Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your 2-Hour Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

 I am most proud of the effort, commitment, and activities because I did put a lot of thought into my activities and showing connection between my answers, activities, and my essential question. I felt like I did a good job and showing the connection and helping the class understand my topic, essential question, and answers very well.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

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b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

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(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

What worked for me was learning the content and putting together the project because I knew my topic so well, and had a lot of experience with it, so I felt really confident. The dedication, commitment, and work I put into it worked for me as well because although it was a lot of work, I liked my topic a lot over all, and was able to enjoy it more then anything.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

What did not work for me was the lack of time, I wish I had more time to explain my topic. And I also wished I could have explained my answers better and used more visuals. I dont feel as if I did bad, but I do feel that more use of visual for my answers one and two, and a better explanation for my answers would have made it easier to understand sooner. So I would change my power point a bit to hit more specific aspects of my answers and use more visuals to better understand the content sooner.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?  Be specific and use examples. 

My senior project has been helpful to me in my future endeavors by helping me realize the potential I have, and how much knowledge I have gained. My projected help me discover my product, which was having more patients and having better problem solving skills. I feel that this project helped me in unbelievable ways, and taught me how to be a better facilitator and take charge in what I do. Also, I learned what commitment and dedication really mean, and in the future I feel that everything I have learned throughout this none month long project, will always be remember and used in my future struggles. I feel as if I can accomplish a lot, and feel confident in myself at preforming difficult task which is a big help to achieve my future goals of going to college and being successful in my career. My independent Component Two proved to me what my product is, and put me to the test because of all the difficult problems I had to face. I learned about how I solve my own problems and realized better ways to solve those problems because of this project. I feel that this is the best example of how my senior project was helpful, and how it will be helpful to my future endeavors. 

Mentors Response To Project

I talked to my mentor about how my project went, and he was satisfied but felt I could have explained certain things better in my answers. I did leave out some parts and could have talked about it to better explain my answer. I feel as if I should have spent more time talking about my answers and so did my mentor. But the information was there overall because I choose good activities that where able to show my answers he thinks. My mentors are very proud of me because I was able to enlighten people about woodworking and helped them see what craftsman/ woodworking really is and how difficult it can be. Over all they both think I did well and was able to pick up on woodworking very easily and quickly. They recommended that if I ever do want to pursue woodworking that I do start young, and try to get as many customers, contacts, and connections as I can now that I am young so that I can do better in the future. They also told me that I should do the best work I can and to MAKE SURE I take on how ever many projects I can at once. They told me it was better to be honest and put off a project to the side then give the customer my word and not complete it. Sure I may loose a customer but at least I am able to be honest in the work that I do and focus on someone else's furniture and do it right. My mentors thought I should have used more examples and showed off the wood that I brought more, and also bring other visuals for my other two answers so that the class could understand.

After Goals

I plan on continuing to pursue woodworking as a hobby not a career. I do plan on making furniture for people, or giving advice, or even making props. Maybe I can do it as a side job, but I feel as if I have found a new talent, or skill? And I will try to better myself by trying to learn more about woodworking and have more experience because I think it can come in handy later on in life. I still plan to give my house teacher a bookshelf and the ramp I owe her. I also would like to take on the challenge of making other things at home for myself. If I am able to make something why not make it as suppose to buying it? My senior topic really taught me a lot about myself, and so did my presentation because I was able to teach other people about something that I do like and enjoy. It felt good seeing that they enjoyed what I have taught them and that I was able to enlighten them about my project and what I do. I didnt expect so much enthusiasm from my peers, but in the end, my presentation made me want to continue to have an interest in my project. So I do plan to have an interest in woodworking, and remember this project because of what it taught me and how much dedication I had to this project.

