Final reflection

February 15 / 2018

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Reflection skills

This will be the final entry I will be writing for this blog regarding my personal project, which means that this will be my very last reflection based on my process and my performance during this past months.

The very first thing I would like to outline is the fact that I believe this blog (process journal) helped me a lot regarding my organization skills, because everything I did, I would record it here, and during the process of writing my final report (which occurred today) that came to help me a lot. 

One thing I believe did not help me during my process was the work plan I did during stage A of the personal project, I come to say this because in my work plan, I set objectives to be met at certain random dates, but when I set those dates I did not take into account that I also had other very important commitments that were unrelated to the personal project, which means that there were a lot of times in which I was not able to meet up to the dates I had set a long time ago, which would result in me stressing out, and falling behind on my plan. So, instead of following my work plan, and doing everything it told me to do, I decided to do those tasks I had the will and the time to do based on the time frame I had available to me at the time.

I have to say the method I used regarding my organization and my plan was not ideal, but it turned out to work for me, and without having to constantly worry about meeting deadlines I came to be more productive and a lot more efficient. 

Regarding my performance in stage B, I must say it was as optimum as I could have expected it to be. I am saying this because during that stage, I planned everything about my final product on detail, I set all the topics I wanted to talk about, and did some superficial research on all of them in order to be prepared when the time of writing their final definitions for my book came. 

I also applied what I had learned during my design class and came up with three different cover ideas for my book, which eventually resulted in me merging two cover ideas and creating one that I personally like very much.

The process of writing my book was quite unique, and I am not saying that because the process was perfect, but rather because it was lousy. My book was written during the short period of hardly a month. And during that month, I worked on it as hard as I had ever worked on anything else in my entire life, I would spend days dedicated to it, and sacrificed a lot of sleep hours because of it. Furthermore, I must outline the fact that the process it took for me to write one final definition was long and exhausting, that is because there were some days in which I did not know how to write what I wanted to say, and others in which I could sit down and write for hours, which basically means that I did not follow a pattern nor a plan while writing my book, I would just write whenever I felt like it about whatever topic I felt an interest on at the moment. But for as much of a challenge as creating my book was, I wouldn't change anything about it because it was unique, and I really enjoyed it.

A person I have to mention in this entry is Lizbeth (my supervisor), because even though we had few meeting and almost no contact at all during my process of writing the book, I must outline that she was a very good supervisor in the way that any doubt I had, she was always there to help me answer it, and whenever I felt stressed and overwhelmed, she helped me in the process of calming my self down. So even though she was not my first choice of supervisor (because my first choice was fired at the end of 8th grade), I now believe that she was always the best choice of supervisor, even though I was not able to see it at first.

And finally, I find myself in the obligation to state that even though some may not see it in the same way as I do, the personal project is a great exercise that helps us grow as independent and efficient human beings. It helps us develop great unthinkable things, for example in my case, I did not consider myself able to write a book about the brain, but turns out I am, and I came to realize this thanks to this project, and the help of my supervisor Lizbeth.
During this process I also learned to do things based on my own initiative, and not based on something a teacher tells me I have to do, which helped me become more independent, and capable of working on my very own.

Preparation for the final report

February 8 / 2018

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Critical thinking skills

In order to prepare for the upcoming task of writing the final report of my personal project I will be doing certain things that I should have done some time ago but was either not able to find the time to do so, or I simply forgot about them.

The first thing I will be doing is adding the approaches to learning I came to use during the making of certain old entries that do not have any approaches to learning identified because back then, I did not know they had to be included in every single entry. It is important that I do this because in the final report they will be asking for evidence of the use of various approaches to learning throughout the course of the personal project.

The second thing I will do is taking a deep look at all my entries and deeply analyze them in order to entirely understand my process and my actions throughout the development of my project.

I will also be pre-selecting those entries that I would like to use as annexes during the final report that are basically used as evidence.

My final book

February 5 / 2017

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Critical and creative thinking skills

This entry is all about the final product that came to create during the process of my personal project. The name of my book is "The Brain" and it is about the different parts of the brain and the way in which they all work. 

The process of writing this book was very long and challenging because as I have already mentioned previously, I did not expect the brain to have as many complex parts and sub parts that would emerge from everywhere. The process was also very long because there were times in which I could not gather myself to write, which would stress me out, and eventually resulted in me not being able to work because of the stress that emerged from me on not knowing what to write.

Furthermore, for as much of a challenge as it was, it was an enriching experience that resulted in me creating a book about the brain that makes me very proud of myself.

The following are some pictures of the final printed book.

Criterion D - Step 2

February 3 / 2018

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Reflection skills because I am reflecting back to what I was able to learn and comprehend during the process of developing my product.

How has completing the personal project extended your knowledge and understanding of the topic of your product/outcome?

It helped me and taught me a great variety of things about the parts of the brain itself and all of their different functions because as I have already mentioned in previous entries, I literarily knew barely nothing about the human brain, my limited knowledge was based on some stuff I had read on some books I own. Meaning that this project helped me learn a lot about the brain and understand were some of our most vital functions and actions are coordinated and carried out.

How has completing the personal project extended your knowledge and understanding of the global context you have chosen?

It helped me comprehend basically what the Identity and relationships global context was based upon because I studied the global context with an emphasis on how the brain aids in the achievement of mental health, this means I got to simplify the variables of the global context and understand how it is mainly about the way in which your identity is developed through different situations or in my case organs and the way in which you get to form relationships with other people.

