My IB MYP Personal Project
For my IB MYP Personal Project, I focused on creating a “Smart Plant Monitor,” a project that combined my passion for technology with an exploration of IoT and software development. The goal was to develop a device that assists indoor plant owners by monitoring critical parameters such as temperature, humidity, and soil moisture. I aimed to automate the plant care process by incorporating features that trigger automatic watering and play specific music to boost plant health.
This project was not just about creating a product; it was about deepening my understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and the practical implementation of IoT. I set specific success criteria, including aesthetics, cost-efficiency, functionality, safety, and sustainability. I navigated challenges in coding, hardware integration, and refining features, which led to a prototype that met most of my outlined criteria. This project was a significant technical and personal learning experience, pushing me to overcome obstacles and enhance my technical skills.
Documentation:
Criterion A - Planning
Strand i: State a learning goal for the project and explain how a personal interest led to that goal.
I was always captivated by hardware, but as the epidemic time arrived, I began to get more interested in software-based technologies, attempting to explore new applications and learn to code. I was unable to do so owing to a lack of resources and procrastination. Although electronics are the hardware, a product cannot be complete without software integration, which is the talent I desire. When the opportunity to work on a personal project arose, I wanted to take advantage of it and learn as much as possible about product development. The reason I chose the software development life cycle as my learning goal is that it provides a framework for the effective creation of products by merging all parts of software development, hardware, testing, optimization, and so on. This would allow me to construct a product efficiently utilizing my past expertise and gaining new software abilities. My learning goal is "Understand loT implementation and Software Development Life Cycle to create a smart plant monitor."
It was time to start thinking about my personal project. My personal focus has always been technology. Since I was six years old, I began my journey in circuits by enrolling in classes that taught me the fundamentals, Since then, I have attended multiple programs and worked on a variety of complicated projects as l've become older, and l've begun to share my results on YouTube, seen by more than 2 lakh people (shown in fig 1, 1.1, 1.2). I also demonstrated my creativity in state-level events, where I received honours in high positions (shown in fig 2, 2.1).
Success Criteria: To know if my product is a success or not, I have come up with success criteria that are specific, rigorous, realistic, and testable and would help me assess and be a guide in my process of product creation toward success. As my product is not market grade and will be a prototype it will be important to be concerned with all aspects of cost, safety, and most important function. Customer, size, and environment would be secondary clauses and aesthetics would also be a lesser priority. For the marking system, I will be scoring each criteria topic from 1-10, and as there are 8 topics I will be giving a total score out of 80. For grading this product as there can be personal bias concerns I will be taking marks from 2 of my experts and 1 from the target audience who has no direct relation with this product. After taking scores from each person I will take an average and then come up with a final score for each criterion.
Criteria B: Applying skills Strand i: explain how the ATL skills) was/were applied to help achieve their learning goal Research Skills: To create a successful product I need to be acquired the skills for the production which I would gain in my learning process. In this kind of project, there are several skills and knowledge I would need to gain which would require me to do extensive research. I would require research for information such as product functionality, how can I code that functionality, what phases I would need to follow, etc. For that, I developed a research plan where I added a topic and justified the relevance of the research question followed by a section with around 2 sources that I have evaluated (explained below) and I will use, and then a section where I will summarise my learnings and findings from the source that can help me for future reference as well as while building my product.
Functionality: To decide the functionality of the product I had to conduct a lot of research as this was the most important criterion for my product. When I talked with my expert Amir I found out that to make this an loT device I need to make sure that the device connects with other devices over the internet transferring information which is why I set criteria that all parameters measured can be viewed on the mobile or laptop through AWS. When I had to decide on functionality as to what the product will measure I used my previous biology knowledge and researched further on what are some of the important components that keep plants healthy. Secondary sources like pistils nursery and gardening know-how mentioned that humidity and temperature levels can affect the quality of life of indoor plants. To confirm the functionality I conducted a survey through google forms with my target audience and asked about their preferences in functionality and surprisingly 100% of the respondents wanted such features. About the feature of playing music, I went through several science research papers on researchgate and found out it does affect positively if specific music like classical is played at times. Again I conducted a survey and the respondents wanted such a feature which is why I added it to my success criteria. Finally, to decide on the system of automatic watering I first tried to find out if that is a genuine problem and asked my target audience if they have experienced their plant passing away because of overwatering or less watering. Surprisingly it was an issue and the respondents wanted such a feature to automatically water when I conducted secondary research I found out that indoor plants require water once in 7-10 days which is why I selected soil moisture content less than 10 percent and its a pre-set parameter in the m5stack moisture sensor.
