It's Finally Farewell

Overall, I think this project has been the most memorable curricular experience in my three years here at Kamehameha.  This is how it usually works: study, cram, test and forget information.  The only reason high school students study is for THE GRADE! We don't care about actually learning because there's no time for enjoying and retaining knowledge for six classes.  When this project was first introduced, I was excited because project based learning is exactly the style of curriculum that I had throughout elementary and middle school.  Although this project has caused me quite a bit of stress, I feel that it has been a really great experience.  I was able to actually learn and retain information about electricity, far better than I ever could have in a classroom.  I have come to the realization that the real learning takes place outside of the classroom.  In class all of our labs and experiments are planned out to have a preplanned outcome.  With this project, there is no "preplanned outcome" or assurance that there will be an outcome.    Not knowing and being open to different outcomes and conclusions is what science is all about.

Places where things could have gone horribly wrong, actually had an unimaginable (a good unimaginable) outcome.  After the water wheel idea fell through, in a desperate act to save us from failing, Tiare contacted Revolusun via email.  I personally though that it was a long shot that they would reply to our email let alone donate supplies to us.  Well luckily, I WAS TOTALLY WRONG! Revolusun saved us from failure and went above and beyond in their efforts to mentor, help and support us!  Another thing that could have gone horribly wrong was my grouping assignment.  Luckily (again), the almighty Mr. Blake put me in a really great group.  We worked extremely well together and were very successful.  I couldn't have asked for a better team.  The last thing that went really well is the fact that the final result of our project was successful! We were able to wire an entire solar panel and battery system!

With all of these successes there were bound to be things that did not go well.  It just so happened that the week of the implementation of our project was the rainiest week of the year! Apparently you need sun to power a solar panel...and there was no sun.  Another problem that was especially devastating was the fact that our switch board had water damage.  Due to the wonderful rain our precious Peak Power Point Tracker had gotten wet and was not functioning properly. Luckily (for the third time), Alan was able to dry it out and it worked!

As I previously said, this has been one of the best learning experiences of my high school career.  I have gained knowledge about electricity that would have been impossible to learn in a classroom.  I have now have a pretty good understanding of schematic diagrams, fuses, voltages, amps, watts and batteries. What used to look like a mess of wires, now makes sense! And what's even weirder is that I actually enjoyed learning about electricity.  Once I spent my free period sitting in a room connecting wires, having a totally "zen" moment.  Besides the physics aspect of this project I have learned a great deal about my capabilities as a student.  I am able to take physics concepts and apply them in the outside world with an actual understanding of what I'm doing.  That is the most valuable concept that I took from this project, the fact that I am able to apply my knowledge outside of the classroom.  It is quite a rewarding feeling to do so.

To make this activity better I think that students should start a smaller scale bug list.  Not to say that good  projects were not formed from larger scale ideas, but it seems that much of the eight weeks was spent trying to define a problem.  It was really great to hear what problems teachers had with school because it seemed that teachers and students have the same ideas.  Unfortunately it was difficult to solve these problems with physics.  Now that there is a history of this project, students will have a better idea of what to do and where to start.

At one point in the midst of our project, I came to the realization that I was actually doing physics.  I was wiring negative and positive wires, connecting fuses and batteries and I realized that I knew what I was doing! Our entire project was physics based, which was really the best part.  I had a whole new understanding of physics because of this project.

Overall, this project has been the best and most successful learning experience of my high school career. All I have left to say is: IT'S PHYSICS BABY!

Cheepono, final blog post EVER!

This past quarter has been, by far, the most challenging quarter of my entire high school career. To be honest, at the start of the project, I didn't think that the things that we'd be accomplishing at the end of the quarter were going to be all that substantial. I went into the project not really caring and thinking that the changes that we made to Kamehameha couldn't possibly be that big of a deal, but I'm leaving the project with brand new eyes.
This project has really shown me the importance of putting your heart and soul into the work that you do. Never in my life have I committed so much of my time to any single project, and I can only hope that all of the work that my group and I did pays off.
In general, our project went extremely well. We started off a bit rocky with our initial idea of trying to build a water wheel. And may I just say, what the heck were we thinking? I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Anyway, after that first little hiccup, our project really took a turn for the best. Thanks to Tiare's genius idea to email RevoluSun and their wanting to help us in any way they could, our project was made a lot easier than it potentially could have been.
The biggest thing that I learned throughout the course of this project is to have faith and be thankful for what is given to you. At the beginning of this process, it really seemed like RevoluSun getting back in touch with us was a bit of a long shot, yet everyone in our group really relied on them, and they ended up pulling through for us. Because of this, I think everyone in our group knows now that even if we're scared of what may happen, we should take the leap and do things anyway. Another really important lesson that I learned from this project is teamwork. As cheesy and cliche as it sounds, teamwork was the most important aspect of this project. Having all four of our group members working together cohesively was key to making sure that our project was completed on time. Having a tight team was also important for our group because we were all spending so much time with each other outside of class and school. We all went into this project barely knowing each other, but something about building a solar panel system together kind of brings people closer.
This was a really great project to experience right before ending high school because it showed us all of the things that we have to be grateful for. This project let me see just how much this school does for us and all of the opportunities that I have because of this school. If I had to change something about it though, I would suggest trying to make sure that the actual premise of the project is laid out really solidly. Because this was the first year for the project, there were bound to be some issues, but there is always room for improvement.
Finally, I definitely knew that our group was doing science. We were dealing with building solar panels right after we had learned about the energy unit and building schematic diagrams, so the physics concepts of our project were really clear. Our group was lucky in finding physics easily in our project, unlike some of the other groups.

