Stacy Klingbeil

It happens to all of us: sometimes when you're on your way to the hills of creative bliss you get lost among the banana leaves beaming in the moonlight and you're at a loss for words you haven't already read. Here is my story of attacking creative block in the field. 

Using Charades as the first design team meeting ice breaker gave great insight on the true resourcefulness of my teammates, how hesitant they are contributing in a group setting and ultimately reiterated how easily relationships and positive team dynamics form in the community.  

Entering the prototyping stage with my design team immediately posed some challenges but as soon as we stopped talking and started gathering materials the benefits of prototyping shined through.

Encouraging my teammates to think like an experimenter and test early and often has been a challenge. The idea alone of testing ideas on how to increase milk production in cows in the community posed much discussion. They were concerned about the availability of the materials and were convinced we didn't need to test our ideas since my group knew they worked. Here were a few of my strategies to get past this roadblock. 

No excuses for my design team as homework is proving to be one of the most productive, helpful, insightful and interesting aspects of our group progress.