Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) Statement saying: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

I, Brendan Trang, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

Taylor Halsey
Rock'n'Roll Robots FTC Team 25 Mentor
taylor@rocknrollrobots25.com

Carol Olewine 
Inland Empire Regional Event Coordinator

carol.olewine@gmail.com

These two people were the ones that allowed me to volunteer at their events so that i may complete my independent component. 

(d) Explanation of what you completed.    


As i said in my description for my second independent component, i would be volunteering at FIRST Robotics competitions accross the county to meet people higher up in the field as well as to network with experts in their respective fields whether it be Science, technology, engineering, or math. The event i volunteered for was the FIRST Tech Challenge regional chamionships in Monrovia High School. I assisted as usual in Team Queueing where i met several other students like myself who wanted to Queue these types of events. I also was put into contact with a person who i could interview, Donald Schmidt with SMART education. I talked to almost 50 different teams from around the region about their skills and robotics knowledge and i basically got to do a small survey on the skills and usefulness that FTC brings to the kids which helped prove my answer.
The next FTC event i volunteered for was the Grand Terrace High School Inland Empire FIRST Robotics Regional. All that technical jargon just states where the event was held and FIRST Robotics regional refers to an event help for the highest tier of FIRST events for teams in the inland empire region. I worked again as a team queuer because that is my preferred job. It put me in contact with all the teams which helps me alot with my project. It allows me to talk to all of them and gauge their opinions on the events as well as learn more about the event so that my team could compete better.
I was still working at the FRC regional in Grand Terrace but today instead of doing team queueing i did robotic judging. I was put in direct contact with several of the head judges. Head judges are revered within the FIRST community for being the top of the top experts in their field. The contact allowed me to exchance contact information as well as speak to many of the smart minds in STEM fields today. I also ran into the head of SMART education, Mrs. Liberty Naud. Her and i spoke together for several moments on the state of the event and the impact that this singular event would have on the kids.
This day on Friday, i met with my robotics team to recount my volunteering experience as well as the experience they had showcasing the team at the Grand Terrace event. We discussed many plans for the future of our robotics team as well as planning what we were to do for fundraising for the remainder of the year. We discussed our I-Fest plan to raise money and began working on making it a reality.

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.  

These photos are from March 1st and 2nd. They are photos of the event that happened at Grand Terrace High School. 

These photos are from when i volunteered with Ms. Taylor Halsey at the Monrovia High School FIRST tech challenge regional championships.

These two emails were sent to me after i volunteered at both of these events. 

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
This component helped me answer my second answer, Progression of programs. A lot of the students i asked as well as a lot of the people i spoke to said they have been in the program since they were kids doing FIRST Lego League and it kept them interested. In a specific example, i was speaking to Ms. Liberty Naud and i asked her if she would be putting her kids into FIRST lego league the moment they became old enough. She told me that she has already started getting them into robotics ideas as well as learning about basic engineering ideas and principles so that they may be more excited when they actually began to be a part of FIRST Lego League. She began telling me about how kids who do something they're good at want to do more of that and she gave the analogy much like how kids who are good at video games like to play more. This same time of "do things you're good at" attitude is what helps keep students in the STEM programs from FIRST and propels them into STEM careers.

Blog 15: independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I'm going to be volunteering with the FIRST organization at several of their competition events. I will do 10 hours of work a day and i will experience what its like to be behind the scenes of the competitions. In detail, i will be volunteering as a "team queurer" which basically means i will be assigned some teams and i will be their assistant for the day reminding them of time and place. I will be helping set up a robotics competition and making sure that everything runs smoothly during each competition. I will do 3 different competitions between now and March. It should be a total of 30 hours of work comprised of 3, 10 hour sessions of straight work. I'm going to be exploring the 3 levels of STEM interaction between the competition hosts and the competitors. I'll be in direct contact with many STEM involved students and will have the ability to ask questions of them and speak to them while simultaneously being in contact with STEM operators that volunteer for free because they do believe in the ideal that is STEM and i will be able to question them and create a lot of evidence and research from that. Hopefully i'll make more connections so that i may expand my research as well.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will have 3 sheets of service learning forms filled out with 10 hours each. I will also provide photos as well as physical evidence such as Tshirts or medals. I can also get a signed form stating that i did indeed complete the hours. 

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

My independent component will put me in contact with STEM students and STEM supporters. It will allow me to gather the viewpoints of those students and the supporters of these types of programs which in turn will lead me to have connections to the program. I will also be able to talk and ask questions relating to my Essential question when i work with the supporters and i can also gain a viewpoint of the students involved in these types of programs.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

I, Brendan Trang, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

• (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:

Photo Album

These are links to each individual photo set:

First day getting Kit

Beginning of build season

Work and Volunteering

Volunteering

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.

Team Website

Leadership is... Video Contest

2013 in 90 Seconds

Baby Steps Team 7258

The Facebook Group:

Inland Empire Robotics

Team Website

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

Independent Component 1 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For my 30 hours of independent component, i will attend meetings and group sessions of the robotics club and I will also be working on my own on the robot. I will meet with mentors at least once a week to discuss problems, ideas, and other topics related to the robot and the robotics club. This will provide me with the learning experience as well as the in depth analysis of my senior project. The meetings usually will consist of the entire mechanical group meeting with the mentor of the mechanical department as we discuss changes and ideas for the robot with the mentor guiding us and giving feedback on our ideas as well as teaching us what will, and what won't work. The group sessions will usually be the mechanical department, and I tinkering with the robot and formulating new ideas as well as creating the actual robot. 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will bring photos, as well as physical documentation of the work we did each evening as well as keeping my own personal log of notes for the day. The photos will be of the mechanical department and i meeting and brainstorming as well as working. The log will be of changes we made and troubleshooting we did while working on the robot and my own notes will be on anything and everything i deem important enough for me to write down.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

My topic is robotics and the way i'll be able to explore my topic more in depth is by working hands on with robots. I will be working with experts from cal poly in the fields of mechanical engineering as well as software design so i will be in contact with a lot of people who know what they're doing. This will enable me to learn from them as well as work on my senior project when i work on the robot.