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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I did it. I made it through Capstone Night in one piece. It's over. However, this week did not go off without a hitch. I have been sick for the past week with a terrible cough. It is terrible and nothing seems to help. I've taken cough drops and devoured them as if it were medicine. I've drank water and tea as if it were my religion. I have tried everything, and yet this cough keeps on persisting. I don't believe that it is connected to my ailment from before break (where I lost my voice). In the beginning of the week, I presented my Capstone project, with the only feedback being on my presentation style and removing one slide that discussed my rationale for my methods and replace it with an in-text citation for where I got the idea for the methods. I immediately implemented the changes about my presentation into my presentation. For my presentation style, most of it was due to the fact I wasn't feeling well. I needed to speak more loudly and be more natural with my body language. I believed that if I were feeling better on Capstone Night, these issues would resolve itself.
For the actual Capstone Night presentation, I presented at 6:05. I knew one of the judges, who was a former student here last year, so I wasn't worried about his grading. I was still coughing on this day so I was worried about how I would get through an entire presentation without my voice giving up on me. I did my presentation, but by the results section, I only had five minutes left to present. I got nervous, so I began speaking more quickly. I was still understandable though, so I don't think it was that big of an issue. For the questions, one of the judges felt I was speaking too fast and asked me to repeat my result and conclusion section. Since she wasn't a native speaker, I felt like that played a role in it too. Overall, I think I did really well. Tags: Reflection, Presentation, Projects This week was a very short week. We didn't have school on Tuesday, but we did have school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It is finally hitting me how close Capstone Night is. It is next week. I still had to do my poster and presentation, with very little time. This week I finished my presentation. I mainly used slides from my previous presentations, including from last semester, to make my final presentation. I used the literature review summary slides from my final Capstone 1 presentation. I used the same methods and materials that I have been using all semester. I used the same question, hypothesis, and variables slide as my final Capstone 1 presentation. I used the result slides from my results presentation. I used the discussion and conclusion from my results presentation. The only thing I made new this time was a diagram to explain how to set up the cells and treat them, as well as my citation slide. I added mostly the same photos I used for previous presentations, so that wasn't new either. I finished it and checked it over a few times this week, so I think I am set. For right now, I don't have to complete my poster, but that is nearly done anyway. I used the same introduction and methodology section that I did for my Capstone 1 presentation template, but I added some more relevant information on it. I added my results and discussion. I also finished my acknowledgement and references section. The only thing left is to do the conclusion, summary, and future works section and then I am finished. Next week I have to present once in class before Capstone Night. I am excited because I know my topic inside and out. This area is so specific in such a specific field, there are very few people who could challenge my knowledge come Capstone Night. This fact has given me the confidence I need. Tags: Presentation, Project, Planning, Reflection, Results, Productivity Happy Holidays everyone! I am currently sitting around blasting Christmas music. This blog will be a little shorter due to the fact it is the holiday season and I am taking a break. This was the last week of school in 2018. I finished revising my conclusion and the rest of my paper. I have to combine my results, discussion, and conclusion with the rest of my paper, but that will not take long. Other than that, I didn't accomplish much else. I updated the blogs on the website and published them. I am planning on updating the rest of my website over the break. When I get back, I have to finish my presentation and my poster. I don't think those will take me that long, probably one week altogether. I then have to practice my presentation.
I've been reflecting on this past year and I have to say, it was really good. There were some moments that I would have preferred it gone the other way, some moments I wish I could go back and change. But overall, nothing bad happened. Surprisingly, my mental health has improved. While I am still extremely stressed and anxious at times, I feel like I have learned to handle it better this year. I am definitely less pessimistic and more optimistic. I have been pacing myself better and making my health a priority again. I accomplished so many things this year that I didn't know I could achieve and have overshot my expectations for myself. I am more confident in myself and my abilities. I feel confident going into the new year. Next year, I want to take better care of myself. I want to stop putting myself down and talking about myself negatively. I want to take up stretching and maybe meditation to continue to improve my mental health. I want to continue and finish the year strong. While this year was great, I can't wait to see what next year brings. Good or bad, I am ready to face what comes. Happy Holidays!!!! Tags: Reflection, Productivity, Presentation, Time Management, Planning What have I done? Why did I do this? Did I put too much work on myself?
