CLC 12 - Final Capstone Proposal and Reflection
Name: Marta Grisanti
Topic: Building How To Live On Your Own App
Focus Area: Project Area
Inquiry Question: How can I make the most of what I am learning during my exchange year to
create something that can help people who are going to live on their own
for the first time?
Presentation Method: PowerPoint presentation + showing my app
Presentation Time & Date: January 17th, 2024 – 11.55 - 12.15
1) Capstone Project Summary:
In the box below, please type out a 200 – 300-word summary highlighting the key points and
information that you plan to present during your Capstone Project presentation.
When my time to present comes, first, I want to summarize how I came up with this idea and why I chose
to create an app.
Then, I plan to show a PowerPoint presentation where I had previously collected the different stages of my
app.
I want to focus on each page of the app, by showing how every single one has evolved throughout the last
few months.
While doing it, I will probably say something about how I came up with some features present in my app
that I want to highlight. Following the same concept, I will mention specific issues that I’ve encountered,
or things related to every page.
My idea, in fact, is to show the making process behind my whole app. I do not plan to talk about things
strictly related to the code, since it would be hard to understand in such a short time, and I don’t consider
it my main priority.
Though, I don’t exclude that I will say something related to the process that took me to learn how to
program, and to show the code behind the pages I’ve created.
After that, I would like to show the real product. Giving my teacher the chance to try/test it, if he wants to.
If not, I still plan to show him the way around it, just to let him see how it’s possible to interact and use it.
While doing this last part, I aim to satisfy my teacher‘s curiosity if he has questions that I haven’t answered
previously, or I'll be open to rephrase something that I said if it wasn’t clear in the first place.
2) Core Competencies:
In the boxes below, explain how your project or the work we’ve done in CLC 12 Class demonstrates
your abilities and skills from each section of the Core Competencies. (You must choose at least two
points from each skill area of the core competencies.) *This was also done in your Capstone Draft
Proposal, so if the skills and abilities still apply and have not changed, then you can copy and paste
your answers in the Final Capstone Proposal*
Core Competency: How you demonstrate it in Capstone Project:
Personal Awareness & This work demonstrates my skills regarding being personally responsible
Responsibility (nobody has told me what to do and/or when, it was in my interest to
plan it to not rush near the deadline) as well as being able to set goals,
regulate my emotions and persevere in difficult situations (I met
obstacles that required me to think straight to overcome and there were
moments where it was important to keep doing the job even though it
was hard).
Social Responsibility I hope that my idea shows how much I want to contribute to the
community and how I care for the environment. By creating this app to
help those who are going to live on their own, I need people’s feedback
to know what to improve and what is superfluous. This will show my real
skills related to appreciating different perspectives and solving problems
in peaceful ways.
Critical Thinking My capstone project shows how I can explore and create new ways to
represent my learning because I collected all the pieces of information
that I’ve learnt so far about living on my own to create it. In this way, I
realized a tool that makes them usable to other people. I explained how
some things need to be done other than only providing tools to be
organized. This way, I’m demonstrating to have in mind my audience,
otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about including instructions.
Creative Thinking After realizing there isn’t a guide to live on your own, my idea and what
I'm realizing will show that I can use the environment around me to
generate new ideas, and that I can take my ideas and make something
productive out of them.
Communication By asking for feedback from my classmates (meaning people who might
find my app useful), I'll demonstrate that I can work with other students
to plan, review and solve problems that might occur in my app. At the
same time, this app is the perfect occasion to share what I’m learning
about living on my own.
Personal & Cultural Identity Just thinking about my capstone project makes me realize how, what I
value, has and will shape my choices. This statement has been
repeatedly confirmed over the process of making the app since I have a
subjective view that influenced me and my choices. Nevertheless,
dealing with obstacles and problems that I encountered during this
process, I realized that the only way to not give up is to remind myself of
my strengths and abilities. In this way, I got over the problems I met so
that I’m now able to finish my project.
3) Presentation preparation:
In the boxes below, answer the following questions: What will you require from your teacher, what will
you need to bring and what still needs to be completed between now and your Capstone presentation
day?
a) What will you require from your teacher in order to do your Capstone presentation? (Ex: Laptop,
table, poster paper, projector, etc…)
I plan to present my Capstone Project by showing a short PowerPoint presentation that will demonstrate
the making process of the app, thanks to some pictures that I took of the different stages of it. For this
reason, I will need something to make this possible. To me, to present it, a laptop is more than enough, but
if my teacher prefers to see the presentation projected then I will need a projector too. Either way, I will
need a desk or table where the laptop can be stood.
b) What will you need to bring in order to do your Capstone presentation?
I will need to bring my personal computer to school, since I’m not sure I’ll be able to share the app with
other devices. By having my laptop, I’ll be able to show my teacher my final product, and he will be able to
“test it” if he wants to.
c) What still needs to be completed between now and your Capstone presentation day?