Debrief

I think the hardest part about my project is helping people understand the art aspect of my topic. It is hard to view woodworking as an art form to some people because they are not familiar with it because the art is very unique. I think I was able to explain my topic pretty well, some parts could have been better then others. After my presentation, I thought about some things I could have done better, and those things where elaborate more on my mentorship, and differentiate my answers so that it is more clear. I dont feel as if I did bad, but then again I feel like some of the class did not really understand what I was talking about at some parts. As for the activities I think they really related to my answers, and my essential question. The students found relationship I think, and the activity helped define and clear up my answers. The class really enjoyed the activities and liked doing hands on type of things. I was surprised to see the class very involved, and was glad to see that they content was taught to them through the activities. I do feel that people know understand woodworking better, and may perhaps respect what woodworkers do. There is a lot more to it then just making something out of wood, and using it as furniture. For my first activity the class was very excited to see how the material reacted to temperature, they really enjoyed it. For my second activity they where also involved in trying to put together the joinery. It was a short but good activity to help define my second answer Joinery. And the last activity they had a lot of fun with as well, applying finishing is always fun. It was an easy clean up and I had help from some students. The only thing that threw me off was the interruption and the lock down at school because it really made me loose my train of thought.

Product

For my product I have learned problem solving skills. I believe that the skills I learned will help me to become more involved in my community and help me face bigger challenges. It also helps me so I can become a better facilitator in a team environment. I learned patients and problem solving skills and I feel that they are helping me and are becoming a habit after doing my presentation. I never realized how important my product could be or how much my topic could teach me about myself, and my capabilities. I plan to use my newfound skills as much as I can throughout my college experience and feel very prepared, and very confident about attending to college knowing I know how to solve very difficult problems. My mentors, sources, and independent component all helped me with my product and I feel very excited about knowing how prepared I am to face difficult problems in the future. I am also confident in my patients, and my learning abilities because of my product and what I discovered about myself, and the work that I do. I originally thought my product had to be something physical, but it turned out that it was not. My product is meant to help me in the future so that I can succeed and do the best that I can, and use my full potential. After learning and going through a nine month process of doing a project, I feel as if I can do a lot more and give good presentations.

Preparation

In order to prepare for my 2 hour, I made the room have a certain feel to it, well at least I tried by bringing in different types of wood like in a real wood shop. It is important to portray a certain feeling so that the students can get a feel of what the environment will feel like, I also left scented wood on the table so that it can smell a certain way. There is a lot of room because in woodworking you need a lot of room to be able to work. Also, I put them in groups of four because there is a lot of work involved for the activities and not all may want to really participates in some activities. It is a lot of hands on work and each activity requires them to understand each of my answers. The clean up process will be very simple because they will throw everything away at the end or keep it if they want to. It wont be really messy and the desks can be put back to how they where very easily.

Best Answer

My best answer was materials because it allows the woodworker to really work with his furniture to be able to get the people to feel a certain way. Also because compared ot my other two answers, materials has the biggest role. There are so many different types of wood, and although my other two answers are very important, this answer is the best because in order to create something aesthetic, you need to have a good building material to do it. Weather it is a soft wood or hard wood what ever is best to create your furniture to be able to portray a certain feeling, environment, or create a certain atmosphere. Also, wood is not the only material you can use, theres also other things such as glass, rocks, plants, grass, you can add on to the furniture with that but the main thing is making it out of wood. A woodworker should know his materials in order to be able to both give the best possible furniture piece to the customer with the color, texture, and purpose to them. It will also determine how furniture piece is built and how it is supported and how long it last.

Best Answer LIA

L: Some facts about my best answer materials would have to be that there are different kinda of woods that you can use. Each has a specific color, and each also has certain characteristics. They have many colors, textures, grains and react different to temperature. Some are more harder or dense compared to others which makes them a better wood to make certain things with.
I: My most important source for this answer would have to be a book by George Nakashima and my mentor Paul Yanes because they helped me understand this answer and this aspect of woodworking.
A: This supports my foundation because a woodworker must understand what is most important to consider to create an aesthetic piece of furniture in both the art aspect of woodworking and also the career aspect of woodworking. It is important to consider materials because it plays the biggest role, and helps create an atmosphere and environment in the room such as happiness, comfit, and other feels. It is all done by the type of wood you use and the colors.

