Dandelion Breeze

Process Documentation

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of my process.

To complete this project, I first drew a circuit diagram and planned where my connecting wires would go. To make sure the CPX board and wires worked as intended, I first made each connection using multiple GND pins with the fairy lights still in bundles. Once each string was lit I adapted the code from class to light the strings in sequence. I then moved my connections to the paper using copper tape and stretched out the fairy lights to look like dandelion seeds.

Reflection

While starting to complete this project, I was slightly concerned as to whether or not I remembered the necessary information from class to make the CPX function correctly. I noticed my self-efficacy being challenged as I remembered encountering some difficulty with the circuitry in the first project. Once I got started, however, I felt more confident in my ability to complete this project. I looked at the code from class that dealt with an external LED and the volume sensor and thought about how I might combine them to create the effect in the video demonstration. I've noticed a recurring feeling when working with the CPX code where I feel confident in my ability to solve a problem, but not necessarily my ability to solve it quickly. I think this is reflective of my experience working with code and my understanding that it hardly ever works the first time.

Thinking back to my first computer science course, I remember several times when I felt unmotivated or unengaged after struggling with the content. That class was taught as a fast-paced 700 person lecture, where I often struggled to keep up with the demos the professor would write. I saw peers and classmates around me who seemed to follow what was being said, which fueled an internal dialogue of self-doubt. I spent a significant amount of time at TA hours, often going three times a week to clarify what was taught in lecture and get help with our assignments.

I found that my willingness to ask for help greatly improved my experience in the course, both in terms of my understanding and enjoyment. By asking for the help I needed to solve a project, I was able to feel more confident in my coding skills each time I completed a project that passed all of the automatic tests, which in turn strengthened my growth mindset. I also found the encouragement from the TAs I interacted with to be very motivating. By turning my focus away from comparison to my peers and instead towards my own self-improvement, I was able to overcome the structural and intellectual hurdles that the course presented.

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