Senior Project Reflection

Content:

1) I was most proud of my newly found experience in the wiring of a residential building. I am happy that I will be able to work around the house from now on and have projects I can work on to make things more convenient.

2)

• a) P-
• b) P-

3) What worked?

I had a great time with my mentor, he led me towards my answers and some good sources for research. There was also the fact that he helped me get a new 3rd interviewee even after the original interviewee was evasive. Another thing that worked was the ability to find research, it wasn't difficult to find research for this topic at almost any point, everything led to something. Finally I actually had fun learning during my second independent comp. which led me to my hook activity in my one hour.

4) If I had a time machine I would go back and use my second independent component as my first and I would attempt to get a second mentor because even though I met the hours with my current mentor I feel that more hours would have been a positive reflection in my presentation. I would also try to be more available to my mentors hours because he was busy a lot of the time during the week so weekends were the main time we had.

5) During mentorship I was able to work with circuits and wire my own switches as well as create a whole new circuit so now I will be able to create my own circuits in my future home which is what I was aiming to get out of this project. Coincidentally however towards the end of the mentorship, I actually found that becoming an engineer seems like a promising career so I am keeping my eyes on that in college.

Blog 21: Mentorship

Literal:
Click here for my blog.
Click here for the mentorship log.
Contact Name: Alfredo Nunez Sr.
Location: His house

Interpretive:
Honestly I have gained so much from this experience, I really enjoyed the time I got to spent learning from my mentor. However the thing I value most is the experience, I had a great time learning from my mentor and he also made it really simple to understand things. He was always patient and had a solution for each problem that came up. There was even days where some of his friends who were also electricians came over and that was to my benefit because at that point I had 2 people to refer to and ask questions. It was great because when one of them answered the other would fill in any other important parts. The knowledge that I gained throughout will be very useful later on when I go to college and when I become a homeowner. The main purpose for me was to get my feet wet and see if I'd enjoyed it, which I did, so I might major in engineering or just focus on becoming an electrician. However I really wanted to have the skill set to do my own tasks in my future home. With this experience I can now easily do it without the need to refer to basic how to websites. I'm glad that I got this opportunity and had a great mentor.

Applied:
With the experience that I had throughout the mentorship I was able to answer my EQ because I did not only get my mentor's opinion on my question but along with my research I was able to solidify each answer. My best answer however was THE first thing that I was taught. After doing all the circuits and having to play around with them to correctly and safely wire them, I was able to decide and be certain that my answers would include schematics and safety. Aside from that I had remembered of a time when I heard about permits and once I asked about it I believed it was a great answer to my EQ as well. Since my EQ is "How can an electrician best wire a house?" and houses are just circuits inside with different capacities and safety precautions it was close to the smaller scale circuits I worked with. This allowed me to answer my EQ with the mentorship experience that was backed up by my research.

In the beginning...

Well when I first started I didn't post much extra content so here goes.

One of the very first things I learned after safety once I began learning under and electrician was that in circuits when we are running more than one wire to one spot in a circuit we generally use pigtail screw.

At first this was pretty difficult for me to make because at the same time I learned how to strip wires correctly and I constantly was placing too much pressure and damaging the copper inside the wire so I would have to redo it a lot. How ever this comes in very handy as I later found out when even wiring a switch. Especially a 3-way switch.

Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:

1) EQ: How can an electrician best wire a house?

    Answers:

1. By considering safety throughout the process.
2. By obtaining the appropriate permits and licenses which are aligned with the residential wiring guidelines.
3. The electrician should constantly refer to the electrical schematics to ensure accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete a project.

     Best Answer: By considering safety throughout the process.

     Why: During mentorship the first thing my mentor told me was "Safety first, and safety last." Easily this means that safety should never be compromised for any reason while working. He explained how if an electrician were to get injured because he/she were careless to finish faster then what would be the point. There is no harm in taking your time, being safe, and doing your job CORRECTLY. There is also the factor that when I say considering safety, I am also considering the safety of anyone else who may enter and or use the structure where work happened. There is no job worth losing a hand or worse for. 

