Hey there,

I have completed yet another project, its that time of year again, where all the projects are coming to a close. I have finished a project in scimatics, where we were designing an object with ten basic shapes. After we designed it we had to calculate the volume and surface area to the put into a ratio. As well as just designing it we were going to 3D print it to show a model to the class. Are class wasn’t all designing though, we had to learn and practice formulas on order to calculate the volume and surface area.

In the beginning we were coming up with ideas to design. When building we had to have a goal of either getting maximum volume or maximum surface area depending on what made sense for the object we were building. Two of my ideas were, how can I’d sign a small cafe for maximum volume, and, how can I design a treehouse for maximum volume. My ideas were rooms rather than objects, some people created things such as a surfboard or a sink.

 

After coming up with ideas we got into groups. I was working with Erin, we decided we were going to make the treehouse. We were building our treehouse on some thing called tinkercad  As we started to build we had more of an idea of the shapes we were going to use, so we created a chart that listed all of the formulas we needed. This was to show the core competency reasoning and analyzing.

 

After that we finished up designing. This is what it turned out to look like,

As soon as we finished building we had to start calculations, we had a small amount of time to finish everything, and needed to get it done. Calculating the surface area and volume took less time than I thought it would. We had mostly basic shapes so we were just using the same formula over again. All the calculations was to show reasoning and analyzing.

 

Once all of this was done the next step was to send it to the 3D printer. Originally we had a roof on our design and a third wall. When we tried to print that it collapsed because the hot plastic wasn’t steady and caved inward. We tried revising it and just added four support beams inside, but we still got the same result. After that we decided to just completely take off the roof and remove a wall, unfortunately it still didn’t work. In the end we ran out of time and didn’t get it print it. I think it didn’t work because we had to many free standing objects with not enough support. Next time I would add more supports to keep the objects standing and maybe make them a bit shorter so there is more balance. 3D printing was to show how we can apply and innovate.

 

To show the class all of this, we created a keynote presentation that had the formulas and photos of what we had made. This competency was communicating and representing. We were showing our ideas and process to the class.

 

Overall I think this project was fun and I learned a lot. I got better at calculating surface area and volume, and learned how to make a ration with them and the reduce it to a smaller number.

 

“Truth will sooner come out of error than confusion”

-Francis Bacon