Blog 27: Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement

I am most proud of my activities during my 2-hour. I believed they were really strong and reinforced the content of my answers very well. I had the class actually solve some chess puzzles and then share-out and all of the groups seemed really interested so I can take pride in the fact that my hard work planning and practicing paid off.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation? Why?

a.

I feel I deserve an AE on my 2 hour because I prepared thoroughly prior to doing it, and I think everything turned out very well. I met the necessary talking time, I had strong activities that supported my answers, and I covered all the topics I wanted to cover.

What assessment would you give yourself for your senior project? Why?

b.

For my senior project as a whole, I would give myself a P+ because I received that same grade for my exit interview and all of my senior project work throughout the year has met the requirement for a proficient.

3. What worked for you in senior project?

I liked the fact that we had so much freedom with our 2-hour presentation. We weren’t tied down by a strict plan for how we should present. We were basically given the freedom to convey our content in any way we deemed fit.

4. What didn’t work for you in senior project?

I didn’t like the constant looming threat of getting on the NC rules list. It never motivated me more to do an assignment and it only made the people who were on the list hate senior year. While I see the advantages of having such a system in place, I believe it is a cruel way to punish those who haven’t turned in a component and an unnecessary rule throughout senior year.

5. Finding Value

My experience presenting during my 2 hour has really given me the confidence for future presentations of any size. After talking for over 30 minutes, it’s hard to get nervous over a simple 10-minute presentation. I have also found that with the large amounts of important deadlines in the year, I have actually become more responsible with turning my work in earlier. 

2-Hour Presentation

Service Learning

1. (1) LIA Response to blog:

    Literal

•       Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties

Calendar link 

54 hours at Cal Poly Pomona Chess Club. 

Contact: Sandra Luna (keeps track of log-in sheet's)

Phone: (909) 524-5477(personal cell)

Email: sandraluna1202@gmail.com

Interpretive

What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

There are countless things I learned from my time with the club. First of all, I got most of the ideas for my answers were derived from various interviews that I conducted with the experienced members of the club.  I was able to reconfirm most of the content I learned from my research with the helpful members of the club. The club also provided me with possible activities for my 2-hour presentation (ex. using a display board to have a chess puzzle for the class to solve). And finally, the club provided me with the experience that led me to my product of the year, which is I am now able to manage a chess club at a college-level.

Applied

How did what you did help you answer your EQ?  Please explain.

My hours at the chess club helped me answer my EQ(What is the best way to win a game of chess) by providing me  a place to conduct most of my interviews. These interviews often led me in the right direction when it came to finding value in my research. The members of the club were very helpful in making sure I had proper answers for my EQ and that I was spending my time effectively finding research from proper sources. They would often give useful advice whenever I asked them their opinion on my possible answers, and would always be willing to answer my questions or participate in my interviews. Overall, the answers for my essential question would be of far less quality today if I had not been lucky enough to participate in this chess club.

I Search Paper Draft

I-Search Draft google doc.

Independent Component 2

Literal: 

a. I, Diego Cortez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b. For my independent component 2, I have logged in a total of 38 hours on Chess.com after playing an overall number of 152 games against ranked opponents.( Average of 15 mins/per game) I have also completed a small-scale experiment to try to prove whether solving chess puzzles will increase overall online rank. I also completed a lab write-up for said experiment. 

Interpretive

Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.

The reason I did so many hours of independent games was because I wanted to build up a lot of personal experience to be able to test out my different potential answers. I believe this already is proficient work because I have more than 38 amount of hours playing games and developing skill, which is clearly evident in the 13 % increase in my overall online rank since the beginning of the year. However, I took it a step farther, and preformed and wrote a report on a "mini- experiment" to try to prove a potential answer, "Solving chess puzzles will increase skill." Despite the fact that this is probably no longer one of my top 3 answers, I still feel I learned a lot about how different forms of practice can help a player improve. 

Applied

How did it help you answer your EQ?  Be specific and use examples.

My EQ is "What is the best way to win a game of chess?" It would be impossible to answer this question with relevant  answers if I had no experience with the game. Again, I want personal experience with the content that I want to teach during my 2 hour presentation. If I am asked about how I am an "expert" in my topic, I wanted to be able to show them the work that I have done with independent studies. Playing over a total of 326 online ranked games throughout my senior year is something that I am proud of and I believe is evidence of a lot of personal experience and commitment to the topic.  

Chess Puzzle Experiment lab report (Google Doc):

Lab Report

Hours Log Calendar (google calendar):

Log Calendar( View in month-mode)

Evidence of 30 hours of work: 

For the evidence, I will simply provide my account's(diegocortez28) public game archive on chess.com. It keeps track of every single game I have played on the site.

My chess.com game archive

Helping 2013

Interview with Evan Muth.

(1) What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

• (their answer) He had 2 ideas for his senior project, Robotic's or Anthropology. He chose these topics because he already has an idea for service learning for both and he finds them very interesting. 
• (What feedback did you offer when you heard the topic ideas?) I thought these were pretty interesting ideas and I told him choose one as fast as possible to get a head start on next year. 

(2) What do you plan to do to complete the 10 hours of service learning (working with an expert) which is due prior to senior year starting?  Note: They also have to complete the 50 hours during the school year.

• (their answer) He can take a course on either topic during the summer at the University of San Diego. This would exceed the 10 hour requirement easily.  
• (What feedback did you offer them in response?) I told him it was great that he already has his plan set out to meet next year's goals. 

(3) What do you hope to see or expect to see when watching the class of 2012 present their two hour presentations?

• (their answer) He is looking to see how much he will have to do for his own project. He also wants to watch for examples of Essential questions because he is not sure what his will be.
• (What suggestions did give them regarding how they should approach watching the 2 hour presentations?)  I told him to absorb as much knowledge from the 2 hours as possible because you can get a fairly good idea of what works and what doesn't. 

(4) What questions do they have about senior project?  What additional recommendations would you give the 2013 student about senior project?  Be specific and note what you told them.

• (questions they had) He had a question about research check's and the overall binder due at the end. So I clarified the overall count and dates to watch out for. 
• (What additional recommendations did you give them?) I told him if he is responsible with his work and does not procrastinate, senior year won't be the horrible year everyone hypes it up to be. 

Blog: Answers

Answer 1: Play against superior opponents as often as possible

Answer 2: Study the games played by Grandmasters

Answer 3: Utilize a flexible strategy