PART 3 CONTD

My project gave me the opportunity to acquire and develop skills including time-management, stress resistance, organization, prioritization and most importantly evaluation & collaboration. I was able to synthesize and transfer my primary and secondary research to develop the anaerobic digester. I was able to follow my plan and complete all my tasks despite hurdles, school work and other projects.

Product Development: The main way I could ‘sustainably’ recycle styrofoam was by using limonene to debulk it. Limonene is a chemical found in the peels of citrus fruits and in other plants. To obtain this had to perform distillation on orange fruit peels and collect the distillate. This required many after school sessions to perform. This reflected in as another one of my ATL skills, perseverance, as I kept moving forward and working on my my goal despite facing challenges along the way. I had given myself 12 weeks for the development of my product/outcome, with one week long slots, this gave me time to effectively carry out each step and allow me to reflect throughout the journey. Despite an organized plan, there were several obstacles that I had to overcome through this journey.

After following the detailed plan I produced my final product, an anaerobic digester that uses limonene to decompose styrofoam. This product relates to my goal as my initial guiding question was “Why is the breaking down of styrofoam an important issue to address and how will this be done?” Through the course of this project I’ve not only learnt about the various impacts styrofoam has on the environment and people but also come up with an effective solution to the problem. The product relates to my global context as I made sure I only utilized sustainable products in the creation of the digester, its components and the extract.

The product I chose to create was something that a lot of people were not aware of as well as something very few experienced people in the field could make. With sufficient levels of primary and secondary data, I created a working final product that effectively performs its intended function. I have utilized my thinking skills here as I had to initially look into to the harmful effects of styrofoam, what could be done to improve and how. I then had to figure out a way to create limonene which was the most important aspect of my entire product as it was the main agent required to dissolve and debulk the polystyrene.

 The final step was to combine all of this and fabricate a digester that efficiently does the job. Therefore my entire project shows knowledge, comprehension, application and synthesis i.e thinking skills.

There were several unexpected obstacles that had to be overcome to reach my goal, these include but are not limited to materials arriving a month later than planned, delay in distillation experiments, very few primary sources, etc. These allowed to me to change my plan and change the order of tasks to get everything completed in the allotted time. When creating my digester there were issues regarding the size of the container, inlets and outlets. Therefore I had to tweak my design several times, adding various levels to the inside of the container and the creating appropriately sized holes to increase the efficiency of the product. With the limited experience performing its function while keeping comfort, and aesthetics in mind was also challenging as early designs were bulky, dangerous and outright hideous, which called for the use of a completely new digester that matches the specifications.

I collaborated with my personal project supervisor at every step of the process which undoubtedly helped shape my journey as a whole. This was by refining my product idea, personal goal and final product. My supervisor, Mr Finnegan, helped me at each step of the process in every way that he could. We held several long meetings discussing my plan for the following weeks in order to successfully complete the 7 project in time. Constant communication allowed me to regularly evaluate where I was going right and wrong on my project.

My both primary sources, a Dulsco employee and an environmental science expert, gave me critical advice, from the location of the components in the digester, to the advice on which adhesive to use & the tools, materials needed to develop the materials. This product couldn't have been possible without effective communication with them. By listening to all who intended to help, keeping an open mind, showing clarity, concision, and respect, relationships were created. My continuous interactions and communication with my sources,  benefitted my campaign journey and was crucial in developing a successful journal, report and final product.

                                                                         Contd...