Water Conservation Project
In our most recent project, the theme was water. Though it seemed like a stance we are very familiar with, there are so many properties of water that many of us hadn’t heard of until this year. For the past few months of class we have had many opportunities to learn more about the liquid we all know and love and were able to meet with many experts on the subject as well. For this project we were urged to use this new found knowledge to guide experimentation and creativity. We were not assigned specific guidelines of what the project had to look like, so we had the freedom to move our project in the direction that was most meaningful to our group.
Within the first few minutes of our brainstorming, our team came to the decision that we wanted to take an environmental and educational stance on the subject. We continued on that concept and thought of ways that we could demonstrate what steps are available to take in order to conserve the valuable and limited resource that is freshwater. We eventually decided the best way to tackle this was through a model of a water efficient home and a user friendly guide to products and machinery that were environmentally friendly. To do this we had to do plenty of research on pre existing options, expand on them, and figure out how we could incorporate as many water efficient components as possible. Once we were confident in the system we planned to incorporate into the home, we made a blueprint for the model. Lastly came the construction of the model itself.
Within the first few minutes of our brainstorming, our team came to the decision that we wanted to take an environmental and educational stance on the subject. We continued on that concept and thought of ways that we could demonstrate what steps are available to take in order to conserve the valuable and limited resource that is freshwater. We eventually decided the best way to tackle this was through a model of a water efficient home and a user friendly guide to products and machinery that were environmentally friendly. To do this we had to do plenty of research on pre existing options, expand on them, and figure out how we could incorporate as many water efficient components as possible. Once we were confident in the system we planned to incorporate into the home, we made a blueprint for the model. Lastly came the construction of the model itself.
the digital blueprint of out model
Our Water Conservation Model
Water conservation presentation
Content
polarity
black water
waste water from toilets (sewage)
gray water
the relatively clean waste water from baths, sinks, washing machines, and other kitchen appliances.
Solution
Solubility
The ability to dissolve in water in particular.
Ph scale
Reflection
Overall, I would feel say that this project was very successful in fulfilling its purpose. Our team was pleased by how our work progressed to our final product. Of course there are always steps to be taken to improve our collaboration skills and efficiency. I think a main issue we had was simply that we didn’t plan our work days out enough. This posed a challenge later on, when it came to dividing the workloads fairly. When we realized that this was a problem our team sat down and had an immensely helpful conversation where we listed all the aspects of the project that needed to be completed and assigned jobs for each group member. Looking back, the time we spent communicating that day made the rest of our workdays run far smoother.
During this project I feel as though I improved my ability to engage the ideas of others. I am glad that I was able to help other team members realize that it's never too late to voice opinions because challenging a preexisting concept can help it evolve into more. I also noticed that in the beginning I was having a hard time explaining what needed to be done specifically, and the open ended questions led to confusion that prevented team members form trying. I got better at communicating as our project went on, but I know I still have room for important in this field. In the future, I would like to learn how to max out my work time in class better as opposed to doing some work at home. I can be distracted easily by a classroom environment, but realizing this about myself will hopefully help me stay focused and not allow my productivity to be hindered.
Our teams definitely struggled when it came to designing useful experiments, which was frustrating, but we came out of it proud of our results. I think that our group can agree one of the best parts of our project was when all of the little pieces that we had worked so hard to research or experiment on became to come to together into something that would make sense to someone on the outside. I also think we were happy with the presentation itself and our ability to explain our concept to our peers.
During this project I feel as though I improved my ability to engage the ideas of others. I am glad that I was able to help other team members realize that it's never too late to voice opinions because challenging a preexisting concept can help it evolve into more. I also noticed that in the beginning I was having a hard time explaining what needed to be done specifically, and the open ended questions led to confusion that prevented team members form trying. I got better at communicating as our project went on, but I know I still have room for important in this field. In the future, I would like to learn how to max out my work time in class better as opposed to doing some work at home. I can be distracted easily by a classroom environment, but realizing this about myself will hopefully help me stay focused and not allow my productivity to be hindered.
Our teams definitely struggled when it came to designing useful experiments, which was frustrating, but we came out of it proud of our results. I think that our group can agree one of the best parts of our project was when all of the little pieces that we had worked so hard to research or experiment on became to come to together into something that would make sense to someone on the outside. I also think we were happy with the presentation itself and our ability to explain our concept to our peers.