In this project I had one of the best groups I have ever had. Jeremy, Diego, and I had the project locked town. I saw other groups with not so fortunate partners struggle. from the start we were on track already working on our presentations. At the same time we worked on the choose your own adventure story. by the end of the week we had finished all of our layers and organized them into a Weebly website. Then the real challenge came, the roller coaster. throughout this whole time my group and I collaborated extremely well.
Throughout this project I learned that in humanities a visible plan is important. When we were writing our Choose Your Own Adventure Story, our different layers got confused and it was really useful to be able to organize and actually see where everything went with a little drawing. In another way it really emphasized the importance of organization. when in college or in a work environment it is a necessity to have things in an orderly fashion so I could have access to them quickly.
I had many questions about the energy portion of physics. All I can say now is, its so much more simple then I imagined. The final product for physics was almost nothing. We did harder practice problems that I wouldn't even know how to do now. I also learned that the all of the energy problems we worked on were incorrect and extremely theoretical. we didn't even take into count friction, wind resistance, and the third dimension. those factors definitely had a large impact on our roller coaster.
In engineering I saw that there was a huge difference between building our prototype coaster versus building the final product; an obvious one. The prototype took about an hour and a half to complete, a measly effort compared to the two weeks of school spent trying to problem solve the extremely touchy coaster. Brazing was a nightmare, but it was very fun to play with. People all around me melted wads of solder into little metal balls. by the end of the project my hands were covered in burns and were sore from the exposure to heat. I still think this was a generally good experience because we were shown the rewards of perseverance and problem solving.
The exhibition was a pretty smooth ending for such a rough project. At first it was a little strange because one of my partners, who was supposed to bring the coaster, didn't show up. 40 minutes after exhibition started he showed up. Not long after that, it was my time to shine. explaining everything from the history of the Irish Revolution, the choose your own adventure story and the significance to the coaster, the sheet of paper of the different energies acting upon the coaster, explaining that I laser cut the building, and showing them that it actually worked. It was pretty easy, although my throat got a little gruff. I think I did great on all of the content, group work, and work ethic. this was a very challenging project, and I wasn't sure that I would have been able to finish the coaster. However I did finish. I was lucky enough to make the small change that made our coaster work.