Apart from making the PowerPoint presentation with all the collected pictures, I still need to finish my app. I
believe that I’ll be done with it before December 15th, here is the list of what still need to be worked on:
- Recipe page
- Adding the grocery list to the task page
- Deleting the time management button and relative page
- Changing the icon of the app
4) References and explanation of sources:
Please paste all your current list of sources along with a brief explanation of what you used them for in
your research. All these sources should also be listed on your website on your References page.
- https://www.youtube.com/@visualstudio
A YouTube channel that tells you how the program .NET Maui works
- https://www.youtube.com/@JamesMontemagno
A YouTube channel that tells you how the program .NET Maui works + lessons on how to program with C#
and XAML
- https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/maui,
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/what-is-maui, and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
us/training/paths/build-apps-with-dotnet-maui/
Some pages on Microsoft website that guide you throughout your programming process. They teach you
how to program with .NET Maui + they provide some app examples to show you how to work.
- https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues
A website where you can seek people for advice/assistance for your programming work. I haven't used it yet
but I think I will because I don't know how to fix some things.
- https://desai-rakesh706.medium.com/getting-started-with-net-maui-part-1-first-impressions-
99c2e148b811
A tutorial on how to create an excel page on .NET MAUI
- https://www.google.com/search?
q=how+to+put+excel+file+in+net+maui&rlz=1C1GCEU_enCA1082CA1082&oq=how+to+put+excel+fil
e+in+net+maui&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigAdIBCTEwODgzajBqOa
gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
A tutorial on how to create an excel page on .NET MAUI
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/controls/image.
How to add pictures in .NET MAUI
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/images/app-icons?tabs=windows .
How to change the icon of your app on .NET MAUI
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/csharp-write-first/
A guided training on how to "Write your first C# code" that I did
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/csharp-literals-variables/
A guided training on how to "Store and retrieve data using literal and variable values in C#" that I
completed
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/get-started-c-sharp-part-1/
A guided training on how to program with C#.
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/pop-ups
A guide on how to program a pop up on .NET Maui
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/communitytoolkit/maui/views/popup#building-a-popup
Another guide (more detailed) on how to program a pop up on .NET Maui
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/user-interface/pages/navigationpage?view=net-
maui-8.0
A guide to create a navigation page. I plan to follow it to rebuild the home page
- https://it.vecteezy.com/arte-vettoriale/5009975-logo-faro-design-vettoriale
The icon I'm using for my app
- https://www.telerik.com/blogs/beyond-basics-exploring-simple-navigation-net-maui
A guide to create a navigation page. (the website above it's not very clear)
- https://mauiman.dev/navigationpage.html
Another guide to create a navigation page.
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/tutorials/notes-app/?view=net-maui-8.0&tutorial-
step=3
The forth and fifth page of the website linked here above teach you how to create a notes page on your .Net
Maui app. I plan to use it as a guideline to create the grocery shopping list app, then I'll fix it for my needs.
Final Capstone Project Reflection Questions
(Please give specific detailed answers.)
1. In the process of completing your Capstone Project, what did you learn about your subject? What did
you learn about your skill set? What did you learn about yourself?
In the process of making my app, I learnt multiple things.
First thing first, I’ve learnt how to use Visual Studio 2022, a programming software that I used to code my app,
and .Net Maui, an upgrade of Visual Studio that made it possible to create a multi-platform app.
Consequently, I’ve learnt some things about programming. I don’t consider myself done when it comes to
knowing everything related to XAML or CSharp language, but my progress compared to what I knew before
starting this project is evident (I knew nothing when I started, and in only some months I managed to create
an whole app from scratch). Honestly, I’ve learnt more than I expected, making myself proud and surprised
because I've never thought that something like this would have been possible.
While learning how to program, my strategy was to learn things that I needed to create my app. So, after two
courses on Microsoft Learn to learn the very basics, I looked up specifically for what I needed, basing most of
my studies on the manual of that same website. For this reason, my self-taught knowledge of programming
comprehends only things present in my application.
At the same, when doing chores, budgeting, et cetera; I paid extra attention to examine them fully, catching
every little detail, advice or tip to collect the most meticulous information possible. Sometimes, because I
wasn’t really convinced of it, I asked my mum or looked on the internet to make sure to report good advice.
This made me learn new things related to chores and things that we all should know when it comes to doing
them.
Regarding my skill set, I’ve improved my time management, organizational and planning skills, in fact, without
using those, working on this big project would’ve been impossible. Thanks to it, though, I practiced them a lot,
to the point that I’m now noticing that I’m applying what I’ve learnt to other areas of my life as well.
This project also helped me to develop further my creative skills, since outlining the app (considering both the
ideas and the actual design of it) required a lot of inventiveness and originality.
