All Good Things Must Come To An End :(

On the way to Mrs. Martin's to thank her :)

Hopefully she likes the gift :)

From the very beginning, Rachelle, Kenneth and I worked very well together. And throughout the course of a single quarter (mere weeks, really), we became close and accumulated enough data on the Konia bus stop to make it a better place. We did not always succeed (gosh, we've been through a bajillion plans that didn't work) but we never gave up and kept moving forward with a new goal in mind. So what did go well? Team bonding, for sure. And we kept a consistent stream of communication going with adults in positions of authority; so we managed to be somewhat responsible and levelheaded in our emails. Even our final plan went quite well— we managed to work with a viable solution and came in after school to the office to announce when buses were approaching Konia.  And our surveys indicated that students thought our solution was helpful to those catching bus home; so I would commend my group for being fairly successful. What didn't go well, however, were the circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes we would send an email or make a phone call, only to not receive one in return. So we would continue to press our parties for information and correspondence in a friendly manner, but sometimes it took a little pushing to get any response. Overall, I learned that patience is a virtue I need to keep (we often had communication lapses when certain parties failed to get back to us) and that perseverance is key to success. If we had merely given up after being shot down in one of our plans, we would have never gotten ANYWHERE, and I have a feeling we would have been hit in the multiplier.
To make this a better project, I would suggest starting it the last week of fourth quarter, because we felt a little rushed at the end. Working hard from the beginning, instead of cruising for three weeks (Spring Break and all that) is probably the better way to go so that future students don't panic TOO much during the last week or so. (Not like we were panicking much.) But it would help us manage our time better.
Although this was supposed to be a PHYSICS project, it didn't really feel like one. I mean, we found a problem that was solved with the help of physics (sound waves and frequencies on the radio), but it didn't really feel like we were doing science. It felt more like a feel-good "help Pauahi" project, not a science project. But I liked it better that way; had Mr. Blake forced us to incorporate lots and lots of science rather than coming into our own as a student scientist, I think we wouldn't have been as enthused.
Overall, this project was a great way to end my year of physics and I would definitely recommend this to other classes. Plus, the added bonus of NOT having a final physics test was nice. :)