At this point of my project, I wanted science to do that for other children around the nation. Accordingly, I did research. I scoured the internet for data and statistics, and I found a weird “anomaly.” According to PEW Research Center, children attending a K-12 school in the United States report loving science and hands-on learning, but as they aged older, that passion waned. In the report of The National Library of Medicine, It wasn’t because they didn’t like science anymore, in-fact, that interest seemed to stay almost constant. But, the children seemed to have lost their confidence in their ability to pursue a STEM career. When I looked into it, I found that this was most common amongst children who come from low-income backgrounds, a minority group, or children that suffer from a low self-esteem. My heart shattered when I saw this data. I kept picturing myself in that scenario. Especially because I was one of those kids that came from a minority background. It was apparent to me how close I actually was to losing something I was so passionate about. Something that I was sure I wanted to give my life to.

Going into capstone brainstorming, I knew I wanted to make something app related and something that would help me and other people as well. I looked back on some of my struggles from past years and tried to see if I could address any of the problems I had. In the end I came up with a Todo App designed for students that is also integrated with Canvas. During Freshman and Sophomore year I really struggled with disorganization and Procrastination and If i had an app where i could keep track of my personal tasks and school related tasks, that would have been one less thing getting in the way of my academic success. After roughly 90 hours of work, I ended up with my app, Simplicity. Simplicity is essentially 2 apps combined to one. Students can use Simplicity like a regular todo app with features like favorite tasks and categories, but at the same time they have the option to connect the app to Canvas and utilize the app to view course grades and upcoming assignments.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jFJdL1glunVhMDfnAsAwE8zu76V_iksCdGK1JlLD7lA/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I researched and analyzed the environmental and financial consequences of converting SEPTA’s current bus fleet into all-electric, zero-emission fleet.

Global warming is causing severe damage to our planet. It is destroying habitats, increasing weather-related disasters, and leading to higher sea levels, all of which harm people and wildlife. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by human activity are a main contributor to climate change.

About 30% of US’s total emissions and about 15% of global emissions come from the transportation sector. About 80% of these emissions are from burning fossil fuels to power road vehicles. About a quarter of transportation emissions come from medium or heavy duty vehicles, including commercial buses.

One way to decrease transportation-related emissions is to switch fuels, to not only use vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels. An example is to convert gas-powered vehicles to electric or hybrid ones that rely on electricity from renewable sources.

As a frequent rider of public transportation, I wondered: Would it make a difference, in terms of emissions and cost, if SEPTA’s bus fleet were converted to e-buses?

Capstone (More sources are listed in the last few pages of the paper): First Link

Bibliography: Second Link

For my capstone, I created Certification Projects, which are projects you complete in order to get certified on a given tool in the engineering shop. The four projects I made were: make a ring on the lathe, make dice on the mill, make a custom cut-out on the water jet, and make an LED light on the CNC Router. Each project is accompanied by a detailed set of instructions. Each project must also have a teacher or student mentor that can teach the project. After creating these projects and training individuals to teach them, I presented the projects to the sophomore, junior, and senior engineers. Each student picked the project they most wanted to do. For the next two months, all the CTE engineers met four times a week to work on their project. The Certification Projects will remain in the engineering curriculum for future years to come.