Traveling to Palau was completely different than I expected. The airplane rides were long, boring and tiring. Once I got to Palau it was not like the United States at all . The different cultures that come to Palau makes the experience very interesting and surprising.
The biggest problem our team faced in Palau was fixing the robot when it broke unexpectedly. The first major problem that we were faced with was we had a problem with our camera cables in the tether. The pressure of the water would unplug our camera cords if we went deeper than about 100ft. After discussing a few ideas and getting help from scripts we found a new way to stop the camera cords from pulling apart.
The most memorable part of the trip would have been taking a walk on Peleliu. Seeing left behind items from the war like helmets, shoes and shovels made me realize that people fought and died for our country right where I was standing. I have never had this type of experience before and it shows how important our nations past is.
I do feel like our trip to Palau was a success. Starting from our classroom we had to build a robot and raise enough money to get to Palau. Once we got to Palau our work just started. We successfully found targets, even though there wasn't always a plane there. If there wasn't something there that just meant that we eliminated a search target and had a better understanding about what's in the area. Another thing that went well in Palau was we helped the elementary school with robotics. teaching them robotics and donating them robots will help the join our search in the future.
One thing that I will remember most from the trip is nothing is impossible if you put time and effort into it. Especially if you have a team. Being able to work together and learn from each other in stressful conditions isn't always the easiest but we managed to do it.
If I had the chance to go to Palau again I would definitely go. Traveling across the world for a high school trip is something that not many people get to experience. Searching for planes in Palau really is an experience in itself.
Something that I learned about myself is that using teamwork you can accomplish much more than what seems possible. This class and trip also made me very interested in robotics and engineering. It also gave me an idea of what career I want to go into.
I feel like the experience will help me in the future. The trip has taught me many things and has gave me a greater understanding of what the war was like many years ago. overall this trip has made me a much smarter and curious person.
If there was one thing that our team could do differently on the next trip it would be organizing the video and GoPros better. Although this was the only thing that we could change it was not a very big problem. I feel like for all the amount of task that we accomplished it went very smooth.
Blake Jackson, Senior
No comments:
Post a Comment