Week 10: Final Week

This week marked the conclusion of my senior project and was focused on reflecting on the overall results, practicing the final presentation, and preparing for the symposium demonstration.

One of the biggest tasks this week was summarizing the findings from the project. Looking back at the classroom sessions, student feedback, and collected data, one trend remained consistent: students became more engaged and confident when they were given ownership over the engineering process. Rather than simply following instructions, students were more willing to experiment, troubleshoot, and collaborate when working with a fully hands-on system.

The project also reinforced the importance of learning through iteration. Students were often most engaged when something did not work the first time because it encouraged discussion, testing, and problem-solving. Watching students move from uncertainty to independence over the course of the project was one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.

Alongside reflecting on the results, I spent time practicing the final presentation with my internal advisor in order to stay concise and within the time limit.

I also worked on setting up the robot demonstration for the symposium. I borrowed a student’s project from the facility for this demo. This included testing the robot, preparing presentation materials, and making sure everything is reliable for the live demo. Since the project is centered around hands-on learning, having a working demonstration is an important part of showing how the curriculum functions in practice.

This project started as an idea to make engineering education more engaging and accessible, but it ultimately became much more than that. It showed me how powerful hands-on learning can be, not just for teaching technical skills, but for building confidence, curiosity, and creativity and I have high hopes for taking this project into the summer and beyond.

Thank you for following along throughout this journey!