What were the biggest things you learnt while completing this task?
One of the most significant lessons I learned is the serious risk posed by distracted driving, particularly when using a mobile phone. Intoxicated driving is, of course, incredibly dangerous, but what surprised me most was realizing how even something as simple as eating while driving can be hazardous.
What one piece of advice would you pass on to young drivers above all else? Why?
If I could offer one crucial piece of advice to young drivers, it would be this: Never allow your phone to distract you while driving. A split second of distraction can be the difference between life and death. I emphasize this point because, as a teenager, I understand how deeply embedded mobile phones and social media are in our daily lives, and how difficult it can be to resist the urge to check them constantly.
Write down a pledge that you will commit to when you start driving. Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to these commitments?
Never Drink and Drive
Never Use My Phone While Driving
I chose these commitments because they are essential not only for safe driving but also for personal growth. Avoiding drinking and driving will help me establish responsible habits, reducing the risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Similarly, by not using my phone while driving, I can better manage my impulses and understand the dangers of technology addiction. While I acknowledge that there might be situations where eating while driving is unavoidable, I believe that by adhering to these two pledges, I can not only protect myself but also set a positive example for others.
To stay committed to these pledges, I plan to take on responsibilities that reinforce them. For example, when attending social events with friends, I will volunteer to be the designated driver. This will give me a clear reason to abstain from drinking. As for my phone, I will make it a habit to place it out of reach, such as in the glovebox, before I start driving. This simple action will help eliminate the temptation to check it while on the road.
In Year 9 Science, we were tasked with an engineering challenge where we would create an earthquake resistance model of a building, all while documenting our research and following the Engineering process: Define, Research, Design, Create, Test, Evaluate.
My Group
Before starting the challenge our teacher Mrs Schoen had assigned us, groups of 3-4 to work in, my group was Senuka Jayasekara and Sam Harban. I was quite happy with this group as I’ve worked with them before and they were great people to work with. First, our group had to assign each other roles.
Roles:
Senuka (Project Manager): His role is to make sure that everyone understands the challenge and keeps the team on track. He was chosen because he is strong in leadership and organisation
Sam (Equipment Manager): Makes sure that the materials needed for the task are available and that everyone cleans up after each session because he’s good at communication and teamwork.
Tanaka (Speaker/Reporter): Person who clarifies ideas and documents, because he is strong in communication and collaboration
To avoid any confrontation or arguments we had to create rules that our group members would abide by.
Rules
All decisions are resolved in a democratic way.
We set goals and aim to complete them by the end of the day.
If someone isn’t pulling their weight, other team members are allowed to give constructive criticism.
Team members can give friendly suggestions on how to improve each other’s work.
Define:
Our challenge was to create a model of an earthquake-resistant building using only materials like spaghetti and blu tack. The intended outcome is for the building we have created to withstand the shaking from the ground for 10 seconds with as little damage as possible. We could only use spaghetti ($1 for 10cm) and Blu-Tack ($1 per gram) we a budget of $60. The structure must be at least 60cm and the base should not exceed 30x30cm.
The challenge we have been tasked with is important in the real world because it teaches us about how difficult it is to build earthquake-resistant buildings with a low budget through the engineering process.
This project helped me and my group to experience the design process and develop capabilities such as teamwork, time management, collaboration and problem-solving.
Research
Before starting our build my group and I had to scout the internet by researching, investigating the problem, gathering data, and searching for information about ways this problem has been tackled by engineers in the real world. We researched three topics: Frame/Foundation, Materials and Reinforcements. We learned that for the base/foundation that triangular shape are strong because of their structural characteristics and that for the roofs they tend to be slanted because both sides can bend without the building breaking. When researching about materials we found out that steel is able to undergo massive amounts of stress and movements compared to its other counterpart materials. Wood because its able to withstand high loads for short periods of time and retain its elasticity which is good because earthquakes behave in the same way and it’s a lot lighter than other materials. Reinforced concrete is good because it is stiff and strong. We realised that engineer’s used these materials because of their high ductility and high energy absorbance with the exception of wood but wood is still find as it has a good weight/strength ratio. For reinforcements we found that cross braces are common as they maximise the load the structure is able to support. Horizontal frames (diaphragms) are popular as they divert force to the walls/edges of the building. Seismic dampers are also a common protection used in earthquake-resistant buildings as they absorb destructive energy
Design:
We discussed which methods would be realistic to implement and which ones were not. From there we drew multiple sketches of how our building possibly could look like before voting on the best one.
