Fling Machine Reflection

Austin and I worked well together and decided on a relatively simple design for the machine - two corks bound together by a rubber band and a stirrer stick wedged in between. We held a cotton ball at the top of the stick, pulled back, and launched. At first, we thought we'd have a foil "shelf" at the top of the stick for the cotton to sit on, but it ended up falling off and our machine worked better without it anyway. Our mean distance was 6 feet 2.74 in, or about 75 in, with a standard deviation of 18.2 in. 

When we designed our machine, we didn't know that we could just throw the cotton ball. I still don't really think that's fair, because that's not a fling machine - there's no flinging, it's just a weighted cotton ball and arm power. However, if we were to redesign, we would eliminate the stirrer stick and just throw the corks with the cotton ball and the rubber band. We tested this afterwards and we know that it can travel really far.

Overall, I think our team did a good job. We used the materials well and built a pretty nice fling machine that launched the cotton ball relatively far. I really enjoyed the project and I hope we get to do more like it.

 

Kaleidoscope

Unit Conversion Reflection

Having a common set of units makes it easier to convey measurements to people in different countries or fields. For example, a meter is the same length all around the world. It's important for engineers and designers to be able to convert between different systems so that they can share their designs with other people in a standardized way and have repeatable measurements.

Overall, I thought the project was okay. I like the idea of teaching a lesson in groups, but I wish we had a more interesting or broad topic. I didn't like how every group had to talk about unit conversion; by the end the presentations were really repetitive despite the fun parts.

Color Theory

A color scheme is the range of colors used for a design. The combination of colors creates style and aesthetic appeal. There are many different types of color schemes, including the ones below:

Monochromatic Colors -- all the shades or tints of one particular color, from light to dark. This creates a more subdued effect.

Analogous Colors -- groups of colors next to each other on the color wheel, usually including one dominant primary, one secondary, and two tertiary colors. This creates a feeling of a unified 'temperature' and there isn't too much contrast.

Complementary Colors -- colors which cancel each other out to make black (for pigments) or white (for light). They have high contrast and are visually striking, so they're sometimes called opposite colors.

Split Complementary -- a color and two analogous colors next to its complement. This also produces high contrast but is less aggressive.

Color Triads -- colors equally spaced on a color wheel (corners of a triangle). This makes for high contrast but it also creates balance and harmony.

The Color Wheel is an illustration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors in relation to each other.

The 3 primary colors are Blue, Red, and Yellow. They can be combined to form the 3 secondary colors, Violet, Orange, and Green. The 6 tertiary colors are formed by mixing primaries with secondaries. They are Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet, Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, and Yellow-Green.

Multiview Drawings

I really liked doing these multiview drawings. I liked how everything lined up and how we were able to 'build' an object using three (or less) flat views.

Conclusion Questions:
1. Construction lines show how the dimensions are constant for different views. The object lines show the edge of the object.

2. Hidden lines show when there are cutouts or holes in the shape. Centerlines show the centers of cylinders, holes, and other circles.

3. It is a perspective drawing because it is drawn from one point of view and the lines converge to a vanishing point.

4. It's an isometric drawing because it is based on 45 degree angles.

5. Multiview drawings clearly show shapes and dimensions. It's easy to make precise plans using them.

Final Product: The Food Bin

To help reduce the inordinate amount of food waste today, I came up with the Food Bin. It is an insulated box that can hold leftover food without taking up refrigerator space. Every week, a truck will come by and pick up the boxes and deliver the food to a local food bank. Donors receive a small amount of money based on how much food they donate each week.

To improve on this, I want to incorporate a vacuum sealer so that the food won't spoil and it doesn't need to be kept cold. This would make the program more efficient.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2RWLbsQNqCYSVZJZmJTZmdwVFZ4b2ZDaDIxQzAtWEtuUXZv/view?usp=sharing

Revised Concept Sketch

Here is my revised concept sketch for the Food Bin. It's essentially an insulated box that collects food to be donated. At the end of the week, theses bins are picked up and taken to a food bank, and the donors receive a small refund for their donation.

Food Waste

Every day, over 50 million Americans go to bed hungry. At the same time, we throw out tons of good, usable food. At home, lots of food is wasted because we buy a lot more than we can consume. At school cafeterias and grocery store, the unused food at the end of the day is often thrown away. Sadly, food in this country is so cheap and readily available that many of us can discard it without a second thought.