Strand iii: present a clear, detailed plan for achieving the product and its associated success criteria I created a plan for the entire creation in order to complete the project on time and meet deadlines. This timetable assists me in anticipating my steps and development, as well as setting basic completion deadlines. I have a section where I have written a summary of the work I need to perform, as well as another section where I have indicated by what date I need to have it completed. Then I have a section where I wrote the limiting factors and the materials or resources I would need to finish the work, and the final section is an explanation where I include my completion date, the status of the assignment, and why ! was unable to complete a task if I did not do. Keeping oneself reminded was a struggle, so I used Google Calendar and entered all the tasks that l am notified about in my email, which 1 check every morning.
To ensure product success, I have incorporated every aspect of my success criteria in my project plan. For the aesthetics criterion, the housing will be constructed of foam cardboard, which must be cut and connected, and this is a component of hardware development, thus it falls under the hardware development stage, which must be done by July 25th. For the cost criterion, I made sure to indicate where I am obtaining my sensors and materials, as well as which are affordable sources, to assist me to construct my product at a set cost as per the success criterion. For the customer criteria, I have included a feedback step in which I will personally approach my target audience and ensure that the proper target group is able gadget with ease; if not, to use the gadget with ease; if not, another phase has been added to repair that. Then, for the environmental criterion, I've introduced a phase to document all product research, in which the device will contain text information regarding reusing and recycling. For the size criterion, I have included a phase in the product plan to draw a design so that I can take a tentative look and construct the product with the proper dimensions based on the design. For the safety criteria, I have included a testing step in which I will self-evaluate the product by using it with water and ensuring that it is safe while in contact with water. As discussed in the preceding step, fire safety criteria will be specified in the documentation. Since functionality is indicated in the success criteria, the product plan contains various phases that include the development of software features by coding and hardware features by connecting the sensors to achieve the desired product. The material success criteria are addressed in two phases of the product plan: the drawing of the prototype, in which I lay out a thorough design with a material list and connections, and the development phase, in which I describe the materials I would use and where I would obtain them.
Research Plan Evaluation: My Research Plan was an important stage in my product development process. The research plan served an important role as the functionality of the product depends on the research and this research is required to aid me in my learning goal, thus helping me build the product. For example, I wanted to add a feature to the display that shows the water content in the soil I would first need to research the different ways I could represent the data, for example through numerical value or a progress bar, or a graph, and then I would need to research about the technologies and commands I would require to implement that functionality from different sources like videos, articles, and projects. I also had to find out information about SDLC where in I make sure I am following the exact phases and the different models for example the waterfall model which I utilized. I frequently visited my research plan during the process, the sources I utilized were mainly Internet articles from experts which gave me the required data and the information was credible as I only went ahead with articles written by professionals working in the field. For further testing of other sources, I finalized the CRAAP analysis technique (shown below) to get an overview of the authenticity of a website. The information here had to be credible or misinformation could lead to danger and threaten the life of a plant. I also utilized my research to develop my success criteria where in each criterion I could mention specific information such as what type of sensors I will use or what exactly the sensor will measure, all parameters were decided from research conducted and looking at existing products. I used research to find existing similar products as they helped me visualize how my end product could look like and how it could function, it also helped me understand what kind of functionality the target audience expects from such a product.
Strengths: I personally had done a lot of research projects example my last services and action (SAA) was a research project on cybersecurity and in the documentation, I had to develop a research plan thus I knew the format and basic structure. A strength is that the developer community has significantly grown which means I was able to find out information on a big variety of possible close blocks example navigation bars, tables and etc.
Limitations: I had previously never done any source evaluation in CRAAP format, I was used to OPVL another format for analyzing a source but when I did CRAAP I found out there are quite a few differences where the newer technique is more specific and detailed, and required you to analyze in-depth of a source whereas OPVL is more generalized. Through this personal project, I overcame this limitation by learning and conducting CRAAP evaluation for my sources. Another limitation was the availability of sources. Because M5Stack is a proprietary sensor and software the availability of sources was quite less which means it was harder to find legitimate and credible sources.
