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McMillan Magnet Middle School

SAME 2011

School security and adequate student attendance has been an issue for many years. We would

like to create a McMillan Access Card, or MAC, that would allow students and staff the ability to enter

and exit the building and classrooms. The MAC will monitor student attendance and complete other

administrative duties. The system will increase the level of security, be a library card, lunch card and

provide students with easier access to information. The system will lock and unlock doors and record

attendance based on the bell schedule of the building. The cards will have information that will give

student access to necessary rooms, computers, athletic events and library services.

Teacher:

James Mayberger, Engineering

Mentors:

Kathleen Englert, USACE

Scott Gatewood, DLR Group

Team Members: Grade: Job:

Trip Carlson 8 Graphics

David Hawkins 8 Graphics

Zach Mathews 8 Oral Presentation

Tyler Miller 8 Oral Presentation

Mia Morton 8 Graphics

Enoch Parker 8 Virtual Model

Elexa Robinson 8 Virtual Model

Vinith Sharma 8 Physical Model

Grace Siy 8 Team Leader, Paper

Richard Stockton-Hoover 8 Physical Model

Katy Stuckey 8 Co-Team Leader, Paper

Nick Tuma 8 Virtual Model

Emilio Vasquez 8 Graphics

Society of American Military Engineers and Student Initiative Mentoring Program

Contest Date:

April 28, 2011

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Table of Contents

Problem Statement …………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Current Situation ……………………………………………………………………………. 3-5

Problem Solution …………………………………………………………………………... 5-14

Radio Frequency Identification ……………………………………………………. 6-7

Attendance ………………………………………………………………………….... 7-8

Exterior Doors ……………………………………………………………………….. 8-9

Library, Lunches, and Sporting Events ………………………………………….. 9-11

Cost ……………………………………………………………………………………. 11

Funding ……………………………………………………………………………….. 12

Alternate Solutions ……………………………………………………………………….. 13-14

Vandalism ……………………………………………………………………….……. 13

Lockers ……………………………………………………………………………........ 14

Computers …………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………….…. 15

Journey …………………………………………………………………………………….. 16-18

Team Organizational Chart …………………………………………………………. 18

Lessons Learned …………………………………………………………………………... 19-20

Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………….. 20

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Problem Statement

All throughout the world, school safety is of the utmost importance. School

buildings are vulnerable to offenders with harmful intentions, invoking fear in students,

faculty, and their family members.

On January 5, 2011, Millard South High School was the site of a fatal shooting,

one which may have been prevented with more advanced security. In McMillan’s own

neighborhood, violence and other dangers are a problem as well. In fact, McMillan was

forced to hold a lockdown during the month of February due to gunfire only two blocks

away. McMillan held yet another lockdown on March 8, even though the danger was

over one mile away. Although lockdowns are relatively effective, there is virtually no

way to prevent a disaster once an offender has already entered the building.

Not only must schools handle the issue of safety, but they are also responsible for

numerous administrative duties. Schools need to know exactly where each student is at

all times of the day, as they are held responsible for accidents when attendance is

incorrectly taken. If a student is not present, the staff must notify the office at once.

Lunch lines can be inefficient and slow. The same can be said in libraries, where book

check-out lines take much longer than necessary.

Current Situation

Currently, McMillan has one School Resource Officer (SRO), and two OPS

security aides. Our SRO, Officer Valentine, has an office positioned directly facing the

front door. However, there are instances where he is required to leave the building,

leaving no guard in the entryway. There are also multiple exterior doors that are

accessible. Even though the doors are locked from the outside, any student or faculty

member has the ability to allow outsiders into the building. During the school day, one

security aide, Mr. McGee, sits in the first floor hallway of classrooms, and another, Ms.

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Emery, watches the second floor’s hallway. While simple, it is not the most efficient

way to keep our school safe.

