THE LAST POST EVER

The Ho'oulu Ia Kamehameha project is finally over...as in over, over. We're done! With much anticipated relief, there is now a time to look back at what we had accomplished.

Back when fourth quarter was just starting, we had learned there was to be a project in which we would have to fix some type of problem at Kamehameha, in a way that relates to physics that is. And so the quest began to find a problem and solution. Looking back, I wouldn't have changed what we did. I believe we choose to attack a problem that has and will continue to impact Kamehameha. The tardiness challenge took some time to figure out, but in the end, we took care of it. I feel our 5-minute warning had a significant impact on the students of Kamehameha because it was campus-wide. Not only were the number of tardies reduced, but we also had a happier atmosphere, which was unanticipated but highly appreciated. For this being the time of year it with what with finals coming up, seeing students dance and be happy showed us that this warning has other purposes too. It has been suggested to us that we look into sticking with one song/tone and having that as a 5-minute warning. In all honesty, I see that failing for the lack of uniqueness to it; after awhile, thanks to psychology, the bell becomes an ignored noise for many, and it would cease to serve its purpose. Hopefully in the future, this project can be continued. Although it is a hassle for students to do during the passing periods, I hope that it can one day be part of Island Signal's system.

Having said that, it's a bittersweet moment to look back at what we had all done, all the stress that had been paid, all the waiting that had idled us...and now we're done. I remember when this project first started, and we had no idea what to do. And then we thought of something. And that something succeeded and came to fruition. A successful project now completed, we can look back and know that what we did had a real impact on Kamehameha.

I wholeheartedly believe that our project worked because our group had no dead weight. All members were productive and did what was asked of his responsibility. We never missed a blog post (except for this final one, haha, but this is individual, so it doesn't affect my group members' multipliers. Atleast I hope not). We worked as a group on all aspects of the project. When one of us needed help, we helped out. When someone needed to go see a person in charge, the others waited for response and looked for other people to question. I am completely happy with my group; I could not have wished for a better one. For a whole quarter, I got to meet new people in my class, and that was pretty cool.

Final Blog Post

Today marks the final day of the 4th quarter besides finals.  Doing this project during the 4th quarter was a very fun and enjoyable experience that taught me a lot.  I feel that the project was a great success that all came together the night of our presentations.  Things that went well with the project are that we the students we able to make a difference in the school that can be seen, some on a bigger scale than others, but just knowing that you made a difference is rewarding enough.  Also i like how this project was able to make me more familiar with my group members and helped me to get to know people that i didn't know before.  Things that didn't go to well include, a very long waiting process and not enough time to collect data.  However these thing could not have been prevented and were all apart of the learning process.  Waiting for the administrations approval showed me how much people go through in order to plan events for us.  It also tested our groups patience, but was so rewarding when it finally came through.  One of the main things I learned from this project is to always expect the unexpected and be able to adapt to it quickly.  I was taught this when our group had to face the waiting period of over a week to get our bell approved.  It showed to me how hard it is to get anything approved by administration, and made me thankful for all that our class advisors do for us.  I think what could be changed to help make this project better is that we have student logs of what we did each day.  This will show exactly how much work is being done, and if need be will be able to show who messed up where.  Other than that i would keep the project the same, because it was a really new and exciting experience.  I do think that I was doing science, however it didn't feel like it.  I was having so much fun doing this project that it didn't feel like science although we clearly were doing science every day, wether it be inquiring data or coming up with a hypothesis.  In general this project was a great success and i would really recommend that it be done in the future.

It All Comes To A Close

After 10 long weeks dedicated to this project, we are coming to a close. We have completed are final presentation during the symposium and have just turned in our final written report. Now that the project is over, it is time to reflect on what we have done and learned.

Overall, I think that this project really taught me a lot about many aspects in life. We had to deal with actual deadlines and actual people making decisions that we really couldn’t control. We learned to work as a team and to fulfill our own responsibilities or take the consequences. In addition to teamwork, we used problem solving skills and creativity to construct and implement our own ideas. This project is very unique and something that was well worth my while.

