For my senior capstone, I coded my own information board using a raspberry pi and a TV donated by Braskem. To do this, I had to learn a brand new coding language and use software that I had never worked with before. This brought up challenges along the way because I had to use unique ways to solve my problems. I was able to get help from my mentor and classmates, along with forums talking about similar problems to mine. To make my capstone, I used a GitHub repository called MagicMirror to find the bare bones structure of my information board. From then, I implemented other modules I found and tried to create my own along the way. This whole time I was working in JavaScript and C++, which are both languages I have never worked with. Along with this, I was programming in an IDE called Geany, which is very basic compared to the IDEs I have worked with before. This made me learn how to troubleshoot my code without the help of debugging software, along with new skills in reading and writing code I have no experience in. This project is very valuable to me because it let me learn new skills that directly relate to what I will be going to college for a while, also making something that benefits SLA.

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C-8X4IjwWA3mQJvHiNyGrHoLrs3pUUItSnKFwJ2pdx4/edit?usp=sharing

My capstone project involved developing a Chrome web store extension that accessed the Canvas LMS API to display assignments in a drop-down cube when the extension icon was clicked. The goal was to provide easy access to assignment information for students who often struggled with staying updated on deadlines. The project required extensive research and learning, as I had no prior knowledge of accessing APIs, working with Canvas API, or coding in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Chrome extensions. The extension was primarily focused on research, prototypes, and reflection due to its non-functioning state, which was caused by issues with accessing Canvas tokens and IDs. The key components of the project included the manifest.json file, index.html, and contentScript.js. The manifest file provided details about the extension, while index.html served as the basic HTML structure and the style.css functioned as the customization/”styling” of the HTML. The contentScript.js file, written in JavaScript, attempted to access the Canvas API, fetched assignments and dynamically displayed them in a dropdown box. Through this capstone, I significantly developed my programming skills and gained a deeper understanding of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Although the extension did not work as intended, the experience and lessons learned will positively impact my future coding endeavors. As my next step, I plan on creating and hosting a personal website to showcase my current and future projects.

Github Link (if you click on each file, there are comments under every important line of code, detailing what purpose they serve):

Capstone Bibliography: