Final Reflection

The Computer Science Academy has been an extensive, sometimes difficult yet

completely helpful experience that both I and everyone else can agree that it was entirely useful.

I know that I am extremely thankful for all of the mentors who have helped me in my endeavors,

and I know that this will greatly benefit me in my future career at Iowa State University. The

value of this course is undoubtedly priceless.

I believe that the activities I most enjoyed during this entire project were the Barbie Doll

bungee drop and the final presentation done at John Deere. The bungee drop activity was a great

way to break the ice in the team and to relax on our first days of the entire project. The final

presentation was an amazing way to reflect of all coursework done in the class, and it also

pushed me to present my app’s information in the most informative way. I wanted to

demonstrate my entire knowledge for the entire app, and I wanted to present the information in a

way in which I seemed proud of the opportunity and all experiences.

What I regret most in this course is not becoming more involved in the development of

the database with SQLite. While I was able to push my creativity on the app and demonstrate

how much I enjoy graphic design and art, how to navigate Android Studio, and how to format

applications, it would have been valuable going into an engineering program with experience

with creating and working on databases. I believe that I was honestly too intimidated to try and

scratch the surface of it, and that is why I focused more on reformatting and searching code for

reformatting. If I would have known how valuable database working could be, I would have

offered more help in being apart of that creative aspect.

 The time and effort all of the mentors and Ms. Carton put towards this effort earns

endless gratitude from me. The only issue I see was with how little we met with mentors and

gained feedback from them in a physical setting; however, that is not due to their faults. The

weather this year has been harsh and has created issues with meeting dates; it generally has been

hectic, and I wish I would have gotten the opportunity to do more hands-on work with the

mentors.

Not only was this course helpful for those who are interested in software development

and computer science, as doing research on code and functionalities is useful for heightening

java skills, but I believe this course has great potential for those who are also interested in

graphic design or art. Due to my interest in both subjects, I believe I succeeded above and

beyond in this course because I was able to assist my teammates when it came to the design of

the app. While they had a clear vision for what they wanted functionality wise, their initial

envisioned design was lacking. Graphic design and software engineering can have a hand and

hand significance in each other. The practices of both programming and graphic development, as

well as familiarity with different programs, will give me an upper hand in both of my colleges.