Blog Post 3

Content

I learned about thermal insulators used in winter outerwear a lot, I found out a lot about the different methods used by different insulators, but the biggest thing for me was learning the research process. I learned how to draw inspiration from other studies to develop a methodology, and using basic circuitry and physics concepts I was able to get the value I needed, thermal resistance. I could/will/would run more trials moving forward to ensure statistical significance for all values, and also in order to test more materials or amounts of compression.

Product

From the presentation and paper I learned a lot about conducting a study, especially with creating a replicable methodology, and doing extensive background research. For me personally I also learned to commit to a study, after I got rejected by the IRB board I had to find a topic and stick to it. These skills are useful in many educational and research fields, but being able to commit to something and present will always be important no matter what I do.

Process

I learned that I needed to be more confident and commit to a plan. At the same time, I learned that I was able to keep momentum well after starting. Moving forward I need to ensure that I get started on my work early and keep working once I've started.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my teachers Mrs. Dobos and Mr. McBride, without Mrs. Dobos's personal help and Mr. McBride's examples and advice I could not have done as well as I did.

Next Steps

Moving forward, I hope to use the skills that I learned, along with the things I learned about myself in order to succeed in my academic career which I will continue at Purdue when I study Mechanical Engineering.