Visitors come and go throughout the building fairly often. During the school

day, it is possible for any person to enter our building. Visitors are required to sign in at

the office, but it is possible to pass the office without signing in. There are forty-four

security cameras recently installed in and outside of our school, which are used to

monitor our hallways and oversee student behavior. Although they may help with

disasters after they have occurred, they are unable to prevent criminals from entering

the building.

Every period, teachers are responsible for submitting the attendance data for

their class to Infinite Campus, an application which holds student information and

other district data. This system separates information into separate tabs, such as

emergency contacts, grades, attendance, and other data. On the attendance page, each

student has their photo ID and name next to which teachers must mark either present,

tardy, or absent. When a student is tardy, there is no distinction whether the student

was five minutes or an entire hour late.

For lunch, students and teachers wait in line for their meal. At the end of the line

is a lunch attendant and computer. The purchaser must type in their student or faculty

ID number on a small keypad, causing their name and lunch account balance to appear

on the screen. Students may type in their ID incorrectly, which holds up the entire line.

This is a concern because students already have a limited amount of time set aside for

lunch. Waiting in line for other students to purchase lunch cuts time out of everyone’s

allotted schedule. Another drawback of our current system is if someone else learns a

student’s ID number, they can steal lunch money and use it to buy their own food.

The same problem occurs when students check out library books. They must

enter their student ID, which can be mistyped. Also, students frequently need a book on

a subject that is not covered by McMillan’s library. Although they may be able to check

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Figure 1: An example of our

proposed MAC.

out books at the public library, many students don’t have an Omaha Public Library

account and are unable to receive transportation to the library. This can cause problems

when a student needs to research and doesn’t have adequate resources. Lacking sources

may ruin a student’s assignment, possibly harming their grade.

Here at McMillan, we regularly host district athletic events. To enter the majority

of these events, such as swim meets or basketball games, parents must pay a fee of one

dollar. Students with their McMillan-issued student ID are allowed in free. However, it

takes time for the staff to check all of the ID’s, and it is possible to sneak into the event.

Problem Solution

Our project, the McMillan Access Cards, will improve the safety of our students

and faculty here at McMillan, as well as complete numerous administrative tasks. Each

student and faculty member in the building will receive their own card, or MAC, which

they will be required to wear at all times. The cards consist of two pieces of 3 ¼ inches

by 2 inches plastic with an RFID chip placed in the center. The MAC will be

personalized with the student’s photo, full name, student ID number, and programmed

to fit their schedule. It is a replica of our present

activity card which allows students to attend

different sporting events and other after school

activities. (See figure 1, page 5). In fact, in order to

add students’ ID and photos, we plan to use the

same printer currently implemented by McMillan to

personalize the activity cards. The cards will be read

using a “MIFARE” reader that will enable us to scan cards quickly and effectively. The

MACs will allow students and staff to enter and exit the buildings and their classrooms,

record student attendance, serve as a library card, and also pay for lunch. The new

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Figure 2: An

example of

an RFID chip.

system will greatly increase the level of security within our school and provide a safer

learning environment for all.

Radio Frequency Identification

The MACs will use RFID technology, otherwise known as Radio Frequency

Identification, to hold each student’s information. Radio Frequency Identification can be

programmed to complete any task. Currently, some stores are equipped with RFID

readers that swipe RFID enabled credit cards, which makes check-

out lines move much faster. In fact, Chase, a well known credit card

company, just recently implemented RFID technology on their new

blink® credit cards. (See figure 1, page 6). These cards speed up

checkout times and are much simpler than the traditional credit

cards, earning them many new users. Also, numerous offices and

school buildings utilize RFID security systems, helping to keep students and faculty

safe.

Each card will contain an RFID chip which will emit a unique radio frequency.

(See figure 2, page 6). Scanners receive these frequencies and connect to

a database, which will have the ability to be updated and adjusted. For

instance, if a student was suspended or expelled, their badge would not

function during their allotted time away. If a student were to lose their

badge or card, the card could simply be cancelled and replaced with a

new one.

