Creative Design & Engineering
GROUP MEMBERS: Gabby & Ingrid
We started by brainstorming all of the big problems in the world. For example, mine was child slavery, and a few others were child hunger, floods, overpopulation, etc. Then, based on what we personally believed was the biggest and worst problem, we separated into groups who chose the same or similar problems. My group was made up of people who had happened to miss the period we chose groups, including me, so we were allowed to brainstorm and pick a problem on our own.
Brainstorming and researching was the most important step to our project. Soon after we had decided upon damage caused by flooding as our problem, we researched it and found that it was a difficult choice for this particular project. So we brainstormed again to finally come up with earthquakes as our problem. I researched and took some notes on all the damage caused by earthquakes, then shared them with the rest of my group the next day. We brainstormed and came up with a new type of foundation that could be used for housing.
I then proceeded to create our presentation on a program called Powtoon, while Gabby and Ingrid made a scaled version of a house on a shake table that would simulate an earthquake and how using the products will prevent dameage . About a week into the project, it was clear that our foundation, while yes would prevent lots of earthquake damage, required materials that don't yet exist., or we at least haven't discovered yet.
That was when we came up with a whole new idea, to find what products we could that already existed and basically research them and try and educate others about the products that could prevent damage to building, injuries, even lives. We tried to help solve a tiny portion of all the problems and damage earthquakes caused, by grouping products that help some but as a whole when used together can help a whole lot more. Overall, my group worked together very well and it was a fun project I learned a lot from.
Brainstorming and researching was the most important step to our project. Soon after we had decided upon damage caused by flooding as our problem, we researched it and found that it was a difficult choice for this particular project. So we brainstormed again to finally come up with earthquakes as our problem. I researched and took some notes on all the damage caused by earthquakes, then shared them with the rest of my group the next day. We brainstormed and came up with a new type of foundation that could be used for housing.
I then proceeded to create our presentation on a program called Powtoon, while Gabby and Ingrid made a scaled version of a house on a shake table that would simulate an earthquake and how using the products will prevent dameage . About a week into the project, it was clear that our foundation, while yes would prevent lots of earthquake damage, required materials that don't yet exist., or we at least haven't discovered yet.
That was when we came up with a whole new idea, to find what products we could that already existed and basically research them and try and educate others about the products that could prevent damage to building, injuries, even lives. We tried to help solve a tiny portion of all the problems and damage earthquakes caused, by grouping products that help some but as a whole when used together can help a whole lot more. Overall, my group worked together very well and it was a fun project I learned a lot from.
BELOW IS OUR PRESENTATION:
During this project, I learned a lot more about scales, and different ways they can be used. For our purposes we needed to build a scaled model of a house. It was rather difficult at first, but once we figured out the correct scale we should use it became a lot simpler. We also had to scale a 7.0 earthquake. First, we figured out that caused a land shift. After we knew how much land was shifted we could scale how much to shake our shake our earthquake simulator. Knowing how to scale is a very valuable skill that will come in handy in the future.
THE HIGH POINTS OF OUR PROJECT:
My group worked very well together. We all got what we needed to get done, done. We were particularly good with time efficiency. For example, we had to change our entire idea and product half way through the project. We had to research a complete other new idea and build a completely new product including creating a whole other presentation. Despite this setback we still got all our work done in time without much rush. Personally, I feel I really worked hard and contributed as much as I could. For example, I contributed all my ideas as possibilities and when I volunteered to create the presentation, I tried my best on it, and put lots of time and effort into making it look good and have accurate and helpful information. |
WHAT WE COULDV'E DONE BETTER:
Our presentation was in the form of a youtube video. This caused difficulties in timing when and for how long to discuss the information on the correct slide.In the future I will find a way around this. During this project we didn't practice our presentation and speech all together that much. Which resulted in our presentation not being as smooth as I would've liked. In my next project I will use our time more efficiently and make sure all parts of the project will run smoothly. |
Below are a couple of pictures of our scaled house and the shake table:
I really enjoyed this project because it wasn't the usual sort of build project and learn physic concepts. This project taught me more of the presentation and researching skill side of physics or really any type of subject or career. These skills are just as important as the actual physics concepts because to be later on in life I will need these skills to succeed.