Space Exploration Project Reflection

I felt like the problem that we were trying to solve was quite clear, although I feel like we should have tested using an icy terrain rather than a rocky and sandy terrain because Ganymede has a surface of ice, not rock and sand. Despite this, we still managed to capture the grooved terrain of Ganymede which was the majority of our test. 

At the start, we set up a google doc that was shared between all of us. We were encouraged by each other to put all useful information on this doc so we could all be on the same page. However, one thing I would change would be that we did not have a group chat to talk through if we ever wanted to meet up. Luckily however, we never needed to communicate outside of the information that we could send each other and the discussions we had with each other in class. We had clear communications with different teachers to the extent that we were able to email a teacher whenever we needed some sort of material or advice. 

Looking back on the project, I feel that we did not have a set plan throughout the project and instead made an attempt to efficiently progress through the project one step at a time. This ended up making room for all of the bumps we had because the bumps would simply become the next step of the project. There were many times where we would divide and conquer to solve multiple problems or one big problem. An example of when we divided and conquered was when we divided the video analysis portion of the project up so that everyone would analyze 2-3 different videos

I feel that my team as a whole managed our time really well because we finished the project before the others, but me as an individual did not manage my time as well as I could have. Despite completing the project before the due date, I often found myself not very motivated to finish the project and I feel like if I tried harder I could have written more information or submitted earlier to get more work done on my personal project. I did end up completing the project on time, but I feel like the efficiency of my group definitely helped that from happening. However, I feel like the problem of me lacking motivation will not exist nearly as much on the personal project because I will be trying to create something that I really enjoy doing.

Not everything went as we predicted it would. The first prototype we had for the project back in part #2 ended up being completely unproportionate to the mechanical portion of the car. This ended up meaning that we had to go all the way back to square one for part 3 and recreate the CAD design for the car. This was a major setback that we did not expect and when we figured out that we were unable to morph the initial CAD design to the correct proportions and instead had to redo the entire design, it felt like we were very behind. In the end however, we recovered from this by creating another shell using the mistakes from the last one as reference. This was more efficient than the last one, which I feel displays perfectly the failure can be good.


Comments

3 Responses to “Space Exploration Project Reflection”

  1. mcrompton Avatar
    mcrompton

    OK, Thomas. This is a detailed reflection. I feels like you got lucky with the planning of your project given that you didn’t hit any significant bumps along the way and were able to meet deadlines. This will certainly not always be the case. I’m curious to know what specific goals you are setting for your personal project so that you don’t get derailed there. Please reply in the comments below.

  2. tsankeylewin27 Avatar
    tsankeylewin27

    Some specific plans and goals that I am setting for my personal project is that I have a plan for the steps I need to take in order to succeed. I will start with research, move into CAD design, then I will build the software along with adding the movable pieces to the CAD design. Along with this, I have set time goals for myself in order to succeed. I am currently almost finished the research part of my personal project and will swap to the CAD portion before March 8th.

    1. mcrompton Avatar
      mcrompton

      OK. This is a start. My favourite part of your response is that you have set time goals for yourself. I would suggest that you also build in time for the unforeseen challenges of your project. Make sure that you have time to catch up when you get behind.

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