Solve a World Problem

The Task

For this group project, we were told to use the engineering design cycle to solve a world problem. We had to create a plan or prototype and create a presentation showing the research behind it, what the idea behind it was, and how it would be implemented. For this project I worked with Ryan and Sola and we decided to focus on wildlife conservation. Below I have included my research and annotations, our presentation, and our group note page on which you can see what we focused our research on.

Description of Process

Below is an image of the engineering design cycle. We used this process to guide us in completing the project and solving our problem. Our first step in taking on a world problem was deciding what we were going to focus on. Ryan, Sola, and I decided we were passionate about wildlife endangerment and what we could do to help.

We then starting researching the main causes of our problem and focused in on more specific causes that we could potentially solve. Our group took a good amount of time to research the problem by reading through good, reliable sources and looking at data tables. At the end of that process, we decided to focus on the palm oil industry and the effects it had on wildlife. We brainstormed about 10 different solutions that we thought we could achieve. The two main solutions we came up with were finding a sustainable replacement for palm oil and making palm oil plantations be sustainable throughout the world. After looking into it, finding a replacement was not going to be possible and our group decided on helping palm oil plantations. Then we began making a prototype for our plan and with help, revised it to fit our goals. Once we had a set plan, we made a presentation displaying our data and the plan. This is the slideshow shown above.

Engineering Design Cycle

1. Ask/Identify Need- We chose to focus on wildlife endangerment. As I stated before, we ended up choosing to work on palm oil plantations.

2. Research- To research the problem of wildlife endangerment everyone in our group read and annotated 3 articles and made notes on one data table. We found good and reliable research papers by searching up key words and only using ".gov" and ".edu" sites. This was helpful because we didn't have to sift through pages trying to find dependable resources.

3. Imagine- Once we had thoroughly researched the problem, we brainstormed many possible solutions, good and bad.

4. Plan- Out of the many solutions we came up with, we eliminated the ones that were inconceivable and the ones we were not going to be able to complete. This left us with two to three ideas, and we chose to make palm oil solutions sustainable throughout the world.

5. Create- When creating our prototype, we made a group document sharing our research and our plan. We then made a slideshow showing the in-depth steps to our plan.

6. Test- Because our plan involved reaching out to palm oil plantations in other countries, we were unable to completely test our prototype. However, we got feedback from our teacher and peers in our class.

7. Improve- We took the feedback we received from our teachers and peers and applied it to our prototype. This included adding more information about the research and adding the next steps of our plan.

8. Present- Lastly, we presented our prototype to our class. Besides technical issues, I thought it went well.

Reflection

Overall, I had a really good time working on this project. It was interesting to really divulge into a topic I was concerned and passionate about. Our group had good communication throughout the project and we were all focused on producing a quality end product.

I think that during this project one of my strengths was cultural competence. This project dealt with a heavy topic and reading the material really made me think about the impact humans are having on the world. I feel I did a good job on educating myself as much as I could on the subject before thinking of a solution. When coming up with the solution, I did my best to find something that would work for not only the wildlife, but the humans getting impacted by the change. Although my group did not elaborate completely on the subject of implementing our solution into the world, I felt we all became well rounded on the subject and developed a knowledge of life and culture in a different country.

While there are always many things I can improve on in group work, I felt one of my main weaknesses during the project was my creativity in coming up with ideas and solutions. Before having to come up with a solution, I had filled my brain with lots of knowledge about the facts and sad parts of wildlife endangerment and extinction, I didn't take time to think about what I could do to help. Looking back, I wish I had spent more time reflecting on the knowledge I had absorbed as that may have led to a better solution. For the next group project I am in I want to be able to fully concentrate on thinking of a plan and/or solution and feel comfortable exploring all of the ideas I come up with.