Blogpost April 30

Today, we were informed that our backup plan has been canceled, the plan to fix the bathrooms have been rejected due to the fact that we did not get to the bathroom fast enough. Our group now has to start over again from square one. We did not come up totally empty handed at the time, I suggested that we make hat racks for the people who have hats and do not want to put them down on the ground, and instead can put the hats on the hat rack, off the ground and out of the way. But that was also turned down, so our group is in a huge mess to get back on track, this is probably going to be a rough week.

New Project !

This weekend we didn't have much to do, as far as regards to our project. Since we didn't know if our original project was still "doable," and our back up project was still waiting on permission from Ms. Martin, our group was put on a wait. However, when we get back to class, we will find out what our status for our project will be, if we will have to find another project to do, or stick with the original project that we created. The new project that we came up with was cleaning up the boy's bathroom that was vandalized by some of the students. We could apply physics to this by the different cleaning products that we will have to use in order to remove the vandalism.

April 27 Blogpost

Today in class we decided to completely scrap our last idea about installing new motion-sensored paper towel dispensers because we kind of hit a wall.  The paper towel dispensers were hard to order and it didn't seem like we'd be able to complete the project by our given deadline.  In class we worked together to brainstorm new possible project ideas.  At first we were feeling really discouraged that we had to start all over again, but with Mr. Blake's assistance, we came up with a new plan.  Since the boys' bathroom at konia is closed due to vandalism, we hope to reopen it.  This will require taking off the super glue using acetone or just by scraping it off.  In addition, we will paint over the vandalism and figure out a way to keep boys from vandalizing the bathroom.  As we continue to think about this project, we will figure out how this relates to physics.  We plan to work together and distribute the work evenly so we can get everything done by the final deadline.

Blog Post April 26

Today we didn't really brain storm any new ideas.  Yesterday in class we figured that we would come up with a new problem to fix since the paper towel dispenser idea is a bust.  At first we were trying to think of something that would fit along the lines of helping a problem in the bathroom.  At first our group thought of a problem, such as vandalism but we could not come up with any rational solutions to the problem.  Over all I think that we are probably going to have to start from scratch and come up with another idea to help improve the school.  Although our entire group is very dissatisfied with the outcome of our firs idea, this is a life learning experience.  I think that it is still possible to redo our entire project, we just may need to be more on top of things and not procrastinate.

April 25 Blogpost

Today we encounter a huge problem. This problem is pretty devastating to hear. Right now I think our only option is to start from scratch. Our group is pretty bummed out but I do think that we can make it through the project and still have a good grade and in the word of a great man I'll say this quote, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Genius will not. Education will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -Calvin Coolidge So I guess all we can do is keep going and thats what we are going to do if we want to get something done. So our group is most likely back at square one.

April 24 Blogpost

Yesterday we didn't have class, but we all continue to plan and think about our project and what we need to accomplish in the upcoming weeks.  I think we have a good start, but we really need to focus and get the necessary papers turned in, in order to put our plan into action.  Hopefully we can work together in class to get everything approved and figure out when we can actually get the paper towel dispensers installed.  We really need to get them installed soon so we can start the data collection portion of the project.  We will also continue to work on our peer evaluations since they are due at the end of the week.

April 23 Blogpost

Today we started to do our evaluations for our group members. Since it's due at the end of the week, we decided to all start on it. As time is running out, we actually have to start the construction of our project, in other words we have to order the dispensers from the catalog soon so that they will arrive in time. We want to ask Ms. Martin for permission to start a survey as part of our data collection, maybe trying to put it in the daily bulletin. Our project is slowly coming along, so far we are making good progress, and we hope to continue this streak.

April 21 Blog Post

We didn't really do anything today, since it was the day of prom we had no communication between any group members.  We have everything finalized and we know that what we are going to need to buy and our budget.  All that we now need to find is how much it will cost for the labor costs.  Hopefully we can order our  paper towels and our  dispencer by this week.  We know that it may take a little longer than expected to come in and we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  While waiting for the materials to come in, we can work on making our surveys and see how people like how the paper towel dispencers are now.  After we collect the data from how people view our dispencers we can compare the data to what we will be collecting after the devices are in place.

