For our last project in our first semester at STEM Marin, we had to make something that could be implemented to help the world.
One of the biggest problems in our world is lack of clean water. Lack of sanitary water is the number one cause of hospitalization and every 10 seconds, 1 person dies due to dehydration! Our group set out to make sure that everybody in the world could get clean drinking water.
Hella Wells are self-contained mobile wells that drills deep into the Earth into underground aquifers. Hella Wells use an electronically powered drill to go into underground aquifers. Once in the aquifer, water is pumped through the drill up to the surface. The water at the surface is then pumped through a series of filters to purify it. After filtration, the water is stored in a massive tank until later use.
As for new knowledge gained from this project, I learned that most of the time, being simplistic is better than being complicated. Our original ideas were very complicated and we had to give them up because they were just too difficult. Even in our well, it was still complicated to the point of more revisions than most other groups. I will take away that while doing the harder thing may be "cooler" it is not necessarily better.
This project did not teach us any new concepts, but how to utilize different creative thinking methods. We used the engineering design cycle from the start to the end of the project. The engineering design cycle contains 7 steps:
1. Identify the Need
2. Research the Problem
3. Develop Solutions
4. Select Most Promising Solution
5. Build Model
6. Test and Evaluate
7. Communicate Results
Our need was to get clean water to people who lack access to it. We researched how the problem affects people, current solutions, and why lack of water is a worthwhile problem to fix. We developed possible solutions and then picked Hella Wells (our most promising solution). Instead of a model, we made a scale drawing of our idea. We then "tested" it in the areas of cost, practicality, efficiency, etc. Finally, we presented our design to the class. To see our presentation, see the bottom of this page.
Overall, I enjoyed the project immensely. Although it did not have any direct physics involved, we ended up using a lot of thinking not required in prior projects. It was a refreshing assignment, especially with the freedom to choose our own groups based upon like-minded ideas instead of having ideas clashing. Our only problems were keeping ourselves on task and thinking ahead. We found ourselves off task often, but we got right back on task and kept a good track of time. Another issue was that we were never quite sure what our next step was. In the future I would like to make more of a plan to follow. We did do a really good job with time management and being efficient. We did not procrastinate, we used our time wisely and it payed off. We also were very efficient, when we were working, we were very focused on the task at hand. In the end, it was a great way to wrap up the first semester.
One of the biggest problems in our world is lack of clean water. Lack of sanitary water is the number one cause of hospitalization and every 10 seconds, 1 person dies due to dehydration! Our group set out to make sure that everybody in the world could get clean drinking water.
Hella Wells are self-contained mobile wells that drills deep into the Earth into underground aquifers. Hella Wells use an electronically powered drill to go into underground aquifers. Once in the aquifer, water is pumped through the drill up to the surface. The water at the surface is then pumped through a series of filters to purify it. After filtration, the water is stored in a massive tank until later use.
As for new knowledge gained from this project, I learned that most of the time, being simplistic is better than being complicated. Our original ideas were very complicated and we had to give them up because they were just too difficult. Even in our well, it was still complicated to the point of more revisions than most other groups. I will take away that while doing the harder thing may be "cooler" it is not necessarily better.
This project did not teach us any new concepts, but how to utilize different creative thinking methods. We used the engineering design cycle from the start to the end of the project. The engineering design cycle contains 7 steps:
1. Identify the Need
2. Research the Problem
3. Develop Solutions
4. Select Most Promising Solution
5. Build Model
6. Test and Evaluate
7. Communicate Results
Our need was to get clean water to people who lack access to it. We researched how the problem affects people, current solutions, and why lack of water is a worthwhile problem to fix. We developed possible solutions and then picked Hella Wells (our most promising solution). Instead of a model, we made a scale drawing of our idea. We then "tested" it in the areas of cost, practicality, efficiency, etc. Finally, we presented our design to the class. To see our presentation, see the bottom of this page.
Overall, I enjoyed the project immensely. Although it did not have any direct physics involved, we ended up using a lot of thinking not required in prior projects. It was a refreshing assignment, especially with the freedom to choose our own groups based upon like-minded ideas instead of having ideas clashing. Our only problems were keeping ourselves on task and thinking ahead. We found ourselves off task often, but we got right back on task and kept a good track of time. Another issue was that we were never quite sure what our next step was. In the future I would like to make more of a plan to follow. We did do a really good job with time management and being efficient. We did not procrastinate, we used our time wisely and it payed off. We also were very efficient, when we were working, we were very focused on the task at hand. In the end, it was a great way to wrap up the first semester.