For my senior capstone project, I fixed and modified my scooter. At first, I was struggling to come up with a good capstone, but when Mr. Larry recommended that I fix the scooter, it was the perfect idea. Because I do not have independence in the wheelchair, the scooter is a necessity for my everyday living. At first, we switched out the battery. Then, the scooter was still moving slow, so Mr. Larry figured out that it could be the potentiometer, a piece behind the drive select lever that translates movement to the motor. When we replaced the potentiometer with a new one, everything worked great. The scooter was wearing and tearing, and it was plastic. Then, we tried to replace the plastic with wood. Lastly, we spray painted the scooter black, because it looked ugly.

While I could have replaced the scooter with a new one, fixing it was fun, inexpensive and more customizable. Also, I learned how the scooter functions. Fixing the scooter needed a lot of problem solving. It is inexpensive because the problem was in the potentiometer, and the batteries and replacing those cost less than replacing the whole thing. To customize, we had to be creative and figure out material and placement on parts of the scooter. I am happy with the product that I got, because now I could maneuver on my own.