Reflection
1. How and why did you choose your topic? I chose the issue of environmental racism mainly because I was unaware that I had been living under it for the past seventeen years. It was not until I came to Social Justice High School that I learned what environmental racism is and the fact that I was living in a community suffering from it. I want more people to be aware that environmental racism exists because there may be others just like me that did not know they were living under it. I mainly want people to understand the health risks that can be brought upon by the air pollution created by the power plants that are in proximity to their community.
2. What were the total hours spent working on your project? Discuss your experiences as you worked on it. I lost track of how many hours I spent in total on my project but it sure did feel like a whole lot. I spent lots of time researching and putting my thoughts together in my essays. It was hard to find good information that could be useful to put into each of my essays or components of my overall project. The project was not easy for me and it did take a lot of planning, patience, and time to successfully finish this project.
3. What were some of your experiences when conducting research and writing the paper? Finding accurate or trustworthy sources was hard to find because there are not always enough sources that you can really look at. It was important to get my research done first because it did help me write my essays faster and have more evidence in them.
4. What did you do to manage your time? How did you balance, work, school, sports, etc...? To be honest I really did not manage my time wisely. I did waste a lot of time and fell slightly behind but I am glad that I did finish my project on time. I think what made it hard for me to not manage my time was that I did not have enough time in my classes to work on my fire project. The reason why I did not have time in class was because of my AP classes and I only got the week before the project was due to work on it in class because that was when AP testing was over and done with.
5. What did you learn about working with other people, especially your partner(s)? I did not have a partner so I really cannot say what it was like to work with one. I can say that working alone is better in my opinion because you do not have to worry about your partner not working if you do have one.
6. Were your original goals for your project carried out by the time you finished? How were they different? I did not really focus on my goals because all I wanted to do was finish my project completely. At one point I did fall slightly behind but it was easy for me to catch up. I even forgot what my goals were because I did not manage my time wisely and had to rush some things towards the end.
7. What was the "stretch" for you? How did you challenge yourself through the project you picked? Was there a risk? How did you face any fears and overcome obstacles? I really do not think I had a stretch. I challenged myself by sticking to the project even when I had difficulty finding enough good sources. I did not have any risks but I would say that my only obstacle was staying focused especially during prom weekend because all I wanted to do was have fun but I constantly had my project in the back of my head and that helped me stay motivated and finish it.
8. What would you like the audience to know about your project that might help them understand more about what you have accomplished? I am not really sure what I would like to tell them besides the fact to look over all the evidence I have on my site to see that environmental racism does exist and is a problem especially in the state of Illinois.
9. What grade would you give yourself for what you have accomplished through your Fire Project? Explain this grade. If I had to give myself a grade I would give myself a B or C because I feel like I did rush some of my work and it may not what my teachers wanted. I know my teachers always expect a lot from me and sometimes that pressure really gets to me but I know I tried my hardest to get my project done as best as I could and I hope my teachers see that.
10. What skills do you feel you have mastered? Which do you need to still work on? I think I have mastered finding trustworthy sources related to a topic I choose and incorporating the evidence I found into my essays. Something I need work on is learning how write my citations because I get confused by the different formats you can write them in.
11. Thinking about the whole process and your finished product, what are you most proud of? I am mainly proud at the fact that I got the project done and the fact that I got useful information to get my point across that environmental racism exists. By knowing it exists it will hopefully make people more aware and wanting to take part in the Environmental Justice Movement to end environmental racism.
12. What was a difficulty you encountered and how did you solve the problem? The main difficulty I had was managing my time and not staying focused. I solved this issue by staying in my room for long hours with no TV or radio and forcing myself to get things done.
13. What is one thing about your approach to your project that you wish you could change? Why? I think one thing I would have changed is mapping out when to do things and when I should have them done ahead of time that way I would not have to rush anything towards the end when my project was due.
14. What is one thing about your finished project you wish you could change? Why? I think the only thing I would want to change is actually having time to execute an action that way I can see if I was successful in bringing awareness to the minorities affected by environmental racism.
15. How accurately did you answer your central question? Did your central question change at all during the course of your project? Why? I think I did answer my central question because it was mainly to show that environmental racism exists by showing the locations where it is occurring and the effects the air pollution is causing people.
16. What source from your research helped you the most? (or least?). The main sources that helped me were pdf’s because they had the most information since they were written by well-known organizations, professors, or government organizations.