These were the questions racing through my mind this week. You see, I finished the results last week and decided I would work on the discussion this week. I forgot this is a short week, so I didn't have a lot of time to work on the discussion. At the beginning of the week, which was Tuesday because Monday was the day we observed Veteran's Day, Ms. Crudale gave us a task sheet to help us plan our week and next week, which will also be a short week due to Thanksgiving holidays. I thought that I would have ample time to complete everything I needed to, so I wrote that I would finish my initial discussion draft, redo my Gantt Chart, and update and revise my website. I didn't realize how much work goes into writing a discussion. On Wednesday and Thursday, we had a half-day for conferences, so between these two days, I had Capstone 2 for about 2 hours. On Friday, we had a 2 hour delay because of the snow and rain that fell the night before. We had Capstone for 35 minutes, but that time went into work for National Honor Society, which would be right after the class ended (we had Capstone last). In addition, I've been feeling under-the-weather the whole week. I've had a sore throat and have just been exhausted all week. I have had no energy to do mundane tasks, let alone my school work. Unfortunately to say, I've been slacking off all week. I wrote about one paragraph of my discussion. but other than that, I've just been staring at a blank screen waiting for the words to come to my brain and for my hands to subsequently type them. With that being said, I think next week I need to work on being more productive. During those moments of writer's block, I could be doing other work so later on it is easier for me and I have less work. I need to work on my time management as well. Granted, I had a calculus exam which I was studying for all week, but I should have enough time in the day to get most of what I need to get done done. Hopefully, next week I can put these skills to work and be extremely productive. If I can finish by Wednesday, I can give myself a semi-break over Thanksgiving weekend. Fingers crossed! P.S.- The image below is a Tamil meme that is me looking at my results :D ! P.P.S. - It just means "Friend, results have come, I've looked and I've passed! You..." Friend replies, "Oh, you use "All Clear" shampoo huh? I use Head and Shoulders bro! Tags: Time Management, Results, Reflection, Productivity, Planning, Discussion 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 This week was hard, but I made it to the end of the week. It was the last week of the quarter, but luckily I had stayed on top of my work throughout the semester, so I didn't have any late work to complete and hand in, on top of the other work we are given in class. That was really helpful, and I have only past Shubhangy to thank. So thanks past me. But I did procrastinate in studying for my SAT Subject Tests, so that wasn't good. But the good news is that I didn't have a lot of work to do in capstone this week, so I spent a lot of time studying for the exams. I also didn't have as much homework as I did in the past few weeks, so I spent a lot more time studying for the exams than I was able to last time. This week I also finished two of my college applications and submitted them. One was Johns Hopkins University, which was my first choice school. I am really hoping all the research I have done over the past few years with scientists from the School of Medicine will give me an edge over the competition. My statistics are pretty average for their standards, which is good in my case because I am applying early decision, so the acceptance rate is higher. I also have a lot of extra-curriculars, so I am hoping all of this gives me an edge over the competition. I also applied to University of Chicago. I hope my essays and extra-curriculars will give me an edge there as well. Overall, I am glad I got two of my applications done, as it was a huge relief to finally be done with those. I am also glad this is my last standardized exam tomorrow. After this I will be done with standardized testing and SATs and will be fully committed to myself, my health, and my schoolwork.
In regards to the capstone project, I did receive some preliminary data from my mentors, as I think I mentioned last week. I spoke with my mentor and discussed the data. The data showed that the transfection didn't work and the cells did not express the gene the way we wanted it to. We will have to go back and redo the transfection in order to get the proper gene expression. This is the only data I will be receiving, so for now, I will have to write my results on this. It sucks that I wasn't able to complete my capstone experiment properly, because at first, I was truly excited to be doing this project and was fully invested in it. But sometimes life doesn't go the way you expect it to. You can do everything right, but sometime the unexpected happens. When that happens you have to make the best of it. This week I was much better at being flexible, since so many things were going on, but I managed them well and didn't have a mental breakdown. Next week I want to work on my productivity, since my results section is due next week. This week, Ms. Crudale challenged me to be more positive in my blogs, which I said I was going to do at the beginning of the year, so that's why this blog sounds more positive than usual. I am hoping next week will be even better so my blog is even more positive. Tags: Productivity, Reflection, Project, Results, Planning, Time Management This week was productive for Capstone, surprisingly. We started presenting our presentations on Monday. For every presentation, we had to provide feedback on their delivery, presentation, and organization. I thought everybody did really well. Our classroom is in the hallway though, and at times students were making quite the ruckus, making it harder for the class to hear the presenter. If these background noises were not present, most of the presenters would have been quite loud. My presentation went really well. I presented on Wednesday. I made a lot of people laugh with the jokes and puns I put in my presentation. People seemed to be giving me their undivided attention. I spoke really loudly, almost close to a scream for most of the presentation so that way people in the back could hear me, even if the lunch crowd was creating a disturbance. I tried to use my hands and relax my body so that way I looked relaxed and ready. I also smiled throughout the whole presentation because I thought people would be more likely to pay attention if I looked happy.
