My
This has been one of the most drudging projects I have worked on. It has also been the most in-depth and long project I have ever done. This project has also taught me the most about myself.
I know I do well when I am given something to do. It is when I do not know what to do that I get stumped. In science experiments and history projects, there are certain guidelines that one follows and a topic to do something about. I always have so many things going through my mind, that it is hard to decide. So many choices seem exactly the same. Then I want to do more. This happened while I was doing this project. There are not that many things that I care strongly about. This made it hard to find a subject to do a project on. I had thought of many things to do this project on from children to the appearance of the city. The subject I finally chose was animals. From that decision I had to choose a problem, then research if it was a valid problem within my community and finally how to solve the problem. After I thought about that I had to think about if I could finish this problem. I decided I could and began working on it. Then came the follow through part.
Keeping on a schedule is fine and dandy if you know what you are going to do. It is very difficult if you do not know what will happen down the line. The one schedule I kept closest to was meeting with my advisor. This went pretty well considering my advisor had a different schedule than I did. Sometimes I would either be too busy to meet, would not be able to find her or she would be busy with something else. Considering that, I still did pretty well. We met about every other week. Although the advising worked somewhat, I was also in need of more guidance. I knew at the time that it was my project, but I had a difficult time figuring out what to do. I also had to meet with two other students and work together with them. This was the most difficult part of all. No matter how much convincing and explaining I did with them, very little came out of it. I tried though, and ended up with a little contribution by the three of us to each other. This taught me that being a leader is better than following other people I already knew not to rely too heavily on others to help with my project, but this just gave me more validation of my correctness. From this project, I have learned a lot about leaders and followers. Throughout this project I have been very much a leader and a follower both. I followed what I wanted to do and led myself to finishing my project.
The last half of the year was the time in which I did most of my work. The one thing that taught me the most was a meeting and tour at a Humane Society in Oceanside. After that, things finally started coming together. I had done a lot of research and started putting it to some use. I made a Web Site and put everything on it that I had learned. After a while I began to think that it would help the community more than anything else would. Everyone needs some kind of resource guide for whatever they need to learn. Soon after that I was finished with that. To let people know about it, I did a number of things. I verbally spoke with people, emailed some people, and also advertised it on AOL. This made it possible to access and teach people about animal and pet care.
In order to prove that this project would help the community, I needed evidence. Making a journal was very helpful with my project. I wrote down all my thoughts on what to do and how or when I would do it. I made checklists and timelines. It is also proof that the stuff I did is what I really did. To prove that this project would benefit my community I chose to do a survey. With this survey, people can answer questions about what they have learned from the resource guide. I put it on my Web Site in the form of a guest book. People can log onto my site and click on the link to view the question page or the results from others and what they wrote. After a while I received some results.
The results I received from my survey were all very interesting. First of all, I filled the survey out myself, just to see if it worked, and it did. I then left it for the visitors to fill out. Some results I had expected and some were out of the ordinary. The first person who took my survey was my brother. I thought he took it seriously, but the results proved he did not. I later asked him about this and he responded in saying that he did not know that it was anything important, and did not care. The next person who I received results from was Shannon. She wrote that it helped her understand about animal euthanasia. This was interesting because that was not why I had made this Web Site. I also do not recall much about that subject on anything I wrote. That was interesting and also confusing. She also wrote that �all� of the Web Site has helped the most, she had learned �a lot� and that there was nothing more that would help her learn. Kyle then took the survey and gave more information that any previous results. He had found out lots of interesting things about different types of household pets and the part about the humane society helped most. He wrote, �It helped by letting me know one of the better places to get a pet.� This was nice and helpful to me. Even more helpful was the statement that; �I learned about what to do in order to get a pet, how to find one, and good things to keep in mind about taking care of an animal.� Another interesting comment he made was that �Its neat how the buttons were drawn by hand.� I did draw all the pictures by hand and think that it is nice that someone has noticed. The next results were my brother again, only stating that he had not looked at the site and things like that. I began hoping for some more interesting and helpful results.
Soon, my neighbor visited my site. She wrote much more. She had ��found out just how much there is to learn before getting a new pet, and also how to care for a pet properly.� She answered the question about what part helped most, with �The rules about taking the pet out in the city, the tour of the Humane Society where there are so many animals waiting to be adopted, and the tips on pet care.� That was good to know. When asked, �Is there anything else that would help?� The response was �More fund raisers such as carnivals, garage sales, parties, and many other events that would encourage people to get involved. They could have fun and all the money could go to helping the animals. Fund-raisers help get people going and encourage action.� That would be nice to be able to do those things, although I will not have enough time for that with this project, but I hope that more people do start doing those types of things. Her other comments were, �It was very interesting and informative to read your insights and information on this subject. I HOPE THAT people will be more sensitive and less selfish when it comes to helping animals...� The last person I have results for was Colleen. Although she wrote her name as �Colleeny Beany�, I know it was her. Her response to the question, �Has this site helped you? How?� she wrote, �Yes. It told me how to get a good pet at a good place. The only problem is money.� I do not understand what she is talking about with the money thing, but it is good that my Web Site has taught her about where to get a pet. She also wrote that �all of it� helped her out and she learned �That just by adopting a pet, just one pet can make a huge difference.� Then she wrote, �I think it was pretty much covered.� and she had no other comments. That is good to know, because I cannot think of anything else to put on my Web Site either. I thank these people for their help in letting me know that this has the potential to help more people within the community.
I have been responsible in completing this project while keeping my personal integrity and doing the best I could do. I have thought a lot about this project. While thinking I have illuminated fundamental issues and gained knowledge and experience. I have communicated material in an organized format using media. I have contributed to the community I live in by educating people about the need of caring for animals. I have valued the principles of the nation I live in and tried to make it a better place. I have also been working within the global society while respecting the people I have come in contact with. I have organized this project in hopes of implementing change and innovation to the society. This project has taught me a whole lot.
