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1. How has your understanding of ecosystems changed since the beginning of the course? Give a specific example of something you understand now that you did not understand before?
I used to think ecosystems as a place where animals and plants live, but now i see it as complex cycles where human actions will trigger a downstream disruption. What I learned specifically was that rotting food waste in open landfills will release methane gases and loses nitrogen. But using airtight Bokashi fermentation traps these organic nutrients, and turning the potential pollution into soil amendment that boost crop growths.
2. Which environmental problem your group investigated do you think has the most complex effects on an ecosystem? Explain your reasoning using evidence from your research.
Food waste generated, and improper disposal had the most complex effects because it took us to the local ecological shifts and also global climate ussues simultaneously. According to Thomas M. Newsome in 2017, food waste near natural borders could possibly be consumed by animals, pulling the animals to our spaces and spread disease. Other than that, Hayley Wheeler in 2024 also proved that landfilling food waste contributed to 8% -10% of greenhouse emissions.
3. How did your group decide which information and sources were trustworthy? Describe one source or piece of information that influenced your thinking and explain why.
Our group decide whether it's trustworthy or not by checking the author, published date, evidence, and purpose to filter out commercial websites. The most influencial source is "How to recycle all food waste" by Shig Matsukawa and Elizabeth Onorato in 2015. It explained how anaerobic fermentation with Em-1 break down the meats and oils without odors or methane. This shows that we need a EcoDock sealed fermentation reactor than a standard opened composting bin.
4.What was the most important connection you discovered between human activity and changes in an ecosystem? Explain the chain of effects that can occur.
Dumping food waste leads animals to eating trash instead of hunting, it will disrupt the species balance. Concurrently, the rotted waste will produce the methane gases and acidic leachate, leachate will pollute soil and also under groundwater.
5.Your group considered several possible technology-based solutions. What factors influenced your group's final design decision? Explain how you balanced effectiveness, cost, sustainability, safety, materials, and feasibility.
We balanced these factors by splitting our build into two specialized units, the first one is effectiveness and sustainability, the ecodock handle the heavy crushing and airtight fermentation to stop the methane emissions, and the Agrobot handles the distribution.The second one is the cost and materials. JJ provide the robotic materials us and duke provide the 3 printer fliament. Lastly a rover shouldn't sink into farm soil so we keep the Agrobot 20cm x 20cm x 29.9 cm, making sure it can navigate the crops row safely without sinking into it.
6. Describe a time when someone in your group had a different idea from you. How did your group respond, and what did you learn from considering another person's perspective?
Me and Duke wanted a mobile trash can tracker at first. But JJ pointed out that it's already made by someone else, and it will cost a lot to make the air tag thing. We reviewed the concept and decide to make the robot instead. I learned that combining different ideas to evaluate things objectively works better than holding on a personal preference.
7. How effectively has your group divided responsibilities so far? Identify one thing your group does well and one change that could make your teamwork more productive.
Responsibilities were divided by English level. Me and William are assigned to make the documents, and projects stuff. Duke will assist us, and focus on decorating. JJ and Jasper will research. We delegate tasks clearly and trust our own expertises. But we need to remind each others to concentrate, because sometimes, our group members will get distracted.
8. What part of the PBL process has challenged your thinking the most—understanding the ecosystem, researching the problem, evaluating sources, choosing a technology, or designing the solution? Explain why.
Choosing a technilogy and making the solution was the most challenging part. Translating concepts like Bokashi Method into a model required a lot of researches. We had to build the EcoDock that crushes waste and signals to the bot wirelessly, but also designing a tube that inject the fertelizers without stucking.
9. How has your research changed, improved, or challenged your group's original idea for solving the environmental problem? Give a specific example.
We originally planned to do a trash bin tracker app, allowing people to locate trash cans everywhere. But after a deep research, we found out that it won't be that effective compared to others, also it will cost a lot. Not only because of the cost, but someone has made it already, so it's not original.
10.If you could restart the project from the beginning, what would you and your group do differently? Explain how this change could improve your final solution.
If we could restart the project from the beginning, I will try to convince my teammates to do another solution to food and waste management. Since the current solution is a little difficult for us, it will take longer than the whole PBL semester to create that, so if we swap our product to something else, we could've made something maybe not better, but more realistic.
11. A successful PBL project is not only about building something; it is about understanding a real problem and using evidence to make informed decisions. How well do you think your group is currently doing this, and what evidence supports your answer?
Our group is executing this project as much as possible, and every decision is made by researches evidence. For instance, our decision to build a Ecodock directly answered the datas from Earth Org of how to stop the methane emissions.
GSP 2
GSP 2
Reflecting on project pitch:
Before: Before presenting, I felt confident, and anxious because I practiced presenting to my peers few times, but also worried about speaking english in front of the whole class.
After: After finishing, I felt relieved, and accomplished because I present better than I expected, and my friend said I did a great job on making hand gestures.
Highlights: The part of my pitch I'm most proud of is the road map of how the robot work. I am proud of this because we're the only group who applied this to our projects, which made us different from other groups.
Communication: Key phrases that supported me in articulating my ideas clearly includes the "bokashi method." I used this when I'm introducing the solution to the audience.
Visual Tools : I used a picture of our robot to help the audience visualize what does the robot looks like.
Future changes: If I can present the pitch again, I would change the plank of texts into smaller bullet points. This will make our presentation better because it will give the audience a opportunity to read in a short amount of time.
Part 2: Reflecting on Peer Feedback, Giving Feedback:
Feedback I gave: One helpful piece of feedback I gave was to speak louder and pronounce the word clearer in order for us to process the information, it's because one of our classmate spoke in a tiny voice that no one could possibly hear, so this violated the purpose of presentation. I think this helped them because it suggested them to speak louder so their ideas can be successfully delivered.
Feedback I received: The most useful advice I received from my classmates was to explain the product in more detail, since our prototype was a complex robot, I think that's pretty fair. This was useful because I assumed everyone understand what the product was for, but the feedback helped me understood that not everyone can understand what we're talking about. Improving this can help us get a better impact and let the audience understand what are we trying to make.
Action steps:
Fix the complex plank of text, I will summarize the paragraphs into smaller concepts in future projects
To address the feedback, I will dive into our product even deeper.
Handling challenges: I was surprised when a classmate pointed out that how does bokashi fermentation works, at first, I felt dissapointed because we already introduced that in the presentation, but I chose to respond by saying it's a way to transform food wastes into fertilizer without producing any greenhouse gases. For instance, bokashi method is simply a way to recycle food waste by burying it in a sealed container.
The value of these activities and real world skills:
Pitching and giving feedbacks are critical real world skills because in the future, persuading others requires a strong deliverying skills, and feedbacks can help you fix your weakness.
Language growth: Speaking and listening during the presentation made me more confident on my English because it forced me to think and practice professional vocabularies, and also improvise when you forgot something.
Collaboration: Observing my classmate's presentation gave me new thoughts,they suggested few things. Such as asking a question at the start to engage the audience. I will adopt it in the future to make the audience focus.
Personal learning: One key thing I learned about myself as a presenter is that I often pronounced words wrong, which can mislead the audience to think of another thing, so I need to practice presenting and search the word up whenever I'm not sure about it.
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