Overview of the design process:

When given this project to work on, we first think of the overall design process. On the first day of this project, we did our define and inquire stage. We identified our goal for this product, which was to design a device that can be used to teach energy transformation
and make a toy that converts energy. with this goal, we start searching on the internet for some precedents that met our goals of creation. After a broad search throughout the internet, the design ‘catapult’ stands outs to us, so our group decided to make a catapult. After confirming our final design product, we started to list out our success criteria for the final design, we also figured out the target audience and beneficiary of our product. Because they are a lot of catapult teams in our class, we decided to make our catapult special compared to others, which lead us to find out the idea of adding syringes, it not just changed the different energy that’s been transferred, but also made our creation process later much harder.  Soon after we finish our define and inquiry stage, we stepped into our development and plan stage. In this stage, it’s very straightforward, we tried many ways to combine the syringe and the catapult to make it work, and also been stressing about the lengths of the base and the catapult itself. Finally, after we drew out the dimensions and layers of our design, we started our last “most deadly” phase – CREATING. In this phase, we first made a prototype to “make sure” our plan is working. Of course, there are some parts that failed, so we organized the failed parts, went back to the planning stage, and started to create better, improved land that will work better. This planning part was especially hard because the catapult couldn’t be stabled to the bottom part. After thinking and testing for over 1 class period, we finally figured out a way – adding rubber bands to connect them together, this way will not only stabilize the catapult but also makes the catapult launch further (still not that far really). Then we put all our refined designs together, and made our final product!!!

Success criteria 

-Able to launch/fire a small ball

-Teaches students about energy transformation

-Clearly shows the mechanical, potential, and kinetic energy

-Students can have fun playing with the toy

-Safe to use and appropriate for classroom environments

-Uses a syringe lever

-The base and platform are stable

-Inclined slope on the triangular base at an accurate angle

-The platform stays connected after each launch

-Neat/uses different colored popsicle sticks

Strength: I believe our product has multiple strengths due to its meets to the success criteria. First, our product is able to launch a small ball (in this case, we are firing a die),  this is due to the successful energy transfer in our catapult. When we push the syringe, the mechanical energy inside transfers to the other syringe that we attached to the catapult, resulting in it forming potential energy, soon when the catapult is launched, the dice contain kinetic energy since it’s been launched. What we changed to make it successful is we added the rubber bands, it did not only make the platform stay connected each launch, but also stabled the wood block to the launching part. we also used a lot of colored popsicle sticks to make it look nice to students since it will stand out more when it’s colorful than normal color.

Weakness: There are not a lot of small weaknesses in our product, since we have been fixing them throughout the creation phase. But the main problem/failure of our product is that it is not really a catapult. by using the syringes, it limits the distance of the ball/dice that’s been launched, making it not really act like a catapult, so it loses some fun of a real catapult design.

___________________________________________________________________________

Our design meets our design specifications because it fits well with the objectives and goals from the early stages. Our design was created to educate students to learn about energy transformations while having fun, but also being safe. The product meets the desired outcome because it showed energy transformation in a toy that was planned, and was very suitable to be used to teach energy transformation to students. When linking our product to the users and beneficiaries, teachers or parents can teach students about energy transformations using this simple toy, providing a fun and real example for students to learn from in their daily life. Overall, our design meets our design goals by linking it with our success criteria, desired outcome, user, goal, target audience, and beneficiary. (Also known as the “Big four” of the define and inquiry phase – Mr. Ower Fidler)

What are you most proud of?

The proudest part of this work is my work and creativity in the planning and creating phase. After we tried out the first plan, there were a bunch of mistakes and problems that need to be fixed, but the most important problem is that the launching part itself is not stable to the wooden block. When we try sticking the two pieces together, the catapult lost its ability to launch objects. While my teammate is fixing those small problems, I figured out a way that can stable the two pieces together, by adding rubber bands. By doing that, I first need to redesign my base wooden block to a perfect angle, which I found out was 70 degrees, then by adding a horizontal popsicle stick to the launching part, and attaching a small piece of wood to the base wooden block. Finally, by adding the rubberband through the popsicle stick and the small piece, it worked well! you can see the design in the pictures below. 

