Andrew Guazzerotti

February 11th, 2016

Chemical Engineering

Final Reflection Questions

1. While writing your paper, what did you learn about the research process?
Before I wrote my paper, I knew very little about chemical engineering. I simply assumed that it
was a job that involved problem solving with different chemicals. However, once I began
researching about it, I learned what a being a chemical engineer is truly about. I learned that it is
not so much handling and experimenting with chemicals, but that they focus more on the safe
and efficient production of chemicals. As I continued to research, I also discovered that with the
quickly evolving technology in the world, there is an increasing need for different types of
engineers all across the country. With a good education and good college behind you, chemical
engineers begin their careers with a minimum of around $52,000 with a bachelor's degree, and
the salary goes up from there if you attend grad school. Through all of this research, it made me
understand what a chemical engineer does every day in their life at work, and their benefits and
requirement in today's world.
2. How was the research related to your mentor hours
After completing all of my research, I had gained a lot of knowledge on what a chemical
engineer does every day of their life. However, just reading about it would not give me the
experience that is needed to fully understand what it's actually like to be one. The man who I
interviewed for my Pride Paper, Anton Ammerlaan, was retired chemical engineer who gave me
a very detailed insight of what he did during his everyday job. However, since he was retired, I
could not go experience being a chemical engineer; leading me to find a still employed chemical
engineer, Lori Schneider. From the research I had obtained, I knew what to look for while
spending the work day with her, allowing me to get much more out of the experience. Also, I
learned through my research of the different subfields of chemical engineering. When the time
came for my mentor hours, I got to experience two of these fields: project management and
industrial at a plant. This gave me a good taste of the differences in the two different catigories.
3. Summarize the mentor hours that you completed.
My mentor hours were divided up into two days. On the first day, I arrived at the building where
Mrs. Schneider works and for the first time, I got to experience what a morning routine is for the
job. This process included attending a quick meeting that briefed over what the daily goals were
for the progress of the project they were working on. After this, I got to sit in on a conference
call where some of the workers that attended the meeting explained some changes to the plans to

the other departments working on different parts of the project. I then got to spend the next two
hours through a training session on how to use the program that the company was using to
complete the project. I did not have any prior knowledge of the program or how to use it, so I
was confused through the majority of the lesson. However, it still gave me a taste of what
everybody was working on at the building. After that, we walked around to the different rooms
where people were working on different parts of the project. Mrs. Schneider then introduced me
to a worker that had a major role in the project, and I sat with him as he showed me what his role
was in the project. This concluded my first day of my mentor hours.
For my second day, I had to fly out to Indiana the night before and the next day, tour the Sabic
Innovative Plastics plant. By doing this, this gave me the experience of what it's like to work in
the manufacturing field of chemical engineering. After eating breakfast, we drove over to the
plant and after I got my temporary ID, went inside. Mrs. Schneider needed to attend a meeting,
so I was left with one of the co-workers there that explained how everything in the plastic pelletmaking plant functioned. After I got an idea of how it worked, we toured the inside of the plant,
seeing how everything worked, and what some of the engineers were doing to maintain and keep
track of it all. After walking around, I met with another lady who brought me to one of the
highest points of the plant so I could get a good view. After this, I had to rush back to the airport
to catch my flight back home.
4. How did working with your mentor affect your understanding of the topic and your
development of the product?
By working with my mentor, I understood that working as a chemical engineer is not all about
mixing chemicals and experimenting with them; that's a chemist's job. I learned how it is strictly
designing new and more efficient processes for companies to make different chemicals. In Mrs.
Schneider's case, her company was hired by another company to rewrite a program that was in
charge of the production, the stock amount, and the price of different chemicals that they make.
This project takes over a year to complete. By knowing this, I was able to build my Pride
Product with this in mind. My project is efficiently making a flame torch, which uses
electrolysis in water to create hydrogen and oxygen gas that will be combusted together to form a
very hot flame, and turn right back into water when complete.
5. How did creating a product and completing the hours challenge you personally?
When completing my mentor hours, there were different aspects of each day that I found
challenging. On the first day, I found it very difficult to understand what everything in the
building meant. There were tons of acronyms and names for things that I had not even the
slightest clue about. Also, trying my best to understand what was going on in the two hour
training session was very difficult since didn't even know what the program did to begin with.
On my second day, it was more environmental effects that I had to deal with. I needed to catch a
flight out to Evansville, Indiana at 2000 EST, and arrived there at around 2230 CST. Having to
wake up at 0630 the next morning was the biggest challenge for me, knowing I had a big day
ahead of me. Other than that, and rushing back to the airport to catch my flight home, I got a lot
out of my mentor hours, and it helped me better understand the field of a chemical engineer. In
regards to my product, I have found it difficult to develop an air-tight system for capturing the

