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!