The driving question
How can I design a “blank” for maximum volume or surface area?
For this project, I designed a skate park, the goal being to have as much surface area as possible. Me, and my partner Keaton, both decided to design skate parks, to be part of the same theme.
Designing and Calculating
After choosing what I would make, I hade to design and calculate the surface area and volume. Designing took almost no time at all, as I had used tinkerCAD many times in the past for 3D printing, and knew what I was doing. Calculating wasn’t that bad either, but it did take a lot of time. I ended up not showing my work, and needed to redo it. A challenge I came across, was calculating the volume and surface area of a custom shape I hade made for my half pipe. I hade to make my own formula, using logic. I had created a quarter cylinder, and subtract that from a rectangular prism, creating the side of a half pipe.
The presentation
At the end, we had to make a keynote presentation with our partner. Ours was mostly just a showcase of our model, what we wanted to do, and wether or not we successfully achieved it. We didn’t memorize any lines, we kinda just talked about what was on each slide, as well as making jokes every once in a while. I think we did a good job in this.
Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches.
All my class time was used efficiently, and I worked well with my partner. I never distracted anyone else, and all my milestones were completed on time.
Reasoning and Analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences
I think I accomplished this, as my model was well put together, efficient and clean, it used a wide variety of shapes, including some compound shapes, like my half pipe. The model was comprehendible from an outside view, as well. It meets all criteria.
Communicating and Representing: Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions
I extended in this area, as I successfully calculated the surface area and volume of my entire model, as well as subtracting surface area whenever two faces were touching. I used many formulas, and showed my calculations clearly. In my keynote presentation, I showed showed the ration between surface area and volume, and showed how I did not successfully create a skate park that maximizes surface area.
Conclusion
In all, I did well this project. The only thing I would change, is the fact that I didn’t really follow the driving question to much, and ended up with more volume than surface area. Unfortunately, this is the end of this post. Come back any time!
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