K- Design Reflection

This page concerns reflections, both group and individual. It describes what was acceptable and what went wrong.

Group Reflection: "Overall we agreed that the biggest thing that impacted our success was the short time frame. We didn't have much time for the actual building and spent a lot of time doing work that didn't necessarily contribute much. Having an expert's help for at least the first bench would have helped a lot to make sure measurements were more accurate and more mistakes were avoided. The steps of the process varied in usefulness. Some of the pre-planning was quite helpful and the building process was rather simple."

Amelia's Reflection: "Building the sets was challenging, especially considering we had no experience with wood working. We built the benches first and they took us a while. They’re not the best quality but they worked for the shows. They’re a bit wobbly and easily breakable. The trellises took no time at all and worked pretty well, the most annoying part being that the velcro for the signs kept coming off. I think if we were to do something like this again we would get more help and start earlier. Things could have gone worse but also could have gone better definitely. I think we did a good job with no experience. A lot of work went into planning and getting materials, some of that planning wasn’t very necessary but some was helpful."

Kamala's Reflection: "I wish we talked to Sawyer (original hot box builder) earlier so that we could have had more advice on reattaching the legs. By the end of our performance the legs from the hot box were very damaged, the wood was split down the middle. I wish we started building and diagraming earlier. Starting in late November and finishing by early January was too short of a timeline. I wish we had longer screws for rebuilding the hot box. To prevent splinters we could have sanded the benches and used paint, but we simply didn't have the time. I wish we had more knowledge of tools and had the time to ask experts for help."

Marina's Reflection: "I think using just screws would've increased the integrity of the benches along with buying higher quality wood to decrease splintering. I also think having someone guide us throughout the building of the first bench would have been incredibly beneficial to the understanding of the rest of our building. Having more building time to fix mistakes and redo them as well as asking around if we need a certain item would have made the final product quality better. If we had solidified final plans sooner, then it also would have left room for more blueprint revisions and discussion."

Zoë's Reflection: "Trial and error is key to seeing what works structurally and visually. It's important to be flexible. If a method isn't working, especially with strict time constraints, it's good to consider experimenting or moving on to another method or idea rather than committing to a previous method. Many of our group members lacked any sort of experience with woodworking and construction, and as a result, much of our process was both creating our final product and simultaneously learning how to make our final product. More time and more sum experience from our group would have been the best way to improve our product."

Ella's Reflection: "If I were to do this again  I think we could do more research on what type of wood because I found that that some wood splinters really easily which caused some problems. I think we made some mistakes but considering we had no experience going in, we did fairly well. Everything is functional and can effectively create an atmosphere for the show. I call it a sucess."

Group Reflection After Engineering Showcase: "Looking back after getting presentation feedback, if our group were to do things differently we would have first gotten a professional to review our final product and walk us through testing procedures. We would also talk more about our background research before deciding on a specific problem statement and state our project objectives more clearly and in detail."

Overall, our designs were acceptable, but could have been improved upon. Most of the issues we faced stemmed from time constraints and a lack of woodworking experience. While we did contact and consult with experts, more assistance in learning the process of building final products would have greatly helped our group.  If our group were to complete another set with what we've learned, the process would likely be much smoother.