PLIX Intern Travel Blog

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Share your adventures here!

Share short or long reflections from different points of your travel experience.

• your feelings
• what you observed
• what you noticed overall about the library, program, people, community

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Sharing my recent travel to NYC STEM Information Mini Conference as a model. (It’s not great that I only have one example here, but here’s some ways to touch on the points above)

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Preparation
For the STEM Information Mini Conference (by Metro and Barnard College), I signed up and was accepted to share PLIX Data Gems, touching on data science literacies and sharing the creative learning pedagogy. In preparation, I made 7 travel kits to bring with me. After all the materials arrived, the kits took me about 3 hours to assemble. I added some stickers and letters to label the boxes!

Travel
New York is not too far from Boston, so I took an inter-city bus. I packed 3 small bags, a backpack with my clothes and toiletries, my purse, and a tote bag with the travel kits and a bunch of Data Gems zines. After getting to the hotel, I was really hungry, and there were too many food options nearby to decide on. I finally went to a place a few minutes away that had some simple Thai food (I like to eat healthy and the numerous fried chicken places nearby were so tempting, but I knew my body would not feel great afterwards). After eating, I went back to the hotel and felt really exhausted, so I took a nap that ended up being 6 hours! So my sleep schedule was off the whole time. Yikes.

Conference
It’s a small conference, under 50 people, with about 30 or so joining virtually. I discovered that most of the attendees were academic librarians, and it was fascinating to hear about the celebrations and challenges in that area. I took a bunch of notes on my iPad. (There was also fire alarm testing both days, and we all got through that!) Topics ranged from accidentally becoming a STEM librarian, accidentally becoming an expert on generative AI, ways to work with university faculty to support student assignments and research work, comics for science communication, and so much more. It’s glorious.

Data Gems
During my session, I presented about creative learning and how that informed the design of this activity, and left a variety of example projects on the screen for people to look at.

Photo credit: Brian Sawyer

I went around to check on people and see if anyone needed help with the folding scissors in the kit. (They all figured it out!) At the tables, people were really engaged, thinking about what they wanted to have on their wearable data tracker. Some people decided to track their weight-lifting, some created a tracker to remind themselves to rest their eyes every hour, after continuously looking at a screen, or just to take a walk. There was even one limiting the frequency of feeding their cat. No more falling into that trap of “no you haven’t fed me at all today” look!

Photo credit: Brian Sawyer

I also got a short tour of the Barnard College Library. They have a large zine collection! I’m obsessed and fascinated by the different permutations of zines.

[jessicazheng]

Part 1: Introduction, Remote Work, Project Ideation, Travel, Day 1 Playtesting

Hi all! My name is Jessica Zheng (she/her), and I’m a current sophomore studying biological engineering and business management at MIT. I’m sharing a longer form blog documenting my PLIX internship trip below.

Background
I worked with PLIX Ambassador Jennifer Vinzons and her colleague Keely Lida from Kapolei Public Library to develop a STEAM Escape Room targeted at ages 12 and up. We began by brainstorming ideas and ultimately landed on a Hawaiian avian-themed escape room!

The storyline centered around Auntie Iwalani, a beloved wildlife conservationist who had unexpectedly passed away. She had been gaining popularity online for sharing and raising awareness about endemic Hawaiian bird species. Before her passing, she left behind a letter with instructions for her final project, locked away in a box for safekeeping.

We centered the escape room to be inside Auntie Iwalani’s office. Participants had 45 minutes to complete to unlock the box before the formal reading of her will.

When we began working together in February, Jennifer and Keely already had some initial ideas for parts of the escape room. My responsibility was to develop the PLIX activities that would integrate into the puzzles. In particular, I was especially excited to theme the project around Hawaiʻi’s endemic birds! I got to learn a bit about them myself, and I thought it was a fun and meaningful way to highlight important environmental issues for students. This helped them connect more deeply to the subject matter while making the PLIX activities interactive and engaging for youth.

Preparation
As part of our STEAM escape room project, four of the activities were based on PLIX projects: Paper Circuits, Spatial Poetry, Data Gems, and Beautiful Symmetry. I was responsible for adapting each into a puzzle that was both educational and solvable within the time constraints.

Paper Circuits: The final box to “escape” the room was in plain sight for participants, but it couldn’t be opened until all previous puzzles were solved. Once participants completed the earlier puzzles, they earned the materials needed to complete the circuit: a battery, copper tape, and the PLIX paper circuits zine. Using these, they finished a basic paper circuit that lit up four numbers. These numbers formed the combination to unlock Auntie Iwalani’s final box, which contained her farewell letter and a prize: small stuffed native birds! This was the easiest PLIX activity to integrate.

