About The Project:
For this project, we were given the task of finding a world problem that we were interested in engineering a solution for. First off, our whole class wrote a list of world problems and then chose our top five that we potentially would want to look more into. We then proceeded to chose our main problem and found other students in our class who also chose a similar problem. My group decided on starvation. After researching about starvation across the world, we found that the continent of Africa had very high starvation rates for the amount of people living there. Once we chose africa, we looked more into starvation in separate countries across Africa. Some countries had very high rates while others were not as high. In the end, we chose Ethiopia to focus on because it is an up and coming country with moderate starvation levels compared to other countries in Africa. My group and I than began to research all about Ethiopia and starvation occurring there. Once our research was complete, we engineered a bar with all the nutritious things starving people are lacking in their diet and need. Starting out with two different bars, we tasted each one and compared their nutritional value. In the end, we ended up with a bar consisting of the best ingredients from our two original bars. However we didn't want to stop there. My group and I decided if we were to actually do this, we would need a factory where they would be made. Thus, we designed a factory based on the climate, topography, current technology, etc. in Ethiopia. This factory would be where the bars would be produced, and shipped out across Ethiopia. In addition, the same bars would be made in Ethiopia but sold in California to fund for the cost of the factory plus all of the supplies. Little actions taken to help a cause may seem insignificant or little, but little things add up to huge things that can make an amazing difference.
Concepts:
Engineering Design Cycle: a series of steps needed to take to come up with a solution to a problem.
The steps are..
1. Identify need
2. Research the project
3. Develop possible solutions
4. Select a promising solution
5. Construct a prototype
6. Test and review prototype
7. Communicate design
8. Redesign and repeat
The steps are..
1. Identify need
2. Research the project
3. Develop possible solutions
4. Select a promising solution
5. Construct a prototype
6. Test and review prototype
7. Communicate design
8. Redesign and repeat
Reflection:
I think this project went very well. My team worked amazing together and we were able to divide the amount of work evenly to every member. Whenever we hit a road bump, we would stop and discuss the issue together making sure no one's voice got left out. During this project, I learned a few things about myself. One of the biggest ones was that when I work with my friends I am actually more productive. Since my friends were working on the same thing, when we would talk it would be about our project and not side conversations. Furthermore, I learned that making quick nutritious bars is fairly simple to make, and their not only good for starving Ethiopians but are very good for my body as well. However on the contrary, there are things I can still improve on. First of all, my leadership skills can improve. Although I got my team on track some of the times when we were off track, I can be a better leader and keep them on track 100% of the time. Also I could have contributed more writing on the slides. I did do a few slides, but I spent so much time researching our problem that I didn't get to write as many slides as I could have. Overall during this project I believe that my highs outweighed my lows, and I have to say this was one of my favorite projects yet!