 During this phase, we started putting our plan into action. First, we created a prototype of our catapult. By doing this, we can visualize our product and find errors inside our design that we can improve on. We assembled our prototype together by taping popsicle sticks together and using a triangular wood block as the base. We adjusted our design from the plan by replacing the basket with a cylindric shaped basket glued onto a wooden platform. We assembled our pieces together and created a prototype.  

Our prototype:

 

We created the prototype to find errors or ways we can improve our design. The strengths of our prototype were that the basket functions well and the length and width of the platform was ideal. After prototyping, we realized the platform on the catapult was not stable enough. We will improve this by adding more popsicle sticks on the back to improve the stability. We also realized that a triangular base is not optimal for this design since the incline of the slope was at the wrong angle. For our next design, we should account for the angle of the slope by stating it in our plan. 

 After analyzing our own prototype, we sought feedback from some of our classmates to find areas we could improve on. After our classmates tested our prototype, we received some feedback we can iterate our design on. Some users said that we can improve our design by making it more visually appealing and more convenient. A problem that our users faced was when the catapult had to be manually reassembled every time it was launched. We decided that we will use rubber bands to connect the platform on our next design so that our platform does not have to be reassembled manually every time it launches.  

 After analyzing what we could improve on our final product, we started reconstructing our plan so that it meets our new requirements. We reconstructed our plan by making new measurements and adjustments while adding new pieces to our design. We did this so we would have a clear and concise plan to follow while creating our final catapult.  

 Our new success criteria: 

-Able to launch/fire a small ball  

-Teaches students about energy transformation  

-Clearly shows the mechanical, potential, and kinetic energy  

-Students can have fun playing with the toy  

-Safe to use and appropriate for classroom environments  

-Uses a syringe lever 

-The base and platform are stable 

-Inclined slope on the triangular base at an accurate angle 

-The platform stays connected after each launch 

-Neat/uses different colored popsicle sticks/ 

Our New Plan:

On our new plan, we recorded more specific measurements for each of our sides. We clarified the angle and slope of the base. We broke our design into separate parts to show each part more clearly. Our design included the new improvements we added according to the feedback we received from our peers and our new success criteria. We included the new rubber bands that would tie the platform to the base, so it stays connected after each launch. We applied different colored popsicle sticks for decoration. We stabilized the design and reinforced the platform with an extra layer of popsicle sticks while adding a square base to hold the syringe upright. With all our adjustments, the plan states our design according to the success criteria and feedback while guiding us through the creating process with precise measurements. 

 After recreating our plan, we followed the plan and started constructing our final catapult.  

FINAL CREATION!!!!!!

We constructed the base of our platform by taping 2 platforms 4 popsicle sticks together. Next, we added 3 popsicle sticks on top and another 4 popsicle sticks on the bottom to reinforce the stability. We used different colored popsicle sticks to increase the visual appeal. 

Next, we got a piece of wood and cut it to the shape and angle that we need according to our plan. We cut it according to our measured angle and length on our plan to form a triangular base. 

After completing our base, we connected 2 bars made using popsicle sticks to create a holder for the syringe lever.  

Then we connected the syringe lever to the platform by hot-gluing the syringe to the platform. We also added a wooden board on the platform to hold the projectile that would be launched. 

We attached a popsicle stick at the bottom of the platform. Then we glued 2 circular handles on both sides of the base. Finally, we connected the popsicle stick to the 2 circular handles with 2 rubber bands. This fixes the problem so that the catapult does not have to be manually reassembled. The rubber bands connect the base to the platform so that it stays connected after each launch. 

Finally, we finished the catapult at the end by adding a cylindric holder that would hold the projectile and stabilized the syringe lever by connecting it to the holder. 

We tested our final product and it functioned properly. It was able to launch a small projectile while demonstrating kinetic, potential, and mechanical energy. Mechanical energy was shown when the syringe was pressed down while potential energy was demonstrated when the projectile was lifted by the catapult. Finally kinetic energy was shown when the projectile was launched and fell. Overall, our product worked as intended while being improved according to our new success criteria.