Something exciting has happened, JIA Seats is now Fun Cubbies! At the beginning of this semester we were prosed with the idea of of either keeping our project of building a better carseat or starting a new project. Through much thinking and talking as a group, Fun Cubbies knew that we weren’t going to get much further with our car seat, so we started thinking of new ideas. At first we wanted to do something that would improve space in a college dorm, since we will all be in college next semester, and we came up with shower lockers. It was a great idea to us, why keep all of your bathroom essentials for everyone to see and use when you can keep them in a locker where there’s room for everyone’s stuff. Then there were the thoughts of how can we measure the bathrooms, and where in the bathroom would it fit? That’s when our teacher Mrs. Jo came to us with the idea of making cubbies! We got to actually see where the cubbies could potentially go, we looked at ares of the building for what would potentially be the best spot for the cubbies. We ended with choosing a spot right under a window.
The space wasn’t blocking the view and it’s a lot of space for a lot of cubbies. We didn’t want to build up since these are elementary school kids the cubbies would be for, they wouldn’t be very tall. So it’s a good space to build out and then up if needed/wanted. Once finding the space we started thinking of what the cubbies should look like. There were different ideas, but we agreed that plays on squares and rectangles would work best, so we made squares, rectangles, and L shaped blocks on the paper. Then we thought about rounding the corners to make them more kid friendly and also to prevent possible injury.
since this would be for kids, we wanted them to be able to personalize the cubbies, so half of the cubbies would be covered with chalk board paint and the other half would be covered with white board paint. Since these cubbies will be outside our biggest issue will be dealing with the elements, we have to find the right wood and paint that will be able to stand the elements. Fun Cubbies feels that this new project is more tangible than the car seat. We feel like it’s coming together great and we’re all on board. This new project is really fun and we get to work with younger kids! Who doesn’t love that? So everyone, get ready for some new and fun kid cubbies coming to you soon!
StarPathDesign 
Hi Ilana,
I think your new project is really cool. I think kids should have a cubbies that they like and personalize them because of the chalk paint and the white board paint. This will also let them use their creativity and imagination. I think its a good idea to keep in mind of the heigh, because sometimes the cubbies are too high for the students.
My group and I have went through the same problem. We had to change our plans for our project completely. We went from building a hard hat for construction workers to making safety manual for the Maker Space. I am excited to see our finished product.
I hope everything works out great for your group this time and can’t wait to see an update on how your group is doing.
-Savannah Ojeda