CCA 5 has been a great learning experience for myself, as I look back on all the assignments I have done throughout the year. As I reflect on all the assignments I have done, I become more and more aware of just how much APS connects and influences so many activities we do every single day. I made many connections between CCA and the function of an engineer, I have been able to apply APS to many aspects of an engineer. It has also taught me some skills and lessons that can help me in the future. Like checking reliability, picking out important information, skills needed to become an engineer. This project has taught me a lot about how we live, and how we might live in the future.
With step 4 of the CCA, I dived into the scientific world at full force. This was also the first time I ever created an annotated bibliography, on a formal reviewed scientific journal. I realized that experiments are much more complex and complicated than the one I did in CCA 3. The first thing I picked up when doing CCA 4 was just how much work was put in an experiment to make sure it gets reliable and clear results. It has given me a general idea how just how much preparation and analysis goes into a formal research journal.
Eco-industry
My article was on “ A System Dynamics Approach to Eco-Industry System Effects and Trends.”. It was investigating how integrating eco-economies into an industry based city, effects it positively or negatively. The article was really complex, like pages and pages on explaining terms and analyzing the data gathered. To really finish the project, I had to learn to pick up small parts of important information throughout the article and try to paint a general but clear idea of what the article was trying to communicate to the reader.From this CCA I learned much the general rules that govern how journals like these are formatted and made, and where to find important information.
The article also enlighten me about just how many different opportunities that engineers have. I thought engineers were simply coders and were given assignments which they would carry out. But in reality, engineers has many more tasks they can do. In this article, the engineers designed experiments that connects to business and the environment.
Step 3 involved designing and carry out an experiment which hopes to create an answer to your hypothesis. For my experiment, I conducted it why and by what are people distracted by when they are on their phones. I observed and interviewed Gr. 11 fellow classmates in my all my classes. The data I collected showed that a majority of people were distracted by social media while on their phones, about 70 percent while the rest were distracted by Youtube, reddit, games and other things. I think this really highlights how technology has influenced the way the new generation behaves
Kids can feel left out
This experiment was closely related to sociology, the main reason that was observed to be the cause of such an obsession with social media. Was the idea of conformity, social media has become a hub of communication where a majority of students communicate. Not precipitating in this activity may make people feel left out or not part of the group that they want to be in. This experiment really showed me just how much of an impact social media has on the tenneger, and now I understand why so many of us are obsessed with social media and our phones.
Social media
This CCA 3 has also taught me some of the important groundwork that is needed to design and conduct such experiments. With the hypothesis, the method, how you gather data, the faculty interviews and gathering of data. Each part working together to create a reliable and clear conclusion that you can draw a concise answer to your hypothesis.
Step of the CCA involved us find 2 news articles and answering a set of questions pertaining to these articles.I found 2 articles that connect to my job of engineering, “Egypt’s oldest pyramid saved by engineers from Newport” and “Fewer Singaporeans are choosing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics”.
One of the first and important lessons I learned from doing step 2, was that reliability and relevance played a big role in APS. In this assignment I had to review the article that I had chosen. To check if the article had any bias that might influence readers to think a certain perspective. Throughout CCA 2 I had to learn how to identify bias, and positions. I had learned to dig out facts and separate them from opinions that the author put in himself. This experience taught me just how much physiology is used to formulate and write news papers and how important reliability and relevance is when reading one.
The pyramids is being support by support beams as engineer work to stabilize the structure
My first article was about the egypt pyramids, one of the great wonders of the egyptian people. The article was about a group of engineers that prevents a eyptian pyramid from collapsing. It gave me new insight on what and how these pyramids were constructed previously, and how these buildings were now breaking now because of the passage of time. This articles closely related to anthropology as I examine the history of the egyption pyramids and how we try to preserve the pass through much modern means.
The second article is about how fewer Singaporeans are choosing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The articles explores the education problem in Singapore, that is causing kids not to explore paths in the sciences. It’s stated kids in SIngapore do not pursue a career in the sciences because they think that their not smart enough. But the main reason themselves think that is because of negative parental influence. This article connect to sociology and anthropology as reminded me of what we learned about child development, and how the environment changes us over time, it connected . As a teenager myself, it reminded me to always stay true to myself and my ideals. And not to bend under the influence of conformity.
Before I researched how APS connects to engineering, I always thought that engineering was a job that only required math and science. But after this CCA, I realized that math and science is only a small part of what leads to success.
Communication was not a skill I thought an engineer would need. However I learned that communication was integrow part of working as an engineer. When you work, you must be able to effectively communicate ideas to clients and peers. Explaining your ideas to clients through simple and understandable words to try to draw them in, explain why your project is important and helpful for people in the future, so they support your work. Without support from a client, your idea may never take off from the group, having proper communication allows you to gain that support. Communication is also key for when you have to talk to peers, and explain ideas that are clearly defined, so everyone understands how and what goal you are working towards. To create a highly effective group, you must first understand how groups interactions, and what methods you can use to make communicating ideas easier. Like functionalism everyone has a role to play in the bigger picture,everyone has to understand and feels welcome to involve them self so they can share their ideas to improve the product, to work as a team. CCA 1 has taught me sociology plays a key role in the success of an engineer, acting as the key to hold a team together and to start it in the first place.
APS also plays a role in influences the mindset of an engineering when they are designing a product. A product has to have a use and a market, they must fit a role and be a product that other people might have a need for. But most important of all, it must be a product that is easy to use, to make a task easier or more effective to do. To realize how human factors play in the designing of a product, a computer engineer must understand psychology. To understand where to place buttons on a controller, or how to design an interface for a phone. Understanding human preferences is key for designing easy to use product that can reach a wide range of audiences, and now I understand how important psychology is for an engineer.