Minchan Sunwoo

CLC 12
May. 5th 2020
Capstone final reflection

Capstone was a challenging project of the year, with a limited amount of time given, the
project was to come up with a bright, inspiring idea from the student to find their strengths,
weaknesses. The project demonstrated passion in each student causing them to find a future
decision due to the project being important and mandatory. The project gave a boost to start-up
students that were not able to find what their strengths are.

Choosing the research strand in my capstone project, about alternative future

transportation was very challenging at the start. However learning new materials such as how
each type of fuel is converted into energy was the major information that was required before
starting the project. Being able to research properly and to record was the best way of learning
new materials and then creating new research. This topic based on what the project was, it was
very widely talked among scientists and mechanics to find alternative fuel sources for vehicles
and many were invented and made. This is where the research gets most challenging, I needed
to find another resource we can use to power our transportation for the future. The skillset I had
to use was mostly creative thinking because talking about alternative fuel sources, chemistry is
needed because the way fuel combusts in the engine is all chemistry. I learned that I was able
to figure out and layout the combustible materials that could possibly be the alternative fuel
source.

This project was relevant in communities because the solution was to find an alternative fuel
source that is efficient, cheap, and eco friendly. There are millions of transportation being used
every single day and toxic gases are being released in the atmosphere causing a major global
environmental problem. Also doing a project related to transportation mechanics is a good way
to study and learn new materials since my interests are mostly in the mechanical field for the
future.

This project is mostly focused on the thinking in the core competencies, since it is a research
project large amounts of thinking, ideas, and analyze were put in, creative thinking; how the
completed research would look like so that whoever is reading the research would understand
properly, and it wouldn’t be a boring research presentation. Critical thinking is when the
interviewer asks a debatable question, having the correct answer to defend the research made
and the development and the design put into the design was also concentrated on critical
thinking. Communication was used during the collaboration with the mentor to gather much
information as possible. Although communications were weak, having a one to one project
presentation practice was very helpful because it makes the interviewer and the presenter
engage in each other. All the other three personal and social were mostly with well-being,
relations with others, and responsibilities since the project base was something that was
enjoyable because the curious minds caused the determination, and passion therefore
maintaining the well-being in the project was demonstrated. Building relationships were
demonstrated with the mentor and other helpers around with the project.

The impact it had was if the project would be a good material to present since other strands
included in bringing a live demonstration or an object that was created. Since the materials
required and the time, it would take to make and the test would take much longer so, therefore,
the research was able to give somewhat of a view of how the real-life demonstration would look
like.

I was most proud of how successful the project ended, the project did not finish with fiction
nonsense that would not work in the real world. Many have tried to think of a project similar to
this and being able to finish with the time given, made me feel that I was able to make it less
complicated. Quality over quantity was demonstrated in the project so that whoever reads or
sees the research, would give them quick, and detailed information that would be easier to
understand.

The most difficult phase was how the project is going to be presented, since inventing a new
device for this project would cost so much time and money. Therefore, making detailed research
would fill the viewer with the perspective of how this idea would be if it were to be invented and
functioned.

Two things that could’ve changed were that if the project started much earlier it could’ve
resulted in a better final project since there was a delay and it started late, the project could’ve
turned out much greater. Second is that if the idea wasn’t complex, the project could’ve turned
out easier to complete. Not meaning that the presenter was lazy to create an easy project if a
different topic was chosen, there could’ve been more outcome from the finished project. The
current project was finished but however, with the limited time the project was not able to be
displayed with its full potential.

The important advice the next capstone students should know is they have to stay on track on
work, they should not fall behind because the capstone is a project that can be worked
anywhere and it takes time and effort to finish. Falling back will result in other issues such as
other school work getting in the way when working on the capstone, the ideas or the topics can
be taken away, and finally, the opportunities to gather information will be lost. Another note is
that during the capstone project, pick something that will inspire, or is relevant to the future
career or something that one likes doing because choosing that will make the project more
interesting and enjoyable.

The source that helped most with the research was mostly any websites that had talks about
vehicle mechanics and engineering. It is a very common topic that is talked on the internet and
one of the other sources was learning at school because the school teacher made the lesson so
simple and easy to understand that during the research everything was understandable.
The approach that needed to be changed was the time management because making a
schedule to work on the project was difficult due to other school work and outside school were
getting in the way but it was all responsibility that took to finish the project best as possible
during the limited time. Starting early would’ve made the project outcome much better.