Our main challenges we faced was staying in budget whilst making sure we are above the minimum height. We brainstormed possible ways to fix this problem and the final solution was to make our building three sided instead of four sided which slimmed down the amount of blu-tack and spaghetti we would use. We solved the height problem by sticking one strand of spaghetti on top so we could be above the minimum height whilst staying in budget. Our final design was a pyramid shaped structure with three sides featuring triangular bracing and triangular horizontal frames.
Final Design on the right side.
Create
Our group built the model fast whilst keeping precision and care. We measured everything and the process was quite quick taking less than one lesson, however we had to be patient as there were times when the spaghetti kept snapping, but we trusted the process and ended up building the structure without losing our tempers.
Final Prototype
Test
We tested our structure using the shake table. We used two different types of shaking, there was the “side to side’ shaking where we would shake te table side to side which would mimick primary and secondary waves and there was the “banging” where we smashed the table mimicking surface waves, the most destructive type.
During the first round of tests, our building suffered no damage from the “side-shake” test, withstanding a “Catastrophic” Level on the Mercalli scale.
Side to Side
However during the smashing test two strand disconnected from the joints but our structure was still standing surviving the “catastrophic” level of the Mercalli Scale
Smashing Test
Evaluation
At the end of the firs tests we listed our advantages and disadvantages. The advantages was that our building was still in budget was within range of the measurement and suffered hardly any damage, however we still had room for improvement. Our building was not completely immune to damage and the joints came undone quite easily.
After a long process of planning and brainstorming we decided that to improve our current situation we redistributed blu-tack from the top half to the bottom half making our foundation stronger to forces and keep the top half flexible enough not to detach.
In our second round of tests we received no damage in the side-shake and it took none from the smashing test!!
Test 2:
Nice.
Now our changes were adequate enough to create a complete earthquake resistant building!
Sadly the journey of Me, Yohan and Abdullah in $20 Boss has ended. $20 Boss is a project we did in InnovatED where we were given $20 and we could make a startup business and sell our products at runway market or pasar malam. Our business was called “Origin Streetwear”, we would sell customised T-Shirts which were $15 and customised hoodies which were $30 we also had premade designs which are $8. Our business was very innovative and could’ve been successful. We know this because we made a forms and sent it out to the whole year and there were more than 50 participants. In all questions about prices majority of participants liked our prices and our products. We could not execute because somebody in our group did not pull their weight or do any work. Me and Yohan decided to exit out of $20 boss because people in our group would not help. The journey was really fun as at the start we went to multiple workshops to learn about marketing, financial advice and innovation. I would like to thank all the InnovatED facilitators and teachers for supporting us and helping us throughout the journey. In the end, If I were to go through this process all over again, I would: Ask for a better group, be more organized, do even better in our advertising and do better on this project as a whole.
Today in InnovatED we are doing UN Global goals. Ours is goal 13 (climate action). My group consists of Callum, Charlie, Josh and Cooper and we are working to install a chicken coop into the school.
Our purpose is to be able to reuse and recycle food scraps and feed them to the chickens, while the eggs laid can be used to give to the canteen or to homeless community services to help feed others who are not as fortunate.
We are still in our planning stages but considering the timetable and the amount of time we have we are on schedule. To create the coop we are going to work with Mr Haddow and Mr Peacemaker in the woodwork room and we are going to use woodwork and 3D printer to create the feeding tubes. Recognising our circumstances we have a budget of between $500 and $1000. This is good because for a normal chicken coop off the internet the average price is just over $2000.
