The class split off into groups of 4-5 to pick 3 of the issues on the list that they found to be the most realistic to tackle. We thought about which topics seemed to be doable, and if necessary, researched those topics to help during the choosing process.

The groups made their final decisions and thought of some vague inventions that could be made to solve the issue. Some research was conducted during this process. For instance, research on who it affects and where the issue is found was done.

An ambassador from each cluster traveled to other groups to present the issues they'd decided on. This is where discussions began. Groups merged together to talk about their issues. Halfway through the class, we circled up. We had a speaking piece. Whoever had the object was the only one could speak. There were occasional breakouts of chatter, and unnecessary comments, but the system seemed like the most efficient way to allow everyone a chance to voice their thoughts. We eliminated a few ideas and discussed the issues that more than one group selected.

We circled up once more and came to a top 2 issues.

1.) Food Waste

2.) Road Safety

We feel strongly about our #1 idea, but not so much on Road Safety. We've put very little thought into the idea aside from possibly doing something about children being left in a hot cars. Our next move is to research the issues even more. We need statistics, and we need to understand the cause of the issue so we can then chisel it down to something doable.

We used the circling up method and brainstormed points we have to keep in mind, solutions, and additions to the issue. For the most part, we thought of ways we could solve the issue.

We talked about our ideas, grew more in-depth with solution ideas, and discussed ways to carry out these solutions. We also talked about a few other smaller issues that branched off of our bigger ideas in attempt to cut down our current ideas as they're still broad.

The class circled up and looked at what solutions to fixing food waste already exists. Turns out many already do. From the cart to place unwanted and untouched food we'd thought of to trucks that picked up food you don't want at home. In addition to looking at existing solutions, we brought up another issue: vandalism.

As we found our issue, we began to talk about the website we needed to make, and how a video on the website would be of use and beneficial. The video could show just how much food is thrown away at a mere 20 minute lunch period, and it then it could show the changes caused by our solution.

Our solution is still a cart with a tray on it to make sure unwanted food is not thrown away. It would then go to the garden club or a compost center if some of it can not be given away.

We also questioned how this would tie into obesity. For instance, since students have the option to keep and throw away the food on their tray without intervention, meaning there is no point to the rule that enforces school lunches to include certain foods such as fruits or vegetables. It's common to see a get lunch just for the occasional cookie or chip bag, and afterwards, throw away the cup of fruit and even the only drink that comes with the lunch, the milk. That brings up another issue. Water costs a dollar, but milk is free. This doesn't make much sense to the person sitting before the tray, especially when the milk is horrid. I've seen piles of unopened milk in the trashcan before, and I've heard firsthand from the person sitting beside me that the milk is disgusting.

The second to last point we brought up was contacting the people who are already doing things to stop food waste. For instance, making the students like the food. That would stop the issue entirely.

Lastly, we thought of how to get data and evidence of food waste. Weighing it was the only conclusion we came to.

Again, we circled up to talk. Here are the things we discussed:

Creating a survey to see what foods are most popular and preferable at our school on the school lunch calendar was a way to see how we;d change up the lunches if it came to it.

A legal card for obese people that discounts their purchases on healthy foods was introduced. It would encourage them to eat healthier because they'd have easier access to it. There are many problems with that, however. It could be abused very easily.

An app to help plan people's diets was spoken briefly on.

Bringing those with financial issues who have to carefully think of how they'll afford groceries to our school. We could give them the food saved from being thrown away. But there are many arguments against the idea, and honestly, it doesn't sound like a good idea. How can we trust this person? Why can't we just bring the food to a homeless shelter? We would need volunteers to organize this as well.

An idea to budget our school's energy consumption was an idea. It would cut down costs.

There's been little progress on brainstorming up a 3rd issue. We've decided we needed one, so we we circled up. These are some of the ideas we came up with before coming to a conclusion.

-- Improving children's car seats by making them safer.

-- A battery saver for the school

-- Uber for housework

-- A product for seniors

At the end of class, we ended off with. .

1.) Solution to Food Waste

2.) Road Safety

3.) An app for the disabled

Rather than having an app for the disabled, we changed the demographic to illiterates. With that, we discussed of some points and thoughts.

-- A smart notebook: this could go along with the app made.

-- Possibly for immigrants who do not yet have a good understanding of English.

-- Possibly for elders who don't have access to getting an education.

-- The website could show how the app operates.

-- Duolingo, a language learning app, could be an inspiration.

-- We would need to research other educational apps to ensure originality.

-- Some form of testing would be necessary. Reaching out to people. The question is, how?

We decided that we'd make a literacy app over finding a solution to reduce food waste. The literacy app seemed to be the harder option. We figured that it'd be better to do the harder idea, and if that failed, we'd prefer to have an easier idea to fall back on.

Now that we have 3 ideas with some form of basis, 3 groups were made for each what if, 7 students per group. Each group had to figure out the problem, the materials needed, and the solution. On the first of November, each group would present.

2 of the 3 groups presented, which were the Food Waste at Lunch group and the Literacy App group. Here are the notes.

School Waste: Lunch

Problem - Too much food is thrown out by students during lunch periods, causing an excess amount of waste.

Solutions -

A.) A cart for untouched food.

B.) A compost pile for touched food.

C.) Adjust meals to serve good food.

D.) Lengthen lunch time

How -

A.) Survey students on what they eat/don't eat on the lunch tray

B.) Research how to compost trash.

C.) Contact other schools that have done something similar to this.

Literacy App

Problem - There is illiteracy in 1/2 of 20-40 year old people.

Solution - An app to touch basic English

Materials Needed -

A.) Coding knowledge

B.) Free app maker

C.) Google play/Apple account

D.) Wix/Weebly (Website makers)

E.) Crash test dummies

F.) Device to test on

The road safety group didn't have the time to fill in the basic template. It was the least developed idea. They came up with several smaller issues to focus on, but had no solid solutions. Unsure of where to start in figuring out the materials they would need to create the vague solutions, the group never presented, and nobody wished to hear what they had done. The idea was always pushed to the back of everyone's mind, and it showed more than ever today.

After groups presented, we figured we needed a name and logo for the app (if we chose the idea). In the last minute of class, a few ideas for the app's title were thought of: Literates R' Us, L.I.T., Island of Misfit Toys, and Words are/for Life.

We considered moving the information and notes written in the scribe's notebook to a blog online. After some thought, we figured it'd be on our website. We began searching for places to build a website and blog.

As what we would call "website developers" and "researchers" looked online for places for the website and blog, we thought that if we were going to have a website, then we'd need a title for our group in general. We shared ideas and came up with around 2 dozen names, the most popular being Misfit Toys, UPSILON (21st letter of the Greek alphabet) + 1, Chi (22nd letter of the Greek alphabet), and Black Jack. When voting, UPSILON + 1 came out as victor.

As we picked our name, our website developers began to start a website on Weebly.

We began to notice flaws and holes in our ideas. For instance, how would the Literacy app be tested? It seems unlikely that strangers would willingly volunteer to openly try out an app if they were illiterate. For our road safety issue, there is already so much out there. Cars have airbags and dash cams. You can find what you may need at AutoZone Auto Parts, and there are even cars out there that make a warning noise to alert the driver that they are not in lane.

How would we reward users of the app? We could show their progress, but is that enough? We could make it competitive, but that's subjective.

Now that we have a title, logo ideas were brainstormed. A couple of ideas we came with were an ancient Roman Pyramid with the Upsilon symbol on top and a titan holding up the Earth.

Today Mr.Pace arrived. He's come to help us with planning our next move. We started off with what jobs we'd need need, like a scientific crew, marketing crew, research crew, and scribes. Forms of recording progress could be through a time log, videotapes, pictures, and a blog. Once we have jobs, we need to need to take a look at our issue and make it manageable, possible to tackle and solve. When coming up with a solution, we need to ask the following questions: why is our product/service better? How is it different?

The way to figure out if our product/service is unique is to research. Who's solving this issue?

To come to a decision on a solution, the class should split in half to accommodate each issue: food waste and illiteracy. They would come together and have a debate. The last step would be to take a vote after hearing both sides.

We'll have to create a project on Skill21.org, and as a group, we need to look over it.

We need jobs. At this point, not having specified duties is problematic. Some wouldn't have anything to do while others would hold too much on their shoulders. We need to balance out the workload, and appointing jobs is the reasonable option. On the board, a list of 9 jobs is written: researchers, website developers, photographer/media workers, bloggers, math & science consultants, engineers, logo designer, market researchers, and project mangers.

We’re completing the process of getting everyone their roles in the project, and we’re detailing them on their duties and responsibilities. They were called up one by one and we asked them what job they would prefer to do. From there we placed them into the role they wanted.

We plan to figure out who’ll be separated into which groups for each of our project ideas. We’ll then split off, each group operating on their own. We’re making sure everyone is positive about their roles.

We did end up splitting into separate groups to do more research on separate topics for a short amount of time, but it’s been confirmed that the groups must come together soon. Our forces must be put together. The aim of each group is to present the issue, solutions, and issues with the solutions to come out on top during the debate. We do research on the topic that our group has been set into, such as the literacy app or food waste, and come up with information surrounding the topic, such as statistics and steps that have already been taken to solve this issue. Each group will do what they can to get their thoughts, information, and solutions together.