RFID has three important parts to making it work: the scanning antenna, the

transceiver, and the transponder. The scanning antenna, or reader, emits radio-

frequency signals to the RFID tag within a specified range. The radio frequency

Figure 1: The new

Chase credit card,

blink®, which uses

RFID technology.

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radiation is the key part to this technology, providing the means of communication for

the transponder as well as the energy to communicate. Once in the range of the reader,

the transponder, or RFID tag, is detected using an activation signal. This signal acts as

the tag’s wake up call, activating the microchip and enabling it to transmit the

information to be picked up by the receiver .Once signals are sent out, the transceiver

uses a decoder to interpret the data from the chip.

There are two types of RFID tags: active and passive. Active RFID tags power

themselves with batteries, enabling them to be read from a distance. However, this

makes it easier for identity thieves to steal whatever information is on the tag. Active

RFIDs last for a limited period of time, generally around ten years. The other major type

of RFID tag is a passive RFID. This type of tag does not require batteries, making them

much smaller, some even around the size of a grain of rice. These tags also have a

virtually unlimited life span. Passive RFID tags are relatively inexpensive to

manufacture and can be used in nearly any application.

We decided to implement passive RFID tags in our project. Since it was

unnecessary for the tags to be read from a distance and inconvenient for them to

contain batteries, we eliminated active tags from our options. Passive tags are a

reasonable size and price, working perfectly for the MACs. These tag cards cost $1.10

each, reaching a total of around $825 for every student and faculty member in our

building.

Attendance

During passing periods, doors will be open to all classrooms, allowing students

to enter their class without the hassle of swiping their cards. As they enter, an RFID

reader placed above the door, the UHF Medium Range Reader-DL930, will scan each

student’s RFID card, reading the student’s ID and acknowledging that the student has

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entered the classroom. (See figure 1, page 8). The reader will then send a

signal to the teacher’s computer, marking the student as present using a

new version of our current attendance program, Infinite Campus. If the

student were to leave the classroom after entering, his or her

card would be scanned again, and the reader would send yet

another signal to Infinite Campus, this time marking the

student as absent. In the instance that a student entered a classroom which is not in

accordance with their schedule, a notification will immediately appear on the teacher’s

computer, alerting the teacher at once.

After passing period ends, teachers will be required to shut their door, locking

them automatically. On each door handle, a separate RFID scanner will

be installed, the Avea RFID Proximity Stand Alone Control System. (See

figure 2, page 8). This reader will be combined with the Rutherford

Heavy Duty All in One Electric Strike, which is a magnetic

lock, and a 12 VDC 1 Amp, the power supply, to open and

close classroom doors. (See figures 3 and 4, page 8). If a

student is tardy to their class, they will simply swipe their card on the door

handle to their classroom, unlocking the door. The door reader

will send a signal to Infinite Campus, marking the student as

late, as well as recording what time they entered the classroom,

greatly improving our current tardy system. However, the cards will deny

access to any classrooms other than the student’s class during that period,

preventing students from interrupting lessons and ensuring students are in

there assigned classrooms.

Exterior Doors

As seen in the Millard South shooting, the moment an intruder enters the

building, the security system has failed, putting students and faculty at an extremely

large risk. Our solution is to install a two-way intercom system from the front door to

Figure 1: The UHF Medium

Range Reader-DL930,

which we plan to use for

attendance-taking

purposes.

Figure 2: The Avea

RFID Proximity Stand

Alone Control

System.

Figure 3 (Above): The

Rutherford heavy Duty All in

One Electric Strike.

Figure 4 (Below): The 12 VDC

1 AMP

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Figure 2: The

ProxPoint Plus 6005

the main office. The intercom we selected for this purpose is the

UWS Wireless 900MHz Doorbell and Intercom system. This

microphone and receiver will be mounted outside the school

building. The kit includes stainless-steel screws or 3M double-

sided tape for mounting on any surface. It normally costs $149.00,

but is currently on sale for $114.00. Our intercom

system will allow our secretaries to speak with

visitors and give them the authorization to enter the front office and sign in.

