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Category: Teamwork & Leadership

Towers: an engineering journey

Towers: an engineering journey

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For the last project in Science this year; a spaghetti tower. A common school sight, these towers were surprisingly difficult to design. We were tasked with creating a tower at least 60 cm tall, with a base of 30cm * 30cm maximum. The top of the tower had to be 5cm * 5cm, able to fit a piece of paper. Then, they had to be earthquake resistant. For this assessment, we were given $60, with one spaghetti stick costing $1, and one gram of blu-tack costing the same.

The process of designing these towers was one filled with challenges; from how to actually stick spaghetti together with blu-tack to how to stop the tower tipping over completely. We went with a triangular design in the end, with rotating equilaterals going up to the 60cm mark. We then added more rotated triangles on the bottom layer to give it more weight, stopping it from tipping over. In the end, our tower was substantially more stable than I thought was achievable, and was practically immune to the shaking table.

As this was a group project, well, we were in groups. For me, I went with Kevin T. and Sau Yu C. We worked efficiently and were organised between us; with each of us filling out our roles. Sau was the reporter: an important role, keeping the project on track to be finished by the time needed. He also did some testing at home, speeding along our prototype. I was our project manager and speaker, organising what each person needed to do and overseeing the design, as well as asking for help when needed. Kevin was the equipment manager; making sure we didn’t go over budget and keeping our project realistic.

Overall, this was a great project, and while it may seem daunting with a $60 budget, it’s easier than it sounds.

Health Expo

Health Expo

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The Health Expo was a great experience for development and peer connection. We were tasked with creating a stall to help with wellbeing in teenagers. We were in groups of two. I was in a group with Samuel Arnold, with our topic being stress and how to manage it. We were given two weeks to research our chosen topic, with the goal of presenting to other Year 9s at the end of the term.

What were the biggest things you learnt while completing this task?

 I learnt how to collaborate more effectively in a group, but mostly I learned how incredibly effective meditation actually is on stress (and a whole bunch of other stuff). People are always talking about it, ‘meditation this’ and ‘meditation that’, but I never really realised how much of that was true. Collaboratively, I was working with Sam Arnold, who I’ve done a few projects with in the past. Despite this, the Health Expo was quite different, as we only had around two weeks to prepare. Our presentation may not have been the greatest of all time (probably due to the harsh time frame I mentioned before), but it was still a great learning experience for both me and my partner. I honed my visual design and research skills, and now feel a little more confident in presenting to peers. But, overall, the meditation is probably more impactful. I guess the main thing I’m taking away from this task is that I should start meditating.

What one piece of advice would you pass on to young people with regards to wellbeing above all else? Why?

Don’t take things too seriously, and take breaks. Sometimes you can get lost in thinking about how important something might be, but often there’s no real lasting consequences. If you remember to take breaks, this can also help massively reduce the stress of the task you are doing.

Write down a pledge that you will commit to in regards to your own wellbeing. Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to these commitments?

When I get stressed, whether it be due to school or other factors, I will take some time off what I normally do just to sit and think and meditate. I picked these things to commit to because it’s something related to my group’s presentation and I think it will really help to make a difference.

Overall, the Health Expo was a great experience for us Year 9’s, and it helped us learn many important things such as meditation (this is just specific to our group mostly), collaboration and having fun!