Some things that really went well include the symposium and actual completion of our projects and many of them working. The blog posts were a nice way to keep track of our progress and inform others who were interested in what we were doing. Like many things in life, not everything went the way we could have hoped. However, this is what made the project so realistic and meaningful; it showed that not everything will go the right way and you have to simply adjust. For example, the

If I could change anything about this project, it would be the time given. I believe that this is more of a semester project rather than a quarter. Although most groups were able to compete their tasks in the allotted time, I believe that over a semester, projects could be better planned, and data collection would be more accurate as far as longevity.

Was all of this related to science? IT’S PHYSICS BABY! Everything in life is science and when you collect data, you are truly doing science. That is what we did, and that is what we accomplished.

Thanks to Mr. Blake for the life lesson, and thanks to Princess Pauahi for the opportunity!

Image: http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/images/topics/monarchy/pauahi-03-398x459.jpg

Final Blog Post

I thought that the overall project was really difficult, but fun at the same time. It was rather difficult because we had to really analyze Kamehameha Schools and pinpoint a major problem on campus. Our group brainstormed for a week or so and was finally able to identify a complication at school. The project was also fun because we were able to run a five-minute warning on both high school campuses for almost a week. Being in charge of a major undertaking like the warning bell was truly an awesome experience. Several things went well with our project. One thing was we were able to reduce the number of tardies on campus, which was our initial goal. We also were able to make Kamehameha a happier place because the students were able to hear some of their favorite tunes over the PA system. We even caused students to dance, which was totally cool. Another positive thing was that the hallways were much clearer, and all the credit goes to our implementation of the five-minute warning. Along with the good things were things that did not go as planned. One thing included the five-minute warning turning from a whole song to a 20-second clip. This was because Mr. Ako was in a meeting at the time of the first warning and said it was a bit of a distraction. Another thing that did not go as planned was the late implementation of the warning. We had scheduled with Mrs. Martin to have our proposal out by May 9, but it was postponed because of AP testing. From this project, I learned that I can’t please everyone in this world. This is so because a certain number of individuals complained about the music selection from time to time saying that they wanted their requests over the PA system. I believe it was hard to please everyone, especially when you are apart of a campus of 1600+ students. Through this experience, I did whatever I felt was best for the vast majority. All in all, a vast majority of students enjoyed the music selection and said it was really good. To make this a better activity, I would say that the school service students should manually run the five-minute warning instead of us. This would be better, so we wouldn’t have to personally go into the office five times a day to run the PA system warning. It would really save us a lot of stress and trouble. To make Ho'oulu iā Kamehameha a better project, I would say that the students should have more days than just a quarter to work on their proposals and implementations. Maybe give them an entire school year, while still doing physics activities at the same time. I honestly do believe we were doing science. This is so because the five-minute warning implemented music and music includes sound waves. Sound waves are directly related to physics, which is in part science. Also, our group was collecting data during the implementation portion of our project by asking teachers to record the number of tardies before the warning was set up and even after. Data collection is directly involved in the science process, so we were definitely participating in a science-related activity.

Post Presentation

Friday night was the night of our speeches and the culmination of 8 weeks of hard work finally came together.  Everyone was feeling the pressure, however were still able to do the presentation.  As for our group, i feel we did exceptionally well.  The grades we got were 40/40 for the powerpoint/keynote presentation,  and 108/112 for the actual presentation.  We could not be any happier with these grades seeing as it translates to a 97 % for our final exam grade.  The overall effort my group members and i put into this project definitely paid off.  We could not have been more happy for ourselves and happy for each other.

Presentation Day

Today is the day of our final presentations! We have finalized our keynote yesterday with several bits of information, pictures, and even videos. Each of us has different responsibilities in our presentation. Tylar is covering the proposal, Sam is going into detail about our design, I am dealing with the implementation, and Jessica is explaining the results and concluding our presentation. We feel rather confident in our group’s presentation and truly believe that we’ve made a difference on campus. The bell has had many positive comments and feedback from not only teachers, but also students. We hope that the parents and administrators see how big a difference this bell has made on campus.

Final Day!

Today was the last Block Schedule day of the school year, which means it was the last day for the 5 minute warning. Although the Five Minute Warning (FMW) has only been implemented for 4 days, we have seen a change in the student body. The combination of the end of the school year and the FMW has appeared to liven up the school. As we walk through the hallways during passing period and the sound of the PA announcement warning tone rings, students anxiously wait for a song to be played. Some students would sing along with the songs played and others would dance. Many students made the primary use of the FMW and got to class on time. It was somewhat saddening today to give the last warning. We announced over the PA that it would be the final FMW and we even played the song a little longer than normal. We really believe that it made a difference at school despite some opposition from some students. We have learned that there is no way to please everyone, but when a majority is happy with what you've come up with, that's all that truly matters.

