Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

I am definitely proud that I was able to pull off making the room look like the inside of a dog. Senior project wise, I'm really glad that i found so much research and learned a lot about Insulinoma and how to treat it because I think I definitely played a role in prolonging my dog's health and happiness. Gaining mentorship at Southern California Animal Hospital was also a great experience because I learned so much about the day to day tasks that go into working at a veterinary clinic.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your 2-Hour Presentation (self-assessment)?

P+, maybe AE? 

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P+? Hopefully...

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

Definitely my mentorship because I learned so much. Another thing that worked was research checks. It gave me the time to sit down and just focus on finding new information about Insulinoma. 

(4) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

Keeping up with the due dates. I kind of screwed myself over by turning in the i-Search revisions late because caused me to get a lower grade.

(5) Finding Value

Senior project has given  me invaluable experience working at a veterinary clinic. I now  know how to give and make vaccines, take out sutures, clean and take care of animals in isolation, give medications, suture, and so much more. 

Room Setup

I kind of forgot to take more pictures of the room after I set it up, but as you can see on the wall, there's the noodles that are supposed to replicate the ribs in a dogs body. Each table also had red tables cloths with the drawings of the organs. I put my essential question with each persons name on little stickers and put them on little baggies that had the cookies in them. Overall, I think the room looked pretty kick ass. 

Ooooooorgans

 So, I tried to make the room look like the inside of a dogs body, so drew out organs on poster boards to put on each table. 

These are the lungs. I also drew the kidney, liver, heart, brain, digestive system, and pancreas.

Cookies!

 These are dog and human friendly cookies!

 It's pretty much just made out of wheat, honey, carob chips, and other such nonsense.

 That's my momma helping me make them. 

Drying the Paper Mache

 These are the noodles that my dog tore up which ultimately put her in the emergency room because of an intestinal blockage. 

 These are the noodles before I painted them.

 I had to hang the noodles across the chairs so that they would dry kind of curved like a rib would be.

Paper Mache

I made the paper mache for the swimming noodles using a mixture of flour and water. Surprisingly, this mixture proved to be super strong and made the noodles look like ribs.

I had to cut up strips of newspaper to use for the paper mache. Basically, you coat the newspaper strips in the flour/water mixture and then place it on the noodle. I put three layers of newspaper on the noodles.

Prep for 2 Hour Presentation

So, I decided to take on the task of making my presentation room look like the inside of a dog's body. I cut up some swimming noodles today and some newspaper  to paper mache the noodles to look like ribs. I'm going to mount the ribs on the wall to imitate the thoracic cavity of a dog.