Create and Improve

day 1:

day 2:

i finished my develop and plan document so that i could have an idea of what to do before i started making.
after finishing the develop and plan document, i measured out the size of the foam that i wanted and hot glued the basic structure of the boat in place while making sure that both sides of the boat was symmetrical.
i realized immediately that it wasnt worth the time to get the smooth round bottom of the boat that i drew on my design paper, so instead i made the bottom of the boat flat
going slightly ahead of the schedule, i was also able to pick out the motors and batteries that i wanted

day 3:

i drilled a holes into two round wooden blocks that i found to be the right size for the wheel, and got a wooden rod (instead of a metal rod since i thought it might be too slippery for the rubber band idea that i found since the motor cant go underwater) to plan out where the wheels were going to go. didn’t attach the wheels onto the boat because i might need some adjustments later on.
i didnt worry about the front wheel, or the propellers too much since they could be added any time in the future
like what i wrote on the plan, i connected the batteries and motor to see if they worked, the motor was spinning more weakly than i thought it was going to, but still seemed to power the boat fine for now.

day 4:

instead of doing what i planned, i worked with some different motors throughout the class to see how i could make them spin better under the resistance of the rubber band, but couldn’t find one that worked well enough, i felt that it was too late to restart, but couldn’t really think of anything, so i walked around my class and the other science class for some inspiration.
in the end, i decided to change my plan into something thats rubber band powered (so the energy transfer would be elastic potential–>kinetic energy) so i didnt have to worry about the motors not working.

day 5:

i started off behind schedule, but making a rubber band powered contraption was easier than a battery powered one, so i quickly thought about how i was going to change the boat to be powered by rubber bands was going to work, and replaced the batteries with a singular rubber band attached to a pole.

day 6:

on day 2, i didn’t even know that there was going to be a sixth work day, but since i have more time than i anticipated, i made my rubber band contraption longer so that the boat would run farther before stopping, and finally made the propellers and front wheel of the boat.

peer feedback:

on day 3 and 4, i got some feedback that i needed to change my battery or make my motor stronger somehow, however, i have already tried some different motors and batteries out and decided that instead of wasting more time on the motors, i made my project rubber band powered.
on day 4 and 5, i got the feedback that my rubber band contraption wasn’t allowing my boat to go very far, so i spent day 5 doing what i could to try fixthat problem

Henry