I did it.
I'm done with Capstone. I can't believe I'm done. I am so relieved and happy that I don't have to worry about this class. I am proud of myself for how far I've come. I've grown so much over the past year. If the person from last year saw me now, she wouldn't recognize me. I've grown more confident and more responsible. I am able to manage my coursework in a healthy way and have gotten better at my time management. Capstone has not all been easy; there have been good moments and bad moments. There were moments I didn't sleep and was so exhausted, there were moments that I wanted to quit, I was fed up with this project. There were moments I felt so stressed and dejected, and I felt that there was no way this project would succeed. But for all of these low moments, there were moments where I was proud of what I accomplished, of my presentation, of my paper, and of myself. There were moments where I completed something and I felt like I could take on the world. These were moments that reassured me that in the end, I would be okay. I learned that I can accomplish what I set out to do and am capable of so much more than I give myself credit for. This semester, I think I did really well. I accomplished everything I needed to do in a timely manner and there was really no need for me to stress. My mental health improved. I accomplished everything I set out to do in the beginning of the semester. In the beginning of the semester, I wanted to stop procrastinating and I wanted to improve my mental health. I accomplished both of those things. This semester, I worked on my time management skills and my problem solving skills. I ran into some unexpected troubles with my experiment, and I needed to find a way to improvise, adapt, and overcome the issues. These skills will definitely help my mental health in the future, as I can manage my time so I don't have to do everything at the last minute and I can find a solution to my problems. If I had to give some advice to incoming capstone students, I would say to manage your time. Everything is msanageable if you do a little bit every day. The quality of your work will also improve this way. And that's it. I'm done. Thank you for reading this. I'm done. This is it, Bye guys! Thanks for everything. The End. Tags: Time Management, Reflection, Blogs, Communication, Problem Solving, Productivity
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This week was actually really good for me. I finished my SAT Subject Tests over the weekend. I think I did better than I expected to, especially in the physics. Now all that's left is for the results to come in. I am done with standardized testing and I am done with the SATs for the foreseeable future. I am really excited now because I can focus all my energy and all my effort into my college applications and my schoolwork, including Capstone. This week, I began writing up my results on Monday. I began figuring out how everything should be formatted. We didn't have school on Tuesday because of Election Day, which I was really happy about. It wasn't so much of a day off though, as I had a lot of school work I had to catch up on that I procrastinated on. Still, I got it done. On Wednesday, I didn't come to school. This week was the end of Daylight Savings Time and that in combination with the changing weather really affected my physical and mental health, not to mention my mother's health. I decided to take a mental health day to recuperate. I took it pretty easy Wednesday. I did some work for my other classes, mainly my project for ECE English and notes and homework for ECE Calculus. In the evening, I went to the Open House that was happening at the school. I had already said I was going to be there, so I stuck to my work and went, which I am very proud of myself for doing. The event was only 3 hours, but by the end I was truly exhausted. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I guess I still haven't gotten used to the time change, which is something I will need to work on this week.
On Thursday, I managed to finish my results section. I thought that I needed to add some additional information that I actually did not need. Once I confirmed this fact with Ms. Crudale, I went ahead and shared it with her so she could provide me some feedback. This means that this weekend, I don't have any Capstone work which leaves me free to focus on some things I need to get done for applications and some of my other classes. This week, I was actually much more productive than I thought I was or than I felt. I am very happy that I was this productive. Next week I need to write my discussion section, so I would like to work on staying on task. I am hoping to finish the drafts before Thanksgiving so that way I don't have any work over the long weekend for this class. Let's see how next week turns out. Tags: Reflection, Results, Blogs, Planning, Discussion, Time Management, Productivity Last week, I realized I was not as productive as I should have been due to poor mental health, anxiety, and procrastination. I resolved to better my work ethics, even if only marginally, this week, but alas, the universe conspired against me. This week, I was all but ready to start working on revising my capstone paper, which I received back on Monday with edits I need to make. Unfortunately, this was also the week where the school decided to issue standardized testing to determine our reading and math abilities. While in years past this would have been a one day thing, this year they switched the standardized tests and we had to test out of every grade level starting at kindergarten. This was excruciating and annoying, as the test were extremely long. Usually, I can blow through this test in about thirty minutes, but these tests took me two days each. With the reading test, there were so many passages and questions. There were moments where I couldn't think properly and just chose an answer which I believed made sense. This exam was draining and after the testing, I felt lethargic and annoyed. I could not force myself to do any other work around this time due to how draining the testing was. While the math had less reading, the questions were more complex. They took more time to answer and had more layers to it. While I like math more than reading, the math section was still draining, albeit not as much as the reading was. After finishing the reading section, which I did today, I just couldn't refocus my mind to my paper.
