All around the world earthquakes are constantly happening causing wreckage and damage across many countries. They cause death and huge issues leaving major cities in devastation. They cause heaps of damage to everything harming all animals and every living organism. Due to this we have been tasked with producing a design of a building that is able to withstand an earthquakes tremors. In groups of 4 we needed to work together to design a prototype building made of spaghetti and blue tack and test it in a simulation to see if what we designed was effective against a pretend earthquake. We were required to research different ways in which real life engineers would tackle this problem and use these methods to help assist us with our design. With the limitation of a budget we needed to design a building with a minimum height of 60cm and a maximum base of 30 x 30 cm.
Engineering Process:
The project began with us doing a 55 min design sprint to test our prior knowledge on creating earthquake buildings. In this we were put in groups and were told to produce an earthquake building without any research or restrictions. Obviously we failed and so our next task was to research different ways in which real life engineers tackle this problem. With these two methods that we researched we then created a design implementing these tactics into the design. Our next goal was to design our prototype by drawing up the measurements and managing our budget so that we could fit all the requirements. Using mathematical skills we produced a design to make. The next step was to make this design which was the hardest part. During this process we altered our initial design many times adding in things and taking away things but our final prototype looked some what like the original idea. The final stage was testing and it managed to last 5 seconds without breaking apart. There are no changes that I would make to process.
The following rules of building:
spaghetti 1 stick = $1
Blue Tack 1 gram = $1
Maximum base of building 30 cm x 30 cm
Minimum height of building 60 cm
Constructed out of spaghetti and blue tack
Materials within the cost of $60 and does not exceed the price
Australia’s legal system is based on the principles of justice which is used to ensure fairness for all citizens. This means that regardless of one’s identity, race or looks they should receive a fair trial in court and should be judged by an unbiased court. One example is the presumption of innocence, which means that the accused shall remain innocent until proven guilty by valid evidence. Another example of a principle is the right to remain silent. This means when the accused is interviewed by authorities they have the right to not say anything and remain silent.Furthermore the principle of high quality evidence is very important. This means that in order for the accused to be proven guilty there needs to be lots of reliable evidence that supports the case. Through an analysis of the Andrew Mallard case, it will be shown that the principles of justice were upheld and violated.
The principle of presumption of innocence was violated in the Andrew Mallard case as the police just assumed Andrew Mallard was the killer. This value is very important as it ensures that all individuals are treated equally before the law, so the accused must be treated innocent until proven guilty by the verdict. In this case there were many instances were police wrongfully accused Mallard as the murderer of Pamela Lawrence. On the afternoon of Monday May 23rd 1994 Ms Lawrence was bludgeoned to the head. Mallard became a close suspect, as before the crime was committed, he was recently in a psychiatric hospital for attempting a burglary where he impersonated a police officer. During this time the police had many suspects and who ever had an alibi would be crossed off their list. The police questioned Andrew but he never told them about anything of his whereabouts during the many interviews. He was also suffering from bipolar mood disorder, a mental illness. Andrew was prone to delusions so when he was interrogated he genuinely thought he was assisting the police in their investigation. Andrew made up many different theories including one that the murderer killed Pamela with a wrench. From this the police assumed that Mallard killed her but from the analysis of her body there were no marks indicating that she was killed with a wretch. The police essentially fed Mallard with information and tricked him into making a confession. This violates the principle of presumption of innocence as there was insufficient evidence supporting the idea that he even killed her. These examples demonstrate that the investigation of Andrew Mallard was very inconsistent with the known facts and that this principle was not upheld by the prosecution.
Pamela Lawrence murder victim
Another element of the Andrew Mallard case was the right to remain silent which was violated throughout his case. With the investigation of Pamela Lawrence’s murder the police strongly believed that Andrew Mallard was the prime suspect. Due to this they kept in close contact with Mallard. They interviewed him a numerous amount of times with over 10 hours worth of questioning. As said before Mallard came up with many theories on what he thought the murder would have done such as how Mrs Lawrence may have been killed but this was never a confession. After many hours of interrogation the police claim to have had Mallard confess to the murder even though he claimed to never have said these statements. The police unfairly took advantage of Mallard’s psychological illness to make him ‘confess’ to Mrs Lawrence’s murder. During his trial he claimed that the detectives fabricated information and parts of the interview and that they had ‘harassed, intimidated beaten and threated to shoot him as they interrogated him.’ This violates the principle of the right to remain silent as Mallard was forced against his will to answer the police. Also, there were many interviews which were unrecorded meaning that police could’ve done many harmful things to Mallard. Andrew’s family hugely supported him as his family members believed that the police made up many statements to prove that he was guilty. This demonstrates that the principle of the right to remain silent was compromised as Mallard was unwillingly forced to answer the many questions asked of him.