2) As I said, my mentor would talk to me about why it is so important and on top of that there is a whole code that is meant to prevent any accidents which ties into my answer. Safety can be a bigger branch of correct work when we are talking about electricity and circuits. If there is a faulty circuit then depending on what, it can cause a minor injury like a small burn or shock, but it can range to a deadly shock or major burn, even a fire. Even the small shocks can be dangerous because depending on location, there can be a small jerk reaction to the shock and that can cause someone to fall off stairs or knock their heads on a table.

3) Problems I faced were schedule compatibility because my mentor would generally work throughout the day at first so we would meet from 8pm-9:30/10. Then he worked all day and we would meet on weekends mostly. Other problems included, finding legit research on schematics that could prove my points such as how much they can help, finding more to say on permits, and the terminology because there are so many small parts/tools that it's hard to know them. For the permits, I just got a look at the requirements, steps, and rules for different cities. I would just use schematics during mentorship to speed things up and I would meet for 3 hours on weekends.

4) My first significant source is my 3rd interview because he explained LOTO which is basically a safety measure. My second source is my 2nd Independent Component because it greatly helped in my understanding of circuits and how they can be used. My only regret is not finding it sooner.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Content:
L
a) I, Cesar Lopez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) Make: Electronics -Charles Platt

c) Click Here, or go to my blog here

d) Basically I completed a hands on learning guide to make electrical components in order to understand how electricity works, what can be done with it, why it behaves as it does, and how to use the tools around to create circuits and such. The kit came with many things like resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. and my job was to follow the procedures written out and refer to the book to explain the circuits and what was going on in the experiment.
 I:

A:

This component helps answer my EQ because there are multiple when this book discusses safety hazards such as never completing a circuit with your own body, By using that I could avoid electrocuting myself. I was also able to use this component to answer my schematics part of my answer 3 because this book does hold some of the symbols used in schematics when creating schematics. Unfortunately that's about all it could help me with because building permits are a different story and not necessarily meant for electronics.

Blog 18 Third Answer

EQ: How can an electrician best wire a house?

Answer 3: The electrician should constantly refer to electrical schematics to ensure accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete a project.

Examples:
     1) When doing repair, schematics can really help shorten the troubleshooting phase of the repair to help locate the problem faster.
     2) From my own experience I have found that it has been easier to draw a schematic of what you want before beginning to wire your circuit. It also creates less of a mess.
     3) Schematics also show you the different paths of the equipment and it helps efficiency.

Sources:
Myself
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/why-you-should-learn-to-read-a-schematic-diagram-2333364.html
http://www.learn-c.com/schemat.htm

Schematics save money, time, and make things way easier.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

Content:

1)As an electrician have you ever had to get an electrical permit, if so why and when?


2) Are there multiple types of electrical permits, if so what types are there?

3) What are the steps to getting an electric permit?

4) Were there any specific requirements as an electrician that you had to meet when obtaining the permit?

5) Have you or anyone you know ever done a job without obtaining the permits beforehand?

6) What kind of trouble can working without an electrical permit get an electrician into?

7) Can you describe a certain task when electrical permits wouldn't be required?

8) Can you describe a job you've worked on when permits were needed but not obtained?

9) After you have completed the job is there an evaluation to check that you have completed the task following the guidelines?

10) How do you keep up with the electrical guidelines?

11) Do you use schematics/blueprints often, if so how often and do you have any examples?

12) How important are schematics in your opinion?

13) Have you ever drawn a schematic for a job that you were doing, if so, what was the schematic of?

14) Have you ever encountered incorrect schematics, what was wrong with them?

15) Can you describe a job when using a schematic constantly was necessary?

16) Have you ever been injured on the job, if so what happened?

17) How could you have avoided this injury?

18) What do you think is most important when wiring a house?

19) Do you have any tips that you can share as an electrician as to what someone can do while doing electrical work?

20) How do you prevent any mistakes?

21) How do you make sure your knowledge as an electrician is up-to-date in general?

I might not ask these questions in this exact order though.