In my last blog post I talked about how I was going to be looking at a different Expo project due to the coronavirus. So how would I go about my developing my project further without really being able to leave my house.
Mentor: I need a mentor for my project and I might not have one that is outside of the school yet, but I think that my dad would make a good addition to my mentor list. So far I have talked to Mr. Bates, an educator within my school, about how the science behind my project works. My dad will be able to help me by possibly helping me design something that would be viable for adding onto barns. I was planning to come into contact with a farmer and discuss the possibility of this idea with them, but now that we aren't allowed to leave our houses for anything other than necessities, so I don't think that will be something that I look forward to in the near future.
Prototype: I think the most important part of my project that I can accomplish is creating a model of the idea. Creating something that would show people how non-invasive and simple my idea is, is about all I can do at this point. This would be where my dad came in. My dad is a self-employed contractor and he would be able to help me create my table-top model.
Community Outreach: I don't think COVID-19 will be able to impact this feature of my project much at all because I don't have any reason to be interviewing students, and even if that was something I planned on doing I would be able to reach out to them via their school emails.
Overall I think COVID-19 will have a greater impact on Expo than it will the students attending. While I fully believe that many students will struggle to complete their projects now that they are not able to go to school, I feel that the chances of going to Expo after this is less and less likely every day. I hope that everyone that took the time to read this is staying safe and healthy and not putting anyone (including themselves) at risk of contracting the disease.