gas, and making it useful. Also, an issue is that by using the product, it slowly decays the
aluminum electrodes which would be very inconvenient when trying to use it for a long period of
time.
6. Do you feel prepared academically and emotionally for the presentation?
Yes, I feel very prepared for my presentation. The only issue that concerns me is my ability to
execute a 12-15 minute speech in that time frame, and not appear nervous by stuttering or losing
my train of thought. I feel as though I am experienced with presenting PowerPoints in front of
large groups of people without completely crashing and burning, however when it is about
something as important as the Pride Project, that could (hopefully not) be a different story. I
have learned a lot about chemical engineering over the last couple of years, and I feel that as
long as I know my information, I will be able to present my PowerPoint while hardly looking at
my screen, but instead looking at the judges. I also need to work on moving around more and
not standing in one place, as it appears better.
7. How did the entire process stretch you as a learner and as an individual?
Before I had any experience with mentoring a chemical engineer, I did not know what I needed
to look for to learn about. There was so much information that it was overwhelming for me, and
I didn't know where to begin. By completing this process, I now know what to first look for
when I begin learning about a new topic so that I have a basic understanding of it, and then later
go into more extensive details; as in my case, completing mentor hours. As an individual, it gave
me experience of going somewhere that I am not familiar with much at, and trying to get as
much as possible from it. For example, if I was touring a factory I search of a job, I now have
better experience knowing how to quickly educate myself on what everything is and how it all
works together. With this ability, it will help me in all situations that are new to me, which is a
big plus.
8. Describe an obstacle you encountered and how you overcame it.
My freshman year of high school, I lacked motivation and drive to get my schoolwork done and
study for tests. As a result of this, my GPA plummeted that year to a very discouraging number.
Neither my parents nor my teachers could help me get my grades back up. Knowing I needed to
change if I wanted to be successful, I heard about a military summer school program in Virginia
that straightens out people who are in similar scenarios. Having no other options, I spent a thrid
of my summer there, retaking the classes that I did the worst in that school year. The strict
military structure had an almost magic effect on me. After a month at the camp when I went
home and immediately began being much more productive at home. Come my Sophomore year,
I increased my GPA by a landslide, and even more so my Junior year. This failure my freshman
year had a lasting effect to the time I'm typing this, getting me denied from my dream college,
but it also gave me an experience that not many other people have. I have had to work much
harder than many people throughout high school trying to play catch-up, and when time comes
for college, I feel that I will be even more prepared since I had experienced that failure.
9. What life skills did you acquire and how will they help you in the future?

Throughout my mentor experience and my entire high school experience, I have learned two
very important things: how to deal with and recover from failure, and how to properly and
efficiently experience something that is completely new to you. Failure happens eventually in
everybody's life; it's just a matter of time when it will happen. However, a failure can be
beneficial to you if you learn properly from it. In my case, my failure my freshman year of high
school taught me what happens when I lose motivation and dont fulfill my work, making me
extra careful not to ever have it happen again. In regards to experiencing something new, I have
had a good bit of experience of this by actively participating in Boy Scouts, where I am
constantly finding myself in new places meeting new people. I know how to talk to adults
properly, which will also help me when experiencing new things.
9. If you had to go back and do parts of the project again, what would you do
differently? Please format these questions as follows:
While writing my Pride Paper on chemical engineering, I learned how to make use of limited
resources since we needed most of our links to be from NCWiseOwl.org. By using Google, you
can usually just use the first few links that pop up in the search results, but by using
NCWiseOwl, it gave me experience with actually having to refine my search items, and then
click and read through each link, taking notes on anything important, which was very time
consuming. If I had to go back and redo this part, I would have spent more time searching
different key words and trying to find as many sources as I could. However, we were time
restricted so I could not do that.
My research was about the career of a chemical engineer, and all about the workforce, salary, etc.
Because of this, I needed a mentor who was a chemical engineer, and could show me what its
actually like to be one for a day. Through on of my mom's friends, we found that person, Mrs.
Schneider. She had a good bit of seniority in her company, Sabic Innovative Plastics, so I got to
see what it's like to be "at the top" of her company.