Final Blog Post

• We are getting closer and closer to the end. Everyone is talking about summer already and how we only have a few days left (just finals). I feel very accomplished after finishing our project. It's great to see people making use of the tables in 'Akahi and actually getting good feedback. I really enjoyed this project and like how we have made a small effect on our school. We have opened doors and opportunities for other ideas to be brought up within 'Akahi. I hope that our tables remain a good idea, and maybe one day all of the tables will be replaced. I'm glad I was in this group because I have made new friends. If it hadn't been for this project, I don't think I would have talked Austin, Joe, and Shelly too much. They were great people to have in a group and I feel that we have all worked good together. Things that went well were our ideas and our implementation. Our idea with the tables was a success. We also completed our oral presentation and met the time requirement. I felt that as a group, we did a good job presenting. One thing that didn't go as planned was our deployment day. We were supposed to set up our tables on the day that our deployment was due, but Mr. Morris told us we couldn't. The boarders were having a dinner with Dr. Chun that night, and 'Akahi needed the round tables. I learned to communicate more effectively within a group, and learned that when you work in a group, it's not just about one person doing all of the work. Everyone has to work together and pull their weight. I don't think there needs to be any changes to make this a better activity. As we worked on this project, I felt that we were doing a little science. Our project was mainly related to the scientific method. Our idea to improve the efficiency in 'Akahi was sort of related to inverse relations. Overall I am glad I was in Mr. Blake's class. He has been a great teacher and I loved the fourth quarter's project. It has showed me that physics is everywhere and related to almost everything.
  

Final Blogpost!

The school year is basically over with finals left.  I am so proud to have been in this class because I've made some very good friends and learned so many new things that will carry on with me to next year's AP Physics B class.  I feel that this project has really helped me grow as a person.  I think that this project will really help better our school for more years to come if this continues.  Things that went well was that my group members all helped to pull their weight and we found each others strengths throughout this project to help make it better.  I feel that if we were to start this project sooner we could accomplish a little more.  Some things that went wrong was that some of our calculations were messed up and we couldn't add plenty of extra seats but we did add more so I guess we did accomplish some things.  I learned that our school isn't perfect, nor can we make it perfect, but we can try our best to keep it well "structured".  I think aside from making this project longer, we should actually be able to choose our groups because even if you pair us up and force us to do the project, unless we completely like the members of our group, we won't accomplish as much as if we were with friends.  I believe that science is life, and we are living, therefore we are doing science.  But more importantly, this project basically told us to think outside the box and come up with a creative and reasonable solution.  Science is about finding different ways to look and solve a problem.  And this project definitely did that.

Final Blogpost :)

Wow, it's the final post. This quarter has definitely flew by. Overall, I think this project was pretty great because it gave us a lot of freedom to pinpoint a problem at our school and conduct a thorough experiment in an attempt to fix it. It was a lot of work at times, but it was without a doubt worth trying to give back to our school in some small way. One thing that didn't go as well as we would've liked was how we were unable to deploy on our designated day, but it was ultimately out of our hands because it had to do with the Dr. Chun's dinner with the boarders. Also, at times, it was hard to coordinate with our group, since we're all so busy, but in the end we all contributed a lot and were able to work together effectively. I think something that went well was how we were pretty much on time for most of the project, and I believe the findings from our project are significant now and possibly for future projects. I learned that there will always be problems out in the world, but there will also always be possibilities to fix them. How effective those solutions are depends on dedication and the desire to improve. I also learned that there's a lot possible with cooperation. I think that this project is a really great activity, and my only suggestion would be to make it an actual class for students that could focus all of their attention on improving the school, since students are the ones who can see problems that other people wouldn't have been able to identify. On another note, Mr. Blake always says that physics is all around us, which we learned in the last three quarters by doing weekly blogposts relating things in our lives to physics principles. Throughout the process of our project, I noticed a few things that could possibly be related to physics, such as inverse relationships. Also, the entire project was pretty much a scientific experiment. At the presentations on Friday, I saw how many other groups related their projects to physics well, and I realized that some projects related more to physics than others. Although our project could be connected to physics in some respects, it wasn't as related to physics as other groups' projects were. 

