Student Name: Sofia Student Email: [email protected]
Reflection is a key activity of learning. It helps you build a strong metacognition, or "understanding of your own learning." A good learner not only "knows what they know", but they "know what they don't know", too. Learning to reflect takes practice, but if your goal is to become a self-directed learner where you can teach yourself things, reflection is imperative.
- Now that you've completed the assignment, share your throughts. What did you learn? What confuses you? Where did you struggle? Where might you need more practice?
- A good reflection is: specific as possible, uses the terminology of the problem domain (what was learned in class / through readings), and is actionable (you can pursue next steps, or be aided in the pursuit). That last part is what will make you a self-directed learner.
- Flex your recall muscles. You might have to review class notes / assigned readings to write your reflection and get the terminology correct.
- Your reflection is for you. Yes I make you write them and I read them, but you are merely practicing to become a better self-directed learner. If you read your reflection 1 week later, does what you wrote advance your learning?
Examples:
- Poor Reflection: "I don't understand loops."
Better Reflection: "I don't undersand how the while loop exits."
Best Reflection: "I struggle writing the proper exit conditions on a while loop." It's actionable: You can practice this, google it, ask Chat GPT to explain it, etc. - Poor Reflection "I learned loops."
Better Reflection "I learned how to write while loops and their difference from for loops."
Best Reflection "I learned when to use while vs for loops. While loops are for sentiel-controlled values (waiting for a condition to occur), vs for loops are for iterating over collections of fixed values."
--- Reflection Below This Line ---
I really enjoyed this project. I have learned how to integrate multiple APIs effectively (Google Maps and Rapid API). I also became more confident in my ability to use Plotly and other visualization tools. It was one of the last features I added to my project, but it was super easy to implement and customize. I also learned and practiced how to make Pytests for my code, which was very helpful.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was how to handle user errors. Initially, my program would crash if users entered incomplete or incorrect data. I fixed this by using checks and clear error messages. I also struggled with the limted ability to customize with streamlit. I tried to change the font and background color of the streamlit but was unable to locate the config.toml file. This will definitely be my next task
If I had more time, I would add an in-depth explanation to all the signs and placements, as well as a more interactive visual. I found an API that creates a visual mapping of your birth chart, which I thought was very interesting but too complicated for this project.
Overall, I really enjoyed this project and this class.