In this project, my group and I had to select a world problem and find a solution to to it using the engineering design cycle. The problem that we decided to focus on was animal abuse, specifically why people abuse animals and the effects of animal abuse. To complete this project, while trying to find a way to help animal abuse, we also had to think about how we would communicate our research. Since this issue does not allow us to give any tangible examples or solutions, we had to develop another idea that would still show our findings. To get to this step we made a list of all the possible solutions we could make or construct a prototype around. Our final solution was to create a kid friendly website that included information about animal abuse and showcased all of our findings. Below is our presentation and the link to our website.
Our final product, as seen above, is a fully functioning website. We presented our website to our fellow peers and teacher using a power point presentation with a few notes on the issue. Then we continued our presentation by showing our website and describing what the links contained. The most important key features of our website was the links and phone numbers to different organizations that deal with animal abuse, and the description of two foundations. The links and phone numbers on our website are an important feature because it is a helpful way for people that have witnessed animal abuse to contact the right people. The phone numbers are also helpful because people can also go on to read more about these organizations, which can lead to them possibly becoming volunteers or donating. The second important or key feature in our website was the foundations that were described in our Foundations tab page. This is an important feature because it lets people read more about organizations that are near them or what their mission statements are. The foundations we chose were SPCALA which is an animal abuse hotline and The American Humane Society. We chose SPCALA, because we though it was interesting that they had a hotline specifically geared to people who have witnessed animal abuse. Although it is based in Southern California, it still has other connections for people that want to get involved. The second foundation that we chose was The American Humane Society, because it is located all across the nation. More importantly there is one based in Marin, so it is also a great resource for our own community.
Below is a shared document that my group and I used to stay organized during our project. It includes our resources with links and summaries, our brainstorm list, our Gantt-chart, and other tools that kept us on schedule.
The Engineering Design Cycle
This project is unlike all of our previous work in STEM, so we used the seven main steps of the engineering design cycle to help guide our work.
1). Identify Need: Our need was to help solve a world problem, and specifically for my group we wanted to help solve animal abuse. Since there have been more cases of animal abuse in the past years we wanted to see what we could to to help.
2). Research: The research component in this project was a lot more thorough then before. Each person needed to pick three sources and annotate them by each paragraph, then summarize our findings. To make the work load more spread out and geared to each of our interests, my group and I all researched different aspect of animal abuse. I researched overall animal abuse such as statistics, key facts, the two kinds of animal abuse, and where it happens. Lucy researched why people abused animals, meaning looking at studies about how these habits develop, and what goes on in these people minds. Tanner researched the effects of animal abuse such as cuts, wounds, bacteria, and how all of these effects of animal abuse add up.
3). Develop Possible Solutions: To conquer this part of the project, my group and I set a timer for 10 minutes and wrote 21 possible solutions for animal abuse. We did not factor in cost, budget, or how possible something was. This was a time to come up with as many solutions as possible, and after this we narrowed/organized our list by checking ideas off as possible with green check marks and not possible with red check marks. ( Our list can be found in our document above).
4). Select Most Promising: The solution that we selected as most promising was to educate younger children, since these abusive habits develop at a young age. We then sent multiple emails out to 5th and 6th grade teachers explaining our project and mission, and asking the teachers to share our website link with their students or other teachers interested. ( Email used can be found in document above).
5). Construct a Prototype: When my group and I had decided on our final solution, we began designing and building our website. For the next week or so we all worked independently to complete our section of the website. To do so we used our collected research from our source annotations for our own section of the website.
6). Test and Evaluate Prototype: It was different for my group to test our prototype since it was a website, so we went a new direction. After completing the website and our sections, we read all of our pages/links together and discussed what we ended up with and how we could improve our website.
7). Communicate Design: Our solution was to educate more children on the subject of animal abuse, so we emailed the link and other information, for our website to 5th and 6th grade teachers in NUSD. This way our message about animal abuse could get across to the kids using our website, which tackles the issue in a way these kids can understand. Then we did a formal slideshow presentation of our work to our classmates and teacher. The next step to communicating our design would be to develop lesson plans for these teachers, and send more emails with the link attached to 5th and 6th grade teachers.
Reflection
Like previously mentioned, this project was very new and different for me. Three things that I did well during this project was time management, organization and planning, and problem solving. The first thing I did well on was time management, a specific example of this is the Gantt chart my group and I created. This device really helped us all stay on task and know what we needed to get done on each day. The second thing I did well on was organization and planning. A specific example of when this happened was when I introduced to the group that we should make a shared document that would keep all of our sources in order. This helped us a lot at the end of our project, when we had to present. The third thing I did well on in this presentation was problem solving. A specific example of this happening was one day my group and I were having trouble picking appropriate images for our website, since it is geared for young children, so I said we should use cartoon or peaceful pictures for the effects page. After this it was smooth sailing.