On the topic of my paper, there were some grammatical issues with the APA formatting in my paper. I was able to fix them on Wednesday painlessly. However, there was some content issue, with some clarifications needed to be made at places and safety information for the chemicals in the methods section needed. I was able to address some of the clarifications needed throughout my paper, but I still have a few more. I unfortunately was unable to start looking into the safety information for the chemicals. Although some progress has been made in my paper, much work is left to be done. Although I should have done some of the work at home, I was unable to for the most part. I had a lot of work to do for my other classes, especially my ECE English and Calculus classes. I also did procrastinate, but not as bad as last week. I just tend to do my work extremely slowly so work that should take me an hour takes me two hours instead. Likewise, I also tended to get distracted on YouTube at home. While I was making strides to improve my work ethic, misfortune struck again! Since my home laptop was not responding as I wanted it to, I kept restarting my laptop which caused it to crash. Now when I start it, it takes a while to load and when I log on, I can't do any type of function as as soon as I click something, my computer freezes and crashes again. I have spent the past two days trying to alleviate this issue, which took some time away from my school work. But I do know I need to change and better my work ethic, not only for the sake of my grades but for the sake of my anxiety and mental health as well. As soon as I fix my personal laptop, I will address the concerns in the capstone paper and move forward with the rest of my school work for now. Let's see how this plan goes... Tags: Blogs, Independent, Forward, Reflection, Planning, Lit Review, Problem Solving, Time Management Since I posted a blog on Wednesday, this blog will be pretty short in comparison. This week I was pretty productive, although I think I can improve. I was able to update the website and submit my draft of my paper. I began reading through my paper, making mental notes of what I might need to change. But I feel that I could have been more productive. I was side-tracked for most of the week. I think the main reason I tried to avoid doing my work was a combination of senioritis and anxiety. I have worked so hard the past three years, at times, I just don't have the motivation to do any work. During the summer, I didn't work as hard as I do during the school year and was travelling and having some fun. I feel at times, I am stuck in that mentality of trying to take it easier than I should. I also feel that I am anxious for the future of my project, of this class, my grades, and my own future. I don't know whether the data I need will come through in time. I don't know whether I will be able to write my final paper and make my final poster and present my final presentation. I don't know whether I will be able to pass this class with the grade I expect from myself. I don't know whether my college application will be any good. I don't know whether I will be able to do well on the SAT and SAT Subject test. I don't know how I will pay for college. I don't even know whether I will get into the colleges that I want to go to. I am just filled with so much anxiety.
I need to fix this if I want to be more productive. I need to buckle down and just do my work. If I can start chipping away at my work, I do think part of my anxiety that this class contributes to will diminish. I just need to start but that is easier said than done. In addition to this class, all of my work for my other classes, especially ECE Calculus tends to take up most of my time. I feel like I just don't have enough time to do my work. I need to start managing my time better and working harder, smarter, and more efficiently. If I can do that, I think I will find more time to study for the SATs and do my college application. I think my overall anxiety levels will diminish as well. By the beginning of next week, I hope to have my paper with revision suggestions, which I will work on next week. Hopefully, next week will find me in a more productive and overall positive and healthy head space. Tags: Blogs, Lit Review, Planning, Problem Solving, Reflection, Forward A new beginning, new classes, and new goals. Since this is senior year - which I still can't believe; it feels like yesterday that I started high school- goal setting is imperative to success. Goal setting allows you to see what you have to accomplish and work on in order to be successful and reach your dreams. It allows your dreams and aspirations to be more attainable by outlining your steps to reach your destination. This year, I want to maintain my GPA, which will be a challenge since I am taking ECE Calculus. For my career goals, I want to get into a good university and major in biomedical engineering or bio-engineering that will prepare me for either a master's degree or for medical school. Personally, I want to be more productive and optimistic. The lack of both of these things last year really hindered my mental health last year and led to an increase of stress and anxiety for me. Since this is my last year of high school, I want this to be the best year it can possibly be, and I can't do that if I am stressed out. Even though I know that I will stress about college applications, I want to try to limit all other sources of stress. Last year, I would feel unmotivated and procrastinate. This led to an increase of stress, and led me to have a pessimistic attitude at times. I want to try to be more optimistic and productive to improve my mental health and allow me to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be.
