20 Time Reflection

When I first started this project, I was very lost. I had trouble grasping the idea of 20 time and what I could even do for the project. I ended up spending a solid chunk of my time trying to figure out what I was going to do. Eventually, I talked to Justine and we decided that we should do something together since we both did not know what we were doing for our respective projects. Just like before, we both struggled in figuring out what we should do. We started listing out different topics that we just enjoyed and would possibly want to look into. While the topics we discussed were very interesting, they were not the easiest ones to use to develop a final product with. We were cutting it down to the wire for our topic, and on the day that we had to turn our project proposal in, I had read an article on California’s water management. It talked about the usage of groundwater and how that is pumping the water out of the Earth, drying it out. After reading this article, I was fascinated with the topic and proposed it to Justine. We both agreed to it since it is relevant to us and it seemed like a good topic to choose for our project.

As we began to execute our plan, things did not go the way that we wanted it to. We overestimated our abilities to create a product that would be informative and interesting. Initially, we had this great plan to make a website that would inform people about our cause and how to help better manage water. Additionally, we had planned to include a documentary that could visually show an audience what exactly is going on, and what the public can do. Unfortunately, all of this did not go as planned so we had to completely scratch that idea. Instead, we have decided to create an infographic to present different information that we have found. This is what we have made.

This has been a really frustrating and stressful process for me. I do not think that I have had to change directions for a project so drastically before. It is definitely a different process, whether it be good or bad is still to be determined. I feel like through the constant changing of ideas has really forced me to be able to adapt to anything fast so that progress continues to be made. I have learned how to think on my feet and find a solution when things do not go as planned. This happened a lot to us unfortunately, but it did help me gain this skill. If I ever were to do this same project again, I would make sure to avoid electronics for the final product. Instead, I would look to do something that I could maybe test out or just have more concrete things.

I plan on taking all of the skills and information that I have learned from this project and apply them to my decisions in the future. I am definitely going to be more conscious about water and how I manage it from now on. Also, I plan on trying to include some of these tips I have learned at my own home.

Based off of everything that we had to deal with and what we were able to accomplish, I would give myself an A on this project. I made sure to always keep up with the blog posts with Justine, where we talked about our progress for each of the required blog posts: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Also, I would comment on other people’s posts and give my opinion and advice to others on how they could improve their project. I would always work to my best ability during class to try to improve our project and come up with creative ideas.

Ted Talk Outline:
1. Why we chose this topic

2. Specific facts regarding this topic

3. Show the infographics and elaborate more

4. How everybody can help manage water