Reflection

Process

My team started our project by brainstorming the issues that bees face that we felt were the most important to solve. The problems we focused on were varroa mites, deformed wing virus, and pesticides. We created a concept map with these problems; discussing how we could improve the bee to solve these issues, what materials we could use to represent these changes, and what consequences these adjustments would entail. My group was inspired by other animals within nature, which created a sense of familiarity to build upon. Our ideal bee would have a hard but flexible exoskeleton to protect it from varroa mites attaching to their skin, reinforced wings with an extra regenerative one that could grow into a mature wing if the original became damaged by the virus, and a Jacobson’s organ that could detect pesticides. Throughout the process, we constructed a low-fidelity prototype with craft materials and a final product using machines provided by the Makerspace.

Materials

With our low-fidelity prototype we had limited time to create a product, but this encouraged us to get creative with the materials we had on hand. We created our first prototype with construction paper, plastic bowls, and pipe cleaners. This step taught me how important it is to develop a physical representation of our ideas, no matter how rough the first go at it may be. It allowed us to further understand how our design would work and what materials we would want to use in our final prototype. In the final product, we used the materials available in the Makerspace. We used the 3-D printer and the laser cut machine. I gained more experience working with these technologies. The plastic we used for the wings melted under the high temperature of the laser, so we had to continuously adjust the settings to get a clean cut. This was a learning experience for me in that it takes patience and time to develop a good product that I would take pride in presenting. It was exciting to me to create a physical product of my ideas rather than discussing it in class or writing a paper about it. I really enjoyed the hands-on aspect of this project.

Experience

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment. At first, I was concerned about this project since the information I had gathered previously had talked about how the bees are an intelligent species and have great engineering skills. I thought since the bee has well developed features, what could we do to improve them? Also, I felt that changing the natural state of the bee is not the solution to the problems we are seeing with them. I think the solution to CCD is changing human behavior and how we interact with the environment. This thought process comes out in our final product in that our bee can sense pesticides and avoids pollinating flowers that are sprayed with them. This new design is not beneficial to humans since it would reduce pollinating important crops, but it could cause a change in how humans farm. Throughout the implementation of the assignment, I understood that this project was a good way to apply the ideas we have been learning in the course. We went through the process of human-centered design to try to untangle a wicked problem. I furthered my experience with new tools, dove into my creativity, and collaborated with my peers. In the end, we created a product that physically displayed the knowledge we have gained in this course.