Applying Skills to create a product: Thinking Skills (Critical and Transfer Thinking) The development of the project was not easy as I had thought it to be. When it was time for product creation I received all my sensors and it was a mess. I was confused and unsure how to move forward. Here I used thinking skills where I transferred my previous knowledge about schematics (A diagram representation of elements a system uses) I had learned about in my M4 physics class electricity chapter and I created a basic schematic diagram of how my sensors would be connected to each other for which I also took help from the official website of M5Stack. Coding in python for the first time was challenging as Micropython is a framework with a small community and there were a vast amount of sources to learn from. At this point, I used critical thinking skills and created a mind map listing down what exactly I would need to code and eliminate learning unnecessary packages that would end up wasting my time and making my project more complicated for example the AWS connection requirement I listed down that I would need to use UlFlow blocks and AWS management console. After listing down requirements I was able to find appropriate sources and create my product more efficiently. At times while coding I found a lot of difficulty for example through my research as a part of the learning process I found out that Indoor plants require less water compared to traditional outdoor plants and the sensor I purchased had preset variables to water the plant when the soil moisture content is less than 50%. During this, I was critically brainstorming and went through several existing code templates which are similar to my product and looked through their schematics where I found out that the earth sensor could be percentage can be altered using some scratch language type blocs present in the Ul flow program which I utilized. I also used transfer skills for the functionality when I transferred my biology plant chapter notes and understanding about plants which helped me decide the functionality in the success criteria and helped me purchase appropriate sensors example the moisture sensor which can be used to measure when the plant needs watering or not. Strengths: I have seldom coded before in embedded C for Arduino thus I have basic knowledge about what the functions of the sensors are and how they can be altered, thus I have transferred that knowledge and have utilized it here and I was able to code some sensors without any help from experts or online courses. Limitations: I always had a habit of thinking in a certain way and going ahead with it, after thinking about a feature I would usually not be open to any changes If I get any thoughts later or any recommendations which could be an issue during the creation of the product as changes would be necessary and I overcame this. For example, at first, I had mentioned that my device will also display air pressure but as this device is for indoor plants I later realized air pressure would not make a difference thus has to remove the feature or add it at least priority.
As time changes we also need to change and keep learning or we get left behind in this fast-moving world. Now we have great advancements in blockchain and Artificial intelligence technology all of which are complex mechanisms but are developed from a base. This personal project helped me develop a base for my future journey in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and helped me procure 12 some basic life skills like coding that can help me automate my daily recurring jobs. I now understand the basics of computer science, coding in python, and how coding can be used to utilize the full capabilities of different types of sensors. In conclusion, this project helped me realize my potential and interest as a person and helped me come out of my comfort zone and build something useful, a new need of the 21st century with dedication.
Criteria C: ReflectingStrand i: explain the impact of the project on themselves or their learningReflectionThe personal project helped me develop as a person in any way possible. During the process of productcreation, I have learned about the importance of time and how to not procrastinate as it was a major issuefor me, especially while coding, I used to delay tasks as I felt the code was too huge and would take too longto fix bugs. While creating this product I came up with a personal strategy of deep work sessions wherein Iwill turn off all my social media tabs, sit on a table with only my laptop and a glass of water and turn on thetimer for an hour which I will do nothing else other than the designated task.This project also helped me realize my inner potential, I may have underestimated myself while deciding theprocess to create this product by choosing simpler sensors and materials but I have now decided to learnfurther and take computer science as a subject in my IB DP as it was an interesting subject I came to knowabout while completing my learning goal. I also realized that it is normal for me to go out of a decided planas I did not expect this to happen but I took more time to learn to code rather than the coding part itselfand had to deviate from some pre-existing plans in my mind about my product after conducting researchand understanding more about plants. When I was in the process of creating my product I also realized thatthere were a lot more and better functions I could have decided on during the planning stage of my SDLCand learning goal after talking to some of my friends, and experts about the product. For example, it wouldhave been a better function to display data like humidity and moisture level as graphs and show the overallchange per week which displays the progress of a plant. During this, I came up with a new technique todecide the functionality of a product I will ever make during the planning stage. I will ask a set of questionsto the direct target audience that would help me decide upon the functions.
Evaluation: Overall I feel that my final product is a success, I was able to complete my product goal after finishing my learning goal but was not able to meet every criterion. The important sub-criterion of functions was well met and accurate. The areas of improvement include aesthetics which I did not focus much on and cost which could have been reduced further. During the designing of the prototype, I went into detail about the connections and the attachment of the device to the pot but did not exactly design the aesthetics of the housing of the device which if done would have helped me achieve better aesthetics. My final product displayed my capability of coding and how logic is important and what all electronic components are required for building such an application. I felt that I could have gone more in-depth in function criteria and less towards environment and safety as they are not directly linked to my product. If I had focused more on functionality I would have had a better product and thus be able to display my knowledge through learning goals better. I was facing a lack of time due to school work and thus I was not able to provide my product to any target audience for a long period of time and get a proper evaluation. As I created and had the product I did a self-evaluation where I wrote down my observations and the success for each criterion I had set before in my success criteria below:
(Fig: 21 I gave my product to a future customer my target audience an indoor plant lover in my apartment and received scores for each criterion as a part of my evaluation from a user) (Fig: 22 To be an loT device my product data should be visible anywhere with an internet connection thus I asked my expert to connect to my device and try to access the data)
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