For the same reason, I’ve gained confidence regarding my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as they
were fundamental to maintaining the calm and being focused when my app couldn’t run because of errors, or
I didn’t know how to program something that was clear and easy in my mind.
About myself, this project helped me become conscious of my potentiality and my determination, as this
Capstone challenged me all time long, making me explore things outside of my comfort zone almost on daily
basis.
I’ve learnt that the only reason why I can’t accomplish certain things is purely only because of what I think,
since there are no real impediments between me and what I aim to reach. Obviously, there will be obstacles,
but all of them can be overcome with determination and constancy.
In some ways, this is not a new concept for me, but, while I usually only hear it, this Capstone project proved it
to me, and this, I believe, makes the difference.
2. How is your project relevant to you? How is it relevant to the school? How is it relevant to the
community?
I’m really affectionate to this project because I think it collects what I’m learning in this experience abroad
both from a utilitarian point of view (this can actually be useful for me and others), and from a psychological
point of view. Talking about the latter, this project made me realize how I'm changing and growing up. In fact,
while working on it, even after encountering issues or realizing that I didn’t know the fundamentals of it, I
persevered, and I’ve never given up.
I reckon that this project will always be something that I will use to push me further during rough times, as it is
the proof that I can achieve everything I choose to aim for.
This project shows me that I’m (just like everyone else, I want to make sure that this is clear) limitless, and I
think this is a huge life lesson. From now on, I want to use it as a reminder of what I’m capable of.
At the same time, this app, per se, is a useful tool for me and others. I believe a lot in what I'm working on, and
I always make sure to keep in mind my inquiry question: “How can I make the most of what I am learning
during my exchange year to create something that can help people who are going to live on their own for the
first time?”.
Following that and what I've realized, this project can be helpful for everybody who is about to live on his own,
or who already does it but wants a tool that can help them plan better or have everything on the same
platform.
Because of this, my project can be considered relevant to a large number of people. From our school, my app
can be relevant for all grade twelve who are going to college or university next year (in particular if they are
going to move). At the same time, and for the same reason, this app can be useful for the entire community,
as the problem I'm trying to make easier is experienced by everyone at some point in life.
3. What impact did your Capstone have on you?
I learnt that picking up goals and reaching them is way more than possible if you’re determined to make it.
After the Capstone project, I believe that with the right organization, something that drives you (even if it is
just for the first period), steadfastness and perseverance, I (besides everyone else) can do everything I put in
my mind. Apart from becoming an alien or going into space without oxygen, I don’t think that my potential has
other limitations.
I don’t know if it’s because of where I am, during my year abroad alone, or because of this project or both, but
I really believe that I’ve matured so much in the last couple of months.
And now that I think about my capstone project process, I can see it clearly.
This capstone taught me that I can learn difficult topics with no guidance, but still with a good outcome. The
path will probably be more inclined, but still, it will be possible to walk all the way through it.
I've learnt that the difference between achieving your goals and not revolves only around giving up. The key is
to try until you get it right, no matter how long this will take. As long as you always attempt to realize your
plans, you will fulfill them, at some point.
For this reason, consistency is really the key. If you stay on track, no matter what, and you always get
something done through your goals, then it is only a matter of time before you can say that you made it.
The capstone made me also realize that things are meant to be difficult, hard, and with a lot of obstacles. We
need those to progress and grow. Nothing can change if the surroundings and stimuli don’t change too.
I’ve learnt that seeking help or feeling lost is normal, on the contrary, it would be strange to get easily by.
Those are normal stages of everybody’s life, and we need to accept them to get through and over them.
4. What aspects of your project are you most proud of?
If I can be totally honest, this question is getting me crazy. I’m proud and satisfied with everything I have
managed to do so far, and I know that I will be even more proud of myself next week, when I hand in my
complete work.
I truly can’t wrap my head around the fact that I made an app. It’s quite unbelievable to think about it for me,
even though I’ve spent a lot of time working on it and I’m the person who knows the most about the process
of it, since I’m the first and most invested in this (so I really can’t understand why it’s so hard for me to believe
it).
Maybe it is because I never thought about that before, or because I didn’t really believe that I could make it
and with these results, but I’m really impressed with myself.
I mean, I set myself a difficult goal in terms of achievability, and I surprisingly fulfilled it, even exceeding my
own expectations.
I’m happy that I didn’t give up despite everything that happened while working on my app.
From the zillions of things I had to learn from scratch all by myself that sometimes made me really reconsider
my choice, or the hundreds of errors in my code that made me stay up until late at night (I’m very headstrong,
I can’t just shut down the laptop and say: “I’ll fix it tomorrow”, it doesn’t work for me).
