Taaaaaa daaAAA! *Flush* Don’t worry, I’m not in the bathroom. The object I designed for the Ultimate Design Challenge (or UDC) was a toilet. Specifically a toilet for an airplane. Have you every been in one? They are extremely unpleasant. Me and my group, Ryan and Amy, decided to each design different parts of the toilet. Ryan = the outer walls, Amy = a tray sink. The theme of this project was designing objects for either maximum surface area, or maximum volume. More on this later. My favourite part of this project was designing the object/toilet. At the start, I really struggled with it, but then I got the hang of TinkerCad (the 3D design program.) At the end of the project we had to make a Keynote detailing all the calculations and formulas.

 

As you can see, in the last slide, I had too much surface area. I tried to create a toilet with minimal surface area, but it didn’t work. I used a lot of long-thin objects, in which there is way more surface area than volume. Mr. Gross, our teacher, did realize one thing though. Having less volume would mean it’s pretty small, and so it would fit better into a small, airplane bathroom.

Here is the driving question: How can we maximize the surface area or volume of an object?

The next steps are the CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES!

Applying and innovating: contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches. 

This competency focuses on trying hard and always staying focused during class time (AKA no gaming!) I tried really hard on this competency for this project. Usually I have a bit of extra time near the end of the project, and I might read for a bit. This time I worked really hard, and any time I had extra time, I tried to make my project even better!

Reasoning and Analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences.

This competency is about using different shapes in your design to optimize surface area or volume. I’m a bit disappointed that my toilet didn’t work out, but I know why. I didn’t use a lot of shapes that were equal in size, so I had way more surface area than volume. I did try really hard though, and it worked out.

Communicating and Representing: Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions. 

This competency (should they all start with that? Maybe I can make it better.) This curricular competency concerns your use of mathematics, and calculating the volume and surface area correctly. I used lots of different formulas in my project. I (think) that I subtracted and added things correctly in the calculations of my project. I really like this type of math that involves following a formula. I like how you swap out letters like r and h with numbers, and then you get the answer!!!!!

Thanks for reading!!!!

-Kate