P2 – Reflection

I learned so much throughout the process of our second project. The first thing that I learned about was research. In high school, I never really did any real research, the most I ever was required to do was use google to obtain sources. My school only had access to one database, and they never really required or even encouraged us to use it. This project opened me up to databases, and showed me how helpful and reliable they can be when it comes to finding reliable sources. I learned about databases through the class session that we had in the library, and the hands on experience that I needed to do in order to find sources through the databases for my project. This is definitely a skill that I will use for many future projects that are to come in this class, and many others. The second major thing that I learned about was the common writing practices of mechanical engineers. Before this project, I had already been given a brief lesson on these writing practices in my introduction to engineering class, but did not provide me with much information. This project helped me to research and learn about the writing skills that mechanical engineers need to have in the workplace. I have learned through this project that writing is definitely going to be a big part of my job as a mechanical engineer, and before this project I though that writing was just a minor aspect of engineering. This knowledge that I have gained through the completion of this project is going to help me so much in my future education as an engineer. I now know that I need to take advantage of, and put in my full effort to the writing opportunities and classes that I will take in college, because although it is a big part of engineering, it is not a big part of an engineering education.