Now I bet you're wondering about the picture I chose for this post. Well, it's an image depicting the members of my group, Sean, Joe, and Austin, on one of the first days we worked together, during our interview with Mr. Morris. I feel that we've grown a lot since then, both as students and as a group. We worked well together, and I can honestly say that I've had such a good time being around them. They're all really talented, and I feel privileged to have been able to work with them. Out of all the things I've gained from this project, I'm especially appreciative to have gotten to become friends with the guys in the picture above. 

Final Blogpost !

As we inch closer and closer to the end, Senioritis is kicking in. Although the stress from finals is overwhelming, I am glad we were able to end this year with this project. Overall, I really enjoyed the Ho’oulu ia Kamehameha Project. This project did not only change the problems within school, but it changed myself as a person.  Within a couple of days, all the seniors will embark on a new journey called life. This project taught me how I can solve a problem through science. In the real world, I will need these essential traits to become successful. I am very fortunate to have worked with Austin, Shelly, and Sean. They have been great members because they each contributed in their own special way.

The only thing that didn’t go as planned was changing the tables. As stated in our presentation, Mr. Morris unexpectedly explained that Dr. Chun had a dinner with the borders that night. Fortunately, we were able to work around this issue and eventually we were able to solve it. Other than that, everything that we did go as planned.

Overall, I learned that the students, especially the seniors, need to give back to those who have given to us. By giving back to our school, we are showing respect for the administrators, our teachers, our classmates, and Pauahi. Again, I am so glad we were able to complete this project. I feel that this project was perfect in every way and every step in its process was necessary. Each step was necessary because in a way, it was like the steps of a science experiment. We had to find a problem, make a hypothesis, test our hypothesis, collect data, infer the data, and then make conclusions. And that's exactly what we did.  Overall, This project is way better than doing a final. Thank you Mr. Blake!

Daily Blog #40

We are finally approaching the last week of school! Last week, we presented our Ho’oulu ia Kamehameha project to our classmates. After learning from each group, I realized that all the physics students are very intelligent. I was aware of some of the group’s projects, for example the bag hooks and saving the electricity. But the rest of the projects were fantastic.  I was amazed to see how each group decided to attack their problem at Kamehameha. Most of the groups were able to impact the School in a very small, subtle way. For example, the daily lunch posted on Konia Field, the Paki Bench, and the “Be bright, turn out the Light” posters around upper campus.

I am very pleased to have worked with my group members. I was lucky to work with them because each member participated in one way or another. Although we have totally different personalities, we were able to mend together. I feel great to have helped Kamehameha before I graduate. 

Daily Blog #39

Today we met in Konia 108-109 to prepare for our speech tonight. We had to make sure our slide show was in order and ready to present. After school ended, our group met in Mr. Blake's classroom and rehearsed a little and worked out a few flaws. We stayed in there for about an hour, practicing and preparing ourselves. We then dispersed and went to take showers and do the other things to make sure we looked good. I felt that we did a good job with our speech. The only thing that we were really missing was our citations which we noticed as the other groups presented. During our speech, my phone vibrated in my pocket and when I checked it later, it was my mom sending me a picture. This picture was taken of her computer screen as she was watching our presentation online.

Daily Blog #38

Today, our group turned in a draft of our written report, which basically explains our entire project. We spent about half of class finishing the draft, and the other half we continued to work on our oral presentation/slideshow. The picture above depicts the script we've created, since our presentation is tomorrow. We still need to do a few run throughs to see how it flows and to make sure we're speaking from between 9 to 12 minutes. We're practicing in class tomorrow, and I think we're going to try and meet up after school as well, before the presentation. We definitely want to do our best tomorrow.