Contributors

    I've already mentioned the biggest challenges I faced. Getting the waterproof thermometer hardware and software to work right took weeks. Learning how to read and use C++ from scratch, using the incorrect technical diagrams, and scraping together every hint from the reviews on its retail page. Having to go back and add the ability for it to read more thermometers from one pin was harrowing, not because it was actually that hard, a few days at most, but because of how it brought back the memories from the first time I had to work with them. But, made it through to the end, even if I did have to redo the protoboard three times.
   Similarly, getting the pipes to work. Not even just the half-pipe fiasco, but once we went to whole pipe, we still needed to glue every corner at a specific angle, or else the water wouldn't flow. It was nerve-wracking. If we messed up towards the end it would have ruined over a week of work and a lot of good pipe, which we would have had to then get more of, trim to size, cut the basket holes, and then finally reglue the critical angles. We actually did mess up a couple of times, putting the angles on backwards, we had enough spare lying around that we managed, but we were down to our last piece by the end. It wasn't just mentally stressful, PVC cement is pretty unpleasant stuff, it stinks and the primer will stain anything it touches, including my hands, clothes, and the floor outside the makerspace. But, almost none of the pipes leak and the angles are all mostly correct, so it turned out alright.
   The last major struggle was probably that issue I had with the relay code. It seems silly now, but the fact that the HIGH and LOW commands were switched from what I assumed they were cost me at least three days, by then most of the critical stuff was done, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have liked those three days to work on quality of life stuff like that temperature readout. Oh well, such is life. If we started fresh tomorrow we could probably have a seriously improved design in three months for way less money. But we're not. we're moving on. That's how it goes sometimes. Even if it moving on is a challenge, we all have to eventually.
   But it's not like it was all a waste. It was super cool to teach myself C++ and gain a lot of confidence in my ability. I'm not even good but I know what I can do and it's a lot better than what I could do 7 months ago, that's for sure. Likewise, I now have a decent amount of practical electrical knowledge. I probably shouldn't be wiring anyone's house but that's still not the sort of thing I ever thought I'd get to learn in high school. Lastly, it was just nice to have a solid team. We've all known each other for years. We've worked on projects in the past and have pretty compatible personalities. Just imagining what it would have been like to work with someone I'm bad with for 6 months. Even if I initially liked them, I can't imagine there would be very many positive feelings by the end. But that didn't happen, everyone put in as much as they could. We split the work, if someone needed help we helped and if someone wanted to do it themself, we split up to cover more ground. We decided things as a group but specialized in our tasks. We created our own terminology for the random things we needed words for that we had never come across before in normal life. It was just an all-around great time and crew.
   I'm not the most pro-social team-spirit guy, but I will say I'm a lot more inclined towards any similar I might come across in the future. While I have my issues with the STEAM program, I also think its taught (intentionally or no) me a lot of things. I've learned technical skills, but I've also learned how to teach myself technical skills when what we learned in class doesn't help. Self-reliance is crucial, but so is the ability to ask peers questions. Those things aren't inherent to tinkering with raspberry pis but I think it's probably a lower barrier to entry than a wet lab or anthropological institute, so I'll let it slide. I joined the STEAM program because I went to Anoka middle but was just outside the bus range for Anoka high, I didn't want to leave all my friends behind, and you got bussing if you were in STEAM. But I got in, and even if the class roster is full of... interesting people I've also met some of my favorite people, so there were probably a lot worse choices I could have made.