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

Blog 22: Answer #3

Essential Question: What is the best way to win a game of chess?

Answer 3: It is important to remember to remain flexible during a game while also remaining consistent with your strategy.

Evidence
- A player who is flexible to the opponent's moves (can quickly adapt to any situation that occurs on board) will not have much success in the result of the game if there is no underlying strategy that your ultimate goal ends up in. 
- In the same way, a player who doesn't deviate from his per-determined strategy will also be unsuccessful because adapting to an opponent's moves is a huge part of knowing what specific strategies will work against them.
- It is important to keep a combination of both flexibility and consistency during a game, flexibility to react well to an opponent's strategy and the consistency of using a set strategy to actually work towards an endgame.

Source
- An article called flexibility vs consistency found on chess.com actually enlightened me on the importance of both factors and made me consider it as an answer.
- During my 3rd interview I actually asked the question, " What is more important, flexibility or consistency?" to be answered with wise advice that a combination of both is essential.
- Speaking on personal experience with the game, I have found that responding to every opponent's move will make you aggressive but will not give you a solid board position. Playing stiffly off a recently-learned strategy might be terrible against an opponent who is reacting to your moves and continuing with a failed plan will only lead you to a loss.

Room Creativity

(1) How do you plan to address the room creativity expectation?  

I will have a number of different self-made chess display boards all over the classroom that I can easily manipulate to provide a challenge or a puzzle to the students. This will demonstrate a creative approach to teaching the students, seeing as they can have physical interaction with the board's themselves. 

(2) What activity ideas do you have for answer 1 or 2?

My answer 1 is to play against higher skilled opponents to learn from their experience. I might have students play against the computer on a higher difficulty making them experience what my answer actually entails. 
For my second answer( Study the games played by chess Grandmasters) I'm still not too sure about how to actually do it inside the classroom. However, I will probably just show a famous game move-by-move on the board and stop at certain points to get predictions from different groups as to how "Kasparov" will move next, therefore having the students actively participating. 

Answer 2

EQ: What is the best way to win a game of chess?

Answer 2: One of the best ways you can improve your game in chess, and therefore lead to more wins, is to study the popular games of Grandmasters. 

Evidence: There are a large amount of games that can help a player with their skill. I will list 3 historic games that every player should know about:

- Deep Blue(Computer) vs Kasparov(Best player) 

- Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky (Cold War confrontation)

- Karpov vs Kasparov (2 Chess Icons) 

Source

- "Why they Play?" An article published by TIME magazine describing the fascinating reasons why grandmasters do what they do and their motivation behind it. 

- My Service learning gave me a lot of examples of games that I should study in order to improve.

- Chess.com provides most historic games ever played that can be easily accessed in order to study. 

The Product

As of this month, the product of my senior project would have to be my evident improvement of my skill in the game of chess. In other words, because of my work this year, I am a better player today than I was in September. I believe this is the case because playing so many games during the year, both in independent component(playing against people on chess.com for 30+ hours) and service learning(participating in Cal Poly chess club), has lead to a noticeable increase in overall wins comparing to previous years. 

My evidence for this can clearly be seen in my independent component blog because it shows the improvement i have made from the beginning of the year to now. 
http://diegocproject.blogspot.com/2012/02/independent-component-1.html

Fourth Interview Questions

Some of these questions are similar to previous questions, but I am trying to get another opinion, seeing as I am interviewing a different person.

 

1. What is the best way to win a game of chess?

2. What is the best way to teach someone the basics of chess?

3. Are there any good techniques to use when teaching others advanced chess techniques?

4. Would you suggest any books or articles that could help me answer the first question?

5. How important is playing against people who are "better" than you?

6. Do you think solving chess puzzles increases your ability to perform well in game?

7. Would you say there are any obvious mistakes to avoid that occur often in the game?

8. Do you think any specific openings are worth studying over others?

9. What do you think makes a grandmaster so good at the game?

10. Would you agree this game increases important academic traits like logic and memory?

11. What is chess notation?

12. Do you think using chess notation increases a player's ability to improve in game?

13. What are some ways a player can benefit from studying their own games?

14. What items would you think are essential in order to teach a class about chess?

15. How important is studying "chess prodigies" for personal improvement?

16. Why would some one pursue further knowledge of chess after knowing the basics of the game?

17. What is a better use of your time in order to improve? Playing one long game against an even opponent or playing multiple quickly won games against lesser opponents?

18. How can one pursue a "higher knowledge" of the game?

19. What would be more important in game? Being flexible to your opponent's moves or being consistent in your own strategy?

