The goal of the senior capstone project is to combine knowledge from previous years of STEM into a single product. We worked in small teams of two to three so that we were able to understand how to learn from one another and how to play to our strengths. Throughout this project, we developed key skills that will help us later in life. These skills included learning how to write a cover letter, elevator pitch, and resume. These skills are extremely valuable when one is looking for a mentor or partner in a professional setting. We also developed a Gantt Chart for our project, which allowed us to stay organized and on task.
Our first task for this project, after figuring out what exactly our group wanted to do, was to find a mentor. Although this task seemed like it would be fairly simple, it actually proved to be fairly difficult. We started by finding local structural and civil engineers. We emailed three of these professionals, but never heard back. This was rather disheartening for our group because we had put many days of effort into developing resumes, cover letters and emails.. However, after discussing the issue with some adults, we found an architecture student at UC Berkeley. He was interested in our project and excited to help us succeed. We had finally found our mentor.
Our next task was to interview our mentor and develop a relationship with him. The first step of this task was to create an elevator pitch, which is a thirty-second blurb about who you are.
Our third task was to begin brainstorming on Padlet.
We determined that we wanted to focus on California's wildfires, because wildfires have been a huge influence in our lives over the past few years, with the Camp Fire and the Nuns Fire which filled our air with smoke and ash and created horrific disasters across our state. As we researched California fires, we came to realize that a huge problem in fighting wildfires is exhaustion. Because there is such a lack of housing, firefighters are forced to sleep in driveways during shifts or in thin tents. The lack in quality of these sleeping arrangements leads to health risks from exposure to smoke and fumes, as well as overall weariness and exhaustion. When firefighters are forced to work with a lack of quality sleep, they become sore and weary, which can lead to life threatening accidents.
We then evaluated the needs of our customer base through surveying firefighters across California.