Creative Engineering Design
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What is the project?
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Engineering Design Cycle
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Reflection
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Slideshow
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Solve Overpopulation.
There are about:
People on Earth
Our goal was to pick a world problem and create a theoretical design that would help to fix the problem. Our group choose a broad subject of human overpopulation, but we found that to be to difficult to completely fix, so we decided to help cope with overpopulation by increasing the effectiveness of farms via stacking farms on top of each other and growing plants with a hydroponics system. After gathering evidence, it became clear that this is indeed, a very realistic design.
We initially, as a class, brainstormed all of the world problems that we could think of. Things ranging from global warming all the way to developing a straw that wouldn’t make any noise; we included everything possible.
Everyone chose a problem from the list and were put into groups with people who had similar interests. I partnered up with other people who choose overpopulation, people such as: Wilson, Grant, Matt, and Shane.
The Engineering Design Cycle
When trying to solve a problem, it is wise to use the engineering design cycle. This cycle was important beyond belief in this project, as we didn’t do anything involving physics and this whole project was based on our engineering. Below I will list the steps in the cycle, then I will explain how long it took and what we did specifically.
Engineering Design Cycle:
1. ID need.---------This took one day. Our groups were based on what need we chose, so we already had done this step.
2. Research the problem -------Research took about 3 weeks. We had initially attempted solving overpopulation and making a quiet straw, but stopped with the latter problem during our research. Every person wrote notes using 3 credible sources, and our amount of data that was gathered was enough to fill the Empire State Building. (Not literally, we just had 15 papers).
3. Brainstorm-------We brainstormed twice, both times took about one day. Our first list had too many solutions to overpopulation that involved limiting the population via death or forced sterilization. We realized that this was very unethical, and instead created a list of things that could cope with overpopulation.
4. Select a solution-------We choose to make vertical farms. Similar to a parking garage, there would be floors of crops on top of more crops. They would receive light from windows and artificial light from LEDs that would be installed. The crops wouldn’t use soil and would be grown with Aeroponics, which sprays the bottom of exposed roots with a water that was packed with nutrients.
5. Construct a prototype------Prototyping took about 2 days. We constructed a 3D model using the SketchUp program. We looked at the Aeroponics farms on the East Coast. These farms were our proof of concept, as those farms were growing crops with aeroponics
6. Test and evaluate design------Our design was theoretical, and thus we had nothing to test. We did evaluate our test and identified some issues, such as cost and profit, and added/fixed these issues
7. Communicate design----- We presented our design to the STEM class and discussed our farm and how this could help with the need to feed more people as population grows
8. Redesign-----We did not redesign, but if we did then I would try to find a more efficient system to deliver nutrients to the plants and I would also find the cost for workers and other maintenance
9. Repeat-------We did not repeat all the steps, but we did repeat the 2-4 the most. We had to keep gathering data and had to swap between ideas, as some ideas were to difficult or inefficient
Engineering Design Cycle:
1. ID need.---------This took one day. Our groups were based on what need we chose, so we already had done this step.
2. Research the problem -------Research took about 3 weeks. We had initially attempted solving overpopulation and making a quiet straw, but stopped with the latter problem during our research. Every person wrote notes using 3 credible sources, and our amount of data that was gathered was enough to fill the Empire State Building. (Not literally, we just had 15 papers).
3. Brainstorm-------We brainstormed twice, both times took about one day. Our first list had too many solutions to overpopulation that involved limiting the population via death or forced sterilization. We realized that this was very unethical, and instead created a list of things that could cope with overpopulation.
4. Select a solution-------We choose to make vertical farms. Similar to a parking garage, there would be floors of crops on top of more crops. They would receive light from windows and artificial light from LEDs that would be installed. The crops wouldn’t use soil and would be grown with Aeroponics, which sprays the bottom of exposed roots with a water that was packed with nutrients.
5. Construct a prototype------Prototyping took about 2 days. We constructed a 3D model using the SketchUp program. We looked at the Aeroponics farms on the East Coast. These farms were our proof of concept, as those farms were growing crops with aeroponics
6. Test and evaluate design------Our design was theoretical, and thus we had nothing to test. We did evaluate our test and identified some issues, such as cost and profit, and added/fixed these issues
7. Communicate design----- We presented our design to the STEM class and discussed our farm and how this could help with the need to feed more people as population grows
8. Redesign-----We did not redesign, but if we did then I would try to find a more efficient system to deliver nutrients to the plants and I would also find the cost for workers and other maintenance
9. Repeat-------We did not repeat all the steps, but we did repeat the 2-4 the most. We had to keep gathering data and had to swap between ideas, as some ideas were to difficult or inefficient
Reflection
This project was the most fun, as I had an amazing group. There were some positives and negatives though. I’ll start with the negatives and end with positives.
The negatives. There weren’t many, but one was being too ambitious. This caused us to try to do things that were too hard or required more time than we had. We tried to solve two problems at once, which didn’t work out. The second negative is related to the first, and this second one is; work on one thing at a time. There were points where people would work on multiple things at once, or would try to collect data for everything involving overpopulation. Data is good, but I don’t need to know how a straw works if i'm trying to make a vertical farm. It’s more of a small problem, but is still a problem.
Now the positives. I felt like I was able to finish all my tasks on time, which is a huge improvement, as I was always terrible at finishing my work at a reasonable time. Secondly, My research collecting was amazing. I picked reliable sources and I was able to quickly and easily transfer the information onto my paper.
The negatives. There weren’t many, but one was being too ambitious. This caused us to try to do things that were too hard or required more time than we had. We tried to solve two problems at once, which didn’t work out. The second negative is related to the first, and this second one is; work on one thing at a time. There were points where people would work on multiple things at once, or would try to collect data for everything involving overpopulation. Data is good, but I don’t need to know how a straw works if i'm trying to make a vertical farm. It’s more of a small problem, but is still a problem.
Now the positives. I felt like I was able to finish all my tasks on time, which is a huge improvement, as I was always terrible at finishing my work at a reasonable time. Secondly, My research collecting was amazing. I picked reliable sources and I was able to quickly and easily transfer the information onto my paper.