Overview

Picture of final product&planner

Design Process/overview:

• Intended audience – children between the age of 6~9 and their parents (inspired by my little cousin)
  • ages – intelligent enough to understand the basic idea of energy conversion and safety rules, and also the maximum age to be interested in this kind of miniature rollercoaster toy
• Purpose – show energy conversion, mainly potential gravitational energy to kinetic energy
• impact(environmental) – use reused materials that are recyclable(environmental friendly)
• Precedents (all of the below show energy conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy (and some vibration energy)
  • Newton’s silver marble cradle
  • rollercoaster
  • watermill
• Building/editing process
  • research for precedents
  • broad sketch(simple shapes)
  • dimensions
  • annotations/zoom ins
  • draw on cardboard(collect materials)
  • get feedback and revise
  • mark where to put the parts on the large cardboard with lengths in scale
  • cut out the parts
  • glue them on the large cardboard
  • make sure all the parts are functioning
  • get feedback
  • make final touches and more feedback

Accessing My Product

According to the success criteria that I have made:

I think my product is successful in most of the criteria. It fully demonstrates how potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, assures its safety, and nothing is broken when I tested its function. When I put the marble at the top of the rollercoaster, the potential energy took place. When the marble rolled down the hill, the potential energy was converted into kinetic energy (same process for newton’s cradle and second marble). Also, there are almost no problems in how it functions (it functions in the way I intended to); the marble doesn’t stop (until reaching the goal) and falls off from the rail. Newton’s cradle and second marble are successfully triggered by the first marble, and both of them arrive to the goal safely. It is safe because all the edges are smooth, and the product is very light (considering its size), and it also assures it would cause no environmental problems, as it is only made with reused/recyclable materials.

But there are some weaknesses too. Firstly, because it is made out of cardboard box mostly, its durability is very low. secondly, there are some changes in that the second marble is triggered by the impact of shaking due to the first marble rolling down the rail, which indicates that its starting position is very unstable(same for newton’s cradle). Thirdly, the users may experience some communication errors due to the lack of labels about where to put the second marble and right marble of newton’s cradle.

Other Reflections

One thing I am proud of:

I am proud of the accurate dimensions that I made and how it applied to the actual product (everything function as they are intended to)

One biggest challenges that I have met during the project:

making Newton’s cradle function only with one supporting string for each marble same as the ones(originals) with two supporting lines and making sure it accurately trigger the second marble.