During the 25 minute STEM class time, we’ve concluded that the debate will happen after school. We get to work, but a few issues arise.

In the food waste group, most are keeping to themselves and refraining from discussing the topic and information they’ve gathered. But, luckily, in the extra 20-25 minutes given, they pull themselves together.

In the literacy app group, many of the people assigned to research information were not actually working as they weren't completely on board with the idea. The minimal amount of ideas/information that they had were all over the place and were things that we had already found out previously.

After a total of 45-55 minutes of researching and getting our presentations together, both groups come together. There’s a speaker from each group who will present their group’s issue and solution. Afterwards, we analyze the opponents solutions.

During the two presentations, many on both sides were not listening. My question is, how can a fair debate be pulled off when some on both sides are not listening, not contributing, and not on board?

For those not able to come after school, the main points of the debate were placed in a doc. During tomorrow's STEM class, we’ll have the vote.

We sit down; we listen. The arguments from yesterday are introduced to those who were not here yesterday, and as discovered on the 10th, the Literacy App is a burning ship. Why? The idea not only seems unrealistic, (Teenagers figuring out how to teach illiterate adults?) but there is already dozens of dozens of competition out there. We’d have to look at every single one, and then make ours unique. On the other hand, our solutions to reduce food waste does not have a spark, and does not kindle one in us either. Like the Literacy App, there’s many people out there who've been able to do this, and they accomplished it by doing things that we couldn't. Others who'd reduced food waste in some way used and gained their own money. They had no time limit, (The range went from a year to multiple.) and we have no budget whatsoever. The solutions that we had come up with ourselves, from trays where you can put unwanted food during lunch in elementary schools, to an organization of trucks picking up unwanted food, have already been done and done well. The bottom line is that any ideas we have come up with for this topic are not original. We can add off on it, but to what extent? Tomorrow we will vote to either go with food waste, the literacy app, or to start from the beginning and come up with another idea.

The vote was taken, and the majority of us agreed to start a new topic. Our aim is brainstorming and researching more options, issues, ideas, and solutions. We’ve concluded that our original ideas were too big; a problem that is small, but still widespread is what we are aiming for now.

We have to:

-> Inform the rest of the class about the ideas (This is really inconvenient.)

-> Brainstorm more ideas/solidify the ideas

-> Quickly come to the focus point(the issue)

Our aim for the day is still to brainstorm smaller ideas than what we have been thinking about, and to solidify or eliminate ones.

Some of the ideas are:

-> Making a chair or a chair addition(as our desks right now are uncomfortable, especially for long periods)

-> A pencil or a pen addition(to help with hand cramps and to ensure calluses do not form)

-> A grate that attaches to cups(Needs to be adaptable) that stops ice cubes from hitting your face when downing a drink

-> A bracelet that’ll alert police for two types of situations:

-- Minor Conflicts(Hand to hand student dispute)

-- Emergency(Ex. school shooting)

-> Fidgeting ideas such as a soundless pen(likely exists) and something to fidget with that is attached to the bottom of a table

A vote will be taken, and we’ve confirmed when it'll take place. It’ll be on Monday during class time. After school that day, the idea will be built on and discussed. The 3 options are chair modification, pencil modification, and bracelet alarming system.

The vote has been taken. Out of twenty-one people(one absent), the votes were:

Chair Modification: 16

Pencil Modification: 4

Bracelet Alerting System: 1

The chair modification idea will be our focus point.

Mr. Pace came in today. We spoke about where we were, what we were trying to do, and what should and could be done. We’ve picked up an idea, but we have yet to figure out the specifics. After speaking to Mr. Pace today, we know that we have a lot to research. We have to come up with a sketch, and we have to collect data.

• Create a sketch/design/prototype
• Research
  • What affects posture
  • What posture causes permanent damage
• Collect data/gather opinions/get out there
  • Make surveys
  • Gather our classes own opinion

We are beginning to get a start on the idea. The majority of us had a group meeting where we went over ideas for our product. A few things that we discussed were how the chair will look and how it will operate. As we discussed this, our head artist Maritza sketched out the chair based on what we were saying. A few other people went off on their own and did their own research to come up with other ideas. Another group was creating the survey. A final group wrote down everything we were talking about and made sure to keep everyone on track.

Today we took at look at what we had to do more specifically.

We need:

• To get the website up and running quick
• To figure out who will get the survey up and going (2 market researchers: Mike and Shiv)
• To figure out what everyone needs to be working on
  • Making a prototype
    • Using 3D digital models(3D printing) to make the prototype, or design it digitally. Mr.Ally-Seals would help if needed.
• To get the social medias up and running alongside the website
  • Instagram(for sure), possibly Facebook(To reach out to an older audience), and possibly Twitter

On Monday, when we have after school, we need to hit the ground running.

Between today and tomorrow, questions for Mr.Pace should be brainstormed when he visits on Monday. We need to strengthen ourselves. It seems as if we’ve gotten to a standstill, and we don’t know how to work ourselves back into moving through. We don’t know how we could even get started on making a prototype. What materials would we use? Where would we get the money? Do we have a budget? How would we get money, and get it quick enough? With what we have, creating a decent, serious-looking chair doesn’t seem so realistic anymore. Over the weekend, we need to ponder whether creating a chair is something we can do, and are all on board with. Is it too late to change?

In a second, the chair idea was thrown out, and that was the cause of our stand still. We simply didn’t know how to get it done and made. We figured out that by going back to a list of the biggest and smallest issues we’d brainstormed, that most, if not all, of us are interested in doing something that will help troubles facing people’s mental health who are our age. For the rest of our time, those who are present formed a list of mental health issues through research and personal experience. Only three will make the cut, however.

We sent our lists to our teacher where he then combined all of them into a list and printed it out and distributed it to us. There are 29 issues on the list, and during the 25 minutes we have, everyone, on their own, are to pick three of the issues alone. The choices will be collected by the end of the week.

STEM class during school was cut short. We decided to take a vote during our after school time on whether we’d prefer to make a product or a service. We’re taking a huge step back as we’ve overlooked this and our capabilities with the materials we have.

The vote came out to be that we would do a service. A score of 2:11 with 9 students not present. Afterwards, we split off into two main groups of 4 & 7 and spoke about the issue we were trying to solve.

Ideation

Do you know those heating bags full of certain foods such as rice or cherry pits? When you place them against a part of your body after microwaving it, the bag will soothe it. Letting it sit under your back or lay on your lap are both ways to use the heating bags to alleviate pain in a designated area. But if you try and stand to walk around, you would have to hold it against your back, which is pretty inconvenient. It limits the use of your hands. Who’d want to drop the bag to go refill their dog’s food bowl? In addition, when holding this, the rice can slide around and apply heat to only specific sections of your back. To combat this, we would have to add a strap that goes around your waist that is adjustable. We would also ass compartments for the rice to stay in so that if it does end up sliding, it only goes so far.

Turns out this exists already, but we’re certain there are ways to make ours different and better.

The other group went through their day, and came up with a few issues in the morning, such as toothbrush cleanliness and phone charger wires ripping, before getting to school and thinking of the students who suffer from illnesses that get them made fun of, or make them feel unhappy with themselves because they’re different, when in reality, we’re all different. People with glasses is normal, but people who have an issue with going to the bathroom in time is something to laugh at? They don’t have control over it, just like people who can’t control how well their eyes perform. Staying on the topic of mental health, the group figured that if we can bring these people to those who’ve been in their place in the past together, that’d be a way to make them feel less different, and not alone. In other words, the idea would be to create a mentoring program.

Those are the generalized definitions of the two ideas we came up with. A rice bag warmer pack and a mentoring program.

We went over the two ideas we came up with the day prior briefly for the people that were absent from after school, and we proceeded to talk about what we had to do for the website we are to make. To learn more about this, we skimmed through the previous year’s winners’ website they had made (Crunch No More).

We learned from their website that we need to have plenty of data, information showing how we grew, showing how we got where we are (EX: this isn’t our original idea.), a step by step of our experiments (LOTS of pictures of us working), graphs of our testing (data), a bibliography, and a CER.

We seem to all agree to do the rice bag over the mentoring program, as it seems too close with another service that failed, specifically, the service Better Help. If you have not heard of it, it is simply online therapy. It advertises themselves as a substitute for face-to-face therapy. Despite this, if you read very closely (It was assumed they were attempting to hide this information) into their terms and conditions, it says that it is not actually a substitute and you still need to go to actual therapy. This caused a lot of outrage, and if we attempt to do this mentoring program, we don't want to be grouped in with Better Help since our idea is similar to it. Also, you would be meeting up with strangers that you do not know. Who's to say some random person won't go on and mess with people? The mentoring program simply doesn't seem plausible.

Since we have changed our idea for the 3rd time, we went over the jobs to see if people were still happy with them and would be comfortable carrying them out with the new topic. We also discussed bringing in rice bags to do the experiments (Differing the materials of the bags, changing the rice to something else such as beans or seeds, hot vs. cold, etc..) The science consultants need to figure out what type of tests they are going to do, and they would need to gather data on how long the bag stayed warm.

