ENGR 110 - Reflection #3

Bronco Urban Gardens Weather Station for Gardner Academy

Christina McKnight

Nine weeks ago, every student had the opportunity to pick out a partner to work with and
a specific project to take on. I chose the Gardner Academy Weather Station Project for many
reasons including the partner we were working with seemed extremely enthusiastic, the location
was decently nearby, and the project itself seemed to need a lot of creativity, which I was willing
to give. Over the past nine weeks, I was given the ability to explore my creativity on both an
artistic and an engineering side to complete this project.
Stepping on site the first day was definitely helpful in envisioning what my team and I
were about to create. I still am not sure who was more excited for the weather station our partner
or the kids. Lisa Martinez was our partner and in many ways she was also our customer. On the
first day, she toured us around the whole school and introduced us to all the staff as the team
about to make a new weather station. Her excitement over the project did add some stress of high
expectations, but it also made us appreciate being able to create something that our community
would really appreciate. She explained to us that this school was made up of a lot of minority
children that didnt have a lot of advantages in life growing up. She also explained that these
little projects, like the weather station, gave the children something to look forward to when
coming to school.
Though we did not get to interact with the kids directly, Lisa was like a kid herself, she
would continue to show appreciation and excitement at every step of the way. In addition, she
helped pay for some of our materials, she gave us constant communication about what she
wanted, and overall made working on the project really smooth and enjoyable. It was because
Lisa Martinez worked for the Bronco Urban Gardens that I believe her excitement was not just
for the weather station, but for this idea that students in the area could make a difference through
a larger organization.
The Bronco Urban Gardens organization works with Santa Clara University to help out
many schools around the area create a garden setting for students to learn in. It is through this
organization that we were able to help out the Gardner Academy and the kids who attend. I
believe that it is through this organization that we are going to be able to impact these kids in a
positive way. We can show them not only a new way to interactively learn outside, but also by
working on their campus, we show them where their education may take them in the future
years.
Taking in account what these kids and our partner wanted for the weather station was a
huge part of this course. I would say one of the greatest amounts of time spent on this project
was on planning our design. Each separate detail had to be thought out from many different
perspectives, one of the most important was the engineering perspective. The weekly meetings
led only to more changes as we figured out what safety hazards, weathering issues, and partners
concerns would affect our station. It was this whole process of thinking that was completely new
to me, especially because this was the first time something I was doing in class, that related to
my major, was actually going to be put into use in the community. Being a computer science
major, our big goal is to continuously solve problems, most of which are only for practice to
improve our coding. However, through this experience I was able to fix a lot of little problems
that would come together to create this beautiful weather station in real life. This thought
process, or the engineering design process was extremely improved on my part. Specifically, I
realized how important understanding your environment, your partner, and your customer are in
making a project that would be able to stick around for a while. I think a lot of issues engineers
usually run into is they create an idea in their head not thinking out all the different variables and
end up making something not quite right. This project improved how I think through solving
problems as an engineer now, instead of thinking so straightforward of the easiest way to solve a
problem, I am also focused on applications, how these things can fit into real life.
This idea of being able to solve problems in the real world brings me to the most exciting
part of this whole project for me, the maker lab. The maker lab is a Santa Clara University
resource that I have begun spending a lot of time at since this project began. It was a tool that
allowed me to create the things we needed for our project in a very quick, cheap, and
personalized way. I mostly have begun using the laser cutter, which has allowed me to cut our
rainbows, letters, and shapes for our board. However, the problem with designing your own parts
for the board was making sure our whole team knew exactly what we wanted. It was after
visiting the lab by myself, and then with someone, that I realized having an extra eye to give you
feedback on what you are creating can be very helpful in making exactly what you need. It was
this lesson that applied throughout my whole project, that it takes a team to be able to solve
problems from many different perspectives. My team succeeded extremely in communicating
and working together and I now am a big advocate for working as a team rather than working
alone because of how helpful feedback can be. This course has definitely been a huge help in the
way I think through problems and execute them. It gave me the confidence to want to ask for
help from the resources around me and also helped me appreciate how many resources I have as
a student at SCU. I am actually planning on becoming a supervisor for the maker lab because of
how much enjoyment I found in being able to execute these ideas in my head. Overall, as a daily
problem solver, I have found this course to be a huge improvement in how I go about solving. I
break things apart, ask for help, and work through my obstacles in a much more efficient
manner. I am excited to see where these skills will take me in projects in the future.