20. How can one teach beginners advanced terminology of the game without having them confused and lost? 

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

 1.) For my independent component 2, I plan on solving a large amount of chess puzzles over 30 hours of time from the book, “CHESS, 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games” by Laszlo Polgar.            

2.) I will solve puzzles in intervals of at least 30 minutes, and will record every single one I solve in a journal, which will include my personal solution and the actual solution. I will try to solve as many as possible in the time intervals I have.

3.) This will be extremely useful for solving my EQ because one of my answers is to solve as many puzzles as possible. I need experience doing this to be able to instruct others on how to do it. Also, my activity will include solving a puzzle with the class, so I think it will help me with the presentation. 

Independent Component 1

Literal: 

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

b. For my independent component,  from the 20^th of October 2011, I have logged in a total of 48 hours on Chess.com after playing an overall number of 181 games against ranked opponents. (The average time for a game was 15 minutes. )

Interpretive

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

With my topic being on chess, I can't start teaching what I don't know about. I needed a lot of experience with the game to be able to develop a different perspective on the subject. With so much experience in the past months, I have definitely improved my skill and have a better understanding of the game. 

I thought it demonstrated hard work because most of the games are only a few minutes long, so I had to play more to get the hours I needed. I could have just played turn-based games( day-long games) and gotten easy hours like that, but instead I thought more games would increase my skill and help me out more than just a couple of really long games. 

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. My third interview( Nguyen, Thongminh "Interview 3." Personal interview. 25 Jan. 2012) told me the best way to improve was to just keep playing games, and that is essentially what I have done with my independent task. A potential answer I currently have is to learn from more experienced players when you play against them. In a game played this past week, I had a superior position the entire game but still lost from a checkmate that I had never experienced. So after the game was finished I messaged the player and I was able to learn the technique he used to pull that surprising win. Overall, these hours of independent task have provided a level of experience and understanding of the game that I previously did not have. 

Hours Log Calendar (google doc):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtOdVDzQH5hJdDFSbXgtd01BdVdWVWRoN042eC03a3c#gid=0

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. I used games from October 20, 2011. 

http://www.chess.com/home/game_archive.html?member=diegocortez28&show=live

Presentation 2 Rough Draft

Google doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ohkod8eLSIZdLfZztLy9W4s7C4NHZs6uoydHScDwQY4/edit

Answer # 1

EQ: What is the best way to win a game of chess?

Answer: Personally play against superior opponents as often as possible.
(2) What possible evidence do you have to support this answer?

One of the best ways to improve your game and play better is to simply watch good games of chess. They don't have to be played by grandmasters, as long as you watch enough games, you will eventually pick up on patterns across the board. When this happens in one of your games, because of your experience studying, you will know what the opponent might be planning and be able to counter it. 

(3) What source(s) did you find this evidence and/or answer?

My source was my service learning instructor. When I asked him my EQ, he said it was important to study better player's games, especially if when they have more experience playing than you. He said no matter what level you are at, you can always learn more.

Service Learning

·  Where are you working for your service learning?

I have currently begun working with the Chess Club at Cal Poly University. We meet up at Ursa Major Room A every Wednesday. 

·  Summarize the services you have performed to complete the 10 hour requirement

At these meetings held every week, I play against the other members of the club and I take notes on things that could be of use to me. I also help set up everything and clean up. I try to learn as much as I can from these players, because most, if not all, have been playing their entire lives, and they play extremely well. 

·  How many hours have you worked?

So far, I have only attended one of these meetings due to previous schedule issues. I have 2 hours logged in and plan to increase that number as fast as possible with every week. 

ESLR Blog

The two ESLRs I think i fulfilled are effective user of technology and life-long learner. I'm an effective user of technology because for my project I needed to practice frequently playing chess against different opponents. To do this I used technology and went on chess.com to play against people around the globe. I'm a life-long learner because I've applied this new logical thinking patterns into things like my college classes in Cal Poly, community service, and life in general.

Third Interview Questions

1. What would you say is the best, most consistent, way of winning a game of chess?
2. Would you say there are any specific "openings" that give the player an edge early on in game?
3. What beyond knowing the rules is important to be successful in Chess?
4. In your opinion, which is more important and why? Having a clear plan for your strategy or adapting and reacting well to your opponent's moves?
5. How large a role does "natural talent" play in Chess?
6. Is it possible and realistic to strive for a grandmaster's level of skill if the player is a beginner with relatively no "natural talent?"
7. What would you say are factors, if any, that contribute to players making poor decisions and moves in a game?
8. Are there any notable players I should study that you believe would help my game out?
9. How often do you think a player must play in order to grow their knowledge of the game?
10. Do you think there are there any specific moves or strategies that you think are must-know's for every player? If so, what are they?