With the investigation of the Andrew Mallard case the principle of high quality evidence was definitely compromised. This principle is very important when determining the verdict for an accused. It means that if the accused is proven to be guilty it must be supported by reliable and valid evidence. Mallard had a very unfortunate outcome from his trial as the persecutors provided the court with very unreliable and incorrect evidence which was unjust and unfair. During his trial the police with held vital information from the court that would favour Mallard in any way. This makes Mallards chances of having fair case low. An of example how this principle was violated is the trinket that Mallard supposedly had on his person which was from the jewelry shop that Pamela Lawrence worked at. When the police were very suspicious of Mallard they assigned an undercover team to spy on him and frame him by placing a piece of jewelry on him so that it could be used against him in court. One detective pretended to befriend Mallard and also supplied him with drugs to make him high so that they could place the trinket on Mallard proving him guilty. Another example of this violation is the theory Mallard made up about the murder weapon being a wrench. As stated earlier the police say that Mallard had claimed to have killed Pamela with a wrench but after a forensic analysis of her body none of the marks indicated show that a wrench could possibly do something like that. In addition there was blood found on Mallard’s jacket which so happened to be a rare blood type that Pamela also had. From this the police just assumed that the blood was Pamela’s meaning that Mallard killed her but after DNA testing it was found that it was a positive match with Mallard’s blood. These facts illustrate how Mallard’s case was partial towards one side and how unfair it was for him.
The whole idea of precious plastic was to educate people on how they can recycle plastic and how to repurpose them into to more useful items. We would gather lots of plastic that people didn’t need and we would make it into moulded items. That way we would contribute to the depletion of plastic litter in the world.
I had to use lots of different capabilities like collaboration, creativity and effective communication. For example we had to work together in order to successfully produce a finished design. We needed different people to do different things so we could use the best of our time. We needed creativity because otherwise the designs we make would be boring and they wouldn’t sell well on the market. We needed to be creative to make the models look interesting. For example on one of our clipboards we made a star design and on another we added stripes and other patterns. Finally effective communication is key in ensuring that we create interesting and different models that we be successful in selling in the market. We require good communication otherwise everything would just be messy and unorganised. There were a numerous amount of capabilities used but these were the main ones that ensured us a successful project.
Me collecting plastic for one of the moulds.
The Process:
Firstly we needed to collect the plastic. The plastic we are after the plastic that was type 2 or 5. There are mutiple different types of plastic and the more safer options are type 2 and 5. Once we had collected a lot of plastic we shredded them into smaller pieces and sorted them according to colour. We shred them because they will melt easier and we sort them because then we can make cool patterns. We then take the shredded materials and put them into the different moulds we have. When putting the plastic in the mould you need to accurately measure the weight so it doesn’t overflow. After it has been filled up it is placed in the oven to melt into shape. It takes different times depending on which mould. After the time has been up you take it out and compress it. Then you let it cool down and after a while you can take it out of the mould, and voila!
What I learnt from this is that you can make anything out of rubbish and products that people don’t need. I can see now that you don’t need the best items to produce something and that all you need is your mind to make it into something special and different.
Will and I deciding what pattern to make for the mould.
To introduce us to the Utopia project we read the book “The Giver”. Which introduced the idea of a so-called perfect world or Utopia. This book helped me create a Utopia because it acted as a guideline on how not to run things in a society. Using this idea, I created a Utopia that allowed people to have freedom of choice, to be able to feel emotions and live in a society that is sustainable.