To everything that happened in my personal life during it: issues at home, arguments, moving, bad news and
some complications back in Italy, I’ve always found my way back to calm down and persevere, and, what
shocked me the most, it worked.
So, I’m really proud of how far I got until now.
I am happy that I managed to set such a big goal and then I found the will to work on it consistently. I haven’t
spent periods of time when I did nothing and then rushed near the deadline, but I took a step through the end
of every week. This made me realize how having goals is not about just accomplishing them, it’s about always
cutting some time for them, and remaining devoted to them.
So, if I must nominate something specific that I’m the proudest of, I would say that I’m proud of the idea that I
had. I think this is the only aspect of my work that must be the way it is, in order to get me to the point where
I am right now. My idea is like a match for the fire, without it, you don’t have fire, therefore, without it, I
wouldn’t have created an app. Hence, I’m proud of that, because it gave me the chance to start this journey,
and that’s where the important stuff can be found, even if my path through it were different.
5. What was a difficulty you encountered while researching your Capstone project? How were you able to
overcome those obstacles?
The first issue that I encountered while working on my capstone, was that I didn’t know what platform I could
use to create an app. In fact, at first, I found a really cool and good program, so I thought my idea was doable,
only to find out that it was a program working only on Mac laptops, and I have an HP one. I didn’t expect to
have an issue this early, and I thought to change my capstone. Luckily, nothing came up, and so I had to find a
way to make it possible. I spent hours over hours looking for different software, programs and websites, in the
end, I found out about .Net Maui on Visual Studio, making it possible to proceed in this way.
While working on my capstone, I had some trouble finding good tutorials or information that helped me fix
the issues I was encountering. In some cases, thanks to the problem-solving skills I’m developing and what I
found on the internet, I was able to solve those in this way, while other times, when even these attempts were
vane, I just put those issues aside, waiting to come up with a new idea to solve them.
Other times, I had some errors in my code that Visual Studio was alerting me to, but I couldn't understand
where and what was wrong. In these situations, my plan was always to re-read the entire code multiple times
until I managed to find the issue. Honestly, this method is pretty headache-developing, but lacking other
functioning methods, it was the only option available.
Another kind of obstacle I encountered was not knowing how I wanted some things to look like because I
hadn’t thought about it in the first place. In those cases, I used to take some time to refine and figure it out. As
I will explain more in points 6 and 7, having the chance to start again, I would have planned more ahead, so
that later I could have worked smoothly. Thankfully, having to show my progress on the website weekly,
pushed me to set for myself weekly goals, making the mistake of not planning at the beginning less impacting.
6. What is the one thing you would have changed about your project if you could?
Looking back at what I did, I would’ve used a different language program since XAML and CSharp aren’t very
common. Because it’s rare to find people who know those languages, my Capstone project is the fruits of my
labor and what I found on the internet. In fact, I haven’t been able to find a mentor or someone who I could
seek help with when I was struggling or having issues with my app.
As I’m demonstrating, it’s still possible to make it without somebody who can help you, but it’s challenging
and can let people down very easily. Also, I’m sure that with a mentor I would’ve been faster, gaining time
that I could’ve used to proceed more in my work or that could have been used to perfect it. (Apart from
having some help to fix what I can’t fix alone, like the issue on my deadlines page).
Also, another thing I would've done differently is that I would’ve have planned more in the beginning, since
when I began to do it, later, I realized how useful it is for me. (I’ll explain it further in the next point, as it’s
connected to my advice). Having a general plan for what you want to accomplish is life-changing and is
something simple to do.
7. What advice would you offer to future Capstone students to help them with their Capstone journey?
When I started thinking about my project, at first, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to create as the
final product. Sure, I was already settled on making an app from scratch, and I already knew what I wanted to
include, but I didn’t know how I wanted it to look like.
In the last few months, while working on it, I’ve understood the importance of having a plan before even
starting to think about how you can realize it. In the long run, this will make you work smoother and faster,
even if at first you think that spending all this time outlining it is a waste of time.
Beginning to work on your Capstone project right after making up your mind about what you want to do is
what everybody does (I fell into the trap too), but it’s not very wise.
I know that with the excitement of the first days it almost feels like an obligation, but what you will get done
into those days will probably be useless later, because your idea will be more defined and what you did will
probably not reflect it.
Thus, my suggestion is to spend the first week after having fixed your project researching how to do your
Capstone, looking for examples, other people's work, resources that you will need later, and so on.
Then, at the end of the week, use all the information you’ve collected to create a plan to follow, with actual
tasks of things already defined. Don’t reason and write down things like “Start working on it” or “Do the main
page” if you already don’t know how you want to create it. Be very objective and rational, think about giving
instructions to somebody else who has to do what you wrote, nothing has to be decided on the moment, or
you will have a lot of trouble while doing it, and the different parts of your project could not match, since you
don’t have a general plan.
