having no idea what to expect and not even knowing this person but, the impact that we had on her through a project was astounding. The same way it impacted her, it impacted me. The last thing I took away from this project was how to manage time well. We only had so much time to make this project. We had to change our idea, recreate our prototype and many other edits. But in the end, we created a great project and I'm super proud of it.

Once we made our change from our first prototype we had difficulty making personalizations to the project. We weren't sure what to do but with the help of other coaches in the iLab and teachers, we found more efficient ways to make our project that much more special.

The feedback we received at the mid review basically fueled our advancement. The coach suggested to elongate the star of David for our kaleidoscope vessel. We did exactly that and made edits and tweaks accordingly.

At first, I was very confused with project, because we were told to complete many unrelated assignments. Once we interviewed Madeline, I understood the plan for what we had to do next in the project. After we interviewed Madeline, a takeaway I had was how much we were able to learn about her life since we had never met her. We then worked on prototypes, sketches and building the kaleidoscope. After Mid-Reviews we had feedback to personalize the kaleidoscope more, and find a memory to represent the kaleidoscope. We then personalized the kaleidoscope more by using red and blue beads, and decorating the outside of the kaleidoscope. So another takeaway I had was how easy it was to apply feedback and make changes to our kaleidoscope and presentation from that feedback. I think that it was sometimes difficult for our group to agree and/or make decisions that would change our project. Another takeaway, I had was how capable we were of making things in the ILAB. There were times where we were very productive and completed work that we didn't think we would be able to finish in that time.

I figured out how much of an impact I can make on seniors. This is something that she will remember for the rest of her life, and so will I. I know that we will meet with her again and she wants to see us as much as we could. So I know that that is a huge takeaway for me from this project.

I also am even more appreciative of the I-Lab and all of the resources that we have within it. It is such a good resource that I am sure that I will continue for the rest of my time at Fessy. This is such an important piece of Fessy for me and now I can use it for even more now.

I am now more creative than I was before. Using the early assignments to ease me into the feel of the project helped a lot. Now I am more creative and think outside of the box when working on projects like these. Overall a big takeaway for me as a whole.

I was not there for Madelyn's original interview but, I was fortunate enough to be in the follow-up interview. During her time in Israel, there was a lot of tension with Palestine. There has always been tension with Palestine and Israel. Back in the 1940s, Israel was established as a country. Palestine was not happy about this because the creation of this country took lots of Palestinian land. Ever since then, Israel has taken over more and more land from Palestine. The tensions have been high ever since. During Madelyn's time in Israel, there was a lot happening. In the year 1990, 125 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and during the exact same time, 7 Israelis were killed. In 1991, another 91 Palestinians were killed and another 8 Israelis as well. The tensions between these two countries stretch all the way until today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

Our project is is kaleidoscope, showing her overall experience in Israel. She went to Israel for one year to work in the Gulf War. She had and up and down experience. At one point she would be calm and relaxed and in the next moment she would hear sirens screeching throughout cities. She would also have to wear gas masks because of the air quality. Families would send there cat outside, and if the cat lived than it was okay for them to go out, but if it died then they would not go out.

 in 1990 he Gulf War was started when Saddam Hussein, and his Iranian's invaded Kuwait. Iraq wanted Israels large oil reserves, in attempt to pay back Kuwait for there debt. Although on August 3rd the UN Security Council made Iraq withdraw from the war, and three days later the council called off all trade between the countries. Following the breakup of Kuwait and Iraq, Iraq had potential threats of invading Saudi Arabia for its oil.

The moments that we are trying to convey with our kaleidoscope are from when Madelyn lived in Israel. She was there during the 1990 Gulf War, which was an important war. She described that living there during the Gulf War was very chaotic as she would often hear loud noises like alarms. Her family was concerned about Madelyn's safety and due to lack of technology at the time, she could barely communicate with her family who was back in America. She could make telephone calls to her sons, but that was sometimes difficult and inconvenient. 

Israel, at the time, was still sometimes wrongly thought of as a war zone, but as Madelyn described Israel, it was a very peaceful country. However, there was still conflict while she was in Israel. There were robberies, murders, bombings, and more, which must have contributed to Madelyn's family being concerned when she left America for Israel. In 1990 when Madelyn was in her 50's, jobs were much better than jobs from 30 years prior in 1960 when Madelyn was a secretary at Harvard Business School and job opportunities for women were very minimal at the time. Madelyn was able to get good jobs and work hard in a time where that was very impressive for a women to do that. Based on historical context, Madelyn was ahead of her time.

https://www.infoplease.com/year/1990

https://www.britannica.com/event/Persian-Gulf-War

Judaism was very important to Madelyn. Our goal in making our final product was to make something that represents Madeline’s Judaism, but yet it was unique to her. We were made a kaleidoscope, where when you look into it, you see the Star of David, which is a prominent symbol in the Jewish Religion. We used Rhino to laser cut many Star of Davids and then glued them together into the shape of a kaleidoscope, and then we put red and blue colored beads since they are the most important to Madelyn and remind her of her time in Israel. After, we decorated the outside of the kaleidoscope with Jewish art that conveys themes and Madelyn's personality. We also tried to show that Madelyn was very independent and confident. Madelyn also described herself as blessed, so we want to incorporate the theme of “blessed” on the outside of the kaleidoscope. The senses that we showed were touch and sight. When she was in Israel she she encountered many unusual events, hearing bomb warnings, having her home broken into, and more. A lot of crazy things happened to Madelyn in her quick time in Israel. We hope that you think like that, when you see how many little details and how many are on the small kaleidoscope. You can feel our kaleidoscope to turn it and see the blue and red beads. These two senses are supposed to work together to make the experience better. The senses are simple but what the senses create are incredible.

The noises were alarming, and they were scary and shocking to me. Slowly, looking outside of the windows of my new home, I saw people running rapidly, hiding quickly, and shouting. Poor cats were oblivious as they were being sent out of their homes to test if it was safe enough to go outside. At once, the noises ended, only to hear those same noises again in the weeks following.