In addition, McMillan has numerous cameras in place around the front

door, and the office secretaries are able to watch these feeds. Once we have

our intercom in place, the secretaries will be able to both watch and

communicate with visitors. For students and faculty, we selected four

other exterior doors for RFID readers: two doors connecting the staff parking lot and

school, one door connecting the gymnasium and track, and another leading out to our

bussing area. The RFID scanner we plan to install on these doors, the ProxPoint Plus

6005, costs $108 per unit, or $432 total. (See figure 2, page 9).

Library, Lunches, and Sporting Events

Besides providing entrance and exit abilities to our school, the MACs will also

take care of many other administrative duties. The MACs will serve as a library card for

our students, allowing students to simply swipe their cards while checking out books

using the PC USB 125KHz RFID Card Reader, which costs around $40

for a single reader. (See figure 2, page 9). The McMillan library contains

only around 11,000 books in very specific genres, limiting students’

resources. With our project, we plan to combine our McMillan library

with the entire Omaha Public Library system, enabling students

to request books from any branch in the city. One example of

Figure 2: The PC USB

125KHz RFID Card Reader,

which we will use for both

libraries and lunches.

Figure 1: A model of our

current entryway, in which

visitors are able to enter the

front door at will.

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such a combination is Saddlebrook Elementary school, which opened in August, 2009

and serves as a school, library, and community center. Students attending Saddlebrook

have their own OPL cards and can visit the school library, too.

We decided to connect the public facilities through an Online Public Access

Catalog (OPAC) called World Cat. (See figure 1, page 10). World Cat is the largest

OPAC in the world, connecting nearly 72,000 libraries around

the globe. Membership is free, however students must be 13

years or older, preventing some incoming seventh graders from

joining. Through the OPL website, students will also be able to download e-books,

which are electronic books that you can read on a computer or a special device, such as

an iPod Touch.

Transportation of books between branches is already quite efficient, and adding

McMillan would not be a very large detour. McMillan is located between the Charles B.

Washington and Florence Branches, making it quite simple to add our school to OPL’s

transportation system.

As of right now, OPL has 921,330 books from different genres. The amount of

books students will gain access to will substantially increase with this combination and

will greatly enhance student achievement by providing more resources for their work

and entertainment.

Our MACs will function as lunch cards as well. With the McMillan Access Cards,

students will simply swipe or wave their card in front of one of the two PC USB

125KHz RFID Card Readers for the system to acknowledge the student’s ID. (See figure

2, page 9). This eliminates the problem of a student forgetting lunch ID codes and also

makes it much quicker to purchase a meal. The same lunch system will remain,

requiring no new system to be bought.

Figure 1: World Cat, the

world’s largest OPAC.

Page | 11

Students will have the ability to purchase activity cards to attend sporting events,

just as they do now. If a student has purchased an activity card, it will be programmed

into their MAC and allow them to enter sports games swiftly and efficiently. Presently,

a table is placed outside of the sporting event and is monitored by teacher or parent

volunteers. These volunteers must check every student for an ID badge before allowing

them into the game and collect money from parents or students who do not have an

activity card. With the MACs, volunteers will not have to worry about students with

Activity Cards. Instead, these students will simply have to swipe their cards on a

portable RFID reader and enter the game.

Cost

To implement our MACs, we plan on using only $49,900.31. For our interior

doors, we need 70 units each of the Avea RFID Proximity Stand Alone Access Control

System, Rutherford Heavy Duty All in One Electric Strike, and the 12 VDC 1 Amp to

install in every classroom. Our group must purchase four ProxPoint Plus 6005 readers

and one UWS WireFree Wireless 900MHz Doorbell and Intercom. We also need 750

student and faculty ID cards and three PC USB 125KHz RFID Card Readers for the

cafeteria and library. (See figure 1, page 11).

