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Bradley Heyn

Mr. Rudebusch

Senior Project

29 March 2019

Reflection

Throughout the development of my senior project, I have spent around twenty-nine hours

progressing my project as I shadowed, researched, met with advisors, and prepared my final

project. For my product, I spent around four hours preparing my T-joints and creating my power-

point presentation. When I created my product, I had to gather the steel that I needed to use to

weld on, cut it to the correct length, set up my work space, put my personal protection equipment

on, tack the steel together in the shape of a T, weld it, and take pictures while doing so. For my

presentation, I had to create a power point explaining the process students have to go through to

practice their welding. Within the process, I took them through the steps they need to follow in

order to successfully create their T-joints, what safety equipment to wear, and explained how

they’ll be graded on their welds. During my shadowing experience, I spent twenty-two hours

shadowing three welding instructors at the Welding Technologies Department in Lake Area

Technical Institute. Their names include; Chad Voelsch, Joshua Jutting, and Jamison Jalbert. The

last few hours I spent creating my webpage and making final adjustments to my whole project.

Throughout my Senior Project, I encountered many different problems. My hardest

problem to overcome would be having to figure out what to do for my product. I originally

planned to design some sort of fancy welding artwork to show how fun it is to just build things,

but I soon realized that wouldn’t fit in with a presentation, so I decided to create T-joints instead
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and present the methods college students follow to learn how to weld. I also had troubles with

staying on top of my work and making sure I had gotten everything done on time. There were a

few nights where I had to stay up and finish a deadline so I could keep senior privileges;

however, I was able to get it all worked out in the end and get everything done.

I believe that I managed my time wisely other than when I had to develop my webpage. I

procrastinated to the last day to complete it. Even though I had all of the information that I

needed, I still had to put it on my website, and I realized rather quickly that I should not have

waited as long as I did. Other than that, when there were deadlines to meet, I had no issues

having my work done on time.

From my experience, I gained a lot of knowledge about college welding courses, and I

enjoyed learning about how college welding instructors go about their day. I found out that I

personally would not like to pursue a career in the field of being a college welding instructor

only because I don’t have the patience for some of the students that I would have to teach.

Another reason I would not pursue this profession is because I do not like to repeat myself over

and over again which lies in the mist of being patient. I am very glad that I made the decision to

a welding instructor because I learned many things about the career and what I like and do not

like about it. With this shadowing experience, I have gained the knowledge that I will not be

attending LATI for Welding this fall but rather for Business-Entrepreneurship in hopes of

creating my own business.

I personally believe that my presentation will go very well once I get rolling. I am always

a little nervous when presenting to adults or even fellow classmates. Before my final

presentation, I need to wrap up my webpage and make sure that everything within it is

accessible, fix my mistakes from our practice presentation due the juniors, and practice
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presenting a couple more times. While presenting I hope my panel will gain the knowledge of

how an everyday college welding course progresses and how students are taught to weld. I

believe that it is very important that college students learn how to weld the proper way and Lake

Area Tech is molding their students to do so.

Overall, for the time that I have put into my Senior Project, I would give myself an A- or

a B+ because I have worked extremely hard for the last three months to complete it. I have met

deadlines and worked hard in the class-time the Mr. Rudebusch had provided us. Although I

didn’t stay on top of everything a couple times, I still managed to complete my project and had a

great time doing so.