Another key part of this project was practicing public speaking. In English we become competent about the different parts of public speaking. For example, we learnt about PVLEGS (poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed) and how to implement that into out speeches to make it more intriguing, engaging, and interesting. In this speech my group and I talked about the sustainability, liveability, civics and citizenship aspects of Utopia. We were able to explain all the concepts of our Utopia clearly with the help of visual aids. E.g. we referred to our physical model as much as possible that way the audience could see what we were talking about. I did well in using effective body language and I spoke confidently throughout my whole speech, while also being organised and elaborating with detail. I could personally work on improving my collaboration with my teammates by also referring to them for extra support. I should also give everyone the opportunity to talk and say their opinion on a topic that way the work would be shared, and everyone has an equal amount to say. I will use this project as lesson to further my skills in public speaking.
Notes my group and I made for our speech.
In Humanities I studied the liveability factors and how they are important in keeping a society appealing for everyone. In creating my Utopia, I was able to establish a stable community that incorporated the improvement of environmental quality and access to healthcare and education. For example, I had a large open area to help maintain the nature and minimise disruption to the native environment of animal and plant habitat. We also had two different medical hospitals to ensure that there was sufficient access to health care for the community. The hospitals were situated on both sides of my Utopia to ensure immediate access for emergency incidents. I am happy that I was able to include at least two of the liveability factors into my utopia. Next time I would incorporate additional detail on infrastructure as I now have a greater understanding of the value of Infrastructure in my Utopia.
This is my personal Utopia(the one on the top).
We created a written constitution for our Utopia. Which outlined the rules and rights for all citizens of our Utopia. For example, one of the rights for the people is healthcare, shelter, and education. I learnt about the different forms of government and which type was the most beneficial for my Utopia. My group decided to make our Utopia a Republic because it included a democracy, aristocracy, and a monarchy. I found this aspect the most difficult because I was not familiar with any of the topics in this unit. But it served as a good learning experience.
This is My group’s Constitution
In Science we made a sustainable house to learn about renewable energy sources. By learning about sustainable houses, I was able to understand the strategies that people use to keep their house sustainable. For example, my houses included solar panels as well as water efficient shower heads and toilets. We used this knowledge to make all buildings clean and sustainable in our utopia to benefit both the people and the environment. As well as creating a physical model we also studied what renewable energy sources are and how they are vital in generating enough energy for a place. In my Utopia I added wind turbines, this way my utopia will be run off mostly clean energy. I would’ve have liked to add more renewable energy sources like hydropower. Using these renewable sources, it would help decrease pollution. Learning about sustainability and renewable energy sources helped me to recognize the importance it has in a Utopia.
My sustainable house
One benefit of our Utopia project was researching the global sustainable development goals. My group earned two accreditations which were for healthcare and wellbeing; justice, peace, and strong institutions. Healthcare and wellbeing describe your physical health as well as your mental health. Peace, justice, and strong institutions is a society that promotes peacefulness, has justice for all and has strong institutions that can provide rule of laws and can support economic growth. Gathering all the information that I researched on these topics I was able to create a utopia that had a stable government as well as good healthcare for the people. I would have liked to achieve another accreditation for sustainable cities and communities (goal 11). This way I could gain an understanding in what strategies I could use to make my Utopia more sustainable. Before this project I had very little knowledge of what the global goals were but by having accreditations, I was able to learn each goal.
This is the priority list for my group.
Apart from exploring these topics my group and I created a physical representation of what we wanted our Utopia to look like. In science we had built the sustainable houses, so to incorporate that into our final product we based all our houses off our sustainable house. While building, I enjoyed making the paper plane for our airport because it required precision to make a complex design. This hard work payed off after all during the showcase I received many compliments on this model. The statue in our Utopia was the one thing that made our model unique and different. What I could have improved on was adding more detail to each of our buildings that way people could visualise what it might look like. I would have also liked to make trees and place them in the green areas of our Utopia, that way it would emphasise how much nature and open space we have available to the public. The building was a fun and enjoyable part of Project Utopia.
Our design beforeOur final design
I discovered that my group and I can collaborate well if we put some effort into organising each of our tasks. During every Innovated session we would plan what task we want to achieve that lesson that way we have a small goal to work towards. My group and I tried to split the work as evenly as possible that way no one did more work. This process turned out to be an efficient and systematic way to complete our work. In the future I try to develop my skills in leadership, self-awareness, and resilience that way I will be helpful teammate for my group.
