During term 4, students at All Saints college were task with designing a sturdy build out of spaghettis that could with stand p waves and s waves. Primary waves and seismic waves were shown through a earthquake platform that moves like an earthquake. each gram of blue tack was a $1 and each piece of spaghettis was $1 this resulted in students need to think about what they spend and be very resourceful with their spending. the minimum requirement for a tower was 60cm tall and 30cms wide base, also students needed a 5by5cm platform on top students were required to follow the engineering process down below. they often had to restart from scratch.
Engineering process
Left side view
Front view
Right side view
our group was very fast compared to the rest of the class when it came to the research and construction part of our tower. we were considerably fast when we arrived to our testing part of the project because there wasn’t much for us to fix the only problem we had was that there was a joint that kept falling out so we fixed that and we were all good.
Brainstorm
the picture above show our design process at the begging of our project. it shows the very basic ideas of initial plans.
Project Utopia was a task where students had to try and create a perfect world to live in. The first step was to draft a copy of their perfect world on a piece of paper. Then students were allocated a partner to redesign their world together. After that students had the choice of doing it online or hard copy. Next accreditations had to be obtained. For this to happen they had to find an idea and share it with a supervisor and if it was acceptable, accreditation was given to them and a card issued. The final steps involved writing a speech and making visual aids such as a brochure or power point presentation.
In the beginning I found it challenging when having to adjust my draft copy with my partner to make one big one. However, collaborating with a partner made it significantly easier to complete each task because we allocated tasks according to our strengths. Through this we realized that each of us had different strengths and we were able to compliment each other. For example when it came to technology, I was more equipped to complete the tasks involved. When it came to writing the speech my partner was great at getting our ideas in down in a logical format. I learned that while working with someone has a few challenges, there were far more benefits to listening and considering someone else’s ideas not just my own.
I thought that our accreditation process was successful. We each compromised some time to think about ways to get accredited in. for instance, Evan and I had to find an idea that would work to get accredited, for goal 1, no poverty. We decided to do that if somebody moves out of their house, the government will take it back and give it to somebody less fortunate than them. The government will then pay for the rent, food, water, electricity, e.g. until the homeless person has got a job and has the right amount of education (if needed) to get the most out of their life. My experience during this prosses giving up time for the more important thing can go a long way it you put your heart into it.
I conclusion I think that every year teachers make students do the utopia project because it is a great learning opportunity and it helps student think outside the box and solve challenges. It also helps their ability to problem solve, organise them selves and their compromiseation skills. It is also a fun project that makes students look forward to their education.
“Me with a university agent”“Me with the minister of Finance”“the minister of finance”“same university agent”“me with a important person” (not to sure who it is)
