Break it Apart!

Introduction:

For this project, we each brought a somewhat complex object from home to disassemble and create a conceptual sketch of. We created two different sketches: a conceptual sketch, and an engineering sketch. The conceptual sketch showed the object and all of its components. It also shows where each place goes and how it functions. The engineering sketch is similar to the conceptual sketch but is drawn to scale after taking specific measurements of the object. We also added a flow chart showing the flow of energy throughout our object, and wrote down questions that could help advance our knowledge on the device and possibly improve it. We shared our findings, sketches, and questions with our groupmates and got contructive feedback in order to improve out work. For my project, I broke apart a tv remote.

These pictures are some evidence from the project our class did. In the pictures, I drew and wrote about a tv remote that I took apart, and looked at all of the pieces of. I originally chose a different object that was much to simple to look at. In the remote I looked at small details that were important, such as small engraved numbers on the remote. I also looked at the circuit board and analyzed each piece of it, writing down every number I saw on it. Some things I didn't know were how the circuit board made the remote light up, or what each and everyone of the little numbers and letters meant. This project was unique for me but I figured it out overtime.

Content:

Reverse Engineering: Reverse Engineering is a strategy used to find answers to questions about an existing product that are used in the design of another product.

Invention: Design work that results in something unique or novel

Innovation: Process of improving or modifying an existing product

Reflection

Overall I thought this project was fun, and I think I learned a lot. Two things I think I did well on were problem-solving and persistence. I had to problem-solve and get creative when we were first breaking apart our objects. After a few different methods and some patience, I was finally able to find a way to open the remote. It was not screwed shut but instead glued tight around the outer sides of it, which eventually led me to try using an X-Acto Blade that turned out, to do the trick. I showed persistence in the breaking it apart process as well as the sketch portion. The conceptual sketch was a bit tricky because of all the details and components but I stuck with it and it didn't turn out too bad.

Two things I think I still need to improve upon are time management and organization. For example, at the start of the project I didn't plan for the actual breaking apart of the remote to take a long time, which ended up limiting my in-class time to work on other parts of the project. I eventually was left with two class periods to finish the remainder of the project which included the last of my sketches, some more observations, and answering any questions I hadn't done yet. I think in the future I could manage my time more effectively by creating a schedule and making goals of what I should get done for each day. I also think I could improve on organization because the descriptions, observations and answers in my notebook, felt a bit messy and out of order. So I think in the future I will try to write neater and correspond my writing with my drawings.