The jobs were switched around today so they were more practical, as in everyone only has one job instead of dealing with multiple. Each group consists of 3-4 people. Group managers for were appointed, and it was decided that at the end of the week they would meet up with Isabella (our current project manager) and our teacher to update them on the progress we made during the week. Our after school STEM was shortened by about 20-25 minutes, as the other teams at our school are also deciding to have STEM after school, so we have to make better use of our time with the limitation. There’s the option of having STEM early in the morning before school starts (Around 7:00 AM, ending at 8:00 AM) to make up for lost time which also allows the students who can’t make it to after school time to work on the project for longer.

For after school, we managed to get the website up and running. This includes the blog, so we finally have an official place to put all of our information. We also set up a launchpad page. A select few people also did some research on what materials would be good/bad to use for the bag, as well as finding what filling to use, such as rice vs. beans, seeds, etc..

The groups loosely split up into their jobs and discussed what they are to do. The website developers continued to edit the website, the engineers talked with the researchers on what materials and fillings they should use with the bag, and etc.

We started today by talking as a class about the experiments and the variables that we need. We discussed how many tests we are going to run, and we agreed to do around 4-5 for both testing the materials and the fillings for a total of 16-25 tests. After this discussion, we split up into our different groups based on jobs and went over what we are to do after school.

Our Head Manufacturer continued to work on the prototype for the bag where we'll first test the fillings. The first fillings that we are to test are cherry pits. [Person] agreed to take the bag home and tested it.

In the classroom, our four website developers worked on the website, fixing mistakes and figuring out what sections we need. The logo is still being worked on by Maritza, and everyone else was researching materials and possibilities to our heating pad. All the information is being stored in a document that us bloggers will get access to soon so we can organize it.

The results for the bag came in, and we figured out that cherry pits would not be the best option. We also discussed adding a calming scent to it (such as lavender or peppermint) since an issue that came up was that the rice eventually started to smell bad because it got moldy. We also have to think about health issues with the material and the food we use.

Around a third of us are working on the blog and website, while another third of us are researching what could be the best materials to use for a second prototype. The other third of us are hovering over the testing of the prototype we have now, which we can call Prototype 1 v.11.

Our Social Media workers have an account on Instagram, but they've been having issues and set backs in the past that caused them to be unsure of when to start posting. For instance, we kept changing our issue rapidly, and the thought of having a social media came up in the midst of all that. Before, they couldn't find a lasting VPN that'd allow them to post on social medias, but now they've found one. They should start posting soon.

Manufacturers, website developers, bloggers, researchers, and social media developers. Those are the main groups that are working today. Data crunchers are the only ones who have less to do on their part, as data is not coming in quickly.

The manufacturers are studying hemp, a possible material to use for the prototype. The question is where to get it. Researchers are assisting the manufacturers. Website developers are figuring out what information will be put where. Social media workers are taking photos, and bloggers are checking in on what everyone is doing. But the most exciting thing from today is that Maritza finished the team's logo.

As stated a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Pace came back in today. He guided us through setting up our project profile, and we answered all of the required questions. We found out that the launchpad page is due by February 8th.

Gathering data is one of the biggest factors we want to aim for. We want a lot of data, and to get data, we need means of testing. In the past, our teacher has used the prototype at home and recorded its results. We need a more efficient and solid way of collecting data. One of the ways we thought would be to have 4 bowls each with a different prototype in them. We'd heat them all up at once, and collect data. How long would it take for each one to reach a certain temperature? How long does it last from that maximum temperature to reach another a temperature? Do we want to heat them up at different temperatures? What are the variables and controls?

In addition, we examined the Launchpad questions. Having a singular person answering them is not what we want to do. We all have different writing styles, so we want a combination of more than just 1 or 2 of us. During today's after school time, 3 pairs came together and answered each question in their own words, and a few worked on their own. The photographers edited the photos they'd taken, and

We continued answering the Launchpad questions, and those who were not on board were told to answer the questions in their own words as well.

Mr. Pace continued his visit from last time. We discussed on how everyone needs to be doing their jobs at once while waiting for the bigger pieces of information, such as the manufacturers coming up with ways as to how to create the product and the website developers editing and adding information to the website. We also discussed what the researchers need to gather, how they'll distribute that information to the manufacturers for them to use, and how those manufacturers will use them. Additionally, we went over how we'll collect data. We plan to collect our data through either surveys or experiments where we observe how the variable & control interact. Outside of surveys, we want feedback from peers. Furthermore, we considered setting up separate speeches and presenting them in front of the class to help develop everyone's speaking abilities, though this idea is not finalized.

After school the majority of the class, which was not many, grouped together to combine all the Launchpad responses once and for all. Aside from one, the answers were completed and submitted to Launchpad. When we were not finalizing our answers, we spoke about how we would experiment. What are the controls? What are the independent variables(fillings and fabrics)?

Specifically, we added flax seeds to our list of fillings to test out. This list consists of rice, beans, corn feed, cherry pits, and now, flax seeds. Some controls identified are same bowls, equal amounts of filling (weight), same thermometers, same microwave settings, same room temperature, and same stopwatches. What we're looking for in these experiments is how long the bag stays heated, how quickly the bag heats up, how much the bag heat up, and how quickly the bag loses heat. This is for every prototype.

For the time being we're on Launchpad to figure out why our responses won't save. As the page is due February 8, we need it up. However, the answers keep changing back to their first answers. The responses are saved onto one of our many docs, so this isn't a major issue.

Before we can do more, we need the supplies to run our experiments. Since that's what we're waiting on, we're thinking of titles for our product and are preparing for the elevator pitch speech.

After removing names due to them being irrelevant or too vague, we have 7 names.

• Pain Away Pack (PAP)
• 2 in One Heat & Cold
• Polar Pack
• Heat Way
• Organic Heating Pad
• Even Seed
• Heat This Way

Similar to the end of last week, we await the due date for materials.

The Project Manager, Bloggers, and Website Developers grouped together to alter and add to the website, adjusting the Home page and About Us page. A short yet clear description of each role paired with a picture of the mentioned group working was also discussed to be added in the About Us page below basic information. To gain inspiration, we looked at other websites, including the website of the previous STEM Expo Fest winners. We examined their page to see their weak points and to think of how we could avoid them.

The Project Manager created a tasks & deadlines managers to keep track of each groups work and better organize them.

After talking it over with the Project Manager, a due date for the PowerPoint was assigned. Next Monday on the 4th of March, the answers to the PowerPoint questions will be due and collected in order to be put together into a slide by March 9. While a few groups of us are working to answer the questions, others are starting assignments of their own. Our manufacturers began to measure waists (in centimeters) to come up with the three different sizes. The Digital Media group created a business account & business email. Data Crunchers continued working diligently to finish empty graphs. Others of us discussed ways to showcase student progression to a better degree and considered variant means of systematizing tasks.

The Manufacturers finished their measuring and are organizing the collected data by male & female averages for each size and by male & female equations for the averages. The PowerPoint questions continued to be worked on, and our teacher informed us of a previous student of TEMS that is visiting his old middle school on Tuesday March 5th. In view of many students, a presentation for the previous student is to be prepared on Monday. This would act as practice for the presentation(s) we would have to do later on.

Due to the recent snow day, the due date for our PowerPoint question answers have been moved to March 6th or March 7th based on whether or not there is after school on March 6. The due date for the PowerPoint itself has been moved to March 11th from March 9th.

The Previous TEMS students arrived during our STEM time along with 3 current students of our STEM class who were touring him throughout the day. As a result of yesterday's snow day, no presentation was prepared. Instead, our Project Manager explained our product idea and situation off the top of their head. After the verbal demonstration, our Digital Media team conversed with a few others that had came in along with the Previous TEMS Student. Due to legal issues, the social media account we have has to be taken down. Pictures can still be taken, but students can't be in the shot and they can't be posted anywhere. Before creating a social media account, our students have to be taught how to make posts. But we have to much work on our hands at the moment. For now, the social media account is put off to the side.

Experimentation & Manufacturing

Using the materials and prototype we have, one of our experimenters performed a test; however, they microwaved the prototype for 3 minutes compared to the normal 2 minutes. As a result, unexpected reactions sprang up. The Experimenter opened the microwave, and out came a cloud of smoke and when they looked inside the microwave, fire was on the prototype. No harm to surrounding areas or the Experimenter came out of the situations. Adult supervision was present. The prototype, unfortunately, was totaled. Charred and ripped with burnt cherry pits falling out of the prototype, and a foul smell, we kept the first model as a reminder of this failure. We did learn from this event, out of hand as it could have gone. Cherry pits don't seem to be the way to go, we conclude. Although no other experiments will be done to prove this statement (for the safety of our school), the fabric used for the prototype, flannel, is similar to a heating bag our teacher uses which has not had issues akin to flames.

