The project process

Planning

My final plan is very different from my initial plan. This is because I had to make a lot of changes as I went along. For example, I had to postpone work on the leaflet until the end of the project. Some publications took a lot longer to produce than I expected. It was very hard to work out in advance what tasks and sub-tasks needed to be done and how long they were going to take. I think my biggest weakness was timing. The project took much longer than I had expected and I had to stay after school and come in during the holidays several time to catch up. Sometimes looking at the plan and realising how far behind I was made me panic, but it did make me realise that I needed to find some way of making up the time.

I think there was too much to do in the time we had. I sometimes had to go on to the next publication even though I wanted to carry on with what I was doing. For example, my leaflet needed some more work but I had to move on to the eportfolio without finishing it.

When I drew up my initial plan I didn't realise how everything was connected together. The same information could be used in several publications. By the time I came to do the web pages at the end of the project I had already got all the information I needed. I only needed to recycle it.

I used my plan like a diary to record my progress. I started off with a Word document but soon changed it to html so that I could put in links to publications I had finished. I think the plan did help me manage the project and get everything done.

Miss Gaffney said that my plan allowed her to keep track of my progress because I up-dated it after every lesson. She said a key to the colour coding would have been helpful.

Next time I produce a plan I will allow more time for the unexpected and build in more time for testing.

Research

I did quite a lot of research using secondary sources early on in the project. I needed to do this because I didn't know much about the topic to begin with. Now I feel like I am an expert. I had to do some extra research as I went along when I needed additional information, for example for the leaflet. I used the Internet for most of my research. I found it useful to produce a mind map to group the information into sub-topics.

One thing I did wrong was not to record the sources of the images I used. Although they are all copyright free I don't remember where I got some of them from. Next time I will keep a record as I go along.

Apart from the survey I didn't use many primary sources because it wasn't necessary. Also, there wasn't enough time for this.

The survey

I think my survey was very successful. The questionnaire worked well and I got all the responses I needed. The only problem was that a lot more mothers than fathers filled in my questionnaire and they were all parents of children in the same year group. It would have been better to have had a more representative sample.

I am not brilliant at spreadsheets and I think this is an area of my project that could have been improved. The layout of my spreadsheet is not very good and it is difficult to make sense of it in html. I wasted a lot of time producing graphs separately which wasn't necessary.

The database

The hardest part about the database work was preparing the evidence for the eportfolio because Access file formats are not allowed. I made a movie to illustrate the structure of my database which worked very well. I also made a movie of Charlotte using my data entry form so that I could show how easy it is to use and how the validation stops bad data getting into the database. If I had had more time I would have improved the data entry form to make it easier to fill in. Charlotte knew what information was required but when my sister Amy tried to use it she needed help.

Testing

I think I chose some very good test reviewers and their feedback helped me improve my publications. Sometimes it took longer to get feedback than I had expected. I think it is really important who you ask for feedback and how much they know about the project. Charlotte was my main peer reviewer. She was brilliant! I also got good feedback from my teachers and my Mum.

It is important to keep a record of feedback so that you don't forget it. I used the Comments & Changes column of my plan to do this.

Sometimes I got a bit confused between testing and reviewing. I think testing is more useful than reviewing because it helps you improve a publication. I didn't always have enough time to do this properly. I will try to do this better next time because it really makes a difference.