Figure 1 (Below): A detailed spreadsheet further

explaining the cost of our project.

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Funding

To fund our project, we considered using the COPS Secure Our Schools (SOS)

Grant Program. (See figure 1, page 12). The total

funding available from this organization is $16

million dollars, however, we are only planning on

using about $50,000 of that. This grant provides funding to local governments to help

with the development of resources for school safety. Recipients are able to establish and

improve safety measures taken by their school to promote the development of school

safety efforts within their communities. The grant is used to help cover the cost of

security such as the installation of metal detectors or locks, security training of

personnel, and other measures that could significantly increase a school’s security.

Grantees are required to contribute a local cash match of fifty percent of the total cost of

the approved project. All law enforcement agencies that have primary law enforcement

authority within a partner primary or secondary school are eligible to apply.

Another possible option for funding our project is The Sherwood Foundation’s

Annual Grant. This foundation requires a letter of inquiry to determine the eligibility of

organizations, which must be mailed in by September 15. To be considered, we must

submit a two-page letter on our school’s letterhead providing the details of our project.

The Sherwood Foundation favorably considers requests which contain innovative

solutions to a community need while not duplicating the efforts of others.

We chose not to fund our project with the Sherwood Foundation’s grant because

we believed its focus area was much too broad. Our project would better be funded by a

grant set aside specifically for school safety, the main emphasis of our project. For this

reason, we selected the COPS SOS grant to fund our project. Also, this grant has a

maximum amount of $16 million, which is more than enough to fund our project.

Figure 1: COPS Logo

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Alternate Solutions

Vandalism

Our group was worried our scanners would be subject to vandalism, as it is

nearly unavoidable in any school. We decided to protect our scanners with a cover, and

found numerous solutions to this problem, one of them being a material called Aerogel.

Aerogel is a substance that resembles frozen smoke, primarily consisting of a Silica

compound with no liquid. It is made of about 99.98% air, making it very light and

giving it a texture quite similar to Styrofoam. Aerogel is noted for having excellent

insulation and being able to withstand large amounts of force. However, it is quite

expensive, costing around $50 for one 3” by 3” block. Although Aerogel has many

benefits, we decided to find another option due to its high cost and the fact that, despite

its ability to withstand massive amounts of force, Aerogel is very brittle.

We decided not to use normal glass either because if it were to shatter, it may

harm students. Glass also is somewhat expensive, at about $32 per square foot for ¾’’

thick starphire low iron glass, or about $1 per 2.5mm thick for 1 square foot.

Another obvious material was plastic, which is low in cost, somewhat hard to

break, and non-metallic. However, plastic is not environmentally friendly due to the

fact that plastic takes a very long time to decompose and is made very uncleanly.

We also came up with a very simple cover - Plexiglas. The only thing that can

block RFID tags is metal – so it would definitely work best to use a non-metal material.

It would also work better to use a clear material, so it would be easier identify the

scanner. Plexiglas is nearly shatterproof, so it would be able to take a lot of abuse from

students. Plexiglas is also quite inexpensive, making it a good choice to use, since it is

both clear and a bit strong. Due to its many benefits, we decided to select Plexiglas

because it is a lot less prone to shattering, is lightweight, and is not easily damaged.

However, because we do not know if vandalism will actually become a problem for our

scanners, we chose not to implement protective coverings over the readers.

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Lockers

We considered using the RFID scanners for lockers to lessen time spent in the

hallways. Oftentimes, students forget their combination and waste time

in the hallways. Using their ID badges, students would be able to gain

access to their belongings in one quick and easy swipe. We planned to

install one Dialock® Locker Lock™ model 231.90.010 for every locker,

which cost $238.35 per scanner. (See figure 1, page 14). In our

building, there are 900 lockers, and the cost of installing one scanner

for each locker would be astronomical, around $214,965.