It would be best to use this in my presentation or was best, because I wanted to show relationship between what I learned in my core classes, and my senior project and tried applying it to my presentation. I think I did the job, and got my point across but it could have been more detailed in some parts. Over all I feel confident in my best answer because of how it is explained and feel that my whole project does flow together. 

Mentorship

I was able to complete about 205 hours of mentorship. I wanted to dedicate a post to my mentors because they helped me out a lot. They gave me really good sources and aided me through my 9 month senior project. My two mentors where Paul Yanes and David Wade. They stuck with me the whole way and helped me every way of the step, they helped me enough to be able to do it on my own almost. I had gone through many mentors, and went to interviews to see if I can get mentorship but I was unsuccessful at serval places such as; Hile Studios, Mentorship with John and Jim Ipikagen, mentorship with William Ng, Jeff Grainger Studio, S&T Woodworks, Eaton Designs, and a few other places. My mentor Paul Yanes was part of a community of woodworkers in the LA area and he sent out a request to see if any woodworkers would be able to offer mentorship. Very few replied, and the ones who did where very far, except for David Wade. David Wade was very familiar with helping students. He has given many classes and is a very experienced woodworker. He took me in and allowed me to use his whole shop to make what ever furniture I needed. He aided me in tough questions and decisions I had to make. He taught me the Career aspect of woodworking, and helped me understand my EQ and different ways to see woodworking, a hobby point of view, and a career point of view. It was very helpful and he really did his best to help me prepare for my presentation. 

My mentor Paul Yanes also helped me a lot and helped me realize that woodworking is not just carpentry, or architecture, but it is also art. He helped me find my best answer and was my most convenient mentor because he lived with me hah. I did not treat me as a son, he taught me and treated me like an apprentice, there where times where it was hard and frustrating both mentally and physically. The late nights we spent perfecting techniques, and the amount of knowledge he helped me discover myself. He never once did anything for me, or even gave me a straight forward answer. He helped me discover my product, and led me to other important sources. Such as a book by George Nakashima that helped me understand the life style of a woodworker and my third and best answer.

Activities Explanation For 2- Hour

I have been working on my activities and my senior project is coming to an end. I realize how much i have learned with my activities and really feel that they express my topic, and my answers. They really relate to my EQ because for one, each activity does have to do with my answers and woodworking in a unique way. My answers are Finishing, Joinery, and Materials. In my activities the class will understand what each answers means in woodworking, and how it related to my topic, and most important EQ. My first activity will be my third and best answer, materials. I will make groups of four, and give each group two pieces of wood. This wood is really messed up and dented. The activity will be to understand your material, and see how it reacts and to understand that your material is indeed the most important thing for a woodworker to consider to make an aesthetic piece of furniture because it contains the color, the design, it plays the biggest role in woodworking. The class will have a cup of water, two rag, two dented piece of wood, and an iron. The purpose of this activity is to understand your material and how it reacts under temperature change, and to understand the biology of wood itself. The objective will be to remove the dents from the wood using water and an iron to steam the water. After the class has done so I will have them share out why the dents rose and disappeared and explain the process to understand how important the material in woodworking is and how many variables come with the material. 

 The second activity will be about my second answer, Joinery. The class will be given the same two pieces of wood from the last activity, and that is all. The objective will be to understand joinery and how it works, what it is used for, its importance, and the relationship to my EQ. Joinery is what binds and holds the wood together, and it gives it the strength to stay up. Joinery has a unique design around the edges where the two pieces are joined. Joinery also allows the piece to function and be of use, it also helps it last and gives it strength. The class will gain understanding of this, and realize that joinery is something to consider in woodworking to make an aesthetic piece of furniture because it provides a different set of "aesthetics", which is function. Function is sometimes more appealing, and more aesthetically pleasing then the physical appearance and look. SO the class will have two different pieces of wood given to them in activity one. They will then select one member to find the piece of wood that matches their piece of wood and try to join the wood together. Once they have joined it together, they will discuss with their groups what they think this joinery will be for, its strength and its weakness, and discuss the pattern they see alone the edges. I will then call one a few students and ask them what they think about the joinery, what it can be used for and what it cant be used for in regards to woodworking. For example, if one has a half blind dove tail, I will ask them if they think the joinery is strong, if they like the design, and where it can be used in woodworking (for example, to make a chair, or box).

