In this project my group and I were faced with solving a world problem. We chose the problem of people not being able to decide whether to get a cat or a dog. This was our presentation.
Content:
In order to solve this problem we followed the multi-step engineering design cycle.
1. Identify need: We identified our need by brainstorming problems and coming up with the cats vs dogs. Later on we changed this to the choice of getting a cat or a dog.
2. Research problem: All three of us read through three articles online and annotated them. This allowed us to easily understand each others research.
3. Develop possible solutions: We did this by brainstorming over 20 solutions that could possibly solve the problem:
Solutions
Decide on winner
Decide which is better for different people / living conditions
Make a test that decides whether you should get a cat or dog or neither
Inform people about each side and characteristics of each animal
Genetically modified dogs
Decide that they are both bad
Decide which is better for different living conditions
Decide cats are better (stop arguments)
Decide dogs are better (stop arguments)
Decide that they are equal
Genetically modified cats
Give everyone a cat and a dog
Find a animal to replace them
Train cats to rely on people more
Train cats to pee in the toilet
Train dogs to work best with people
Train dogs to walk themselves
Train kittens to retract their claws
Make it a law that you can’t argue
Robot dogs
Robot cats
Kill all cats
Kill all dogs
Kill both cats and dogs
Make owning pets illegal
Breed doats
Make people like dogs
Make people like cats
Kill all humans
Make a new perfect animal
Make humans act like pets
Declaw every domestic cat
4. Select most promising solution: We went back and eliminated solutions that would not work or were to crazy and we came up with the solution of making a survey.
5. Construct a prototype: We found questions based on our research and made a survey.
6.Test and evaluate prototype: We gave our survey to a few people and had them test it. They gave us feed back an we changed our survey slightly.
7.Communicate design: We gave our survey to the class and had them take it. We then saw their results.
8.Redesign: We changed the survey a bit to make it make more sense to the person taking it.
9.Repeat: We did not have enough time to send out the survey so we could not repeat the cycle.
1. Identify need: We identified our need by brainstorming problems and coming up with the cats vs dogs. Later on we changed this to the choice of getting a cat or a dog.
2. Research problem: All three of us read through three articles online and annotated them. This allowed us to easily understand each others research.
3. Develop possible solutions: We did this by brainstorming over 20 solutions that could possibly solve the problem:
Solutions
Decide on winner
Decide which is better for different people / living conditions
Make a test that decides whether you should get a cat or dog or neither
Inform people about each side and characteristics of each animal
Genetically modified dogs
Decide that they are both bad
Decide which is better for different living conditions
Decide cats are better (stop arguments)
Decide dogs are better (stop arguments)
Decide that they are equal
Genetically modified cats
Give everyone a cat and a dog
Find a animal to replace them
Train cats to rely on people more
Train cats to pee in the toilet
Train dogs to work best with people
Train dogs to walk themselves
Train kittens to retract their claws
Make it a law that you can’t argue
Robot dogs
Robot cats
Kill all cats
Kill all dogs
Kill both cats and dogs
Make owning pets illegal
Breed doats
Make people like dogs
Make people like cats
Kill all humans
Make a new perfect animal
Make humans act like pets
Declaw every domestic cat
4. Select most promising solution: We went back and eliminated solutions that would not work or were to crazy and we came up with the solution of making a survey.
5. Construct a prototype: We found questions based on our research and made a survey.
6.Test and evaluate prototype: We gave our survey to a few people and had them test it. They gave us feed back an we changed our survey slightly.
7.Communicate design: We gave our survey to the class and had them take it. We then saw their results.
8.Redesign: We changed the survey a bit to make it make more sense to the person taking it.
9.Repeat: We did not have enough time to send out the survey so we could not repeat the cycle.
Reflection
During this project their were things that I definitely improved on and some things that I still need to work on. Some things I improved on were time management and formatting presentations. I was able to finish the project in a timely manner. The reason for this was because my group made a gantt chart that illustrated how much time we had to do each step of the project. This helped me do all the work I needed to do each day. I also did well on formatting our presentation. I used the rule of 3x5 by limiting each slide to about 15 words so that the audience would keep their attention. I also tried to make the slides aesthetically pleasing to keep their attention.
Some things that I need to improve on are body language and research. While presenting I was moving a lot. If I am able to maintain a stable body position then I could look more professional and it could help me get my point across. While researching it took me a long time to annotate the articles. I need to learn how to annotate quickly and efficiently so that I can read back over my research so I can understand what I read.
Some things that I need to improve on are body language and research. While presenting I was moving a lot. If I am able to maintain a stable body position then I could look more professional and it could help me get my point across. While researching it took me a long time to annotate the articles. I need to learn how to annotate quickly and efficiently so that I can read back over my research so I can understand what I read.