More updates on our prototype and experimentation include the plan of future prototypes. Our manufacturers have thought long and hard, keeping in mind the time we have. They expect to make 3 additional prototypes, one 10 cm longer than the next. Our first model is 50 cm in length and 10- cm in width with 7 sections. The next 3 models would be 60 cm, 70 cm, and 80 cm in length, all being 10 cm in width. The sections in the prototypes will be upped to 10 according to the blue print made by Maritza, our Logo Designer and now Head Artist. The materials used in these prototypes will vary based on the materials that'll arrive over the weekend. In addition, to create scale drawings, gridded paper will be the best option for us. We want to get our hands on some.

PowerPoint & Commercial Drafting

Continuing from yesterday, two groups of a couple students or 3 made progress on our PowerPoint & commercial drafting. The PowerPoint's aesthetic and design has been completed, and now the questions must be filled in. A document filled with the answers of 4 groups have yet to be joined together. This process has Friday class STEM and Monday class STEM plus after school time to be completed. It is unlikely we will go to the STEM event on Tuesday, however.

The few working on commercial drafting have checked with the to be characters to see if they are alright with casting in the video. In addition to drafting the commercial/video, we have to think of what we need to make it. The props. The places. The means of recording & editing.

Other Groups

• Researchers are looking at other products made for the same purpose as ours and are searching for ways to make our product more unique.
• One of the bloggers began to fill in the timeline using previous blog posts.
• The Digital Media group began to transfer more photos into the STEM folder. However, the photos transfer one by one and is time consuming.

Discussion

We’re always looking for ways - inside and outside of STEM time - to motivate everyone to endeavor. Before class, a discussion formed on ameliorating exertion, the opportunity of a cold pack, and an approach to demonstrate student development. The concept of an ideation group rose. One function this group would portray is doodling on paper and building off other ideas. This allows us the feasible chance to result in a more unique product design. Reintroduced, the opportunity of a cold pack along with our heating pad poses advantages and negatives. Tomorrow we hope to introduce the topic to the rest of the class and come to a conclusion on the cold pack situation. For many of us, personal growth is something we ourselves want to see. But it cannot always be noticed unless it is portrayed so. A mean of viewing and interpreting our personal growth each week would be beneficial to ourselves and constructive to our company image.

The majority of our researchers were assigned to look up the fabrics that we have currently, and they are checking how flammable they are to prevent another issue like the one that we had a few days prior. A few of the others continued to look up competitive advantages/differences. While they did this, the science consultants kept on their research of the scientific method while creating empty graphs that'll be used during the experiments they had laid out. Another group discussed exactly how we're going to make the product attachable to the person. Towards the end of our STEM time, the group switched to discussing the possibility of testing for a cold pack. This is a situation needing discussion due to the materials we have currently and our capability of getting more materials.

Continuing from last week, the ignition points of fabric were further explored, the science consultants (or data crunchers) researched the scientific method, and commercial drafting resumed progression.

New tasks that started up today are filling in a timeline based upon the blog and coming up with product names or key words. The Head Manufacturer spent the weekend brainstorming keywords such as snug, portable, and PHP (Portable Heating Pack).

In addition, we considered emailing the March 12th PowerPoint as we are not going to the event. This way a report is still given.

Above are the pros & cons of adding an ice pack as a part of our product in a form. There are 4 options to pick from. A vote will be taken tomorrow.

Vote

We took the vote over the Cold pack. The options that we had were getting rid of the idea all together, making two different bags - one hot and one cold - creating one bag but allowing it to retain heating and cold, and testing with the near final product made for holding heat and finding its response to usage as an ice pack. The vote came to 9 for testing on the near end product and 10 for not testing at all. We put the vote to the side as it has caused discontent over the class.

Booth

The Head Manufacturer and Head Artist are doodling sketches for a booth design. Although the time until a booth is needed is still extensive, they've found this aspect of our project to be inspiring and are inclined to make a sizable objective of theirs. They don't know the expectations and requirements of the booth. We hope to get Mr.Pace to visit in order to ask about them.

Commercial Drafting

The commercial drafting has been a smooth process so far. Asked about the layout of the commercial, the workers stated that there will be 3 sections for 3 age ranges and an intervention made by the secondary character which will appear 1/3 to 1/4 of the video's length. The drafting is near completion.

Preparation

If there is a lack of work at any given point. we suggested to the class that they look over the research doc titled "Thermotherapy Research." The purpose of looking over the exploration is to prepare for the presentation. It's important that everyone has shared knowledge of our project and the reasons behind the project,

Scientific Method

Speaking of research, our two major data crunchers established their knowledge of the scientific method. A google document is filled with the research they conducted over the past few days. Sections for our documentations of the process has been added.

Researchers

The Head Researcher is researching essential oils in the case of adding scent to our product while our second researcher is looking at competition.

The Head Artist and Head Manufacturer are working together to create a more detailed sketch/design of the booth they had in mind. The information given in the booth is not yet being planned because we do not know the expectations, but they are eager to work on the visually pleasing aspects of the booth. So far, they have the ideas of a large cardboard display of the Earth wearing our pack, representing the happiness the World feels for something efficient, eco-friendly, and portable, 2 revolving glass slatwall floor displays that'll showcase information about our product, and 2 iPad stands with iPads on them where viewers can interact with our website.

We made a doc, and these are the notes:

Materials

• Small 1 meter tall iPad stands Quantity: 2

→ 2 iPads

→ 2 table cloths

→ Revolving Slatwall Floor Display (1.5 meters tall) Quantity: 2

• Written Facts/directions/data spinning around in it

→ 4” PVC pipes to stabilize cardboard Earth

→ Cardboard sign stating “Upsilon + Two”

• Earth (Diameter + about 2 meters)

→ Cardboard (Dimensions: unknown)

→ Colored paper

Scale: unknown.

Before making the commercial, the final commercial draft has to be written, the materials for the commercial has to be determined, and the final product has to be made. Although our lead actor of the commercial is very excited and ready to perform, there is no rush, and we don't have the supplies to make our commercial in the first place. To add to that, our Head Manufacturer will be leaving for next week. She is the only one really capable of making the product. Until she is back, we cannot test with prototypes at all.

It's questionable whether or not we need to complete the PowerPoint, but it's still good to be able to. The original workers of the PowerPoint handed the work off to a data cruncher and a website developer who had been working with a larger group on finding ways to make our product attachable.

One of our Digital Media Workers brought an iPad to school. This iPad can be used in posting on the Instagram when they can; however, at the moment, all they can do is make the account and leave it alone. They were asked to start drafting the captions/descriptions in a way like using a google document.

On Saturday, the materials that we waited for came in. We nearly have all the materials to experiment, but cherry pits, which had been expected to be supplied by our Head Manufacturer, flax seeds, pinto beans, rice, and thermometers. If a student can buy any of these items, they can bring the receipt and be reimbursed by the school.

STEM Expo Booth

The Head Artist is in the process of researching and examining previous Stem Expo booths to get a visualization of what we may need to make our booth later on. Using origami, she has created a scaled, paper version of the design. There is no specific scale yet. The scale drawings of our product had been halted due to the unavailability of graph paper.

Marketing Research

A group of idle students banded together with the Head Researcher to look at the steps of marketing and ethos, pathos, and logos to help us market our product better. They discovered that there were four distinct steps to marketing a product.

Below are these notes taken/research conducted.

Steps for Marketing a product -

1. Define your Product’s Ideal Buyer

• Male, female, or other?
• Age range?
• Typical likes, hobbies, or sports interests?
• Level of education and potential household income?
• Technical and social media savvy?
• Married or single? How about kids?
• Likelihood to buy online versus in-store?

What is your commercial audience?

• Does your product have a commercial end-user application?
• What types of businesses could use this product in their operations?
• Are these businesses large or small? Would they have purchasing departments?
• Would other retailers be interested in reselling your product?
• What types of retail stores might be interested in reselling your product? Large or small, discount or big-box, or boutique?

2. Research your competition and the tactics that they use

• Competitor websites

a.) Look at their websites and do better on what they did not do well

b.) Find out the types of tactics the competition are using

• Competitor market-place listings

a.) Look at famous places to sell things like Amazon or Ebay

b.) Get an idea of what they others tactics are

• Competitor Pricing

a.) Analyze the price range for similar products

b.) Try to price lower than the rest to attract more buyers

• Competitor social media pages

a.) Analyze the tactics they are using on public pages

b.) Find how much they are selling form these pages

• Competitor consumer reviews

a.) Look at their reviews online and make sure they are fixed in the final product

b.) Aim to get a half a star better than them no matter what

3. Define your marketing tactics, tools, and channels

• Decide on what the website will be like and what it will show about your product
• SEO or Search Engine Optimization which is a way to incorporate content into your website so that search algorithms will rank it higher.
• Online advertising where you put ads onto other websites to get people to see your product
• Social media pages where you get people who use it to see your product
• Public relations like commercials are used to inform the general population

4. Develop your product story

• Instead of just showing the features or description of the product make it a story to get people interested
• Make it seem like it has its own life and bring the product to life (personify)

Ethos, Pathos, & Logos

Ethos, Pathos, & Logos are modes of persuasion used to convince audiences of something.

