Rile e'm Up
Throughout this project, I received the most help from my dad. I worked on this project a lot outside of school. It was easier for my dad to help me because we weren't in a time constraint and had to leave at a certain time for another class. It was also nice to work at home because I could use all my tools and not have to worry about someone borrowing something I needed then running off with it. My dad helped me a lot of the construction of this project. Zach Shroeder was also very helpful at the end. I was pretty stressed out and it wasn't working that well but Zach did a great job helping me fine tune all the little things. The main feedback I got was from Mr. Schwartz. We didn't do a lot of constructed critique because we were short on time plus everyone was already making many revisions and drafts so the critique wasn't very necessary. The feedback I did get though mainly focused on ways on how the mechanics could work better so I definitely thought about it but often times it was just an idea that wasn't very realist and not really helpful.
For the Physics portion of this project, we studied electrical circuits and created butterfly's that could flap their wings and light up with little LED lights. We made butterfly's because in Humanities we read the book, In the Time of the Butterflies and completed a political project involving social issues and street art. I made a butterfly that met all the requirements, it could flap it's wings and light up. My butterfly was one of the largest in the class. I studied disabled veterans for my political topic and I wanted all my pieces to relate so I used the colors red white and blue and created a wing pattern but the colors and lines mixed in the middle. It represented how the benefits veterans qualify for aren't always clear and lines get blurry between who the VA can and cannot help. I not only learned an abundance about disabled veterans, I learned a lot about electrical circuits. It was a brand new topic to me. I had never learned about it before and I found electrical circuits very interesting. Before this project I had no clue what a parallel and series circuit was.
One thing that went well in this project was towards the end, my butterfly came together nicely. I worked on separate parts of it for a while but then before exhibition I put them all together, like the base, the switch, the decorations etc. It looked very esthetically pleasing around my other art pieces on the Humanities side. I think I did a good job balancing that art and creative portion of the design with the electrical and mechanical. It was decorated but not too much and worked pretty well. I managed my time well and was able to complete all the components to the best of my capabilities.
One struggle I faced during this project was consistency. I would get my butterfly to work but then I would work on something else and it would stop working. It became very frustrating. I got really upset with my butterfly at times because I had to do so many revisions and drafts and I felt like I would take one step forward and two steps back. I overcame this by staying confident in myself and staying positive. All I really could do was either give up or keep trying and I do not give up. I remained persistent until it worked even though I got pretty stressed and upset. I kept on pushing through and in the end created a project that I was extremely proud of. The only thing I would change about my work ethic would be not be too picky about certain things. At times I was too much of a perfectionist and it became unproductive and just irritated me. I can improve on knowing when I've done my best without pushing it too much and be happy with the work I produce.
If I could change this project, I would do it partners next time. It was very challenging for everyone to make a butterfly on their own and everyone ended up helping each other anyway. I think doing it in partners would've also relieved a lot of the stress about the due date because it could be done a lot faster with two people than one. Either way, I really liked this project. This is definitely one of the projects that I benefited the most from. I feel like I've grown a lot as a student and an engineer! :)
For the Physics portion of this project, we studied electrical circuits and created butterfly's that could flap their wings and light up with little LED lights. We made butterfly's because in Humanities we read the book, In the Time of the Butterflies and completed a political project involving social issues and street art. I made a butterfly that met all the requirements, it could flap it's wings and light up. My butterfly was one of the largest in the class. I studied disabled veterans for my political topic and I wanted all my pieces to relate so I used the colors red white and blue and created a wing pattern but the colors and lines mixed in the middle. It represented how the benefits veterans qualify for aren't always clear and lines get blurry between who the VA can and cannot help. I not only learned an abundance about disabled veterans, I learned a lot about electrical circuits. It was a brand new topic to me. I had never learned about it before and I found electrical circuits very interesting. Before this project I had no clue what a parallel and series circuit was.
One thing that went well in this project was towards the end, my butterfly came together nicely. I worked on separate parts of it for a while but then before exhibition I put them all together, like the base, the switch, the decorations etc. It looked very esthetically pleasing around my other art pieces on the Humanities side. I think I did a good job balancing that art and creative portion of the design with the electrical and mechanical. It was decorated but not too much and worked pretty well. I managed my time well and was able to complete all the components to the best of my capabilities.
One struggle I faced during this project was consistency. I would get my butterfly to work but then I would work on something else and it would stop working. It became very frustrating. I got really upset with my butterfly at times because I had to do so many revisions and drafts and I felt like I would take one step forward and two steps back. I overcame this by staying confident in myself and staying positive. All I really could do was either give up or keep trying and I do not give up. I remained persistent until it worked even though I got pretty stressed and upset. I kept on pushing through and in the end created a project that I was extremely proud of. The only thing I would change about my work ethic would be not be too picky about certain things. At times I was too much of a perfectionist and it became unproductive and just irritated me. I can improve on knowing when I've done my best without pushing it too much and be happy with the work I produce.
If I could change this project, I would do it partners next time. It was very challenging for everyone to make a butterfly on their own and everyone ended up helping each other anyway. I think doing it in partners would've also relieved a lot of the stress about the due date because it could be done a lot faster with two people than one. Either way, I really liked this project. This is definitely one of the projects that I benefited the most from. I feel like I've grown a lot as a student and an engineer! :)