Reflect & Share

Show your final product through photos and/or video

 

Explain how it works/doesn’t work using scientific terminology

The lamp we made is powered from 8 batteries to light up 4 LED lights. A battery is a device that stores chemical energy and is converted to electrical energy when the electrons flow from one material to another through a circuit. The LED lights produce lights by passing the electrical current through a semiconducting material – the diode. The electrons pass through the one-way p-n junction and fills electron holes and emits photons, which is light through the principle of electroluminescence.

Explain the areas you were successful in in the product/process

Although we had some classes where we were missing people, we were pretty successful in finishing our prototype in the lab workdays given. Although we didn’t have much time to work on our blog posts during the class time, we were also able to do it in the time out of class. In the process, even though we had multiple failures, we were still able to make the right change and speed up the remaining process to finish on time. When we tried to connect all four LED lights with one battery, it took us more than the time we expected to connect them with the electrical wires and testing if it worked, and then finding out that it didn’t and putting it back to what we originally had. We had to speed up the remaining processes to finish on time. Me and Fiona worked on separate parts at the same time to save time.

I also think we were successful in meeting our success criteria. In the Develop & Plan stage, we wrote that our success criteria is “to be bright and give off light that is not too bright, but also be aesthetically appealing”. I think we have met both of those. From the pictures above, we can tell that in a dark environment, the lamp is able to give out light and be bright enough to help the user be visible of their surroundings. I think it also meets the criteria of “aesthetically appealing” because I personally think it looks pretty good and in the process of making it we have tried our best to make it aesthetically appealing from the materials we had. In conclusion, I think we were successful in meeting the success criteria of being able to give off soft light as it is a lamp, but also being aesthetically appealing in addition to its functions.

Explain the areas you need to improve in the product/process

Although we met all of our success criteria, I think there could be more that we could improve in the process of creating our prototype. In the process of making our prototype, we made several adjustments and changes from our original plan. Even though that isn’t something necessarily bad, but in order to prevent that problem, we could have done more research and testing before creating our final prototype to minimize the materials used and extra time spent making those adjustments and changes in the process. When we first designed the lamp as a 10*10 cm cube, we forgot about the sizes of the battery boxes. So when we first cut out the bottom wood pieces, we found out that all four of the battery boxes couldn’t fit on that one little pieces, we had to re-design the whole lamp into a 15*15 cm cube in order to fit all of them. To prevent that, we could have remembered to measure the sizes of the battery box and figured out what dimension could have fit all four of those boxes instead of making that piece first and realizing it didn’t work, and then going back to remaking it.

Explain the impact of this project on the environment, and the potential client/consumer/audience.

The intention of creating this lamp was that I wanted a product that could help me solve the problem of getting lamp that was at the right brightness for me when I got up in the night. I wanted a lamp that was at the brightness where it wouldn’t be too bright so it would wake me up, but also be bright enough that I could see my way. I think the potential client of this product if for people who want a solution to a similar problem and seeks a product that will help them solve this problem. The potential customer could also be people who simply just want a lamp that will add texture and creativity to their room or living space.

In our product, we also tried to use environmentally materials. First, we used LED lights as our source of light. According to UK energy lighting, LED lights can be 80% more energy efficient than conventional light bulbs. Using LED lights rather than traditional light bulbs is more environmentally friendly because it uses less energy than the other alternatives. We also used recycled materials – bubble wrap in the design of our lampshade. It not only makes the lamp aesthetically pleasing, but also reuses some of the recycled bubble wrap that the design center has collected. It makes use in some of the materials that could have been directly thrown away. We also tried to use more biodegradable materials in our product. Except for acrylic and the bubble wrap, the structure of the whole lamp is made using wood. Wood is biodegradable and is somewhat more environmentally friendly.