In this project my group and I were assigned to construct three musical instruments ( one wind, string, and chime) that could play a complete octave and then preform a song for the class. The main question that we based our work on during this project was how we would create a signature instrument? Our solution to this problem was creating a fourth instrument for one of my group members that was different than all of our instruments we had made. We decided to make a piano using the programming software called Arduino from one of our previous projects this year. Our process for creating this instrument was to find an example of a completed project and work off of that. Luckily the plan we found online also embedded the written code for us to use. We spent a lot of time working on this instrument and put in a lot of effort inside and at home. In the end we were not able to make the piano work because of technical difficulties. Below is a written document that contains all of the information and evidence of work for all four of our instruments including descriptions, definitions, and images.
Below you can find the lyrics to the song that we preformed for the class, called Work It Out! It is a parody from the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical 2 about the physics concept work.
This song was co-written by myself and fellow freshman Elizabeth DeRuvo.
All in all, this was definitely one of my favorite projects this year. Two skill areas that I did well in for this project was leadership and empathy. The first skill area that I preformed well in was leadership. One example of when I used this skill well was the first day of the project when my group and I were unsure about how we would start our work, so I took control of the situation and created a shared document that we could write down or save images for inspiration. This really helped us start our engineering design process and get into a working grove/zone. The second skill that I preformed well in was empathy. An example of when I used this skill well was when we were about three days away from the presentation and I could see that one of my group members was struggling with finishing their instrument so I spent my next couple tutorials helping them complete it, because I know that I would really want the help if I was in her position.
While, I really enjoyed this project, I still have room to improve my skills. Two skills that I still need to work on are time management and communication. The first skill that I still need to improve on is time management. A specific example of when I knew that my lack of this skill became a problem was when one of my group members and I were really crunching for time and we did not plan that the instrument would take so long to finish we had to use a lot of our tutorial time and class time to try and finish it. We were not able to complete the instrument on time, but we did learn some valuable information. In the future I will make sure to have a well detailed time management chart that my groups and I can refer to if we need it. The second skill that I still need to improve upon is communication. An example of when this became an issue in this project was when one of my group members and I did not communicate as to who should work on one of documents and what to bring into class. We were able to work it out and turn in all of our assignments as well as make do with what materials were available to us. In the future I will make sure to start a group chat with the people in my group if we need to bring in any essential pieces for a project, and just so we generally all can be on the same page with each other.
All together, I truly loved this project! This was because I was able to apply my passions for the arts and music into something that is educational in the classroom. I learned new information about waves and sound, as well as having a lot of fun writing a song for our presentation. I am excited to see where my next years at San Marin will take me, and what other new and exciting projects there are in store.
While, I really enjoyed this project, I still have room to improve my skills. Two skills that I still need to work on are time management and communication. The first skill that I still need to improve on is time management. A specific example of when I knew that my lack of this skill became a problem was when one of my group members and I were really crunching for time and we did not plan that the instrument would take so long to finish we had to use a lot of our tutorial time and class time to try and finish it. We were not able to complete the instrument on time, but we did learn some valuable information. In the future I will make sure to have a well detailed time management chart that my groups and I can refer to if we need it. The second skill that I still need to improve upon is communication. An example of when this became an issue in this project was when one of my group members and I did not communicate as to who should work on one of documents and what to bring into class. We were able to work it out and turn in all of our assignments as well as make do with what materials were available to us. In the future I will make sure to start a group chat with the people in my group if we need to bring in any essential pieces for a project, and just so we generally all can be on the same page with each other.
All together, I truly loved this project! This was because I was able to apply my passions for the arts and music into something that is educational in the classroom. I learned new information about waves and sound, as well as having a lot of fun writing a song for our presentation. I am excited to see where my next years at San Marin will take me, and what other new and exciting projects there are in store.