Throughout our Senior STEM Capstone project, our groups will be expected to organize our work in our coherent manner, utilizing such skills to create a robust final product. As part of this goal, our groups will have to create conceptual sketches in some capacity in order to convey our physical products on a visual scale, potentially so we can present our findings to other engineers or other possible sponsors. In order to learn more about sketching and make sure that we knew how to create such sketches in the future, we went through a series of sketching tutorials aimed at teaching us how to effectively draw out our construction/design plans.
This activity was a bit of a deviation from the usual, as we created our sketches independently and outside of class. However, the ideas that we conceived while learning about sketching were applied to our final product and thus extremely helpful in letting us diagram our group plans in conjunction with the creation of our project proposal. Individually, I created multiple practice sketches after watching the supplied videos, simultaneously taking notes to make sure that I retained the information. Lastly, I plan to use this information in our project later on, using our classification schemes to draw a detailed sketch of our wearable for Love Bug.
This activity was a bit of a deviation from the usual, as we created our sketches independently and outside of class. However, the ideas that we conceived while learning about sketching were applied to our final product and thus extremely helpful in letting us diagram our group plans in conjunction with the creation of our project proposal. Individually, I created multiple practice sketches after watching the supplied videos, simultaneously taking notes to make sure that I retained the information. Lastly, I plan to use this information in our project later on, using our classification schemes to draw a detailed sketch of our wearable for Love Bug.
Video Notes |
Sketches |
Reflection
Overall, this project was an interesting “break from the normal” as I got to do work alone on my own time. Nonetheless, the lessons learned from the activity proved to be rather helpful in the creation of our final product.
Something that I thought I did better than before on these sketches was managing my time. Because this was completed largely outside of class, it required personal accountability in order to make sure it was done correctly. Even though I did not create a full on Gantt chart to organize my work, I utilized my calendar to make sure I was doing a little bit of the drawing everyday. Spreading my work out made things generally less stressful, and it also helped me retain the information better. I would like to continue with this concept in the future by always keeping a planner of sorts on hand so I can also parse out my work in a timely manner on other aspects of the Capstone project.
Even though this project was done individually, another area which I feel I did well in was reaching out to others and discussing ideas related to the project. For instance, I routinely talked to Kianna while working on my sketches, and we exchanged ideas regarding how we could apply the lessons to our wearable design. This helped our in class work as we were on the same page in terms of conceptual ideas, and furthermore, it made the design process more enjoyable overall. I would like to do this more in the future, as the exchange of ideas also challenged me to work more diligently on my activities.
Even though I did some great things on this project, there were also definite areas of improvement. Firstly, while trying to work efficiently, sometimes I worked faster than I should have on my drawings. At times, I sacrificed speed for quality which is not a type of behavior that I would like to carry over to the main Capstone. I will try to avert this in the future by having my groupmates check my work to make sure it is up to standard.
Another area which I believe I need to improve upon is staying organized with my materials. While doing the drawings, my pencils, rulers, and papers were all over the place, causing me to make mistakes then subsequently restart. This is somewhat related to how I had rushed through a great deal of the work, and I should have instead slowed down to make sure I had all of my tools in order. In the future, I would like to improve upon this by creating a clean workspace before beginning anything so I am set up for success.
Something that I thought I did better than before on these sketches was managing my time. Because this was completed largely outside of class, it required personal accountability in order to make sure it was done correctly. Even though I did not create a full on Gantt chart to organize my work, I utilized my calendar to make sure I was doing a little bit of the drawing everyday. Spreading my work out made things generally less stressful, and it also helped me retain the information better. I would like to continue with this concept in the future by always keeping a planner of sorts on hand so I can also parse out my work in a timely manner on other aspects of the Capstone project.
Even though this project was done individually, another area which I feel I did well in was reaching out to others and discussing ideas related to the project. For instance, I routinely talked to Kianna while working on my sketches, and we exchanged ideas regarding how we could apply the lessons to our wearable design. This helped our in class work as we were on the same page in terms of conceptual ideas, and furthermore, it made the design process more enjoyable overall. I would like to do this more in the future, as the exchange of ideas also challenged me to work more diligently on my activities.
Even though I did some great things on this project, there were also definite areas of improvement. Firstly, while trying to work efficiently, sometimes I worked faster than I should have on my drawings. At times, I sacrificed speed for quality which is not a type of behavior that I would like to carry over to the main Capstone. I will try to avert this in the future by having my groupmates check my work to make sure it is up to standard.
Another area which I believe I need to improve upon is staying organized with my materials. While doing the drawings, my pencils, rulers, and papers were all over the place, causing me to make mistakes then subsequently restart. This is somewhat related to how I had rushed through a great deal of the work, and I should have instead slowed down to make sure I had all of my tools in order. In the future, I would like to improve upon this by creating a clean workspace before beginning anything so I am set up for success.