Image: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/kam/campus.gif

Third Day of Implementation

This is our third day of implementation of the five-minute warning. The results have been positive with many compliments. We can see that the music has brought happiness to the hallways and has reduced tardiness at Kamehameha. On the other hand, some teachers have complained about this endeavor of ours because the music has “ruined their concentration.” Also, several students have complained about music selection and aren’t always satisfied with the respective songs. Today, we have played “Replay,” “Super Bass,” “Danza Kuduro,” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” We are starting to end our control over the PA system, but we have definitely seen a change on campus.

Today is the second day of having our bell in action. It's a good feeling: something WE have put out there, a product of our doing that affects all, and it is being sounded all through the high school campus. We have observed that students are enjoying the music, first by dancing to it and energizing themselves and second by getting to class on time. We noticed that the hallways were significantly clearer. I had even talked to a friend, who shall remain anonymous, say that he wants to hurry to upper campus just to make it in time to hear the music. Having such an upbeat clip of music makes a different in the demeanor of students. It makes the students happy.

The following songs were played today:
--Rolling in the Deep - Adele
--Cupid Shuffle - Cupid
--The Show Goes On - Lupe Fiasco
--Hello - Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette

Friends have told me that they're pretty excited for the music. Whenever the ring comes on to announce something over the PA system, they anxiously await to hear the period's picking.

However, we face the problem of volume control, first and foremost. Yesterday, some of the music was a little soft and others were a little loud. Trying to find a balanced, controlled level of volume will now be the goal. Another problem we have is duration of the music. Currently, we are playing clips for 30 seconds. There are students who want the music to be longer. This creates the problem for the teachers trying to instruct their students. Whatever, they heard this at the faculty meeting; they should know and not be salty.

Overall, we are happy with the response we are getting. It's great to hear some feedback. I hope we can continue this with positive results.

Positive Results

Today was the first successful day of our bells implementation.  The results we got were uplifting and made us feel proud of what we were doing.  We noticed that not only did our bell make students more prompt for class, but it also brought smiles to the faces of students in the hallway.  Some students were moved by the music so much that they started to dance.  In order to achieve these results we had to troubleshoot.  At the first bell our music was too loud and it wasn't a good experience for some people, however we were able to fix this problem by the time the next period came around and things were running smoothly.  We feel good about our solution and are anxious to see how it will do in coming days.

Here We Go!

Monday is just several hours away and we are ready to implement our warning. Unfortunately, due to the process of approval for this warning, we will only have 4 days that it will be up and running. This will still give us some data to compare the "non-warning tardies" to and we will be able to see if our project actually had an impact on the tardies. For tomorrow, we will begin putting in the warning 5 minutes into the passing period. The times that the warning will begin will be 9:00, 10:30, 11:20, 12:10, and 1:40. For our warning, we will be playing a song during these passing periods over the PA system. For Monday, we will be playing Hawaiian music and see how it works out. Hopefully, the songs will be loud enough to be heard over the PA with all the noise of the busy hallways. We are getting really excited as we FINALLY get to test out our idea.

Image: http://travel.mauidreams.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Woods-Koa-Top.jpg

Monday, Monday, Gonna Get Down on Monday!

Today’s class included completing the Olympiad, which took the entire period. Our group is very excited to implement our new bell system to the high school campus on Monday. We have created a specific system for the implementation of the five-minute warning music. Tylar and Sam will manually incorporate the music into the PA system on even days, while Jessica and I will play the music on odd days. This is so because half of our group has free periods on one type of day, while the other half has free periods on the other. Our group still has to discuss what types of music we shall play on the PA system for the week. We will probably aim for a good selection of Hawaiian compositions from famous local singers. Our group believes inputting the new warning bell system will be easy and doable for the next four school days. Let’s hope that the school is ready for this type of change!