And as a final thought, I just wanted to thank the members of my group for being amazing and for working so well together. We did it guys!! :)

Final Blog Post Ever!

With this final project coming to a close, I feel that this was one of the most unique, most difference making and one of the best projects that I've done in my years at Kamehameha. This quarter long project gave us as students a break from the books and the lectures and the quizzes and tests, and gave us a chance to make our own problems and made ourselves learn and adapt and problem solve on our own. And it gave us a chance to work as a group, which we NEVER do anymore at this school. Well for my group, and me we succeeded despite all of the roadblocks and speed bumps. It wasn't only hard completing this project, but it was fun as well because we got to do things at our own pace and at our own time schedule. For my group and I, pretty much everything went well because we worked effectively as a group and stayed on task all of the time. We sacrificed our own time outside of class to work on things because that’s what you need to do in a group in order to succeed and in order for everyone to stay on the same page. I don’t really think that anything went wrong; it was just the speed bumps that we needed to overcome, which we as a group did well.
I wouldn’t change anything about this project because it started off as Mr. Blake choosing our own groups, which was a good way for us to actually meet everyone in our class and make new friends. And how we incorporated technology to its fullest in this project using googledocs and blogger as well. Doing everything at our own pace and how we had control over this project to be independent is what made this project fun and exciting for me. I learned many things from this project such as working with others, working with ADULTS, and working on the biggest thing, time management and work ethic. Time management and work ethic are the very two things that we're all going to need for the rest of our lives and this project tested us on that and it taught us how to either do our work on time, or receive a bad grade. Simple as that.
When thinking about how this project dealt with physics/science as a whole, I felt that this project seemed to most as not a science related project, but in my eyes I felt that this was. We learned the problem solving process and as well as using what we learned in class the first three quarters to figure out how to assemble things. For my group, we used physics greatly, because we had to follow a tough schematic and then wire a solar panel together. So we kind of took our classroom learning’s to the next level and applied it to our project. Like Mr. Blake said, "its physics baby!" (everything applies to physics)

After the Symposium

We had our symposium tonight and I think that it was a huge success. After all the groups went and how we went last, we felt a lot better and more calm since everyone else went before us. When we got up there, it felt a lot easier than we thought it would be. We're also glad how Alan could come and visit us and watch us! We owe him so much because he helped us out and was the whole reason behind this project. We're just glad that this project was a huge success and everything turned out better than we planned it to be. Everything starts with an idea and it just keeps growing from there. The picture above shows what we started with, just a schematic, and how we turned it into a successful project that we're finally almost done with! But with this project and year coming to a close, there are a few more things that we need to complete. The final report is due MONDAY 5/23 and the final blog post is due 5/24! So we still have some work to do over the weekend and finish the report. And we would all like to thank again Revolusun, Alan, Mr. Kamalu and Mr. Blake and as well as everyone else for helping us through this project.

Nerves..

Tomorrow’s the big day. We’re presenting our presentation to not only our peers, but also members of the administration, family members and workers from Revolusun…no pressure. Today we continued working on our presentation powerpoint and script, making sure that it’s absolutely perfect for tomorrow. This is the day that our entire project has been leading up to. The day that we can show those around us what we have been working on for all of this time and what we have put so much time and effort in to. We plan on showing everyone that we really did help Kamehameha, not only for today, but hopefully for a long period of time if our presentation convinces the school to use solar energy more and to become more sustainable. We are also looking forward to the chance to thank many people tomorrow, everyone that has helped us complete our project and to get to where we are today. We will be thanking Mr. Blake, Mr. Kamalu, Alan, Revolusun and everyone else that has played a significant role in the success of our project.

presentation tomorrow!!

(us using physics outside of the classroom....weird)

The culmination of our 8 week project is tomorrow! I never cease to be amazed at how far our project has come from the beginning of 4th quarter.  I had never dreamed that we would actually be able to produce a working project while still using physics to solve the problem! The most valuable thing that my group will take away from this entire process, is that we are entirely capable of applying classroom knowledge in the outside world.  I personally feel quite comfortable with the concept of electricity.  What used to look like a mess of wires, actually makes sense now! Although we learned about this concept in class and took tests on it to prove our proficiency, it would have been impossible to have gained the knowledge my group now has without this hands-on project.  I'm pretty sure this is every teacher's dream; for students to actually apply what they have learned outside of the classroom.  The truth is for high school students, learning isn't about expanding our knowledge but rather getting the "A".  This project was definitely a different approach to learning and has allowed me to what I have learned so much better than if I had just taken a class about it.  And for this reason, this project has been a major success.

3 Days...

As our final project comes to a close, we look back and see how far we've accomplished. We went through the whole process of finding a problem, identifying it, and then thought of ideas how to solve it, and then making our prototype and testing it and then lastly deploying it! We as a group went though many challenges and as well as speed bumps when doing this project but we're all glad it worked out in our favor. None of this would have been possible without the help of Revolusun. This is our schedule for the next couple of days:

5/18- rough draft of paper due
5/20- presentation in the auditorium 4:45
5/23- final paper due
5/24- peer review/final blog post due

As you can see we still have a lot more to do, throughout the last 2 weeks! So we have to stay on task and keep on doing what we've been doing to strive for that A grade. The home stretch is always the hardest, so we must not slack off these next couple days and finish strong!