The feedback from people was mostly positive, with two people saying that I was reading off the slide. Some more people said that at times I should have spoken louder, but I think that it was just because of the room we were in. Most people gave me a perfect score, with only the same two people taking off some points in delivery. Other than that, my presentation was really good. I forgot to include a rationale for my experiment, so I got some points deducted off for that. I didn't really practice for this presentation because I was pretty busy, so next time I would like to practice a little bit more before the presentation, that way I don't have to look at the slides that much. This week, I obviously worked on my communication skills. I had to communicate my project description, my methods, the science behind it, the materials, and the problems I was facing. I thought I did that pretty well, as evident by my presentation and my rubric and feedback from my peers. Next week, I would like to gather some data from other sources on the effect of estrogen and GDPD6 expression on GPC levels in breast cancer cells. In other news, I am supposed to get my data within the next few weeks. The head of the lab said that she would ensure I at least get some preliminary data for my project, so that's good. Hopefully next week is easy on me. Tags: Forward, Planning, Presentation, Reflection, Projects This week was productive for everything outside of Capstone. On Monday, we had no school, which I celebrated only shortly. I had a lot of work to do, especially because the SAT was on Wednesday. On Tuesday, I was studying for the SAT. I didn't have a lot of work to do that day because I had finished my methods section and all the revisions I needed. I decided to study for the SAT. On Thursday, we were assigned our first formal presentation for the semester. The topic was on our methods. It needed to include your topic, question, materials, methods, problems you are facing, and solution to those problems. I decided to add some background information to my presentation so that way people could understand my project. I tried to dumb it down as much as I could for my classmates, because last time it felt like some people didn't understand the science behind my project and what my project is about. I included some diagrams about metabolism and the Kennedy pathway to help people understand it. I tried to insert some humor into my presentation so it was more lighthearted.
Other than that, I am still waiting for data from my mentors, which is not fun. I don't really have a lot of work to do, so I've just been sitting around, sometimes doing work for other classes, sometimes doing work for one of my clubs. I have been working on being more flexible, which I think I've been doing pretty well on. I have done work for my other classes, while keeping up with the work from this class. I have switched my schedule around to make sure that I can complete my tasks in a way where I don't have to jeopardize my mental health for it. I think that I am doing pretty well considering everything. Until next week. Tags: Forward, Independent, Planning, Reflection This week was pretty productive, but not for capstone. You see, tomorrow I have the SAT subject tests in math and biology, which I have admittedly left to the last minute to study for. Next week, I have a calculus quiz, which I really want to get a good score for. I also have to take the SAT next Wednesday, which I need to study for. I finished my methods on Monday. Since I didn't have much else to do for the rest of the week, I was spending most of the class time studying for the subject test. I can't go further in my project because I need the data to come through from Johns Hopkins. I don't think that studying was a waste of time per say, it was just off-topic work. I wouldn't have had enough time to study had I not studied during class. I knew it would be difficult for my to study, so I just substituted work for capstone with work for the SAT. I could have also worked on college admissions, but this is a much more immediate matter.
While I am waiting for that though, Ms. Crudale suggested that I look into some other research as a back-up plan in case the data from Johns Hopkins doesn't come through. I would then take that data and present it as my research. It would be difficult to meet the capstone requirements, but I think I can do it. I plan on looking more into estrogen and its links with GPC levels and GDPD6 and its links with GPC levels. I will probably connect the two after that. When I was writing my literature review, I didn't find many sources on these, so I will probably have to dig deeper. I plan on doing it next week. In between, I will probably work on my college application. Honestly, most of my stress is not even due to capstone. It's just college application and the fear of the unknown. I have been trying to work through it because I just feel bad for not doing any work. Through Ms. Crudale, I have been able to get into contact with an admissions officer in Johns Hopkins and will be ale to ask him questions. I think this will take away some of the unknown for me and I am hoping that this will help my mental health. Until next week! Tags: Forward, Problem Solving, Reflection, Projects, Planning |
AuthorShubhangy Raghavan Archives
January 2019
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