Give an overview of your design process, sharing the product & your learning

In the three science class time in the design center, me and Alex made the product and learned a lot about energy conversion. On the first class time, me and Alex gathered all the resources we needed to make our model and started to make the main part of the disc launcher. As explained from earlier blog posts,  some resources were replaced to other things because we could not find those in the design center. For example, we decided to replace the top part of the main part that was supposed to be wood to cardboard, since we could not find the precise size and wood was too thick to carve out a space to load the discs. At the last time of the first day, we finished until making the main part of the disc launcher, making a space to attach a rubber band, and sticking two popsicle sticks together to pull the disc and hit them. On the second day of designing, we carved out a cardboard to stick it at the top of the disc launcher, in order to store the discs. Additionally, we connected the rubber band to the popsicle sticks to create potential energy out of elasticity of the rubber band. In my opinion, this day was the most important day while designing this prototype since we tested out the disc launcher before we attached three individual disc launcher into one. We found a huge problem while we tested the disc launcher; the popsicle sticks could not hit the disc very well. Peers and Mr.Landrum gave me tips that were very helpful to improve on next designing class, such as the length of the popsicle stick was too long to pull tightly as I can to hit the disc so we needed a shorter popsicle stick, and the popsicle stick was wavering around the disc so we needed to fix the popsicle stick and make sure it did not move. Based on those feedback, on the third designing class, we used shorter popsicle stick and pasted little pieces of popsicle stick where the popsicle stick moved, and again tested the disc launcher by the peers. After that, we attached three disc launchers into one by using rubber band and popsicle stick. However, the x3 force of the rubber band and the popsicle stick was so strong that it needed a lot of strength to pull the popsicle stick. In general, our plan to shoot three disc simultaneously was failed; we could only shoot the disc one at a time.

Sharing and Learning:

Our model is a disc launcher, originally planned to to shoot three discs at once to hit a wide range of targets. This is a model that converts potential energy to kinetic energy, as the elastic potential energy of the rubber band  hits the disc so that it can be shot to long target. To be more creative than our inspiration, we designed to make three disc launchers.Our plans did not go perfect, as we failed the last step, but we learned that it needs a lot of energy to pull back three different popsicle stick.  Based on the learning, if we have more time to improve on this prototype, we will use stronger and durable substance to attach three disc launchers into one. Additionally, we learned a good way to replace some lack of resources to create our model. As discussed above, we spent a long time to find the exact size, substance, and texture. Although we had some problems, we learned to quickly react and resolve the problem like creating parts using different materials.

Use the rubric & your own success criteria to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the product.

Explain how and why your toy/device meets the design specifications.

My success criteria while I was developing and planning this model is state below:

  1. Be safe when I am working on this project.
  2. I can combine three different disc launchers into a wide one.
  3. When I pull the rubber band, discs can be shot simultaneously.
  4. Rubber band does not snap
  5. The disc launcher is faster and stronger than the original prototype that we were inspired on but it is safer

I think that our model meets criteria 1,2,4, and partially 5, but does not meet criteria three. For the first criteria, we were concerned about this because we needed hot glue gun and a saw to carve out wood and cardboard to make a variety of parts to create this prototype. We managed to be safe and completed the prototype without hurting ourselves. For criteria 2, we successfully attached three individual disc launchers in to one using a lot of popsicle stick. For criteria 3, we failed on it since it took a lot of force and effort to pull the handle but it could not hit the disc launcher simultaneously. We were also concerned about the rubber band since it could snap after it was attached permanently, so that it could entirely lose its potential energy to hit the disk, but thankfully the rubber band did not snap and managed to hit the disc one at a time. For criteria 5, I think we partially met this one. One change we made while designing  the blueprint was to use cardboard disc so even though it is originally purposed to shoot targets, just in case someone get hit, it could be not painful. However, some flaw I could found while I was testing it to the peers was that if someone poked a finger in to the part where popsicle stick hit the disc, it could damage fingers critically and can impact the audience and the environment.  For improvement, we could have designed a handle to prevent that situation to happen.

Based on these evaluations, one strength I can find on my prototype is that it can successfully convert potential energy to kinetic energy, which was the original purpose. Another strength is that we considered safety problems and creativity, which differs us from the original product where we got inspired from and we could finally create our unique prototype. However, there are a lot of weaknesses that we need some improvement. Firstly, we could not meet all success criteria, which was our small goal to achieve. Additionally, we could not hit three disc at the same time, which was the most important part of our designing process. We did not even resolved all safety problems, that it can lead to hurting the intended audience who are not mature yet, and affect the environment negatively as it can make the audience to carelessly shoot the disc to people.

Other reflections: What are you most proud of? What was most challenging?

I am proud that we managed our time very well that we completed this designing project earlier than other groups so we could improve on our project faster. One challenging part while working on this project was improving on problems, because those were unexpected and we could not reverse the whole process. In conclusion, I think we made a prototype that met most of the success criteria, and I am satisfied with it.