Ethos: Ethos is when you demonstrate your expertise in something. Try to woo the crowd by giving facts and trying to seem like a professional

Pathos: Pathos is bringing out the emotion and presenting it to the audience in a form of sadness and sorrow

Logos: Logos is when you present logic to backup your argument that you should buy this product. Present facts and historical logic to persuade your audience of your superiority

We plan to use this information to make our product more appealing to the general public. This means we will mostly use ethos, pathos, & logos when we are marketing on social media.

Other

• A Data Cruncher with little on his hands set out to track low star reviews of heating packs. The purpose of this is to find the main issues of heating pads, to number the most significant to least significant, and to hopefully discover other issues we aren't aware of. He is asked to tally the reviews with each issue and to look at reviews of several heating pads while sourcing them.
• One of the bloggers worked on the About Us page, which'll tell the descriptions of jobs we have and feature a photo of the group working. The roles we have are certain, but even with grounded roles, students do dabble in other jobs almost at all times. We don't see this as an issue, but a more flexible way of efficiently keeping everyone on task would help. The descriptions are complete but can be edited as time passes.
• The Head Website Developer has been the one working on the commercial drafting. She has knowledge of script work, so it made most sense for her to be working on it. The commercial was her idea in the first place, actually. Today, she finished the final commercial draft.
• Our Project Manager graded our current position using the judging criteria. The average came out to 2.8/4 with 12/24 of the criteria's judging points answered. The rest could not be answered as we hadn't reached them yet.
• We called our Head Manufacturer this afternoon. While asking her about her vacation and telling her everyone who stood in the room on our end of the call, she mentioned that her sister has a softball trainer who deals with pain and injuries. She suggested asking the softball trainer questions as an outreach. The firsthand information could help us grasp a deeper understanding of how our product works and act as a reminder as to why we want our product to work.
• We unbagged the bought materials and attempted experimentation with the fillers gained, but we didn't get far. Unable to get our hands on 4 thermometers from Science class, which had been a thought by a student when examining the materials, we returned to our classroom. Next Monday the thermometers will be available. Until then, we'll continue researching and preparing experimentation.

Next Tuesday, we'll be visited by Mr.Pace to update him of our current position. We'll ask him questions of the progress we have made and ask about the booth expectations. Our workforce has been weakened due to iReady testing this week, and it may bleed into next week. For instance, our Head Artist had to finish her testing when a student brought in graph paper. In addition to this news, the PowerPoint of March 12th had been abandoned by everyone who has gotten their hands on it.

Remember the Cold Pack Vote a few posts back? A student collected the last 3 votes, and now it is an 11:11 situation. As if we were the Senate and our teacher the vice president, he stepped in as the tie breaker, but like a politician, he merely put off the decision to be resolved by time. If we have the time to test our product as an ice pack, then we can.

The Head Manufacturer returned from her vacation. There she asked her sister's softball coach questions about pain caused by sports. Here are the questions & answers:

Q.1) Is heat good for muscle pain?

A.1) Usually it is good for soreness or muscle tightness. it also helps people with spasms.

Q.2) How often would you say that sports players get muscle pain or soreness?

A.2) Very often, many experience soreness after practices or exercising.

Q.3) Is it better to apply heat or cold for muscle soreness or tightness?

A.3) It's better to use cold right away for injuries, while heat is better for long lasting issues.

Q.4) Where are the most common places where players will experience pain?

A.4) Back, neck, and legs are the places where pain most commonly occurs.

Experimenting

Our science teacher gave us 4 thermometers and a triple beam balance. Moving to the teacher's lounge, we began testing with the 3 fillers we have: black beans, rice, and lentils. Corn feed, flax seeds, pinto beans, and cherry pits are the remaining fillers we need to get a hold of. The first step we took is measuring the coffee cup that'll hold the measured filling. 7.5 grams is the mass of a coffee cup. With this information, we can subtract the coffee cup mass from the total mass to get the actual mass of the filler. 300 grams is the mass all the fillers will be microwaved at.

As we measured 300 grams for each filling, we found that calculating exact numbers is not a simple process. It required the slow steps of removing one bean or adding one bean and patiently eyeing the pointer to see if it fell onto 0. We repeated this process not 3, but dozens of times. Eventually, we obtained the results and now move to measuring temperature.

We let the filling cool down and reach similar room temperatures. We decided that the change in temperature is more important than initial temperature. Here are the results:

Lentils

We microwaved the lentils in a clay bowl for 2 minutes at 950 watts. During the 2 minutes, the filling did not react in any visible way. When we took the bowl out, the scent of fried eggs struck out at us. It spread past the corner of the room in just minutes, but disappeared in about 5 minutes. Aside from the scent, the lentils did not have any negative reactions except for a singular yellowed seed. From here, we stuck a thermometer into the bowl and set a timer for 30 minutes. The temperature is recorded after 15 minutes and at the end of 30 minutes.

Black Beans

We microwaved the black beans for 2 minutes at the same microwave settings as the lentils. During the 2 minutes, we noticed the beans popping and sparking inside the microwave. According to our research, black beans do spark, but are not flammable. When the black beans came out, the scent of burnt popcorn became apparent.

Rice

As for the rice, we microwaved them for the same 2 minutes at the same microwave settings. Similar to the lentils, they did not have any visual differences during or after the 2 minutes. When they came out, the scent of a pet store met us.

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A problem that needs to be addressed by each Head Manager is what those not testing have to work on. Commercial preparation, booth preparation, how to market, and differentiating our product had been tasks groups of us worked on. But as we began to experiment, Head Managers were pulled to assist experimenting. The Experimental Process took the Head Website Developer, Head Blogger, Head Researcher, Head Data Cruncher, Head Artist and Digital Media Worker, and Project Manager off, leaving other students to work on their own. Although they can function without the Head Manager of their group, they do rely on their group's Head Manager to keep a steady workflow, conjure tasks, and keep everyone focused.

As expected, Mr.Pace came in today. He discussed with us the expectations of our booth, presentation, and exhibition. We plan to incorporate as much of the notes as we can and as quickly as we can. Here are the notes and our thoughts of them:

March 26, 2019

Marketing

The competitive advantages of our product:

→ We mentioned the possibility of one of our fabrics being hemp, which is fiber. Fiber can hold heat really well.

→ The fillers that we have chosen, which are rice, black beans, and lentils, are biodegradable. This is a solid point we may want to push when it comes to our product.

→ We talked about creating a survey. We would want and possibly need feedback on our product, as well as more information on our issue in general.

→ We considered reaching out to a professional, such as a chiropractor, who has knowledge on our issue that could benefit us, our data range, and our outreach towards individuals, businesses, and communities.

To help with marketing our product, we wanted to know, or at least have some idea, on what audience we are trying to reach. For example, could this help athletes? What age group would this benefit the most? Seniors? Teenagers? By asking ourselves this, we may notice ways to improve our product itself.

The visually pleasing aspects of our product should not go without reason. For the colors that we have (Black, White, Green), we were able to come up with:

→ Green: Often seen as a symbol of agricultural influence, as well as prosperity and fertility. It can also be viewed as youthfulness and hope.

→ Black: Often used to represent determination, ethnic heritage

→ White: Seen as a symbol of peace, purity and harmony

These colors represent the eco-friendly aspect of our product, the determination throughout our journey, and the cooperation it took to be apart of Expo Fest.

Exhibition Space

Tips and guidelines for the booth:

→ The space that we are given is 8ft x 10ft

→ Make sure to draw the attention of people with our design

→ Figure out the main point of presentation and give a visualization

→ Walk around our booth and draw people in

→ Use the phrase “Weight of the World” in reference to Atlas in the logo

→ A give away can be done, but is not necessary

For our exhibition space:

→ Power strip for the booth

→ Big and little sign

→ Have props to interact with while speaking

→ Masking tape

→ Velcro

→ Scissors

→ Technology

→ Marketing materials

→ Binder clips

→ String

What we can do/suggestions:

→ Write and memorize the elevator speech, as everyone needs to know it for the booth.

→ Have our booth be interactive

→ Live demonstration of our product every 10 minutes or so

→ Give visuals by using pictures, diagrams, a model, etc.. and use these to explain how our product actually works

→ Everyone needs to stay focused, whether presenting or not

→ Get better at public speaking by practicing within our group

→ Talk naturally, people will listen more if you’re not trying to be overly serious or not taking it seriously enough

→ Know the material well enough that you can speak about it confidently

→ Keep people interested by having someone walk up to people and see if they want to talk about anything about/do anything with the product

→ Say things that can pose more questions about the product, so you can elaborate

Presentation

→ Our presentation should be around 3-5 minutes long

→ Leave space for a Q&A

→ Be polite: compliments, use honorifics, maintain eye contact while speaking (without staring for elongated periods of time).

→ Be friendly and open. People are more likely to listen to/care about what you’re saying when you’re friendly.