Criterion D - Step 1

February 2 / 2018

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Reflection skills because I was able to look back to my actions and precisely analyze my product and give it a grade based on my criterion table.

According to Lizbeth's blog, the first step to be done in the criterion D process is to give yourself and your final product a number of grades based on the criteria you set previously on your criterion table. 

Regarding esthetics, I believe my book deserved an 8 because the circuits present in the front cover make it very attractive to the eye, as well as the pictures and the fun facts present in the inside on the book, and as demanded by the criterion table, there are no manufacturing errors whatsoever. 

In cost, I would say I deserve an 8 as well because the minimum price I set for the book was 60,000 pesos, and the value turned out to be 70,000 pesos, meaning I over achieved the set investment price.

In the user or recipient criteria my product receives a 7 because I tested it on 5 subjects with diverse ages and they all understood the book, however it is impossible to be absolutely certain that every person who reads it is able to understand what it is I am talking about.

In function, the book will receive a grade of 8 because according to pages, it does not hold any grammatical error, it talks about everything I previously proposed myself and organizes the different topics in a proper way that provides an easy access to the desired definition.

Materials used in the making of the book deserve a grade of 8 because it comes with a hard cover and satin paper that provide the book with a very high quality that will aid in it's endurance.

Size and content of my book deserve an 8 as well because every specification set in the criterion table came true with the book, for example measurements were precisely the same and I overachieved the minimum page number which was 25, and I ended up with a total of 52 pages.

The impact my book has on the audience deserves a grade of 7 because as I previously mentioned before, it is well explained and easy to understand by all the subjects I tested, however, it is yet to soon to tell if all readers will be able to comprehend what it is trying to teach.

Reflection stage C (taking action)

February 1 / 2018

Stage: D) Reflecting

Approaches to learning: Reflection skills because I am looking back to my process during the action stage and considering what went well and what didn't.

Now that I have finished my final product, I believe it is time for a reflection. First of all, I must say I am very proud of myself and of the fact that I was able to complete my book with all of the topics I wanted to cover, because to be honest, in those moments in which I didn't know how nor what to write, I didn't think I would make it.

I must say, the planning of all the parts of the brain I wanted to write about in my book helped me quite a lot because they served as small reminders of the basic functions and guides in order for me to properly formulate the explanation. However I noticed that some where more complete compared to others, and I blame that on the rush and pressure I felt because I knew I had to start writing my book as soon as possible due to the fact that I was running out of time. 

Furthermore, I did have to extend the research I had previously done when writing the final explanation because I found that the information I had was just not enough, so, I expanded my research, and got to learn a lot more.

Regarding sources, there were some very good sources and some terribly awful ones, amongst the good ones that helped me a lot were medical news today and spinal cord because they were very complete and explained very well so I was able to properly understand what they were talking about. The terrible sources that I could not stand were radiopedia and science direct, I hated radiopedia because it explained terribly and offered a very small amount of information, I did not like science direct for the exact same reasons as radiopedia and because the web page itself was very hard to handle.

Over all, I believe my performance in the taking action stage was very good because I was efficient and recorded the whole process of writing the final explanations in my blog.

Criterion C - Demonstrating communication and social skills - Step 3

January 31 / 2018

Stage: c) taking action

Approaches to learning: Critical thinking skills because I was able to look back to my process during criterion c and consider consequences and choices I made.

Communication with experts and how their advice  informed the creation of your product/outcome

During the process of writing my book I spoke to one specialist in pediatrics, Dr. Javier Mejia, however I did not make anymore interviews because I believe they made no contribution whatsoever to my final product due to the fact the any doubts I could have regarding the human brain, I had no time to ask for an appointment and consult my doubts with an specialist, in my short timed case, Google was quicker and a far more approachable solution. 

Communication with your supervisor and how their feedback informed the completion of your personal project

During the process of my personal project I had 5 meetings with Lizbeth (my supervisor), the very first meeting took place the 30th of August in 2017, back then, I was still working on the old theme, meaning that whatever it is we discussed, it did not help me in the development of my final product about the brain. My second meeting with Lizbeth was on September 8th, that was the meeting in which I told her I no longer wanted my project to be about gout but about the human brain instead, she told me it would be a lot more fun to  create interactive games about the brain rather than writing a book, however I really wanted to write something, so here idea of the games was forgotten. My third meeting with Lizbeth was on October 4, in that meeting she just asked me to catch up as soon as possible. The fourth meeting with Lizbeth took place on November 8th, just like in the previous meeting, she took a look at may blog and congratulated me for being so organized, she asked me to hand in the criterion table as soon as possible. Finally, the 5th meeting took place before going on December vacations, in that meeting she advised me to further decorate my blog and what should be present in some entries in order for them to be complete.

How have you read a variety of sources for information on your personal project

During my project, I got to read and consult 65 sources in total, even though they should have been different types of sources I am sad to say only around 4 of them all were not Google. So in conclusion, even though most of my sources were online, they are all good and legitimate sources.

How have you made inferences and drawn conclusions

When talking about the human brain, it is impossible to know it all, so I obviously made conclusions based on some facts and pure logic provided by the different sources I got to consult. For example, in my book I wrote: "because if it weren't for its presence, some of our main human characteristics would be gone, and our "normal" behavior as we know it today, would be non existent" the past quote is an inference I made based on the information that was given to me about the temporal lobe.