"Update on Koi Pond: Onward!," Reflections from Edge Students

It's spring, and the Edge community is gearing up to continue our koi pond project. (If you are only joining us now, click here to get up to speed.)  Interested to hear our plan? Read on for the voices of all ten of our Edge students!

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Ben:  
"Hello everyone! While Ian and James were in Florida, they made a partnership with Blackwater Creek Koi Farms, Inc. and managed to get many fish donated.  Not only that:  the staff gave us great advice on raising the fish from young to old and creating an environment to breed them.   

"My project is terrain park and mountain bike trail building/designing.  I'm in charge of shaping out the pond and making sure it's deep enough. We plan on breaking ground soon!"

James and Ian:  
"While we were at the Blackwater Creek Koi Farms, the owner showed us the different types of filtration systems he had made.  He went into detail about how all of these systems work and how the fish can stay healthy.  He also showed us his koi farming facilities where they took the koi and sorted them by size, shape, breed, and color.

"As of right now, it's warm enough to do the digging.  We plan on doing that in the next two weeks using Kildonan's maintenance crew. (There is one last conflict, and that is the fact that there is a pre-existing drain pipe that will need to be moved over. We need to coordinate with the maintenance workers on that.)  Finally, we will be creating a parts list of everything we need AND we will install the pump when it's ready."

Ambrose:  
"My project is comics and graphic art.  I will be part of any of the art that might be incorporated into the Koi Pond.  The Edge group will try to find a bench for me to paint so we can add a bit more color to the project."

Farrell:  
"My contribution to the project is an animated short in the style of the opening to the TV show, 'King Of The Hill.'" 
 
Maddie:  
"My project is animal control and veterinary science.  I will be contributing to the koi pond project by doing labor work.  I have also done a lot of research into maintaining and caring for fish, so I will help lead the group to make sure we keep the fish healthy."
 
Annabel:  
"I contributed to the Koi pond project by creating the poster for the project at the Fall Ball.  I will also make an end of year presentation or maybe a magazine on this with pictures and some blurbs.  I also plan to make another poster/scrapbook."
 
Nelson:  
"I will help by removing the stumps and roots around the pond site.  Give me a shovel, a weekend, and maybe an axe.  I am also building a submersible drone that will help me film/record the pond and fish.  Finally, I will find stones and use a book on flora to select plants for the pond."

Chris:  
"We are going to dedicate a bench near the pond to a veteran of Vietnam (since the Vietnam War is my project).  I need to find a Kildonan vet OR dedicate the bench to all of those who served."

Santiago:  "This is Santiago.  Since I am studying business, James and I will ask about taking money from the amount we raised at the Fall Ball.  I will also help by ordering the parts (and figuring out the best way to do that)."

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Stay tuned for updates as we continue the work! As always, thank you for the support.  Feel free to leave a question! We will respond.

Farrell: Animated

Hello, my name is Farrell:  potential cartoonist, animator, and failed comedian.  During my time at Kildonan, I always heard about this program called “EDGE."  I now spend my time in this program.  EDGE is essentially a pre-college course where you are placed in a room with other people and have to manage your time and work on a project that you are passionate about.  Ever since I joined this program, I feel as if my art has improved, and it really does help that I have time to work on what I want to do as a career.

I feel as if the work that I made in the past (outside of Edge) is something that I can now be proud of. Before this program, I never had time to try to understand how to use animation software.  But, thanks to EDGE I now know how to use this animation program called “Adobe Animate" (and thanks to this video I believe I now have an understanding of the basics).  I have made animated shorts to test out the software.  There was a short where a potato man fell down, hit the ground, and became a bird person.  I would like to continue that short and show what happens to the man.

The way I work on my animations is actually way easier than how I worked on them during my summer program.  I use my tablet to draw on my computer, and the animation process takes a lot of time and effort.  First, you have to plan out what you want to animate, then you make a storyboard that's just stills of the main points of the animation.  After that, you draw each frame in motion.  It's almost like stop motion in a way.  So then, you play the clips over and over to make sure they look good.