→ Let them interact with our product

→ 3 people on stage, 1 person presenting

→ Don’t bombard with information on the PowerPoint

→ Don’t read off of the slides, expand on them

→ Stay on point, don’t get sidetracked

→ Have a backup plan in the case that information does not transfer digitally (Be able to do it naturally/verbally)

→ Ease of use should be what we talk up

Skills That We Get From This Project

→ Cooperation/Teamwork

→ Speaking skills

→ Perseverance

→ Patience

Yesterday afternoon, the Project Manager bought corn feed. She brought it in, and now we can test the corn feed's heat duration along with the fillers we tested on Monday. We want to retest the heat duration of black beans, rice, and lentils again to make our results more accurate.

We received 2 triple beam balances this time. This'll help us test for mass quicker, especially since we have an additional filler to test with. Like yesterday, we zeroed out the triple beam balances, poured the fillers into a coffee cup, and aimed for a total mass of 307.5 grams or 315 grams based on how many coffee cups there are holding the 300 grams of filler.

The corn feed went in first. During the 2 minutes, we were excited believing that the corn feed was popping. But after opening the microwave, there was no popcorn to be seen. The corn feed had brightened in color and smelled like popcorn, unsurprisingly.

Next came the black beans. During the microwaving process, the filler did not have any different results compared to last time. They sparked during the microwaving period similarly to how it did on Monday. When the beans came out, they smelled like beans, unsurprisingly. But compared to the last trial, the smell was different enough for us to not describe it as burnt popcorn. Physically, the beans remained the same. The shells popped off like a mini explosion and caused sparks like last trial. We poured out the filling into the trash and noticed purple and grey liquid clinging to the bowl. We didn't know about this from the last trial as we didn't pour out the beans, deciding to leave it in the bowl for a couple days.

Lentils is the third filler we tested on. The physical results were no different than the physical results gathered on Monday.

The last filler is rice. Nothing happened during the microwaving process, but after careful inspection, we noticed the rice was a bit darker and had an orange tone. It may have burned just slightly, but it doesn’t cause or suggests an issue.

Again, the data collected will be taken to the Process Page along with photos of the procedure and results.

Survey

We want more data, and one way to do that is by creating surveys. The Project Manager issued a group to work on making a survey, the purpose being to collect data on how many students use heating pads. This is a questionable tactic considering we are reaching out to only kids our age this way, but we want to specifically reach out to the athletes of our school. Other data we aim to collect is what students use their heating pad for and how often they use it. This data can help us market and it would give us more data to present. The survey is due on the 1st of April.

Data Crunchers

Our data crunchers are organizing the data we've collected so far from experiments. For instance, they're fixing the google sheets the data is on by adding borders onto cells, making it easy to distinguish tables which will later be used to make graphs. For our first trials of fillers, we did not have corn feed available, yet a small amount of data for corn feed on that day was in a graph. Little mistakes like that are being erased during this time. In addition, data crunchers are adding labels, comments, and side notes on the graphs explaining what the significance of the information collected is. They are calculating the averages of results to give us an idea of how performance should be. And Line graphs will likely be constructed once all the data is collected.

Photographers

Our photographers are captioning photos and moving them into the STEM folders from their phones. It seems that one of the photographers and tilted photos came hand in hand. Although the tilt does allow an expanded view of the classroom, it causes viewers to try to tilt their head along with the photo, leading to neck pain and pained eyes. The Head Website Developer discovered and experienced this firsthand. Our product promotes the treatment of aches, sores, and pains. Causing our reviewers agony through visuals, which should be pleasant and easy to digest, is not the marketing tactic we need to take. This is brought up to the photographer lightly. We don't want to force change onto them. It's just something to keep in mind.

Manufacturing

The Head Manufacturer, Head Artist, and a blogger went to the sewing room. Our Head Manufacturer worked on the flannel bag and the Head Artist made certain that the measurements of the bag were accurate. The blogger kept records of what was happening.

Experimental Process

Today, the corn feed will be go through its second trial while black beans, lentil, and rice will go through their 3rd. We will then need to test the feed corn for a 3rd time as well. in total, we want each filler to have 3 trials. In the 3rd trials. we are looking for the data and not as much the physical results. Everything went without error except the thermometer in the rice bowl exploded. We didn't think much of this and left everything as is. Those who had touched the rice washing their hands.

Manufacturing

Again, the Head Manufacturer, Head Artist, and blogger went to the sewing room to continue sewing the experimental bags. The Head Manufacturer made the denim bag today. In total, we have 3 experimental bags: a flannel, parchment, and denim bag which will each undergo experimentation hopefully by next week.

Booth

The Head Artist is doodling sketches for our booth's sign. This design should have a clear connection to our product and speak without saying. A transition from a man hunched over in pain to an energetic body expression is being considered, but how the transition would function is being explored.

Data Crunchers

As usual, the Data Crunchers are calculating averages based upon our experiments.

Surveys

After urging for finalized answers, the Survey Makers stated that there will be 3 surveys: one for general use, one for athletes, and one for STEM night. The Survey Makers have completed one survey and will begin working on the survey for STEM night.

STEM Night

Seven of us will be attending the STEM night presentation. The Project Manager, Head Blogger, Head Manufacturer, and Survey Makers (one being a website developer, the other a researcher) will not be neglecting the presentation process. A blogger and marketer are the last 2 students. These students band together to plan out what will be done with the room.

So far, it's certain that the room will be separated into different stations. Who will work at each station was also mulled over.

• Marketing

At this station, the marketer will explain the product to attenders and explain why our product is better than other competition. He will aim to find a connection with the person - Do they experience back pain? Do they use a heating pad? - and sell our product to them.

• Demonstration

This station will feature a special guest that will showcase our product in action. With one of the survey makers, this student will provide a pleasing demonstration of our product.

• Survey

The other survey maker will work at this station to have attenders take the STEM Night Survey that had been created.

• Website

The Head Blogger and blogger will manage this station, addressing the pages of our website, social media situation, and steps we took to get to our idea, especially since they are most aware of the pivots we took. They may also speak of what we are currently doing.

• Manufacturing

The Head Manufacturer will explain and expand on the steps we are taking to produce our product. She may discuss our process of creating experimental bags to eventually reach our final product.

Unfortunately, we do not have time to completely detail the operation of these stations. For instance, will the Website Station or Manufacturing Station mention our Experimental Process, if it is to be mentioned at all? Where in the room and how will the demonstration be performed? Are we explaining how to use our product? What will we call our product? What will the Project Manager be doing? She is not present today, so decisions of her role was not implemented.

Note

What tasks other students are handling is not apparent, and questioning had not gone through due to focusing on the STEM Night Presentation. This needs to be addressed.

STEM Night

What we found most challenging of all is the Marketer. He is not completely informed of what we have done with experimenting lately, despite attending the last 4 after school days. He is also puzzled by his job at the Marketing Station. The discussion following the abrupt announcement turned out to be all over the place. With slight panic, a need for an answer, and talking over one another, we confirmed that the Project Manager will go around chatting with attenders and assisting stations if necessary, the title of our product will be Pain Away Pack for the time being, and the Marketer will brief attenders of our product while selling it do them.

Other

The Head Artist is still doodling sketches of sign ideas and is looking them over them. Aside from that, the assignments of other students can't be confirmed.

School Period

Before STEM Night begins, we go over the setup of our table. We should have 2 tables and 4 laptops. We want the 2 Website presenters on different sides of the table, a laptop beside them each to guide the attenders through pages. The Marketer and Project Manager will walk around, pulling people in to our table to take our survey. The Head Manufacturer and Demonstrator will run back and forth, heating up the heating pads we'll make this afternoon. The last piece is the Demonstration which will showcase the product in action if the attender doesn't want to experience the PAP firsthand. Unfortunately, one of the survey makers is not here today, and has fallen ill. We will have to adjust jobs.

The Marketer is still unsure of how to perform his role during STEM Night, so the Project Manager pretended to be in his place. She asked herself the questions she may be asked as a marketer, and she answered them. At the end of the demonstration, she made sure to ask the questioner to take our survey. When finished, she then became the questioner towards the Marketer. This demonstration followed by practice made him more confident in his role.

After School

The Head Manufacturer sewed the 3 STEM Night packs in the 3.5 hours we had until STEM Night began at 6. One heating pad is made of denim and is filled with rice. Another is made of flannel and is filled with black beans. The last pack, the parchment pack is filled with flax seeds. The finished packs are 43 - 44 cm x 9 - 10 cm. The packs vary slightly from one another after the filler was put in. They each have 7 pockets.

As the Head Manufacturer sewed the packs with a blogger, the other students and demonstrator fixed up our table. Instead of 2, we had one table, but it didn't pose as a problem as we set the two survey laptops beside one another, and the website laptops on each end. The Head Manufacturer had created a couple decorations: a string of colorful paper and paper with decorated letters that spell out STEM NIGHT. Once the decorations were put up, we asked teachers passing by to take our survey. We wanted their feedback on the survey questions and the data by taking the survey. At one point, we went up to a teacher who in turn for the taking the survey, wanted a student to get supplies for her. While we waited, we described to her our product. She wanted to know the science behind our product, but we didn't have the answers to her questions about tendons and filaments. The scientific part of our product could use work.