With this in mind, we considered having one scanner control multiple lockers,

around eight to ten at a time. This would significantly decrease the price of RFID

friendly lockers however; assigning numerous people to one scanner might create lines

and congestion in the hallways. After much debate, we decided not to install scanners

on the lockers because there are few security issues with the system we have now, it

would be extremely costly, and it might end up wasting time in the hallways.

Computers

For extra security with the computers, we considered placing scanners on the

computers themselves. These scanners, the PC USB 125KHz RFID Card Readers, would

be able to log in students or faculty members with the simple wave of their ID badge.

(See figure 2, page 9). In one swipe, they can access all of their necessary files and

information. However, there are roughly 800 computers and laptops in our school,

making it shockingly expensive to purchase a scanner for each one. In fact, a single

scanner costs $39.71, and installing one for every computer would cost nearly $32,000.

Not only that, but the current login system is already quite good for security.

Figure 1: Dialock®

Locker Lock™

Page | 15

Bibliography

Day, David. Omaha Public Library. 2010. OPL. 26 Jan. 2011

<www.omahapubliclibrary.org>.

WorldCat. 2011. OCLC. 2 Feb. 2011 <www.worldcat.com>.

OPS. Saddlebrook Elementary School . 2011. OPS. 28 Feb. 2011

<www.ops.org/elementary/saddlebrook>.

Intercoms Online . 2008. Intercom Systems. 17 Mar. 2011<

www.intercomsonline.com>.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2011. 22 March 2011 < www.eff.org>.

"What Is Blink?" Chase. 2010. JP Morgan Chase & Company. 19 Mar. 2011

<www.chaseblink.com>.

Cummings, Ray. "What is RFID?" Technovelgy. 2011. Technovelgy. 2011. 7 Mar.

<http://www.technovelgy.com/>.

Steiner, Stephen. "About Aerogel" Aerogel.org. 2011. World Press. 17 Feb. 2011

<www.aerogel.org>.

No Key (The Keyless Lock Store). 2011. NoKey. 10 Mar. 2011

<http://www.nokey.com/>.

No Key (The Keyless Lock Store). 2010. NoKey. 17 Feb. 2011

<http://www.roboticsconnection.com/>.

ID Card Group. 2010. ID Card Group. 14 Feb. 2011 <

http://proximity.idcardgroup.com/>.

HID Global (The Trusted source for Secure Identity Solutions). 2011. ID Card

Group. 14 Feb. 2011 < http://proximity.idcardgroup.com/>.

"Wholesale - PC USB 125KHz RFID Card Reader (Read-Only) Other Computer

Components " DHGate.com. 2011. DHGate.com. 13 Mar. 2011

<www.dhgate.com>.

Page | 16

Journey

Participating in SAME was a long and difficult experience. Every task we undertook

was a challenge, every obstacle as strenuous as the next. On the first day of SAME, we

began by creating a group organization chart, seen on page 16. As our project

progressed, it developed a need for much more detailed research, requiring us to

further divide tasks amongst our group. All areas of our project need to be addressed,

leaving numerous group members unhappy with their positions.

Thankfully, this issue was disregarded in the weeks following our first meeting.

Instead, our group focused on the actual project, actively discussing all possibilities to

solving our proposed problem. During this two week long brainstorm session, we sifted

through ideas, debating the pros and cons of each solution. There were a few small

disagreements during those early days of our project, but eventually we got them

straightened out.

Once we decided on the basic concepts of the MACs, our group began to research,

bringing back some feelings of resentment regarding some members’ positions.

However, after several days of research, every member realized that their position was

just as important as the next. We acknowledged all jobs and discovered that without

each person doing their assigned task, the project would certainly fail. Every single job

assigned contributed to our entire project, with numerous jobs relying on one another

for success. By not completing our work, not only were we disappointing ourselves, but

we were letting down the group as a whole. With this in mind, our group discovered

new drive and determination to finishing their work. Every member felt their

importance and became much more willing to contribute to the project.