Blogpost April 20

Today was the due date for the detailed design, our group worked individually and put it all together at one time. We had enough time before hand to finish most of the design so the rest of the period was spent talking and discussing. We reached half the period before it became quite hard to talk. We listed simple but very important sources. We listed Mr. Blake because he helped us to get our project confirmed. We listed Ms. Martin because she is the key in trying to get our project rolling and finally we listed the all might, all knowing Wikipedia.

Survey time !

Our group plans to use a survey as part of our data collection. We thought why not let the people who would be using the dispensers express their opinions, and if they would care if we even replaced the dispensers. We thought about either using survey monkey to make our survey, or simply just make a survey on face book since everyone uses it so often. We're trying to figure out the most efficient, and effective way to gather data. We are currently thinking about other ideas on how we could gather data, because we know a survey won't be enough data to prove that the dispensers are in fact beneficial to the students, and faculty that would be using it, we just need a find a way to prove that. 

Blogpost April 18

^^^Lots of friends to advertise to on facebook^^^

Today we had iPAU, so we didn't get together to talk about the project.  But, we did eat a lot! We don't have class tomorrow, but we all plan to go on to our google docs account in order to work on our detailed design of the project.  Ms. Martin told us that we should try to get the paper towel dispensers installed by May 4th.  So, we're setting May 4th as our deadline.  That means that we need to get all the forms approved as soon as possible!  Once we get the paper towel dispensers improved and installed, we have some ideas to collect our data.  The first idea was to have surveys.  At first we were thinking of sending out an email and using google docs or surverymonkey for the surveys, but we realized that we can create our own surveys on facebook.  We think that those would be the most successful because more people would answer our questions, and we'd get more feedback.  In addition to that, I hope that we can create a video to advertise the new paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms once they are installed so we can get the word out.  I hope our plan works! So much to do!

Blog Post April 17

Today in class we reviewed our proposal because we needed a stronger reason on how to tie in physics into our experiment.  Before this class the only physics that we had in our project is that nothing can be 100% effcient.  Now we all agreed that we can use less energy by making the machines automatic because we wont have to waste our energy pulling the paper towels.  We also use less energy because we don't have to un-stuck the paper towels every time that they get jammed.  We also came up with with new ways to conduct our surveys in order to back up our assumptions.  We also might have diffuctly collecting data because if we use facebook there might no be people that will take our survey seriously.  We also need to work on our detailed design and figure out when we will get it and when it can be up and running by.

Blogpost - #12

Our group hopes to continue our pace on the way to the completion of our project. This week we hope to accomplish the ordering of the dispenser through the catalog and after we have decided what we can do, our next step would be to get everything approved with signatures from Ms. Martin but of after tending to any problems that may arise on the way. I feel our group is well on its way to completing the task at hand and it seems like the only problem that may come up is costs from installation and labor so I think that may be our groups biggest concern.

Future planning

This past week our group made a lot of progress. We gathered our proposal, and put it together, and we talked to the science assistant so that we could talk about ordering the dispensers. One of the problems that we considered was what roll length does the school order for their dispensers. When the science assistant showed us which one they use, we estimated that it was a 400 ft. roll. Those were one of the little problems that we encountered. Other than that, we plan on talking to ms. martin about our plans, and to show her our proposal. We also plan to order the dispensers soon, so that we can install it in the near future. Our group is making good progress, and we hope to keep it going !

Blogpost - April 13, 2012

http://hdsupplysolutions.com/shop/home?ref=http://www.johntagle.com/&alias=http://hdsupplysolutions.com/

Today we finished our proposal together and got it turned in on time.  Unfortunately Gabe missed out on all of the fun haha.  We talked to Mr. Blake and asked to see a catalogue in order to find a motion sensored paper towel dispenser to order.  He took us to a woman (sorry I forgot her name) who is in charge of getting supplies for the upper campus science department, in addition to assisting the science teachers.  She was really nice, and found a bunch of catalogues for us to look through.  It was Jason who found the motion sensored paper towel dispenser that we desired in a HD supply catalogue.  The price in the catalogue said that it would be $69.99.  We told Mr. Blake, and he agreed that we could go a little above the $100 budget, within reason.  Hopefully we can get the dispensers a little cheaper than it is in the catalogue.  Now that we planned what we're purchasing, we need to discuss how it will be installed and we need to figure out a data collection plan.

