26F G10 PBL A

Pre-SLC Reflection

1. A summary of your project plan, including what you hope to achieve with this project.
   My project is to design and create a seed shaker similar to a salt shaker. The purpose is to make it as easy as possible for people to spread seeds as they participate in their outdoor activities. I hope to achieve a product that is simple and practical, encourages people to plant seeds and makes planting more convenient. I also want to research more native plants that grow well in different regions of Taipei so that people can choose seeds that are suitable for their location.

2. Examples of work you have done so far and how it links to what you learned in past classes (e.g. science, design, art, math)
   Some work I have done so far includes the 2 paragraphs of the introduction and the experiment plan. This links to my English class, as the experiment plan is incredibly similar to writing a methods section where you have to write what you did specifically enough to be replicable and understandable. The 2 paragraphs improve my skill in taking important points in a person's research and turning them into a piece of text.

3. One inward and one forward reflection from the prompts (you can choose your own questions).
   I think I have partly met my standards because I have started researching native plants that grow well in Taipei/Taiwan. I wanted to find plants that are suitable for the local environment and that could germinate when scattered onto the surface of the soil. However, I still need to research more about the germination process/requirements, such as the amount of sunlight and water they need. I also need to research the specific regions where the plants grow and put them into an easy-to-read list. One thing I would like to improve is my organization, specifically in our group sheet. I should remember to update our timeline and the teacher feedback we receive. Also, the weekly tasks should be more detailed.

4. What your plan is to prepare for exhibition
   To prepare for the exhibition, I should make sure the prototype is finished, maybe even printed by a professional company. Format the experiment data in an easy-to-read way and have the posters we display not have mistakes and make sure everyone knows how to present. Practising for the exhibition by making a script would be helpful. Show our process through our posters, as it shows the effort we put into the project and helps people understand the skills we learnt through the process (3D modelling, woodworking, researching, paragraph writing, experiment writing, testing).

5. What you have found challenging and how you have (or will) overcome these challenges
   One of my biggest challenges is choosing suitable seeds. There are a ton of requirements for seeds, such as growing well in Taipei's climate and being able to germinate on the soil's surface. A ton of the sources I find are also in Chinese. To overcome this, I will make an organized chart of plants to consider, including factors such as whether it can live in Taipei's climate, its germination requirements, and seed size and shape. Another challenge is controlling the amount of seeds being released from the shaker. Different hole sizes/amounts could be tested to find the perfect balance.

6. An update on how you are working towards the goals you set in the first reflection.  
   I have made some good progress on my goals as I am learning ton in Intro to and AP Biology, using the concepts in Intro to Biology to understand what is being taught in AP Biology. We are also making good progress on our product enough that we are even considering contacting a company for a professional print. This is incredibly different from some of my first few years in PBL, where I would be rushing all my work in the last few weeks and being incredibly disorganized, making it just harder on myself to do anything.