Final Capstone Update, 2023-17-01, Oscar Shen

This will be my final update for my Capstone Project. I have learned in doing this that I need to
rework how consistent I work. I can’t simply have sudden bursts of doing work, since that has left me in,
my opinion, a final product that could’ve been much better. My realization is that my skill set is well-
suited to this kind of work, I enjoyed researching and formulating an argument. The subject I was also
researching into also piqued my interest, I enjoyed looking into the Warlord Era and Chinese politics,
and even diving into the 1950s too.

While this project isn’t relevant directly to the school, I hope that RE Mountain expands its
Social Studies facilities to cover not only just European history or Canadian history, but also Chinese
history, since it can provide much of a needed boost in not only beating Asian discrimination and
provide much more of an insight to understanding of how China came to be, but also to educate other
people on Dr. Sun’s ideas and his vision for China. This project also related to me since I am ethnically
Chinese. The project really got me into researching Chinese history in a way that a traditional high
school would not let me and provided much more of an insight into Chinese history that I previously did
not have.

The core competencies that are relevant throughout this project are communication, as I
needed to contact people who not only knew much more than me in Chinese history, but also were able
to access key academic resources that I could use for my project. For creative thinking, I was required to
dig deep into the historical evidence that I had, and infer based on that, why I believed that my
argument was valid. Critical thinking also tied into this, I was required to question and investigate into
the source that I had, which included investigating into potential biases of the academic sources that I
had, an example of this would be when my friend, Max, saw a book titled “Sun Yat-sen vs Communism”,
which would have been biased as it was made during the 1950s, right in the midst of the Red Scare in
the west.

The impact that I hope my research paper has on this school that Chinese history is important,
and that Social Studies classes should not focus entirely on Canada and be euro-centric in its education.
But as for the actual impact that this has had so far has only been personal, I realized that I really do
have the skills to do, repeat, and perhaps even improve on my performance on this project, it is just that
I need to be consistent with the amount of work that I do.

One thing I am most proud of finishing this research paper, is that I delved deep into historical
documents, while I have done so before, I done so completely unguided and with no clear path ahead of
me, and managed to find the resources that I need to actually formulate my argument. I’m most proud
specifically of my research.

A difficulty I encountered was the consistency of the amount of work that I put in. I solved this
through researching different study techniques. One of the techniques that I found most effective for
me was the Pomodoro technique, where you do 25 minutes of studying and then take a 5-minute break,
and after four repetitions you take a longer 15-minute break.

The one thing I wish I could change about my project is definitely my writing, I’m not particularly
great at writing but I wish I could refine it so that it’s more readable and interesting to delve into.
 The source I found most helpful for my research has been my friend Max who studies in the
University of Alberta. He has helped me gather sources that I otherwise would not have had in his
university’s library. JSTOR has been helpful for my own independent research, but there was a lot of
information that I found lacking, and I couldn’t find all the evidence or information that I wanted.

The advice I would give to a student undertaking the Capstone Project is to start early and be
consistent. I would recommend the Pomodoro technique to maintain workflow consistency, and I would
recommend forming connections early and talking to other students who you know are much more
skilled at a certain thing your project is about and asking them to peer-review it.

The only thing that I wish I could change about my approach is thinking that it would be a
terrible, tedious project that would take a grueling toll on my own mental health. The truth is exactly the
opposite, I enjoyed the experience and I think I came out better for it.