Discarded produce (The Independent)

Fortunately, there are some solutions. Stores like Trader Joe's donate their leftovers daily to food pantires and soup kitchens. Some school districts collect unopened items (like cookies or cracker packets) and donate them to the food bank at the end of the week. Programs like Food Shift make unused milk cartons from school cafeterias available for free to people in the community.

I think it would be good to have a food bin at school or in communities (like parks or social buildings) where people can drop off unused, sealed food containers, instead of having them sit at home until they expire. Also, I think the FUSD can also start donating extra food to pantries like the Tri City Food Bank. At the very least, we should make composting more common and easy, instead of sending our food waste to the landfill.

Problems in the World

- The walkway behind Centerville Junior High School is often covered in trash and glass, and it's dangerous for the students who walk through it every day.

- So much good, usable food is thrown out everyday by grocery stores and cafeterias (probably including Washington's). There are some programs that help connect excess food to needy people, but they aren't very common. It's a waste that can easily be prevented.

- Grey water from showers, baths, and laundry goes straight to the sewer. It can easily be used for gardening and irrigation. At home right now, we put buckets in the shower and water the plants with the water we collect every few days but that's really tedious and inefficient. It would be much better if the grey water went directly to the outside water supply.

- Alarm clocks are pretty easy to ignore and when I do hear mine, I dismiss it and fall back asleep.

- Notebooks are either too short or long. Either you run out of pages or you end up with lots of empty pages that can't be used for other things.

- Nail clippers are really messy, and they throw little nail pieces all over the room.

Lines and Emotions

To me, lines show the structure of an object. Rigid, straight lines show order and a fixed form, while curvy or 'flowy' lines make an object seem smoother and more organic. They remind me of nature and the environment.

For my object, I chose a coaster from the kitchen table. It is made up of lines (in diamonds) and curves (connecting them). The design is pretty simple, but I really liked the way the dark and light wood gives it a striking pattern.

A coaster and my drawing of it

I thought my line drawings turned out pretty well. I wasn't really sure how to do the gesture one -- I didn't know how to use lines to show the movement. 

Self as Designer

In this class, I want to become better at drawing and sketching realistically. I want to learn to design and make objects that are useful, easy to use, and artful. I also hope to learn to use programs like Autodesk to design on the computer.

I drew my self-portrait based off a photo of me skiing.

Product Improvement: The WashDisher

My partner Alice and I thought of many different products to improve before we decided on the dish brush. We both (like most other people) hate doing dishes, and we wanted to make the process simpler and more fun. We brainstormed and considered many possible features, like a spinning top and a hose attachment to the faucet. After some early sketches, we decided to drop the hose feature completely -- it was too complicated and not very useful. We kept the spinning top, and added 5 interchangeable heads (bristles, sponge, scouring pad, soft mop, and steel wool). We wanted the product to be battery-powered, so we added a rechargeable battery base. At that point, we were pretty happy with the design, but we soon realized that it wouldn't be able to clean curved or narrow surfaces. So we went back to brainstorming, and we came up with a curved and rotating top piece. This way, the WashDisher could clean almost any dish.

Our original plans, including a flat head and a water dispenser

When we did this project, Alice and I wanted to keep the product simple while making it more useful and effective. Our concept was that the WashDisher can clean dishes completely and allow people to skip the regular dishwasher. We drew and wrote all our early ideas in our notebooks, and that helped us look back and see what needed to be changed. For the presentation, we worked together to explain our product and show everyone what it could do. We tried to keep it short and interesting, and I think we did pretty well.

Our final product, the WashDisher!

Brainstorming

Brainstorming helps everyone in the group share their ideas and bring their viewpoints about the project. At the beginning, we didn't know how to go about building the bridge, but by hearing different ideas we began to form a solid plan. After we had a concept in place, we used scratch paper to test out variations of the design. We tried out several ways of joining the paper before we decided to overlap the triangles. Testing allowed us to find problems in our early designs and improve them to create a better product. In fact, if we have more time, we can definitely do more testing and improve our bridge even more. The whole process was made possible with good teamwork. Everyone in our group respectfully listened to each others’ ideas, worked together cooperatively, and contributed equally to the product.

When we designed our bridge, we didn't know that we could split up the "base blocks," so we kept them in two large lumps and our structure sagged in the middle. If we worked on the project more, we definitely would use the blocks to make separate supports along the bridge. Also, with the added supports, we could extend the bridge (we had 1/2 a piece of paper left over, so we could add a segment). After looking at the other groups' designs, I think it would be a good idea to use slits or weaving to join the paper instead of just overlapping the segments. Other than that, I think our bridge was relatively strong.

Our group's "bridge"