As I mentioned before, I have not one, but three mentors. Dr. Kanchan Sonkar is helping me with the experimental part and the paper, Dr. Balaji Krishnamachary is helping me with my paper, and Dr. Kristine Glunde is the head of the lab. I needed a mentor to review my paper and help me with the experimental part. I would ask for help on running the experiment and reviewing my paper. One critical skill I want to work on this month is being flexible. I feel like last year I set unrealistic deadlines for myself on my assignments and when I received extra work from my other classes, I was unable to stick to my deadlines and would stress out. By being more flexible and rolling with the punches, I hope to improve my resolve and mental health. The next 2-3 major tasks I need to complete for my capstone project is:
Tags: Blogs, Planning Reflection This is the last week before finals and the inevitable end of school. To say that I am stressed is an understatement: I am stressed, tired, cranky, worried, anxious, and overworked. I have so much to do over the next few days. But I just have to take it day by day and try to finish everything on time. In order to make sure everything gets finished on time without delay, I've been trying to prioritize my tasks and multitask. For instance, during some free moments during class, I've been working on editing my lit review. I finished editing everything up to the conclusion. I felt it took a higher precedent than some of my other classes because I have a higher grade in those classes so getting a lower final exam grade wouldn't hurt my grade as much. However, based on an online final grade calculator, I need at least a 78% on my final exam to pass Capstone 1 with an A. So with that in mind, I am putting all my effort and thought into my schoolwork. The first thing that pops in my mind when I wake up is what I need to complete that day and the last thought of the day is what I haven't finished and need to do tomorrow. In Capstone, I need to finish editing my conclusion (including my potential impacts), then add the revised problem statement and methods section. After, I might need to include an intended results and conclusion section as well as an abstract, though that is pending based on the answer Ms. Veillette gives me when I ask her about it. I am hoping to finish it by tomorrow afternoon or early evening. Then I want to actually fix my website and add everything I need. It will probably take me a couple of hours, but seeing as I have a final on Monday, I will either finish it tomorrow night, Sunday night, or split the work and finish it Sunday afternoon. However, since it is due on the night of the final exam (which is Thursday for me), I do have some leeway when it comes to completing this aspect. I also need to finish the introduction and methodology for my poster for next year. I don't think it will take me that long since I know what I want to write in the introduction. I could probably finish it in about 2 hours max, even if I have some unforeseen trouble. This will probably take me to the end of the weekend, since I also need to study for my Monday final. On Monday, I would like to finish my final capstone presentation. On my methods presentation, I did really well. I got 100/102, with the two point deduction coming because I forgot to add something that was on the rubric. On the verbal aspect I was graded highly. I would like to do just as well, if not better, on this final presentation. It is just a combination of the first presentation and the methods presentation. We are on a strict 12 minute schedule so I am hoping for no more that 14 slides with content. I need to practice it obviously and get the timing down, but I think I can do it. I found the perfect theme for my presentation. Now I just have to make it through finals week. Since this week is the last proper week of school, this is my last blog for the school year. But fear not, because when I go to Baltimore to do this experiment, I will be blogging weekly again. There won't be a blog next week, but look for a blog in 2 weeks time. Tags: Presentation, Lit Review, Time Management, Project, Forward. Reflection, Problem Solving, Independent, Blogs.
This week was not too bad, surprisingly. Monday and Tuesday we worked on a presentation about our Capstone project. It covered the basics: two sources from our lit review, problem statement and justification, hypothesis, goals, and problems we were facing. It was due on Wednesday. As usual, I waited until close to the last minute to finish the presentation because I didn't know what to put for my hypothesis. Wednesday was Exhibition Day, where we were paired up with another class and showed what we were working on. We were paired with another Capstone class in Aerospace and were tasked with showing our problem statement and if we had time, our presentation. It went well and I got some positive feedback on my project. The only thing I had to work on was explaining my project more precisely so that others who do not know anything about cell biology can understand it. Thursday and Friday were presentations. We had a sign up sheet and I decided to go first on Friday, because I knew I was not ready to present on Thursday. I was able to see some mistakes or elements in other people's projects that I wanted to add to mine, so it was a good idea for me to go Friday. I got an idea of what I needed to say and how I needed to present. I practiced Thursday night so I would be ready. But Friday came and I woke up with a scratchy throat. I could barely speak or swallow my own spit. I took some Benadryl but that did not work out as planned. I became tired and exhausted, sleeping in my first two classes. When I went up to deliver my presentation, I rushed through what I had to say and omitted some parts that I had rehearsed. I was very tired. But apparently, I didn't do too bad, and I got it out of the way, which was a positive. I know that I have some points to work on in presenting, mainly not looking at the board, speaking clearly, and to stop rambling on. I plan on working on this in the future. For some reason, I've lost 10 points on my last three blogs. The three blogs were put in the grade-book as one grade. Since I lost 10 points on three blogs, I lost 30 points out of 300, causing my grade to drop to an A-. Hopefully, my presentation can bring up my grade, as well as my lit review. I still need to talk to Ms. Veillette about my first draft, which I know wasn't as good. I rushed through the last parts, and thus didn't write as well as I intended to. I was planning on starting to revise the draft without talking to Ms. Veillette, but I would like to know when to turn in a second draft, especially because the lit review needs five supporting sources. I will start working on the second draft, even if I don't get to talk to her so I can at least get a head start on my second draft. In other news, my AP Biology test is on Monday. I'm going to need all the luck I can get. I looked through the material and I know most of it. Luckily, the questions deal with the application of material and not memorizing the material itself. There are some things that I need to brush up on, which I plan to do over the weekend. Wish me luck! Tags: Blogs, Forward, Independent, Lit Review, Planning, Presentation, Projects, Reflection
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AuthorShubhangy Raghavan Archives
January 2019
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