On the other hand, I still have some room to improve. Two things that I need to work on after this project is empathy, and communicating with my group. The first thing I will work on is empathy. An example of when this was something that I knew I needed to work on was when I became very frustrated with one person in my group when the would not stay on task.I know now that I should be more patient in these situations. In the future I will be more empathetic to my team mates and try to put myself in their shoes or read their emotions better. The second thing I will work on is communicating with my group. An example of this problem occurring was when my group and I had some miscommunication towards the end of our project involving our website and how we should present it. I will fix this in the future by making sure that everyone can understand what I am saying, by speaking more clearly and being more specific.
All in all, I loved this project! It was new and exciting for me, and it tested my comfort zone. I met new people and learned more about a serious cause that I am passionate about, while also informing the public. During this time I also became more aware about other world problems, and what I can do to help. This project was a lot of fun, and I hope I can do another assignment similar to this one in the future.
This project is unlike all of our previous work in STEM, so we used the seven main steps of the engineering design cycle to help guide our work.
1). Identify Need: Our need was to help solve a world problem, and specifically for my group we wanted to help solve animal abuse. Since there have been more cases of animal abuse in the past years we wanted to see what we could to to help.
2). Research: The research component in this project was a lot more thorough then before. Each person needed to pick three sources and annotate them by each paragraph, then summarize our findings. To make the work load more spread out and geared to each of our interests, my group and I all researched different aspect of animal abuse. I researched overall animal abuse such as statistics, key facts, the two kinds of animal abuse, and where it happens. Lucy researched why people abused animals, meaning looking at studies about how these habits develop, and what goes on in these people minds. Tanner researched the effects of animal abuse such as cuts, wounds, bacteria, and how all of these effects of animal abuse add up.
3). Develop Possible Solutions: To conquer this part of the project, my group and I set a timer for 10 minutes and wrote 21 possible solutions for animal abuse. We did not factor in cost, budget, or how possible something was. This was a time to come up with as many solutions as possible, and after this we narrowed/organized our list by checking ideas off as possible with green check marks and not possible with red check marks. ( Our list can be found in our document above).
4). Select Most Promising: The solution that we selected as most promising was to educate younger children, since these abusive habits develop at a young age. We then sent multiple emails out to 5th and 6th grade teachers explaining our project and mission, and asking the teachers to share our website link with their students or other teachers interested. ( Email used can be found in document above).
5). Construct a Prototype: When my group and I had decided on our final solution, we began designing and building our website. For the next week or so we all worked independently to complete our section of the website. To do so we used our collected research from our source annotations for our own section of the website.
6). Test and Evaluate Prototype: It was different for my group to test our prototype since it was a website, so we went a new direction. After completing the website and our sections, we read all of our pages/links together and discussed what we ended up with and how we could improve our website.
7). Communicate Design: Our solution was to educate more children on the subject of animal abuse, so we emailed the link and other information, for our website to 5th and 6th grade teachers in NUSD. This way our message about animal abuse could get across to the kids using our website, which tackles the issue in a way these kids can understand. Then we did a formal slideshow presentation of our work to our classmates and teacher. The next step to communicating our design would be to develop lesson plans for these teachers, and send more emails with the link attached to 5th and 6th grade teachers.
Reflection
Like previously mentioned, this project was very new and different for me. Three things that I did well during this project was time management, organization and planning, and problem solving. The first thing I did well on was time management, a specific example of this is the Gantt chart my group and I created. This device really helped us all stay on task and know what we needed to get done on each day. The second thing I did well on was organization and planning. A specific example of when this happened was when I introduced to the group that we should make a shared document that would keep all of our sources in order. This helped us a lot at the end of our project, when we had to present. The third thing I did well on in this presentation was problem solving. A specific example of this happening was one day my group and I were having trouble picking appropriate images for our website, since it is geared for young children, so I said we should use cartoon or peaceful pictures for the effects page. After this it was smooth sailing.
On the other hand, I still have some room to improve. Two things that I need to work on after this project is empathy, and communicating with my group. The first thing I will work on is empathy. An example of when this was something that I knew I needed to work on was when I became very frustrated with one person in my group when the would not stay on task.I know now that I should be more patient in these situations. In the future I will be more empathetic to my team mates and try to put myself in their shoes or read their emotions better. The second thing I will work on is communicating with my group. An example of this problem occurring was when my group and I had some miscommunication towards the end of our project involving our website and how we should present it. I will fix this in the future by making sure that everyone can understand what I am saying, by speaking more clearly and being more specific.
All in all, I loved this project! It was new and exciting for me, and it tested my comfort zone. I met new people and learned more about a serious cause that I am passionate about, while also informing the public. During this time I also became more aware about other world problems, and what I can do to help. This project was a lot of fun, and I hope I can do another assignment similar to this one in the future.