Locating reliable resources was extremely time consuming, and students who were

researching faced the daunting task of narrowing down all of our data. Using search

engines as large as Google or Bing, our searches often returned thousands of different

results online and nearly all of the books regarding our project were much more

Page | 17

informative than necessary consuming quite a bit of our time in our attempts to simply

read and comprehend them.

During our research period, it was also quite simple to be distracted by other things.

Staying on task was certainly a problem for many of our members. However, using

group support and acknowledging the threat of our due date, we managed to persevere

and collect enough information. These factors also contributed to motivating us to work

on and complete our paper.

From the very first day in January until the end of March, our group worked

diligently and persistently on our project. We met every other day in accordance with

our school’s schedule from 10:57 until 12:30, approximately one and a half hours. Our

work continued even into the final few days, as we were still perfecting bits and pieces

of our paper.

Page | 18

Organizational Chart

TEAM LEADERS

Katy Stuckey

Grace Siy

VIRTUAL MODEL

Nicholas Tuma

Enoch Parker

Tyler Miller

PHYSICAL MODEL

Richard Stockton

Vinith Sharma

GRAPHICS

Mia Morton

PRESENTATION

Elexa Robinson

Zachary Matthews

Grace Siy

RESEARCH

Exterior Doors

Nicholas Tuma

Interior Doors

Emilio Vazquez

Funding

David Hawkins

RFID

Katy Stuckey

Richard Stockton

Vinith Sharma

Libraries

Zachary Matthews

Security

Trip Carlson

PAPER

Katy Stuckey

Grace Siy

Trip Carlson

Page | 19

Lessons Learned

Our group previously viewed this project as an incredibly challenging

opportunity to create our own idea and bring it to life, and our expectations were

certainly met. However, our group definitely underestimated the difficulty of managing

a project this large.

Every member’s experiences varied greatly over the course of this project,

particularly depending on what section of the project they worked on. Those creating

virtual models became extremely skilled when using programs such as Autodesk

Inventor and Revit, especially after making detailed examples of our school building

and MACs. Group members responsible for the paper discovered how to deliver an

idea clearly and concisely, as well as how to sort through different facts and figures. A

few of our group members worked with Adobe Photoshop, and became fairly proficient

at transforming photos into the exact picture we required. Every member of our group

also became well experienced with in-depth research, which will most definitely

become useful within our high school and college years.

This project greatly impacted each of our group members. We have become

much more appreciative of the work that others have completed, and have learned to

try our hardest to benefit our team. . On future projects, our group members will always

keep the final goal in mind, rather than being distracted by smaller details not

ultimately contributing to the final goal, a problem which we encountered during

SAME. SAME has also given many of us a sense of determination regarding large group

projects. As a group, we discovered that it is difficult to get people to work together,

and even to work at all. At times, it seemed people were seldom working, with only a

few members actually devoting their time to the project. From this, our group learned

that we must be supportive of one another and convince each other to persevere during

the difficult times.

Page | 20

Of course, after having learned so much about RFIDs, our group will always be

reminded of the research we completed for this project anytime we encounter RFIDs in

the world. We all particularly enjoyed being able to work in groups during class as

opposed to sitting in desks listening to a teacher lecture Our group was able to

participate in hands-on learning, a gift not often experienced in many classrooms.

SAME has given us the amazing opportunity to explore any and all possibilities on our

own, teaching us the challenges of being independent.

Acknowledgements

Our group would not have been successful without the encouragement of our

adult supervisors. Special thanks to Jim Mayberger, Elizabeth Figueroa, Sarah Castanos,

Harvey Siy, Kelly Arbuckle, Sarah English, Mark Suing, Kathleen Englert, and

Scott Gatewood.