This project involved our class bringing various object from home into class, one of which we would choose to disassemble and record our findings in the process. We would do this to practice our sketching and notation skills. I brought in a controller for a remote controlled helicopter to take apart. It was relatively simple taking apart, but the sketching and researching of its internals was the interesting part.

Concepts

Conceptual Sketches

A sketch that expresses functional connections among various parts of an object. It must help identify the elements in a problem, see how groups of elements are connected together to form subsystems, and understand how these subsystems work together to create the system. All sketches drawn in my notebook, including the flowchart, shown above, are some type of conceptual sketch, as they show how subsystems of the controller work together to make it function. Below are three specific types of conceptual sketches that we will be working on in the future.

Reflection

One thing I think I improved upon in the Break it Apart project was my communication skills. I am usually not the artistic type, and therefore usually shy away from drawing things that I am studying. So, this project allowed me to increase my artistic skills in a way that improves my ability to communicate my ideas and findings. I also demonstrated good use of critical thinking in this project through the way I sketched my controller. For example, I realized that the controller was small enough to fit on my page, so I was able to simply trace the controller to ensure that it was a scale drawing.

I would like to improve the communication I displayed in this project. This was mainly an independent project, but I could have gotten help from my table members to work to improve my project. I would have also liked to improve my conscientious learning in this project, as I missed multiple days of school during this project, and therefore fell behind when I could have worked to manage my time a bit better.