There came a point where we didn't have anymore more teachers to ask to take our survey. This is when the Project Manager made the decision to have us practice our speaking skills with her. She specifically targeted the Demonstrator and Demonstration. She wanted to see their demonstration, and with more yelling than persuasion, the exhibition began. She criticized the Demonstrator for not talking loud enough and as clear as he could. The ferocity of the criticism seemed to worry the Demonstration even after we had convinced him our product was safe. For reasons we couldn't grasp, the Demonstration feared our product, especially when we stated that our prototype at the beginning of the year had been burned during testing. We took this as the opportunity to use our speaking skills and data to convince our friend that our product was not only safe, but efficient, rather than trying to comfort him as his friends.

Stem Night

The majority of STEM Night included us running the 3 heating packs back and forth, and the others of us reeling parents, students, and children to take our survey. The Website laptops were more or less untouched, and the surveys were our focus point. We received 72 responses at the end of the event.

The data from yesterday is being inserted into Google Sheets by the researcher present at STEM Night. From there, graphs can be adjusted from the data.

We're also considering sending out the survey to more teachers by their email. We can find their emails on the TEMS Website.

After April Vacation, we need to perform the last trial for corn feed. We hope to perform the trial the first after school we have back from April Vacation.

During the three days left of the week, the majority of our team is on a field trip to Washington D.C. In addition to this, the students who aren't going to DC did not come to school. There doesn't seem to be anyone in our class who will be present during these 3 days, including our teacher. Not much progress can be made at the moment, so the remaining group (if there was one) will work on minor things while we wait for the rest of UPSILON + 2 returns after April Vacation. Planning out the next segment of our experimental process will be necessary.

This is the gist of what's getting done currently:

• The Researcher is continuing their organization of data from before April Vacation. Graphs have begun being made.
• Our Head Artist is sketching out a design for our Expo Fest booth. This includes researching online for references.
• The Project Manager is planning out what else we have to do and establishing deadlines, especially for manufacturing and experimentation.
• We performed the last trial for corn feed today. Our main data cruncher recorded the data down in the Google Sheets.
• Our Data Crunchers are planning out the fabric experimentation we have to get done. We need to wrap up experimentation.

We have 6 weeks left (20 school days) until June 1st.

According to the fabric experimentation plan created by the Data Crunchers, we will be experimenting with 2 pocket versions of the prototype design we have currently. Each Our Head Manufacturer began sewing them today. There will be 3 experimental bags each made from the 3 different fabrics we have: denim, flannel, and parchment. The packs have the dimensions 17 - 18 cm x 7 - 8 cm. The size in each pack may vary by one centimeter compared to one another. She finished sewing them, and they are each filled with lentils.

All parts of the website need to be completed, especially now that time is waning. We realized the bibliography needs citations to be added. There are links to sources our researchers used in the bibliography page currently. We asked a website developer to work with the researchers in gathering the rest of the links and citing the sources using the APA format. They start next Monday. The deadline is the end of week.

Digital Media

The Principal is pushing to get the Website Manager/Digital Media Specialist in to meet those of us working on Expo Fest, but it's pushing it close. The Digital Media Team would have to make up for the past months since October, and then start posting daily. We had never considered the idea of gathering a community through the journey of our product, so starting one this late won't be easy.

The Booth

The Head Artist is creating another sketch of the booth design we have currently. While she is making this, we are considering what we can do for our booth. We hope to be able to bring a microwave, 3 large versions of our product, and 2 small versions of our product. There is no reason for us to make a complicated booth. We're decided to make a simplistic booth over a complicated booth.

Other

Data Crunchers are attempting to fix the current graph issue. Due to Google over complicating the Chart Editor since 6th grade, line graphs are not forming properly and is not starting at zero. With the help of a Blogger, it was fixed it by adding the words "minutes" in a cell.

Students not involved with booth, data, or digital media are busy pouring over information. It's important, especially for those of us going the Oakdale Theater on June 1, to know our journey, data, and product from any angle.

Mrs.Rizza came up to us. She asked us when we were going to talk with her husband, a chiropractor. Since reaching out to other people is an aspect of our journey that we feel we lack in, we set the appointment tomorrow from 11:49 until 12:09. 3 students will be sent to Skype call Dr.Rizza.

Other

• A student of ours mentioned that her mother has a back that is never without aches and pains. She thought it would be a good idea to have her review our product. The Project Manager made her decisive statement, saying that it was possible if we had time.
• The Website Developer is set on his task of filling the Bibliography Page with citations.

From the Skype call with Jason P. Rizza, a chiropractor, we hope to learn more about what audience we need to reach to, and our issue in finer detail. With Dr.Rizza's answers, we can feel confident of our solution. or adjust accordingly. This is an opportunity we had decided would benefit us since the beginning of this year. The following Q&A is also found in the Process Page of the website.

Are heating bags good for pain? (Muscle and joint pain)

Yes.

What do you recommend to your patients for pain-relief?

Heat packs are best suited for arthritis and other injuries that are still healing. This is my recommendation because by adding heat, you are adding a larger blood supply to where the heat is applied. This relieves pain. Moist heat is most beneficial for pain-relief.

Where are most pain-related issues found(on the body)? What's the most common cause for body pain?

The low back, knees, and neck. This is a result of lack of activity throughout the day. People today are commonly seated for hours at a time, be it for work or staying at home.

What’s the most common age group that go to chiropractors?

I most often see an age group of 35 - 50, but I have a seen an age range of 12 - 90. On average, I get patients over 40.

The Booth

The Head Artist started a more comprehensible sketch on the 29th of April. She more or less completed the sketch. Here's a description of the design:

There is..

• A large sign
• A small sign
• A table
• Table cloth
• A diagram
• A microwave
• A laptop
• An iPad
• A drape
• Our burnt prototype
• Our product at normal size

The large sign idea is that descriptive and praising words of our product are surrounding a picture/drawing of our product. The product name is hovering above the product, and our links linger to the right. Right of the large sign is the small sign with our team name. Both signs are behind us/above the table.

On the table is a microwave, our burnt prototype, our prototype, and an iPad. The diagram stands on the ground. The background behind us is a drape.

The Digital Media Manager/Website Manager is speaking to us. During our last block of class, a few students of UPSILON + 2 left and headed back to team.

The notes taken are as follows

May 3rd, 2019. Meeting with Jeff Glagowski

• Suggestion: Posts made on social media should drive back to the website. Our website is where the flesh of our project is. Social media is our way of bringing those over to our website.
• Only those 13 or older are allowed to post online on main social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.. Otherwise, it is illegal. This doesn't pose as much of a threat to us. All students posting online for the sake of Expo Fest are of age.
• If a student posting is below the age of 13, a way to go around the law is to have the teacher watch as the student makes a post public. The student still gets to create the post. The teacher just must see them click the button that posts it.
• Phone numbers, class schedules, or personal location should not be revealed through posts. If a post is made involving a student, they must consent or else the post cannot be made.
• If there are negative comments made on posts, alert the teacher and the situation will be addressed.
• Do not lie, plagiarize, or cheat.
• Posts must not be fabricated.
• Suggestion: Take advantage of hashtags. #skills21, #engineering, #stemexpo, #science are examples of hashtags. Hashtags can aid in gaining a following.
• A maximum of 150 characters is suggested per post. As most people using social media are on mobile, quick and to the point posts are the best option to raise interest.
• Note: Check with the teacher about who can and cannot be photographed.
• Suggestion: On Instagram, interesting and visually pleasing photos do best. We take photos of experimentation the most often. Our failed experiments would spark the most interest.
• Suggestion: We should keep in mind that the viewer may have no clue as to what Expo Fest or our project is.
• The teacher's email must be used to make the social media account.
• Posts around 1-2 pm get more noticed than if you were to post at 6 pm. This is due to people scrolling through media during lunch.
• Suggestion: The writing voice should be consistent between social medias.
• Due May 20th

Besides our social media, the attaching method and essential oils aspects of our product needs to be addressed.

4/8 of the students that are staying after school today are in a National Junior Honor Society meeting. The remaining students wait for the other half to finish before beginning experimentation with fabrics. During the 45 minutes, the available students worked on sewing. We felt that we could use another pair of hands working on manufacturing. Only 1 out of the 3 students of the Manufacturing Group can sew. So the Head Manufacturer took on an apprentice, the Blogger who reported her progress in the sewing room all this time.

When the other half of the after school group joined the rest of us after their meeting, we immediately started our fabric experimentation. In the teacher's lounge, there are 2 microwaves with the exact same settings. The parchment and flannel bags went first. We microwaved them for 2 minutes. Big mistake. When the Researcher in the room opened the first microwave, he ran off, deterred by the unbearable smell of burnt lentils. It didn't take us long to learn that both packs had been burned. Half of us were already outside of the room. Our teacher grabbed the 2 bags and tossed them into the sink, dowsing them in water. Clearly, we had not learned from burning our first prototype.

Eventually, the smell spread from the teacher's lounge and into the entire cafeteria, then into the hallway, the all the way back to team. Parents parked outside of the school could smell the burnt lentils with a hallway, 2 closed doors, and a car in the way. Students went home with the smell clinging to their clothes, and the next morning, if you were early enough, you could still smell the lentils throughout the school.

