- (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component
- (d) Explanation of what you completed.
I completed my independent component with a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math program. The STEM program in question was FIRST Tech Challenge. I mentored with the Inland Empire Bronco robotics team. I was there when the team started and i attended meetings every Friday and Sunday and when it was necessary we met on other days or until late in the evening. As a team participating in the FIRST Tech Challenge, we raised money, organized a team, created a engineering notebook, built a robot that is specifically designed to perform certain tasks, and of course, we competed against other teams in many regional competitions. The task our robot was faced with was to score as many points as possible by interacting with 4 specific scoring elements; blocks, a pull-up bar, flags, and a ramp. I was part of the mechanical assembly team so i actually assembled the parts of the robot and brainstormed creative ideas with Bryan Posada, Carlos Cerillos, and several freshmen that are on the team. Our build and competition season has technically ended already. We didn't win anything but we did accomplish a lot and created a very nice robot. I have also prepared the team for the next season when all the current senior members will be gone. I have been involved with the FIRST organization still; i volunteer for their competitions and i volunteered for one in November, and i will be volunteering for one in March.
- INTERPRETIVE
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work. Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.
My topic focuses on involvement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math programs. The team i joined and helped was Team 7258, and the program they are part of is run by an organization called FIRST who is dedicated to running STEM programs. So i joined a STEM Program so that i could delve more into my topic and hopefully find answers to my topic and solidify my understanding of what i was saying. "Practice what you preach." I definitely dedicated more than 30 hours of my life to this team. I dedicated at least 6 hours a week sometimes more to the completion and preparation of my teams' robot for competition. Much like people dedicate time to sports after school and during matches, i dedicated my time to working and robotics. I spent my time tinkering with the robot and thinking of new ideas as well as volunteering. I was also one of the three seniors leading the team and along the way, i researched the FIRST organization and the previous programs it had and it helped me gauge a better understanding of the competition and what it wanted as well as helping me with my topic. Several significant parts of my component include; the FIRST Tech Challenge Competition, the Build Season, and the FIRST Organization. I was involved in all three of these and it really helped me understand the whole STEM fiasco and the ways we can fix it.
Evidence:
I took photos throughout the time as well as having my photo taken the entire time the team worked together. We also created several videos throughout the time to enter them into video contests hosted by the FIRST organization.
This is a link to the gallery of my photographic evidence:
These are links to each individual photo set:
There are many more photos but i chose the best of the best and if there is any more need for evidence i have several videos below that were created by the team and I and if my presence in those videos is not enough evidence, i also have the link to the facebook group which the team created, also a link to our unfinished team website.
2013 in 90 Seconds
The Facebook Group:
Inland Empire Robotics
and if you need any more proof that i did do 30 whole hours, i do have a notebook which i can bring in and show to you but its almost 200 pages long so i'm not going to scan it. Its the team notebook and it records everything w do together and with the robot.
- APPLIED
How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.
My topic is STEM Program Involvement. The way it helped me understand STEM program involvement was by allowing me to be involved in STEM programs. It allowed me to understand the practical applications of STEM.
Specific examples,
Foundation of my topic is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, i worked with a robot and i had to learn engineering principles and learned about the technology as well as the math of buying these parts.
More specifically, our team was trying to decide how to best make use of all of our motors. We wanted to create a moving arm that pedestal'd up and then rotated at a hinge. We tried all combinations using one motor controller but we realized that 1 motor controller could not control 4 motors in a way that we wanted to so what we did was we had to buy another motor controller which was going to cost us around 90$ so we had to figure out a way to financially support that cost. We found a sponsor willing to sell give us some money as long as we put their logo on our shirt and robot.
The most important part of that experience was learning first hand about STEM and how important it was if we were to succeed in a technological world. I learned the basis of technology and engineering in this experience. It really helped me understand what people mean when they cry out "we need more students involved in STEM!"
Grading Criteria
- Log on a digital spreadsheet
- Evidence of 30 hours of work
- LIA submitted to blog
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