CREATIVE ENGINEERING
For this project, my group was Mikey and Ben. When we started this project, we listed problems that occur every day. Then, we chose groups depending upon what our interests were. My group's worldly problem was the issue of I.E.D.s (Improvised Explosive Devices), or homemade bombs, against the U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We started by researching the statistics about injuries and deaths in Iraq. Then, we began to investigate how I.E.D.s are made and more detail about how they work. Next, we looked up how they are being fought now and what devices the U.S. has to counter them.
We found out that there was little the U.S. was doing to oppose I.E.D.s. They used giant detectors to try to find the bombs, but the detectors work poorly enough that many I.E.D.s can be passes without detection. Because it doesn't work well enough to expose every homemade bomb, 63% of coalition deaths in Iraq in 2007 were caused by improvised explosive devices, as well as 66% of deaths in Afghanistan in 2001.
We started by thinking that we could make a improved detector that could uncover the bomb without fail. First, we researched what a I.E.D.s were made of. That is when we realized that I.E.D.s were too complicated to make a detector without going to Iraq ourselves. Then, we decided that we could make something to place over the I.E.D. once you found the bomb, and leave finding the bomb to the experts. We came up with the Praetorian Dome.
The exact steps that we followed to complete this project are as follows:
1. Identify the need
2. Research the problem
3. Develop possible solutions
4. Select most promising solutions
5. Construct the prototype
6. Test and evaluate prototype
7. Communicate the design
8. Redesign
9. Repeat
To make a model of our project, we couldn't actually make a cover for an I.E.D, because we couldn't make a bomb, but we could design a dome on a computer program. We used the program 123D design to create our model. None of us had ever worked on this program, but we worked together to figure out how to create an educated design.
We also had to present our engineering projects. We haven't done any speech work in English yet this year, so it was a challenge for me to sound professional enough and express the facts in a logical manner. This helped me to learn how to talk in front of the class clearly and loudly.
The main skills that I gained during this project are communicating to the rest of the class clearly and working with 123D design computer program. I learned how to talk to the rest of the class more clearly because Mr. Williams gave us critiques on how to address the class when we worked on the previous project. I especially focused on not fidgeting during the presentation, talking loudly and clearly, and being confident about the informtion I was saying.
I also learned how to use 123D design. As shown below, my group decided to make a model of our Praetorian Dome, because to make it correctly, even not to scale, would be ridiculuous. It would need to have more time to create it, which we did not have. We would also need way more tools than we had available to us. That is why we created our design on the computer. To learn how to use this program, we started playing around with the different tools. Working together to figure out what each feature did took time, but our invention started to form. We edited it some and called it the Praetorian Dome.
The things that my group was good at was working together to make an improved idea and focusing the right amount of time during class to complete the project. My group worked more efficiency than other groups to forge each individiual's ideas together into one greater idea. We also managed our time well and finished our project with time to get used to our power point (above). I think that we worked well together and we definitely figured out how to work together better as the days went on.
The things that my group could have improved were listening to each others' ideas and weighing everybody's opinions equally. Sometimes, near the beginning of the project someone in my group would say an idea that another person disagreed with, and there would be some conflict. Luckily, as the project went on, we listened to each other and it went more smoothly. We also didn't listen to the ideas we didn't agreed with, and because of that, we made some people feel poorly about their ideas.
We found out that there was little the U.S. was doing to oppose I.E.D.s. They used giant detectors to try to find the bombs, but the detectors work poorly enough that many I.E.D.s can be passes without detection. Because it doesn't work well enough to expose every homemade bomb, 63% of coalition deaths in Iraq in 2007 were caused by improvised explosive devices, as well as 66% of deaths in Afghanistan in 2001.
We started by thinking that we could make a improved detector that could uncover the bomb without fail. First, we researched what a I.E.D.s were made of. That is when we realized that I.E.D.s were too complicated to make a detector without going to Iraq ourselves. Then, we decided that we could make something to place over the I.E.D. once you found the bomb, and leave finding the bomb to the experts. We came up with the Praetorian Dome.
The exact steps that we followed to complete this project are as follows:
1. Identify the need
2. Research the problem
3. Develop possible solutions
4. Select most promising solutions
5. Construct the prototype
6. Test and evaluate prototype
7. Communicate the design
8. Redesign
9. Repeat
To make a model of our project, we couldn't actually make a cover for an I.E.D, because we couldn't make a bomb, but we could design a dome on a computer program. We used the program 123D design to create our model. None of us had ever worked on this program, but we worked together to figure out how to create an educated design.
We also had to present our engineering projects. We haven't done any speech work in English yet this year, so it was a challenge for me to sound professional enough and express the facts in a logical manner. This helped me to learn how to talk in front of the class clearly and loudly.
The main skills that I gained during this project are communicating to the rest of the class clearly and working with 123D design computer program. I learned how to talk to the rest of the class more clearly because Mr. Williams gave us critiques on how to address the class when we worked on the previous project. I especially focused on not fidgeting during the presentation, talking loudly and clearly, and being confident about the informtion I was saying.
I also learned how to use 123D design. As shown below, my group decided to make a model of our Praetorian Dome, because to make it correctly, even not to scale, would be ridiculuous. It would need to have more time to create it, which we did not have. We would also need way more tools than we had available to us. That is why we created our design on the computer. To learn how to use this program, we started playing around with the different tools. Working together to figure out what each feature did took time, but our invention started to form. We edited it some and called it the Praetorian Dome.
The things that my group was good at was working together to make an improved idea and focusing the right amount of time during class to complete the project. My group worked more efficiency than other groups to forge each individiual's ideas together into one greater idea. We also managed our time well and finished our project with time to get used to our power point (above). I think that we worked well together and we definitely figured out how to work together better as the days went on.
The things that my group could have improved were listening to each others' ideas and weighing everybody's opinions equally. Sometimes, near the beginning of the project someone in my group would say an idea that another person disagreed with, and there would be some conflict. Luckily, as the project went on, we listened to each other and it went more smoothly. We also didn't listen to the ideas we didn't agreed with, and because of that, we made some people feel poorly about their ideas.