My Independent Project mostly addresses my Self Direction Skills. For my Independent Project, I will have to finish my project on time and stick to my timeline. Otherwise, I will get behind and have a lot of catching up to do. I am building a pretty big robot that collects data and moves around, so simply losing one day to procrastination could really hurt my plans. I will have to independently complete the research, programming, designing, building, and presentation of my robot all within one semester. I have to manage projects and assignments in other classes as well. Therefore, I am on a tight deadline and Self Direction Skills are crucial.

So far from this assignment, I am most proud of the portfolio website I have been putting together. I have been updating it regularly and I am pretty proud of how everything is coming together. At this stage in my project, I don’t have a ton of stuff to upload besides blueprints, my timeline, and video clips. However, I have already sort of put together how I want everything to look (where I want to put the collected data, lab reports, etc.). I have been brainstorming what else I’d like to include such as maybe an announcements page or a file cabinet.

In this assignment, I have been greatly developing my Self Direction Skills. I have been working on my project two or more times a week and, since break started, I have made quite a lot of progress. During school, I unfortunately got a little bit behind. However, within this first week of break, I am pretty much all caught up. This project has taught me to become more organized. I have been checking tasks off my checklist every week and I have started to rely on my planner and calendar a lot. I also cleaned up my workspace so that I have enough room to work on my robot and circuits. Finally, I also discovered from the personality quiz that I work better if I plan everything out first, then modify things as I go along.

The most difficult part of my project proposal was finding how my project could make me connect with others when it is a fairly independent and solitary project. However, I realized that my form of communicating and connecting with others is through the website that I am publishing and my presentation that I am sharing with my peers. I also had to complete an interview, which uses both Communication and Interpersonal Skills.

I could improve my project proposal by being a little more to the point and clear about my goals rather than constantly digressing to explain other specific parts of my project. If I could start over, I would definitely be a little more to the point. Instead of throwing all of the small details into my proposal, I would just write them down in a notebook or a separate document.

This project proposal related to a lot of things I learned in Engineering and Science. I learned about the Engineering Design Process and the Scientific Method in middle and elementary school. I also learned some basic programming skills in middle school. For Self Direction Skills, I also used certain study tricks that I learned in middle school. I kept a large desktop planner to write down what I have to do every day and I created a new user account on my computer that is free from distracting programs or apps. I also listen to classical music when I am working with circuits because, when you mess up, it could sometimes be pretty frustrating.

I can apply this project to future learning by using the new engineering, design, and programming knowledge that I obtained for future projects and classes. Hands on use of the scientific method and design process could also help me later in Engineering and Science classes. Also, new study and organization tricks to keep myself Self Directed is always very beneficial for future grades, projects, college, and beyond.