About The Project!
For this project, we began by each bringing in our own object to take apart. We each took apart our own object, sketched out schematics of the broken down parts, and researched online about it's parts and systems. After we had briefly learned about our individual objects, our four table group members came together and chose one of our items we wanted to focus on. My group decided to use our teammate's, Ben, object which was the TI-30XIIS calculator. After we had connected with our group and chose our object, we created a gantt chart to put our deadlines into and track our progress.
Once we decided on the object we were focusing on, we had to come up with our purpose or driving question. Our driving question was to discover how a TI-30XIIS calculator systems work together to display an output when an input is typed in. To answer our question, we began first by creating a hypothesis based off of Ben's notes he had already had. Our hypothesis was that when a button is pressed on the calculator, it sends a specific electronic signal through the circuit board to calculate and display an output on the screen.
After forming our hypothesis, and with our driving question in mind, we began our research. We first started off by researching four elements : structural, functional, material, and manufacturing analysis. Each person in our group was assigned one analysis to research to make our time most efficient. However if other teammates found information on a different analysis than their own, they would share with the group what they discovered. We used this method because we had limited time and found it to be most efficient. All of our information we found is displayed in our report and presentation below.
After researching in depth about our object, it's systems, and subsystems we began our report and presentation. We split the work into two people each. Two of the group members would work on compiling our information into a report (Lara and Lara) and two would work displaying our information in an organized presentation (myself and Ben). After finishing our report and presentation, we presented to our class on Sept. 19th.
Once we decided on the object we were focusing on, we had to come up with our purpose or driving question. Our driving question was to discover how a TI-30XIIS calculator systems work together to display an output when an input is typed in. To answer our question, we began first by creating a hypothesis based off of Ben's notes he had already had. Our hypothesis was that when a button is pressed on the calculator, it sends a specific electronic signal through the circuit board to calculate and display an output on the screen.
After forming our hypothesis, and with our driving question in mind, we began our research. We first started off by researching four elements : structural, functional, material, and manufacturing analysis. Each person in our group was assigned one analysis to research to make our time most efficient. However if other teammates found information on a different analysis than their own, they would share with the group what they discovered. We used this method because we had limited time and found it to be most efficient. All of our information we found is displayed in our report and presentation below.
After researching in depth about our object, it's systems, and subsystems we began our report and presentation. We split the work into two people each. Two of the group members would work on compiling our information into a report (Lara and Lara) and two would work displaying our information in an organized presentation (myself and Ben). After finishing our report and presentation, we presented to our class on Sept. 19th.
Presentation :
Report :
Gantt Chart :
Concepts :
- Reverse Engineering : the reproduction of another manufacturer's product following detailed examination of its construction or composition
- Circuit Board : a thin rigid board containing an electrical circuit
- Electricity : a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles (such as electrons or protons), either statically as an accumulation of charge or dynamically as a current
- LCD Screen : a flat panel screen that uses the liquid crystal display technology
- Calculator : something used for making mathematical calculations, in particular a small electronic device with a keyboard and a visual display
- Functional Analysis : what is the function of different parts? How do they work together? What is their underlying scientific principles?
- Structural Analysis : how are the different parts connected together?
- Material Analysis : what materials are used and what are their properties?
- Manufacturing Analysis : How was your product made?
Reflection :
I think our team worked very well together. Everyone contributed to the project and no one was stuck doing all the work themselves. I thought I managed my time very well for setting up the presentation. I spent one night setting up and formatting all the slides, so all we had to do thereafter was add in the information to the specific slides. Then I spent another day in class and night working on inserting the information. This way I had time to look over and make sure I loved the way it looked as well as making sure that there were no errors. I think I also had good communicating skills during this project. For the presentation, I would text my other teammate that was working on it, and give him suggestions on what I thought certain slides needed adding to. I would also communicate with him what we needed to accomplish that day and what we had left to do overall. Each day we would have a check in to make sure we knew where we were at that kept us on track of schedule.
However there were also things that could still be improved upon. One thing I could have improved was putting more time into researching. Although we spent a lot of time researching, I feel if I had spent just a little more time, I could have possibly found out more information on our product. Also if we had researched more, perhaps we could have found the type of plastic it was made of or a schematic of the system. Even though we emailed the company that manufactures the calculator, we never got a response, and so if we could redo the project I would just try to find a schematic of a similar calculator. Furthermore, I struggled with using my time wisely in class. I think for the next project I could greatly improve my efficiency with class work time, because I often got sidetracked with other conversations. This resulted in me having to do more work at home, when I was provided with the time to work on it in class. In spite of these however, I feel this project went really well and our group worked great together.
However there were also things that could still be improved upon. One thing I could have improved was putting more time into researching. Although we spent a lot of time researching, I feel if I had spent just a little more time, I could have possibly found out more information on our product. Also if we had researched more, perhaps we could have found the type of plastic it was made of or a schematic of the system. Even though we emailed the company that manufactures the calculator, we never got a response, and so if we could redo the project I would just try to find a schematic of a similar calculator. Furthermore, I struggled with using my time wisely in class. I think for the next project I could greatly improve my efficiency with class work time, because I often got sidetracked with other conversations. This resulted in me having to do more work at home, when I was provided with the time to work on it in class. In spite of these however, I feel this project went really well and our group worked great together.