17. What advice would you give to a student who will be completing their Capstone Project next year? The main advice I will give them is to pick a topic that they are passionate about and will not want to change if obstacles come about. I will also advise them to stay focused and truly manage their time because they will become extremely stressed if they leave everything towards the end.
2. What were the total hours spent working on your project? Discuss your experiences as you worked on it. I lost track of how many hours I spent in total on my project but it sure did feel like a whole lot. I spent lots of time researching and putting my thoughts together in my essays. It was hard to find good information that could be useful to put into each of my essays or components of my overall project. The project was not easy for me and it did take a lot of planning, patience, and time to successfully finish this project.
3. What were some of your experiences when conducting research and writing the paper? Finding accurate or trustworthy sources was hard to find because there are not always enough sources that you can really look at. It was important to get my research done first because it did help me write my essays faster and have more evidence in them.
4. What did you do to manage your time? How did you balance, work, school, sports, etc...? To be honest I really did not manage my time wisely. I did waste a lot of time and fell slightly behind but I am glad that I did finish my project on time. I think what made it hard for me to not manage my time was that I did not have enough time in my classes to work on my fire project. The reason why I did not have time in class was because of my AP classes and I only got the week before the project was due to work on it in class because that was when AP testing was over and done with.
5. What did you learn about working with other people, especially your partner(s)? I did not have a partner so I really cannot say what it was like to work with one. I can say that working alone is better in my opinion because you do not have to worry about your partner not working if you do have one.
6. Were your original goals for your project carried out by the time you finished? How were they different? I did not really focus on my goals because all I wanted to do was finish my project completely. At one point I did fall slightly behind but it was easy for me to catch up. I even forgot what my goals were because I did not manage my time wisely and had to rush some things towards the end.
7. What was the "stretch" for you? How did you challenge yourself through the project you picked? Was there a risk? How did you face any fears and overcome obstacles? I really do not think I had a stretch. I challenged myself by sticking to the project even when I had difficulty finding enough good sources. I did not have any risks but I would say that my only obstacle was staying focused especially during prom weekend because all I wanted to do was have fun but I constantly had my project in the back of my head and that helped me stay motivated and finish it.
8. What would you like the audience to know about your project that might help them understand more about what you have accomplished? I am not really sure what I would like to tell them besides the fact to look over all the evidence I have on my site to see that environmental racism does exist and is a problem especially in the state of Illinois.
9. What grade would you give yourself for what you have accomplished through your Fire Project? Explain this grade. If I had to give myself a grade I would give myself a B or C because I feel like I did rush some of my work and it may not what my teachers wanted. I know my teachers always expect a lot from me and sometimes that pressure really gets to me but I know I tried my hardest to get my project done as best as I could and I hope my teachers see that.
10. What skills do you feel you have mastered? Which do you need to still work on? I think I have mastered finding trustworthy sources related to a topic I choose and incorporating the evidence I found into my essays. Something I need work on is learning how write my citations because I get confused by the different formats you can write them in.
11. Thinking about the whole process and your finished product, what are you most proud of? I am mainly proud at the fact that I got the project done and the fact that I got useful information to get my point across that environmental racism exists. By knowing it exists it will hopefully make people more aware and wanting to take part in the Environmental Justice Movement to end environmental racism.
12. What was a difficulty you encountered and how did you solve the problem? The main difficulty I had was managing my time and not staying focused. I solved this issue by staying in my room for long hours with no TV or radio and forcing myself to get things done.
13. What is one thing about your approach to your project that you wish you could change? Why? I think one thing I would have changed is mapping out when to do things and when I should have them done ahead of time that way I would not have to rush anything towards the end when my project was due.
14. What is one thing about your finished project you wish you could change? Why? I think the only thing I would want to change is actually having time to execute an action that way I can see if I was successful in bringing awareness to the minorities affected by environmental racism.
15. How accurately did you answer your central question? Did your central question change at all during the course of your project? Why? I think I did answer my central question because it was mainly to show that environmental racism exists by showing the locations where it is occurring and the effects the air pollution is causing people.
16. What source from your research helped you the most? (or least?). The main sources that helped me were pdf’s because they had the most information since they were written by well-known organizations, professors, or government organizations.
17. What advice would you give to a student who will be completing their Capstone Project next year? The main advice I will give them is to pick a topic that they are passionate about and will not want to change if obstacles come about. I will also advise them to stay focused and truly manage their time because they will become extremely stressed if they leave everything towards the end.