It's clear what we did wrong. We microwaved too small of a bag for too long. 2 minutes was meant for prototypes like our first one, the one that was set flaming at 3 minutes. What did we expect?

Manufacturing

The Apprentice Manufacturer & Blogger will sew small packs like the experimental bags. The Head Manufacturer will sew large packs like our actual product. Our Teacher said he may have more lentils, but if not, one of us would need to get some.

The 4 Points (Mr.Pace's Last Visit)

4 points of Completion

1. Launchpad

Where is the main spot we’re putting information?

On Launchpad

By May 20th, Launchpad needs to be in and finished with.

2. Website

The Website must be wrapped up by May 20 and submitted on Launchpad.

3. Project Reel Mp4:

A 15-30 second slideshow of photos/diagrams.

Submitted on Launchpad, we have to make a Project Reel due by May 20th. This slideshow should seen as a trailer, promo, and snap chat of our product.

4. Presentation:

This is the slideshow that our presenters will use during their presentation. It must be submitted onto Launchpad by May 20th, but it can still be edited from them and to Expo Fest.

Links:

Links to our social media and website must be added onto Launchpad.

Advisers:

People that we consulted with and helped us must be added.

References:

The links to websites we used must be added, and the title and a short description of the website should be attached.

• The Big Pitch is optional.
• The Video Contest is optional.

To tackle these 4 points, the class must divide into groups. By May 17th, the 4 Points should be just about completed.

June 1

1. Booth Tips & Suggestions:

→ Be at the booth, not on your phone or elsewhere.

→ Draw people in.

→ Focus on the booth. Stay on task.

→ Judge may be watching.

→ Be enthusiastic

→ Engage people

→ Act

→ Who is doing what and when is what do?

→ Presenters

→ Be relaxed; be calm.

We will spend the rest of the week thinking about and follwing these notes.

Booth

• The Head Artist has been informed that'll she'll be asked to make a banner from the 20th to the 1st of June. She has decided that she will worry about the banner when the time comes. Currently she is working on the Project Reel.
• Mr.Martinez has asked students for their adult t-shirt size. We will be wearing t-shirts with the UPSILON + 2 logo on them to the Oakdale Theater. One factor of the Judging Criteria is professionalism. This does include how we are dressed. Wearing T-shirts with our logo on them doesn't exactly scream the company image we want.

Website, Social Media, & Other

• Since the 6th, google sites has been down. This means none of us have access to the website to work towards wrapping it up by May 20.
• On the website, the CER still has to be made.
• Since blog posts cannot be made on the website, posts like this one are being written on the blog doc made in October.
• The About Us Page on the website is missing its photos of students in their groups.
• The Process Page hasn't been touched since January. It's missing every experiment we have performed, but we have taken dozens of photos that span across across several phones. It's as if the Website Developers forget the page existed. This needs to be addressed.
• The Digital Media Team stated that UPSILON + 2 will have an Instagram and possibly a Facebook for an older audience. Juggling 2 social media accounts when 6-7 months of posts has to be accounted for seems near impossible in the time we have left, however.
• We have 2 surveys that were meant to be sent out, but never were. The Project Manager, when questioned answered that we would send them out.

The 4 Points

• We began figuring out what students could be presenters. 4 possible presenters were picked: the Head Data Cruncher, the Head Researcher, the Head Manufacturer, and the Project Manager. A couple other students were mentioned, but the suggested students immediately declined or stated they would not go to the Oakdale Theater if they were a presenter.
• The idea of practicing presentation in our school's auditorium became a genuine idea that we wanted made real. But events like school concerts, a talent show, and a speech contest would make it difficult for us to find an open opportunity.
• Students to work on the Project Reel, Launchpad, the Website, and Presentation were loosely fit into place. Possible presenters came together and began working on the Presentation's PowerPoint at a free table. Besides the Presenters, seats were barely changed. We ended up with a Presentation table, a Launchpad table, a Social Media & Project Reel table, and w Website tables.
• The advisers we had throughout the year were written down to later be added to Launchpad when their ull names were found.

Other

• The Head Manufacturer and a Blogger cut fabric to remake the experimental bags that had been burned.
• Since the Main character for our commercial had surgery and has been missing from school, the role was switched to a Website Developer that was present at school.

We spent the class recording what students were in what role on a sheet of paper.

Experimentation

We attempted to remake the burnt experimental bags, but didn’t have enough lentils to fully fill the second one: the flannel bag. We had to make sure that the packs had the same amount of lentils as one another to experiment, or else the pack with more lentils would have higher results than what it should be. We couldn't test with the flannel bag with this logic, and so we planned to experiment with the flannel bag when we had the lentils for it. We went ahead and experimented with the denim and lentil bags.

We were heading to experiment, but when we were in the hallway, we realized that we didn’t have the thermometers. We backtracked to team and asked our science teacher if she had any more thermometers. She said that we still had the 3 thermometers that she had given us before and that if we couldn’t find them, ask her again.

We went back to the classroom and were looking for our teacher to ask if he still had the thermometers, but we couldn’t find him. We went to search for him in the hallway after seeing him previously talking to another teacher. However, he wasn’t there, but the other teacher was. We asked where he could’ve gone to, but she had no idea. She said, after looking outside, that she was going to page him on the intercom.

While she was paging him, one of the group members came up to us and said that he had returned to the classroom a few minutes after we left. When we went back, he told us that he had no idea where the thermometers were, so he went to our science teacher to see if she could lend us more but she had went to a meeting. Eventually, he was able to get us 2 thermometers.

In the Classroom

Everyone did what they were assigned to do. A group worked on Launchpad. Another worked on the Project Reel/ Another worked on the Presentation Slideshow. Another worked on wrapping up the website.

A few of the people were helping our Head Data Cruncher with his Elevator Speech. We were tracking the time it it took for the Elevator Speech to be read aloud, as our goal is to have the speech be around 30 seconds to a minute long, as well as editing the writing by hearing it out loud to see what sounded wrong.

Commercial

The Head Blogger, a few of the Social Media Workers, the Main Character, the Pack Thrower, the Advertiser, and the Line Giver all left the classroom in order to record the commercial.

While we had planned to record the Old Man section of the commercial in the library, the library was closed at the time. This brought us into the hallway on Seaver St where there are chairs that our actors could be recorded in. During this scene, the Main Character, an Old Man, starts off reading. He stands up and stretches, only to start yelling in pain. He starts calling for help, and the Advertiser comes to his rescue. The Social Media Worker decided that we needed to perform a sound check before recording. We wanted to know if whispering could be heard in the video. This way, the student sitting across from the Main Character could whisper the lines to him. Fortunately, whispering could not be heard and the Line Giver was able to whisper behind his hand or laptop the lines to the Main Character during the beginning segment of "silence."

After the sound check came the first run through. The first run through of the commercial was not recorded, as it was to make sure that the actors knew what they were doing. We wanted to perfect a certain transition; the Advertiser is thrown the pack, which he gives to the Old Man. However, the Pack Thrower kept throwing the bag off cue. This took practice. We decided that the Advertiser could clap when he needed the bag. Since the Advertiser is meant to be any random stranger, this was not out of place in the Old Man Section.

Following the first run through came the second run where they did record, though it was not meant to be the final run as it was just to test the audio and to make any adjustments. Unfortunately, due to the location that the recording was taking place, the recording was disrupted by an other grade transitioning.

The group returned from recording, and at the end of the day, everyone unanimously agreed that the commercial was only to be completed if there was enough time left over, which didn't seem likely.

In the Classroom

A Blogger and the Head Website Developer continued work on the website's CER. The Launchpad Table continued to do work on the Launchpad page. And our Head Manufacturer, Head Researcher, and Project Manager continued work on the presentation, as well as working with the remaining Social Media Team on the Project Reel.

During the class transition to STEM, student didn't know where their classmates had gone to. We tried to find out where they were, and someone stated that they had went to film the commercial.

This was even more confusing, as when we discussed doing the filming before, we had been hesitant to start because of the time limit. It was not considered a priority. By the time someone went out to go check on them, they were already heading back. That is when we agreed to put the commercial on hold.

A Website Developer was assigned to add the information that we gained from the skyping with Dr. Rizza, the chiropractor. A Data Cruncher was working on the sourcing on Launchpad, as many other people were working on the questions which were almost done by that point.

Today, our Team Adviser was not here, so we could not carry through with our idea that we had yesterday, where we would experiment during class time. We either had to do it tomorrow or someone would have to do the experiment over the weekend, which would not be good as communication would be a lot more difficult.

Because of our Team Adviser not being here yesterday, we could not do the experiments. So today, the Head Manufacturer offered to take the parchment pack home and do the experiment then. Along with this, one of the Data Crunchers offered to finish the launchpad sourcing at home as well. Others offered to look into the Project Reel, finish editing the blog posts, and add the pictures to the About Us page over the weekend, so everything should be ready to finish on Monday. The Project manager also decided to do a final judging of our project on the Judging Rubric, but that was not finished since class time ran out.