Project Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e6gG2oAYdGNvQOdZyr4CxStwU6G-KqKYBVCrXYY_hrA/edit?usp=sharing My group dynamic for this project was one of the most complex ones I have ever had during any project. I had two other partners who both did different tasks at different times. The work ethic wasn’t always consistent making it difficult at times to do certain assignments or to meet certain deadlines. What went well in terms of collaboration was when my partners did work we were able to each be working on different things and just get a lot more done when they weren’t completely working. Another challenge was that one of my group members was gone a lot during the project which made it even more difficult to get work done as a team. What I could have done to become a better group member would be to give more jobs to my partners when they were motivated to do work. Overall, the collaboration was not very good, but I’m still extremely proud of the work I was able to produce. What I learned in this project in terms of Humanities was just overall being able to understand the country that our mobile was built around. My country was Ghana and we picked it because one of my group member’s sister actually went to Ghana so having her as a resource was really helpful. One of the most difficult parts of the research in Humanities was finding our groups origin story. We learned about a character named Anansi and we just needed to find a story with him in it but it was hard to find a source with an entire story and not just more about Anansi himself. Also, finding the lesson and question to put on our mobile tiles was difficult because our story was kind of silly and aimed towards a younger audience so finding a lesson in a story about a spider who went to dinner and tried to steal beans was slightly hard. But, it was really cool to learn about Ghana when we created our Tour Around the World presentations. Learning about their political climate was really interesting and also how Ghana gained its independence from Britain fairly recently, and doing that inspired other African countries to do the same. What I learned during this project in terms of physics was how to calculate torque and what steps need to be taken to achieve equilibrium within our mobile. Before this project, I just heard stories about torque and how horrible and difficult it was, so I was super nervous to attempt to learn how to do it. Once we learned the concept of just solving for a variable so the two sides were equal, I started to feel more confident. Some of the most difficult parts of the physics aspects of this project were first, finding ways to make the tier below another weight, and not the pivot point. Another issue was even after you solved for the last value, we could take into account all of the other variable that would change the weights. This meant that you had to move the tiles around so it would perfectly balance. Also, the higher up you got the harder it was because the tension was heavier. I had to redo the distances a couple times because the rod wasn’t long enough to accommodate for the distance needed to balance the weight. I used physics thinking when needing to solve the complex problems and figuring out what the issues were when it would not balance. In engineering, I learned about laser cutting and different techniques to deal with it. I also learned about different types of paints and how to clean them. One of the coolest things I learned and something that I applied to my mobile tiles was the engraving technique. To pull off this technique you would put blue painters tape over the wood that would be laser cut with you design. When the wood was laser cut, the painters tape would be engraved as well as the wood. This meant you could peel off pieces of the tape that you would want to paint. This resulted in super sharp, clean lines when painted. I also learned about different paints and stains which we used on our mobile to really make the tiles pop and be different. I also learned how to use the scroll saw to create our hand cut pieces for our second tier. Overall, I learned what tools are useful for different things and what techniques you can apply to those tools to get the best results. I feel like I offered the group the want to make the product the best it could be and the work ethic to bring it home to work on so that it would be done of time. In terms of the class learning outcomes I feel like the one I really exceeded in was content knowledge because torque was a difficult thing to learn but I feel like I was able to pick up on it pretty fast and really master it. In terms of the class values one I really exceeded in was grit because the mobiles were incredibly difficult to balance even with the torque diagram to help. Without grit, I definitely would have broken it, thrown it on the floor, and just been done. For the exhibition, we went to an elementary school to read our myth stories and show them our mobile. Our time with the kids got cut short because there class ended and they just left. It was really hard to keep their attention and make them listen. Overall, this project was a test of my patience and my ability to not give up. |