Letter of Reflection

Thomas Mancinelli (Class of 2017)

Santa Susana High School

After completing my senior project as well as the research that comes

with it, I can safely state that there were several high points and low points

in terms of progress and outside influences that may have hindered my

progress. Perhaps the most challenging part of the whole experience was

determining how I should have went about completing my fieldwork hours.

The reason this was difficult was because my project was solely based on

research, and I did not want my fieldwork component to be solely derived

from the internet, which is where I could have researched my entire project

(but didnt). I instead decided to attend various research-heavy seminars

whose primary purpose was to give me the research needed to complete my

senior project. Perhaps the best part about my whole project would be the

research itself, which in itself is fascinating to me as I happen to love nearly

everything that has to do with space..

Along the path to completing my senior project, there were several

instances in which certain aspects of my project were unanticipated. One

such instance involved the methods I would use to obtain my research, which

I had originally limited to solely seminar-based research, but because of the

sparsity of such seminars, I had to rely on credible internet sources for the
gathering of some of my research. Aside from this, as well as the various

unexpected research I received from both the the seminars and from credible

online sources, nothing else was unanticipated.

With unexpectedness aside, there were several aspects of my senior

project that enlightened me on the complexity of the research I had been

collecting and analyzing. For instance, when I first started out, I believed that

the research being presented regarding my project would only involve

certain aspects, such as what kind of atmosphere is required and how far the

planet should be from its star. Not only did the research cover this, it also

covered how thick the crust of the planet should be, and what the

composition of rock underneath the crust should be composed of. As such, I

learned that it would be wiser to expect ones research to be both

complicated and extensive, as this will avoid any unanticipated

complications when collecting and analyzing the research. In addition, I also

learned that my overall project not only demonstrates my scholarly ability to

locate credible sources and skillfully analyze their contents, it also

emphasizes the human qualities that I have demonstrated, notably deciding

to base my research primarily on seminar-based research rather than

internet-based research.