Mars Rover Reflections from VirtCamp

Reflections on the Mars Rover Mission

Thursday
Today we redesigned the vehicle. We’ve decided to have the arm go down and over instead of pinching together. We are all working well together. We all seem to participating in all the parts. We are feeling a little behind but we don’t seem to be stressed out yet. We are frustrated with the programming. We are definitely multi-tasking. It seems unreal that we only have one day left.

Friday
We are a little frustrated. We have had to redesign a few times. I think the concept of redesigning is especially important to keep retesting. Reflecting, I can’t help but think about when new theories are developed, they should as soon as possible be brought into a testing environment. So as not too get to far down a road or redesigning, it’s better to test as the theory evolves, instead of waiting until you have a finished product. The evolution of our product has changed in many ways but we’ve sometimes gotten too far down a road before we realized our errors. Again, the process of redesigning. We have, of course become quicker in our designs as time goes. Quicker to readjust our theories and we ask better questions earlier on.

We’ve each taken on some things individually but are also involved together. Although some of the projects lend themselves better to working alone, others definitely are better with collaboration. Again, like in an educational setting some things are better as groups, other parts some individual, then collaboration.

Juggling has been key. I think it’s been the intention of the program to give us many things to think about as well as many hurdles to overcome, many of them technological hurdles. Most of us have been introduced to some new technology and tried to apply. In our groups, it seems that none of us know everything, We also seem to be able to understand each others personalities better after problem solving together.

Brainstorming Reflections...
Reflections….
During the process we realized we learned 10-15 minutes after the moment, we walked away, realized after something started working.

Scott - I have two hard drives, the left side of my brain and the right side of my brain
Susan – step away from the computer
Christian – Isn’t this weird? Don’t you think the BLOG’s spellcheck should recognize the word “blog”
Chrisitian – “Do we have an email account for blackboard”
Christian – “what do you think the worst program in history is?” Susan “AVID”
Christina, “Blackboard”
Kari “My brain is starting to shut down”
Susan “Is someone getting this?”
Christian “We’re talking like it was blackboard or something”
What should we call it, “mission to mars video”?





The gratification of learning comes at different stages, different times.

Without the frustration, you wouldn’t be as thrilled.

It’s the highs and the lows are important. If things aren’t ever too bad, then the highs don’t seem so high, they are relative. This is not only true with learning.

I thought it was good, I like projects where people actually work together. Where you can truly hand off a project and know the next person is going to do the best job they can. It was truly teamwork, we each did things and none of us worried about what the other one was doing, we had confidence in the others abilities.

Reflecting, I can’t help but think about when new theories are developed, they should as soon as possible be brought into a testing environment. So as not too get to far down a road or redesigning, it’s better to test as the theory evolves, instead of waiting until you have a finished product. The evolution of our product has changed in many ways but we’ve sometimes gotten too far down a road before we realized our errors. Again, the process of redesigning. We have, of course become quicker in our designs as time goes. Quicker to readjust our theories and we ask better questions earlier on.


Susan learned when you save something, look to see where it’s being savaed.




Group Reflections

∑ The reward in learning wasn’t realized until 10-15 minutes after we had moved on to the next stage.
∑ The gratification of learning comes at different stages, different times.
∑ Without the frustrations, you wouldn’t be as thrilled.
∑ The highs and the lows are important. The extreme lows make the extreme highs; they are relative. This is not only true with learning.
∑ I like projects where people actually work together. Where you can truly hand off a project and know the next person is going to do the best job they can. It was truly teamwork, we each did things and none of us worried about what the other one was doing, we had confidence in the others abilities.
∑ Reflecting, I can’t help but think about when new theories are developed, they should as soon as possible be brought into a testing environment. We determined it’s better to test as the theory evolves, instead of waiting until you have a finished product.
∑ The evolution of our product has changed in many ways but we’ve sometimes gotten too far down a road before we realized our errors. We have become quicker in our designs as time goes. Quicker to readjust our theories and we ask better questions earlier on.