Solve a World Problem

For my fifth project of my freshman year, I was grouped with Sophia Schiltgen and Madison Walker, and together we worked on our Solve a World Problem project.

The Process

On Monday, January 8th, my group and I selected our problem and researched it until the following Thursday. And then that same day, in class, we brainstormed some possible solutions to our problem and started some further research on our solution. We also made a Gantt Chart in our notebooks during this class period. We first graphed what we did that past week and left a huge chunk of space for the next week to finalize our solution. This is because our teachers, Mr. Williams and Mrs. Patel, allowed us to guide ourselves through the engineering cycle.

The Engineering Design Process:

Ask - identify need + constraints

Research the problem
Imagine - develop possible solutions
Plan - select a solution
Create - build a prototype
Test + evaluate prototype
Improve - redesign as needed

Content - The Problem & The Engineering Cycle

The problem my group and I chose was Clean Drinking Water, a problem affecting millions of people around the world. After we finalized our choice, we started to research the problem, the first step of the Engineering Cycle. Then after we finished researching deeply into our problem for a couple of days, we moved on to the next step: brainstorm any possible solutions targeting our problem. That step took us roughly 5 minutes to finish and after those 5 minutes were up, we started to narrow our possible solutions to 3. One is a suspended garden bed, two: is a well-filtering device, and three: is a chemical disposal bin.

We decided to go with option three, a chemical disposal bin because the other two solutions were already either existing or impractical (everything is explained in our slideshow below). Then we went onto the next step of the engineering process which was building a prototype. We decided to build a prototype of our chemical bin and pair it with the bin and our presentation, so we started working on that right away. It took us roughly 3 days to finish our prototype, which perfectly aligned with the day we needed to present our solution.

We didn´t really have to do the 5th and 6th steps of the Engineering Cycle (Test + evaluate prototype and Improve - redesign as needed) because it was almost impossible for us to actually test our prototype with chemicals. Instead, we explained how our prototype would work in a real situation in our slideshow (located below in Content - Our Final Solution).

Content - Our Final Solution

As stated before, my group and I decided on a chemical bin that would then be ¨connected¨ to a garbage collection system, which would be similar to and sponsored by Recology, which would have the chemicals transported to a proper waste facility instead of having those dangerous chemicals end up in the landfill, further polluting our water. Once we finalized our solution, we planned on making a prototype and a slideshow to present our solution to the class on Monday, January 22.

Below is our Presentation and its contents:

Presentation

Chem Haul Slideshow

Slideshow Details:

Introduction of Solution
Table of Contents
Main Causes of Water Pollution
Graph of Water Pollution Sources
Research on Groundwater Pollution
Brainstorming Possible Solutions
Types of Chemicals Found in Our Water
Finalizing our Solution
How we´ll Implement our Solution
What can go in our Chemical Bin?

*numbers correlate with the slide number

Reflection

In general, I am really proud of this project. Right now, I might even say it is my best project. But, I think I especially did well at being culturally competent and being a collaborator out of the 6C's. I think I did really well at being culturally competent because all the way at the beginning when my group and I were brainstorming, we all considered multiple aspects of this project could go because of the many different views surrounding the problem, globally. As for being a collaborator, we all maintained a great attitude towards anything and everything, and we all contributed a lot of our time and effort towards this project.

But, as a part of my reflection, I think I could also work on these two areas: communication and being a conscientious learner. For communication, I think I could´ve expressed my thoughts more clearly and efficiently, and I think I could´ve engaged even more in this project. As for being a conscientious learner, I think we could´ve managed our time more efficiently as we rushed a lot near the end, and adding on to that, setting more realistic goals for ourselves.

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