And It Begins...ON MONDAY

So today if Friday, the 13th of May. Our bell was successfully implemented...kind of. Two days ago was the deployment date where our device should have been put into motion. And it was, in a way. Technically, it could have been, but AP testing got in the way. Now, as we go into the weekend, we are awaiting the bell on Monday. On Monday, at 9 am, our device will be implemented in motion. The projected times in which the bell will ring are as follows: 9am, 10:30 am, 11:20 am, 12:20 pm, and 1:40 pm. After days of patiently (and stressfully) waiting for the bell to be put into action, it has been set in place. Our group is sad that the bell could not have been put into place on Monday. That is the day that Mrs. Martin came into our class and told us that it could be put into place. Now, we've been waiting while other groups have their devices implemented. Waiting is the worst, though. Waiting is what we hate the most. And hopefully, after this weekend, there will be music (the "bell") to signify the warning to get to class. ON MONDAY, IT WILL HAPPEN. IT WILL!

(http://ohs.leusd.k12.ca.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/568565/Image/old_school_bell_ringing_hg_clr.gif)

The Wait Continues

Today our final product was supposed to be deployed and its effects felt.  However our solution couldn't be deployed due to a few unaccounted variables.  When developing our proposal we didn't take into consideration the students who will be taking their AP exams.  We understand that our fellow classmates don't need any more distractions and we have took them in consideration and decided to move the launching date of our solution to next week Monday.  What we are working on in class and will be working on for the rest of the week is our rough draft, our keynote presentation, and finally our final peer review, which isn't due until after the presentations. 
"Waiting Room ." Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.aiga.org/Resources/SymbolSigns/gif_large/17_waitingroom_inv.gif>.

It's Here!....and It's Gone...

After our approval of the warning bell/song being implemented, we as a group have been so excited to see the turnout of this prototype. We have been so excited in fact, that we didn't think everything through fully. The bell is a go and the teachers have been notified, but there is one factor that we didn't think about. As we explained to our teachers yesterday at their meetings, one teacher mentioned the disruption of AP exams, by this 5 minute warning. We have decided to postpone the implementation of the warning until the AP exams have been completed this week. This means that the warning will be implemented come Monday, the 16th of May. This delay gives us more time to schedule how the warnings will be run, what songs/sounds to use for the warning, and let the student body know what will be happening, so they aren't caught off guard. The great news is, the project has been approved and we will actually be able to test out this warning. We can’t wait!

Day 28: Warning Bell Awareness

Today was a really productive day for our group. After days of waiting for administrative assistance in incorporating the new bell system on campus, Mrs. Martin set up a meeting with us during physics in the classroom. She discussed that incorporating the new bell with Island Signal would be quite costly, so the alternative would be to manually ring the five-minute warning bells in between passing periods. We plan on playing music at the five-minute mark of the ten-minute passing period to notify students that half the passing time is over. To get the word out about our Ho‘oulu Ia Kamehameha project, Mrs. Martin proposed that our group talk to the teachers at their faculty meeting today after school. Jessica and Sam traveled to Paki after school, while Tyler and I stayed in Konia. At the presentation, we presented our proposal to the teachers and got some insight from the faculty. One comment regarded a possible interruption with the new system and AP testing. Taking this into consideration, we may need to postpone the new bell system until AP testing is over, which is next week. I can now sleep at night knowing that our system has been accepted by the teachers and faculty at the school.

Preparing for the Coming Week

As the days count down to the final implementation and physics symposium, we continue to work on our presentation and finalize our bell. To be quite honest, this is much more difficult than we would have ever expected. We got off to a reasonable start with interviewing teachers and trying to find a problem. That is something we will mention in our final presentation. We have also made it a point to mention the process we've gone through. For example, calling Island Signal multiple times to get the bell set up and then meeting with the administrators.

This week in physics, we will continue to work on our final presentation speeches and keynote. Sam has already started the keynote presentation, and we will figure out who will say what. Basically, we will tighten up our proposal and detailed design so that it is eloquently described and answers the questions that will be asked. We need to take more pictures for the final project. Data collection has begun as well. We shall use that as additional data and, hopefully if the bell is implemented soon, can use the additional data to support the bell being a success.

An update: Hopefully, by the end of this week, we will have implemented the bell. Again, we have continued to inform Mrs. Martin about the urgency of the bell. We're still in high hopes that the bell will happen this week. THIS WEEK.

