Break It Apart

This was our first project in our Senior Engineering class. With this came the struggles along with the perseverance to get through this first sort of work we've done. During this project the main question I was asking myself while breaking apart my alarm clock was, how? This question led me through all different parts and components of this object. How do these mother boards work? How are these programmed? What is this made of? How was this invented? While asking myself these questions I learned a lot about how engineers think. Always questioning things that are seemingly simple on the outside. In order to complete this project I had to fully take apart my clock. There were many different components and tools I needed to disassemble these components. I went through many steps to get to my final product. I planned how I was going to take it apart and then disassembled it until I finally documented all the pieces with sketches and measurements.

For my final product it consisted of drawings and sketches of my clock. I have drawings of each side of the clock to give a rough estimation of what it looked like before I deconstructed it. The next thing was drawings of the mother boards and components that made up the inside of the clock. I used measurements and scaling to make them as close to real as I could. Finally I described the flow of energy through the clock using a flow chart.

I think that this project overall went pretty well for our first one back. Although it was relatively simple there were a lot of parts to it. One thing I think I did well was manage my time to make sure that got through all of the parts while also doing a thorough job of each part. This allowed me to stay on top of my work while also doing it in a complete manner. Second thing I did good was my sketches. This was my first time doing sketches that were this in depth. It took time and patience to get each little thing placed and measured but in the end I got through it.

Although this project went good there were a few things I feel I struggled on. One of these things was researching. I went through and tried to find what the components I didn't know were but it was very difficult for me to find anything. I think that with just practice on finding these sort of things I eventually understand what to search for and where to get the information. The second struggle would be staying focused at times. Although I still finished on time and used my time well I got distracted by my surroundings. I think that this is just a common thing for me and I can work on this through many areas of my life and try to improve on it.