Blog Post April 12

Today in class we finished writing our proposal.  We divided up the work so that everyone will do the same share of the proposal.  We feel that our idea of implimenting the automatic paper towel dispensers will help the reduce the waste that the students create and help stop the jams that is ever so common in the present dispensers.  Since Mr. Blake was not present in school today we were not able to ask about the catalog that the school orders all of their supplies through.  Hopefully with the schools discount we will be able to hopefully use the extra money somewhere else in our budget, just incase we might run into some problems.  We also had to take into account labor costs of installing the dispenser.  When we were looking at Amazon we did not know that we had to deal with labor costs which would have put our group over our budget of a 100 dollars.

Blogpost - #9

Our project is hopefully on its way to development, we got it approved by Mr. Martin and all we need to do now is to make sure we can efficiently use our money. However, not being able to meet with each other daily hurt our abilities to communicate therefor this project might go slower than we have anticipated. I think that this should be a pretty simple execution of a project once we know what to order from the catalog it should be smooth sailing. I don't think that we have any current problems to worry about for now, but you never know whats going to happen. We plan on getting out proposal done on time.

Our First Interview

Today our group interviewed Ms.Martin. Our idea that we proposed was to have a hand censored paper towel dispenser in one girls bathroom, and one boys bathroom. We told Ms. Martin about our idea, and she loved it. She told us that she could work with our group to make this happen. She explained to us that we may need to sign some papers, and that we could get a discount if we ordered the dispensers through the catalog that the school gets their supplies from. We interviewed her, and got a lot of helpful feedback. We are currently working on our proposal, and should be giving a copy of it to Ms. Martin. Our group made a lot of progress today !

Blogpost Monday April 9

Today we didn't really talk much with our group. We already planned on what we are going to accomplish next class. We are supposed to talk to Mrs. Martin about our idea and how well she will think that it will work in school.  Once we have our interview done with we plan on writing our paper on our project and what we will need. If our idea goes through then we know that we have a budget for what will need, such as paper towel dispencers.  We also might have to ask her on who else to ask on our idea. If we can find who is in charge of the bathroom we should interview them.  I think that if we talk to the cosodians on our idea they might be able to give us some feed back on what other ideas that we should impliemtn into our group.

Blogpost #7

http://www.amazon.com/enMotion-Automated-Motion-Activated-Touchless-Dispensers/dp/B00115QQ6K

Last class the four of us went to schedule and interview with Ms. Martin.  We ended up scheduling it for tomorrow (April 10, 2012).  Our plan is to explain what the project is to her.  Once she understands what the project is about, we will tell her our idea and plan to improve the school through physics.  If everything goes as planned, we will be able to purchase and install a motion-sensored paper towel dispenser in one boys bathroom and one girls bathroom.  If we are able to do that, we will issue a survey to students in a couple weeks to get feedback on the new dispensers.  We would also be abel to conduct interviews with random students to get some feedback.  We hope that everything goes well tomorrow and that we'll have a successful meeting with Ms. Martin.

Blogpost #6

http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Brand-Touchless-Electronic-Dispenser/dp/B004TY2EAC

Today in class we figured out what we were going to ask Mrs. Martin for our interview.  We also decided that we are going to fix the problem of jammed paper towel dispensers.  Our solution to the problem is buying the dispensers that are automatic so there is no jam.  We had looked on amazon.com yesterday and saw that the average price for one was around $50.00.  We figured that the school might get some sort of special discount since we could buy the items in bulk if the school were to use our idea in the future.  Some of the questions that we can up with were:
1. What do you think of the idea?
2. How well do you think that it is going to work?
3. Who is the head of the department in charge of taking care of the bathrooms?
4. How much would it cost to impliment our idea in all of the bathrooms?
We also were able to schedule our time to meet with her. Mrs. Martin's secritary told us that we are meeting her on tuesday at 10:30.  We decided to make it at period 4 so we are all able to be there and ask questions.

