Hi everybody this is my In-depth blog post 5
During the last four weeks, I have met with my mentor nine times. During this time, we have begun the planking part of the boat-building process. This includes cutting out pieces and epoxying them to the boat’s sides. During the gluing process, we encountered a few problems. The first problem was a minor one. We needed to use a block sander which we did not have, so we decided to go to Canadian tire and buy one for 12.99. The second problem was worse, the clamps would not stay on the side of the boat. This was because of the angle of the boat. We solved this by only epoxying one side of the boat and by drilling l brackets into the building board.
The third problem was the weight of the clamps. One of the clamps was too heavy so I built a tower to rest it on while the epoxy dried.
I did not reach my goal set in my last post, but I hope to have finished the planking by my next and last post.
I have one fear while building this project, Time. I only have six weeks left in this project and with my average of 2.5 meetings per week that is only 15 meetings left. To finish this project in its entirety that is not enough time as I must finish the planking, deck, fiberglass, and find order and electronics for the boat by the end of this project. My only solution so far is to either meet with my mentor more which is very hard on my schedule or to accept that I am not going to finish this by the deadline.
Regarding my questions.
What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?
My mentor firstly leads me by example, then he will work with me to make sure I know the steps to do the task. Finally, he tests me by giving me a task and leaving me to my own devices to test if I can complete it on my own
What kinds of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?
The main way to reinforce new learning is to do repeated tasks. An example of this is mixing epoxy. During the last few meetings. My mentor and I mixed epoxy in order to glue the boat together. This is a repeated task and I have learned how to do it on my own.
What kinds of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?
The main opportunity that could accelerate my learning was my mentor leading by example. This causes accelerated learning because while he shows me what to do he knows I am able to repeat it and we are able to learn at a faster pase if I am able to do one task, like mixing epoxy, while he is able to do another thing kile cutting out pieces of planking.
When you get together what do you talk about?
When not talking about the boat my mentor and I mostly talk about his past experiences as an ironworker this helps me better understand where he got his skill from and how they apply to this project.
What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?
Communication Is probably the best thing going in our mentor-mentee relationship right now. We are constantly bouncing ideas back and forward and thinking of solutions together.
What are you learning about one another?
During this process, I have learned a lot about my mentor’s skillset. An example of this is his ability to adapt to change and problem-solving. During our hardest problem, he suggested that we only epoxy one side at a time and it was this suggestion that led to us solving the problem.