Jake is this week's artist. He's not so interested in being featured here nowadays, but I think he'll find it in his heart to forgive me. Because really, I should be able brag about my eldest now and again.
He has matured so much this past year. He certainly deserved to be Bar Mitzvah. He has at heart always been a thoughtful child, albeit a loud one. But now he is better able to cope when things don't go quite his way. He is able to understand that sometimes he has to just let things go.
For example he is participating The National Engineers Week Future City Competition. On Tuesday was the local judging within our school district. I would have loved to attend, but... it was piano lesson day and I couldn't leave the house until just after his group presented. Jake was fine with that, he just wanted to be sure that I could pick him up at the appointed hour.
As for the competition, well that's where his artistry comes to play.
There are three components to the entry: a computer model using SimCity, a three dimensional model of a city and a thousand word research essay with an accompanying narrative. Jake ended up doing the bulk of the work .
The computer model was a snap since he has his own copy at home and has been playing with it for quite some time. It made sense for him to do it and he did a bang-up job. As for the model, he loves building things. His team mates contributed a fair amount and it was a group effort in determining what to build. Which brings us to the essays.
Originally the other kids were going to write since Jake had already done the computer model. But at the last minute, Tuesday afternoon,they decided Jake should do the writing. It was an awful Thursday night, the essay was due Friday and Jake had a ton of homework that week. It wasn't until Thursday he could carve out sometime to do it. The end result was brief and very rough, but he got it done and emailed it to the teacher.
Well it turned out that the email addy we had was a dud. After a phone call from a teammate we found out what was going on and were given the weekend to sent it out. The pressure was off, Jake had two more days to write and he used it well. The final paper was great and once again we sent it off.
Ironically it turned out we had gotten the address wrong again, but in the end it worked out. The teacher was very impressed.
So on Tuesday Jake and his team presented "The City of Innovation." Before hand they noticed another team's model. It was beautifully done and they thought for sure it was the one to beat.
It turned out they were absolutely right.
That entry came in second and theirs won!
From what I gathered the judges were very impressed with the background essay and the narrative. It was by far the most detailed and complete. What impressed me, however, was how gracious Jake was. He told me that he was glad that the second place team had done as well as they did. Only one of the three students could attend and she was stuck doing the entire presentation on her own. Jake thought her model was very good and deserved recognition. He was very happy that he won, but he wished his competition well.
My boy is so grown up.
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