Blogpost - #5

http://www.touchfree.com/touch-free-paper-towel-dispensers.html

Today in class we were talked at by Mr. Blake and he told us to go out and ask the teachers about our bug list solutions. Along with that he asked if anyone had already interviewed their teachers and in response the  people who did said that the teachers didn't do much but say stuff we cannot fix, just like Mr. Blake said. In our group efforts we plan to interview people, Ms. Martin tomorrow because of a combination of dress code complications. Our group plans on presenting the idea of installing an automatic paper towel dispenser to have a more efficient way obtaining paper towel

Blogpost #4

Today in class we continued to brainstorm ideas. We came up with ideas such as trying to turn text books into online text books so that student wouldn't have to be carrying around heavy books everywhere. We also came up with trying to potentially create some sort of door handle for feet, that way when people open the bathroom doors, they don't need to get germs on their hands, they can use their feet to open the door instead. However, myself and Liana came up with an idea towards the end of class. We talked about trying to persuade admin to let us put on hand censored paper towel dispenser in one girl bathroom, and one guy bathroom, to see how people would react. We are faced with the paper towel dispensers that we have now, getting jammed for no reason. We would like to fix that ! It was a productive day, and we got a lot done. Our next challenge is going to be to interview people around the campus.

Blogpost #3

Today in class we met with our groups for the project.  We came up with a schedule for the daily posts on our group blogs.  Our idea is to split up the blog posts evenly.  So, we established the order of our blogposts which is: Liana, Lydia, Gabe, then Jason.  The picture above shows our schedule for the next week. We have one week to find a problem and a solution, so we plan to each visit teachers/administrators that we think can help us think of possible ideas.  Our goal is to each add about two suggestions to the bug list by the end of the week.  Once our bug list is completed, we will discuss our options and as a group, we will vote on the problem we wish to solve.  Our bug list is currently very short right now, so we really just have to work on figuring out what our options are.  So far we only have a few ideas regarding the bathrooms and ‘Akahi.  The issues in the bathrooms include the paper towel dispensers and the germs on the doors.  Issues at ‘Akahi include the long lines at the start of lunch, and the large amount of wasted food. We know that communication is essential in this project, so we have set up a google docs account as a way to communicate about the project.

The Lorax

The lorax was a great movie that gave a story about the environment and how there are only a limited amount of recourses.  The story started when the onceler shows up and sees a forest of truffula trees, he realizes that he can make thneeds out of them.  A thneed is a fine something that all people need and that he can make a profit out of it.  Through cutting down the truffula trees he encounters creatures called the lorax.  The lorax is a creature that lives in the truffula trees and they speak for the trees because they have no tongues.  When the onceler had been making the thneeds he had polluted the air, water, and had chopped down the special trees.  All of the animals had left because there was nothing to live with.  The lorax and the rest of the animals left because there was no habitat to live in.  The movie was a great example to show that if we don’t conserve and manage all of our recourses our world could end up like the one that the onceler lived in. 

The Lorax

The Lorax taught a valuable lesson. The Lorax is a story about the tree loving Lorax and the greedy Onceler. When the Onceler shows up, he notices a forest of truffula trees. He realizes that these natural resources could be profitable by making "THNEEDS" out of them. Thneeds are a "fine something" that people could use in their everyday life. In the process of making these thneeds, the onceler polluted the air, the water, and deforested the special truffulas. The lesson that was brought out of this story, was that natural resources can run out. At the beginning of the story when the forest was plentiful, there was no problem. However, as more and more trees started to get whacked down, the resource depleted, eventually leading to air pollution, and other resource pollution. I thought this movie was a good environmental awareness movie, because event though it was a cartoon, it held a very valuable message.

Blogpost #2 - The Lorax

I was surprised when I finished watching The Lorax because I enjoyed it and it actually had an important message.  The big picture involved industry, economy, and the environment.  In a world filled with constant depletion of natural resources, this movie is especially important.  It is a reminder that resources can run out.  If we aren't careful and we deplete our resources, then species can disappear.  In the movie, the Once-ler gradually cuts down all the truffula trees in order to craft "Thneeds" (an invention he thinks everyone will need).  The Lorax live in the truffula trees, and as the trees disappear, so do the Lorax.  Near the end of the movie, the Onceler gives the last truffula seed to the boy and tells him to plant it so that the fauna and Lorax are able to return.  Overall this movie is great for spreading environmental awareness.  It does a good job of capturing industries who are constantly using up resources to make a profit.  I think that after people watch this movie, they will be environmentally conscious and will refrain from wasting resources.