My last and final activity will be the longest. It will be based on my first answer Finishing. The class will have the same two wood pieces from activity two, and will be given gloves, shellac finishing, wax finishing, two cheese cloths for the finishing, and two types of sand paper with different grain. The objective of this activity is to understand my first answer, by showing how finishing is applied and its purpose. First, the team will sand each piece of wood until it is smooth, round the edges off, and prepare the wood to go through the final process a wood worker puts their piece through, finishing. After they have sanded the two pieces, I will show them how to apply finishing to the two pieces of wood using both wax, and shellac. This will give the wood a different look, and will show how it makes the wood look aesthetically pleasing and draw attention. 

April Updata

So I have recently been working on trying to get all my supplies together and cutting the wood so to the right dimensions so that I can build my furniture. I have taken on quite a few projects to contribute to my iPoly community. I am building a wall- mountable book shelf, a sign/ stand for prom, a small jewelry box for iFest, and a ramp that requires me to bend the wood for my physics teacher for being late all the time. I have a lot of work hopefully I can finish it on time, and hopefully it all goes smooth, I collected all the wood that I need for this project. I am ready to start building, I had to restart because the dimensions where off and the piece was not very stable. As for mentorship, I usually have my father be my mentor because he is the most convenient and the one who is more available. I still keep in touch with my mentor David Wade and plan to see him this week for any extra tips before I begin the process of building. I had to let the wood sit in my garage for a few weeks so that the wood accumulates to the Moisture Content of its surrounding environment which is my garage. I will be building in my garage so I must make sure that the wood is at level with the environment and it may take some time, thats why I left it to sit in the garage for a week or two. Other then that hopefully my dimensions are right so I can complete my promises and my projects!

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgNe9TkNG_7CdGVLYzFZeURfYUFIaEtpa0RJNTFnc1E#gid=0

Mentorship up date (Day 2)

So this week I worked with my mentor and came up with two designs that I would like to get finalized with my second mentor in Orange County. I also experimented on different woods to see which would look best with my project. I used various kinds of finishings and compared and contrasted them to the different woods. I still have not found the type of wood I am going to use, and I still need to add some minor details to my draft to get it finalized. 

Mentorship up date (Day 1)

So sadly I did not realize that I had to be keeping track of my hours and writing what I have been doing during my mentorship. So today I am going to explain everything Ive done in the past and continue to update it from here on out.
So for my mentorship, I usually do it at home in my garage where my dad has his small wood shop. Every day I go to the wood shop and I devote 1-2 a day Monday- Thursday. Then on Saturdays and Sundays it is either 1-3 hours. So weekly, thats anywhere from 6-14 hour, but on average, I usually have about 10 hours a week. I've been doing this since November 1, 2012, and I recently began working with David Wade in early December. Here at Home, I usually work with my dad as he shows me how to use certain tools, how to be safe while working, how to do joinery, how to finish, which finishes to use, how to design, pretty much everything he knows. We recently finished putting a frame on the attic entrance on the ceiling two saturdays ago (December 29, 2012). So every day, I go back there for at least an hour and I work on what he tells me to work on, he is always with me showing me how to work neat and clean and teaching me how to enhance my techniques which has really paid off. I have learned how to properly use a planer, how and most importantly when to use a chisel, how to use the ban saw, a router, how to sand, how to read the grain of a wood, how to mix finishes together, which woods are good for what, how to cut the wood, different joinery, how to angle the edges of the wood, and soon i will be learning how to curve the wood.
So thats pretty much what I have done so far, I apologize for not updating my blog so often but I will start from here on forward.

Blog 8: Rough Draft of Presentation 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G2Lf1zMksO2iE0A1nbE14PzfhVCQr_VEtMqS9cNoTOM/edit