Spatial Poetry: I initially envisioned this puzzle around tracking different endemic Hawaiian birds’ migration patterns on a map. However, I soon found many of the birds followed very similar migration routes. I pivoted to focus on their varied habitats and flight patterns instead!

Using that research, I created a map showing several flight paths across different Hawaiian environments. Each path was labeled with a shape. Then, I wrote short poems for each bird, while avoiding their names.

To guide participants, I designed “research notes” from Auntie Iwalani to put in a journal on the table. These notes included bird images, brief descriptions of habits, and a key code letter next to each bird. Participants had to:

• Read the poem on the map
• Match it to the correct bird in the research journal
• Use the code letter assigned to that bird

When they matched all four correctly, they uncovered the password: BEAK.

It was tough to figure out how to actually have participants make their own spatial poetry during the escape room—especially with the time limit. Even options like fill-in-the-blank poems didn’t quite feel right, since they wouldn’t be creating something from scratch. So instead, we decided this puzzle was a good way to introduce the concept of spatial poetry. They could still engage with it creatively, just in a more guided and time-friendly way.

Data Gems: I was really excited about the Data Gems activity! Jennifer and Keely already had a stuffed Nēnē bird (Hawaiʻi’s state bird) in their library. We put a hidden note suggesting the bird needed something to “track.” Next to it, we placed the PLIX Data Tracking zine. Solving a previous puzzle gave participants the materials they needed (different colored beads, a pipe cleaner, and a tracking charm).

In the research journal, I explained the life cycle of the Puaiohi bird, with each stage represented by a bead color and the length of time represented by the number of beads. Participants had to string the beads in the correct order to show the Puaiohi’s life stages.

At first, I played around with other ideas—like using beads to represent the bird’s diet (different foods = different colors) or even a DNA sequence (each nitrogenous base = a bead color). But I eventually landed on the life cycle because it felt the most understandable while providing educational information!

I also realized it might be confusing for participants—especially under time pressure—to understand what a “data gem” even is. So I made an example at home and created a page in the research journal describing it. That way, players had a clear reference before making their own. Once they finished their tracker, they gave it to the Nēnē, who gave them a key to move forward.

Beautiful Symmetry: For the Beautiful Symmetry puzzle, we used bird wings, patterns, and feathers to create one half of a symmetrical image. I printed the other half of the wing design and set it out on the table next to the research journal. There were four feather colors total, and I hid stacks of each color around the room—in jars, on shelves, tucked behind books, etc. Each feather also had a letter on it. When participants found the feathers and placed them in the correct symmetrical pattern, they revealed the password “FEATHER,” which unlocked a box.

Overall, it was challenging (but really fun!) to figure out how to integrate PLIX activities into an escape room environment. It’s a bit trickier than traditional workshop programming because of the added constraints—like the time limit and the need for each puzzle to reveal a specific code to move the group forward. But it made the process really rewarding when everything came together!

Travel
My direct flight for Hawaii was 11 hours, which was pretty long! Due to certain shipping restrictions to Hawaii, I also made sure to bring some of the escape room materials from Boston. I also used the flight time to double check my Data Gems example and other documents I prepared. I landed in HNL Airport on Thursday, May 27 at around 3:00 PM HST.

Day 1: Set-up
We planned to use my arrival day for setup and playtesting. I arrived slightly jet lagged but incredibly excited—it was my first time visiting the library! I got there around 3:30 PM and met Jennifer and Keely for the first time.

My first impression was that the library was huge! It’s also relatively new—they had a big sign celebrating their 20th anniversary right at the entrance. It was pretty busy, especially compared to my hometown library. The library is spread across two floors, each sectioned by genre (like fiction and nonfiction) and by age group (young adult, children’s). There were also designated areas for laptop use and printing, and I noticed a lot of programming flyers on the public bulletin boards, like children’s storytime, spring break reading challenges, and computer classes.

Although our activity was designed for ages 12 and up, the sign-ups included a wide range of participants, including younger children. Because of this, we moved the space dividers to set up near the children’s section. We arranged the space to resemble an escape room, wheeled out the materials, and practiced setting up the environment. We sewed posters onto the dividers, printed and laminated feathers, hung up research papers, etc.

Below is an aerial photo I took from the second floor.

Since it was already late (the library closes to the public at 4 PM) and our first session wouldn’t begin until 1 PM the next day, we decided to hold the playtest the following morning instead.