The project
This science project focused on creating a tower made of only spaghetti and blue tack. This tower was attempting to simulate an earthquake-proof building as after being constructed it was placed on a shake table and had to survive p and s waves. The tower had to be at least 60cm tall and have a base of less than a 30 by 30cm cube. To construct this tower we had a max limit of $60 with one gram and one strand of spaghetti costing $1. This entire project was supposed to be a metaphor for real life engineering as in many countries without high quality materials they have to use special techniques to make up for the low quality building materials.
The process
The entire time we worked in this project we followed the engineering process. This involved Define, Research, Design, Create, Test, Evaluate. By using this process throughout we constantly improved our design. The first step, define, is where you outline what your problem is, and what you would need to solve it. In the second step, research, after having defined your problem you need to research how to solve it, to create a well-researched and practical solution. The third step, design, refers to using the research you have found to create a draft solution for your problem. The fourth step, create, is where you build your first draft design. The penultimate step is test, you test how your design fares against the conditions it is required to meet. The final step is to evaluate, this is where you comment on your observations of your first design, make improvements, then repeat until you have a solution that fits all requirements. This process was extremely effective in assisting us with the designing of our project. Although one change I would make is to add a repeat step, what this would do is after you have evaluated your first design, you repeat the process again. I believe this is important as you will need new research to solve any prominent problems in the design, and would help groups create an even more well-designed final outcome.