Day 26: Final Approval

Today our group got in contact with Island Signal and Sound and were informed that Mrs. Martin was interested in our groups ideas and wanted an explanation from us about the bell.  We are now sending her an email with an attachment of our proposal and if that is not sufficient enough we will schedule a meeting with her and clear up any questions she may have.  We are very focused on getting our bell out there to help the students.  Because we cannot do anything more to help the implementation, we have focused our attention to preparing for our final speech presentation.  Yesterday we divided up the responsibilities, and have each got started on writing and creating our keynote slides.  We will continue to keep our hopes up and continue to strive for excellence.  

Back In The Waiting Area

Since all there really is to do is wait for the prototype to be deployed, we are focusing on our future assignments. We have begun preparing for our presentation on the 20^th of May by starting our Keynote presentation and working on what we are going to say. We have divided up the tasks on who will be saying and preparing what for the presentation. As an update, we have given out data sheets to several teachers who have agreed to assist us in this project. They will be collecting data for us from within their classroom. For the past week the selected teachers have been taking note of the number of tardy students per period. This is, of course, before the bell is put into place. Now that the “constant” of our data has been established, it is time for the true experimentation. As mentioned before, we now await the sign from Mrs. Martin saying that the bell will be up and running. Let’s hope it gets done!

Day 24: Prototype

Today our prototype was to be deployed. Sadly, our prototype’s release date must be postponed on account of several factors, mostly miscommunication problems. Although we’ve submitted our blogs, proposal, and detailed design in on a timely manner, our prototype could not be expounded to the public on time. This is so because there was a miscommunication error between the Island Signal company and the administration at Kamehameha. We were able to get approval from the administration a week ago, but the contact between the two parties was not in order. As of today, Mrs. Martin and Island Signal are in contact with each other trying to set up the bell system, which should be up in a matter of time. All in all, everything that was preventing us from achieving our prototype deadline was out of our hands. We are just waiting for word from Mrs. Martin as to when the bell will be implemented.

Um...Maybe?...Okay, Probably Not

Today is Tuesday. In less than an hour, our prototype will have to be deployed.

That's where the problem begins. The 5-minute warning bell was supposed to be put into action by tomorrow. As of right now, at 11:02 pm on Tuesday, May 3, neither Mrs. Martin nor the other members of the administrative team have updated us on the status of the bell. Kala spoke to Mrs. Martin yesterday, and he said that she would call Island Signal to touch base with them on the implementation of the bell. Because she was not at the last AT meeting, Mrs. Martin is somewhat lost on the topic but reassured Kala that she would do her best to coordinate the bell. I don't feel confident that the bell will be in place by tomorrow. And that's fine. We've done all we could and scheduled everything we had to schedule and talked with people from whom we needed answers. Our proposals went out, the administration heard about what we wanted done, and they approved it (much to our surprise). We've been persistent in getting administration to contact Island Signal, but I understand that there were other more important things that they needed to deal with first. At the end of the day, we've done all we could and while not having the prototype in by the deadline is devastating, we really did try our best.

In the end, we're doing this for the students and teachers. We've stated our purpose in doing this multiple times, and we'll stand by our decision to have this bell. When all is said and done, we believe this bell will benefit the community at Kamehameha.

Day 22: Time is Running Out

Today is May 2nd, 2011; two days before our prototype has to be out and about servicing the students and faculty.  Where we are at right now is, we have been approved by the school and the administrators.  The only thing holding us back now is Island Signal.  We're patiently waiting for them to implement the new bell schedule.  However we're beginning to get a little worried as the due date is approaching fast.  The baton is no longer in our hands, and its been passed to the workers at Island Signal and Sound.  We will continue to contact them, and are hopeful that they will bring it home for us before the May 4th deadline.

The Week Is Here

After much planning and anticipation, the week of prototype deployment has arrived and we are hanging on by a thread. Our prototype must be implemented around Kamehameha by the 4th of May, which is when we will begin the second step in our data collection. Over the past week we have distributed a data sheet to various teachers, noting the amount of tardies per period. After the bell is implemented, the teachers will continue to record the amount of tardies in their class and we will hopefully see a positive change. In addition to preparing for our data collection, we will also be sending out an announcement to the student body, via Puka Mai Kala, informing them about the bell change. We are prepared for the bell to implemented, now we await the confirmation from Island Bell Systems to input the warning in our system. It's getting close!!!