World's Fair Project: Throughout this project I focused on Spain and I was able to learn about many aspects of the country. I began to research about the history of Spain and how it all got started. We started by focusing on the Political, Economic, and Social/Cultural background on Spain :
Political: The political system in Spain is designed around a constitutional monarchy, Parliament system and was a unitary state. Spain then transitioned into a democracy during 1975.
Economic: Spanish economy began to industrialize in the 18th century, and economic growth continued. But during the early 20th centuries, Spain was seen as underdeveloped and poor compared to neighboring countries. Spanish economic miracles occured during a high prosperity in the west. During the 1990s, Spain's economy stabilized and unemployment made a large decrease and inflation settled.
Social/Cultural: Spain became part of the Roman Empire in the 2nd Century BC. The Moors arrived in 711 AD from North Africa and managed to take control of Spain within a few years. Christopher Columbus was also funded by Spain to set out and discover America. Spain joined the EU, the European Community and NATO; it’s secure world position was regained and today Spain is a developed democratic state with an economy ranking 8th in the world. Through deeper research I learned about several inventions that were created in Spain. The Columbus Monument, The Cable Car, Electric Submarine, Rotorcraft, Foosball and Churros were just a few. Other than the inventions and the history of Spain we researched the reasons people move to Spain. We looked deeply at the statistics of Spain for example the crime rate, jobs, living expenses, and education etc.
My partner and I recreated the Peral Submarine, this invention was created by Isaac Peral a Spanish engineer who created the Electric-Powered Submarines (Combustion powered submarine). We chose this item because it was the first Electric Submarine, which means it was the start of something. People used our Submarine to build ideas off and improve from it to create their own. It was also used for exploration and military uses. It was a remarkable invention overall and it should be recognized. Yes, i'm glad we recreated this item for exhibition because the history behind the item is extradinorary and an audience should acknowledged about it. The submarine pops out in my opinion and from what Spain created the Electric Submarine is probably the most memorable.
For our prototype we began to think about materials that would be cost efficient, but at the same time be appealing to the audience. We started off by putting two liters of soda bottles together and putting it back to back, to form a similar shape as the submarine. After, we created the propellers and other little detailed parts of the submarine out of cardboard. We built a stand for the submarine so it could be self standing. Overall this process was helpful because we were able to see what worked out and took the successful ideas and transitioned it to our final product. It was also helpful to see other groups ideas and how far they planned to take their prototype.
What other countries I would be interested in learning more about what definitely be France. I feel like there would be a lot to research and learn about. France also has a deep history and to see where and how all their architecture came to be would be interesting. I would also be interested in learning about a Middle Eastern country and learning about how their culture was created. Again also their history and views on different things would be fascinating.
I feel proud of our booth/final product and my overall participation throughout the whole project and exhibition. Considering we had two people in our group we were both focused and didn’t have much time to waste. But in the end we were able to pull through and finish every deadline in time. Our booth set up was organized and displayed all of our work throughout the project. We displayed our prototype, final product, essays and flyers. Our product was complete and publish worthy, if we were given a little more time we would of profected it. I feel like my overall participation during exhibition was great, I explained my country the best I could and was interactive with the audience. I opened up with my pitch then explained the main reasons why people should move to Spain.
I believe that exhibition went smooth and the way it was set up was organized. It was different considering a majority of the parents couldn’t make it so we were really showing our work off to only our school community. But for our group we were able to explain our reasoning and were able to convince plenty of people to move or live in our country. In my opinion exhibition was a success, visitors were rewarded with food as well learning about different countries and their positive effect on the World’s Fair.