This is it...

Wow my final blog post.... Never thought I would feel sad about this being it. Overall, I enjoyed the project. Although this has been one of the most stressful projects EVER, I also felt the most accomplished and most proud of myself when this was over. I think because it originated from us and it wasn't like we followed different guidelines from a teacher that I feel that we were really independent. We as a group needed to make decisions and solve our own problems. It just felt more like real life.Things that went well were that we finished the project with two bags and our second bag protected the laptop. I also think that our presentation went well. I personally like our final paper and I know Mr. Blake will too. (Well he better or else there will be some Punching Face going on :)) Things that did not go as planned were everything. Our construction process was heavily altered and adapted because of different sewing problems. Our theory was good but actually making the bag turned out to be harder. I learned a lot of life lessons. I learned that working in a group is harder because you need to rely on others. You need to be able to trust your group members. We also learned accountability. It is a different story when it is also someone else's grade on the line. All of our actions affected everyone in the group. I learned how to sew a laptop sleeve and how to hand sew a double thread cross stitch. I also learned how to use Google Docs. I would have liked it if we could have picked our groups. I mean I love my group but I would have thought it would be easier to work with other girls, just because of different work ethics. I would also have liked to see this as a class, instead of being incorporated to a Physics class. The idea of improving Kamehameha is great and if this could be translated into a class, it would be even better. Overall, I kind of think I was doing science. I think it was more like Mr. Blake tricked us into doing science. Most of the challenges I felt came from working with the group and not so much from the science aspect. But our whole bag needed to be science based, so I guess we did incorporate science. Thanks Mr. Blake for everything!!! We love yah!!!

This was a good but yet difficult project.Personally, I thought we learned more about life skills then we did about physics. And I have no problem with that. Some of the things I learned to do was work with a deadline, and cooperate with team mates. It is very difficult to work with a dead line when not all of your group members do their work. I experienced this a lot this project. But we just had to learn to get along and finish what we needed. I thought that the laptop bag would be easy to make, but it ended up being very difficult. We got stuck in a lot of situations where things just kept going wrong over and over. It comes to a point where you don't know what to do any more. But we pulled through and finished this project strong. I felt that towards the end of this project was when our group worked the hardest realizing the quarter was almost over. Some of the things I thought went very well was the presentation. I thought we did pretty good. I also thought our final bag didn't turn out that bad. Some of the things that didn't go as planned were just about everything. Our original plan for our laptop bag included a zipper and more padding, but that didn't work out that well. Mainly because we found it very difficult to sew on a zipper. And also because teneille was unable to help us for over a week because she was at Merrie Monarch. The other thing my group struggled with was blog posting. We started off week, but then towards the middle of our project we did well. But at the end, we started slacking again. I definitely learned that Group projects are not for me. But i also learned that in life, we need to know how to work in groups. I am very happy we got this project because it taught me how to talk with my group member and collaborate through all of our problems. Something I think would make this project better would be to get rid of the physics aspect of it. I know that its a physics class, but for this type of project, it was very difficult to find and appropriate problem to solve relating to physics. I think that if you just did improving the school in general, there would be a lot more creative projects that really help out the school. The one other thing i didnt like was the blog posts. I think that a blog post every night is a little unneeded. I think that maybe every other night, or just days we have class would be more reasonable. During this project, I do think i did science... just not quite physics. We used science in a matter of experimenting and problem solving. I think that these lessons would come more in handy later in life then learning actual physics.

FTW

My overall thoughts on this project was that it was great. I enjoyed researching and putting together an idea and making it into an action. This showed me that I could change Kamehameha for the better. This was also an educational project as well as a fun project. I got to experience presenting a presentation in the Kamehameha Schools Auditorium.

Things that went well were that we actually made a prototype laptop bag that could solve the problem of cracked screens. Also I feel like our presentation went very well. We all had speaking parts and explained our project in great detail. We pulled together as a team in the end and ultimately won over the crowd.
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The things that did not go as planned, was our first plan for our bag. Since we didn't have an industrial sized sewing machine, we couldn't build our first design. Also sometimes blog posts were not posted on time by the right people. Another thing was getting the material. This was a challenge because some of us didn't have the transportation.

I learned how to build a laptop. I also learned that we can do small things to make Kamehameha a better place. I learned how to be a part of a team and that it takes everyone's cooperation to make a successful group. Also I learned time management because if we didn't turn in one of the assignments, it affected our grade exponentially. Also we learned how to be punctual because if we went over time, our grade would be affected.

I'd like to see a change in the amount of time given to brainstorm an idea, and implement. I felt that we were rushed into picking the laptop bag and if allocated more time, maybe a better idea would have came out of our group. Also if we could have had more time to implicate the idea. One because it would help us to make a more solid design and two because it would help us to gather more data to see if our idea was a success.

I felt that I was sorta doing science. But not really, but now that I think about it, I feel like this was very physics related because we had to calculate the amount of padding to cushion the fall so that the screen would break. Also we tried to find the force on the screen that was needed for it to crack.

FINAL BLOG

After a long, grueling 4th Quarter, we're finally done. I never thought we would have spent a whole quarter finding, creating, cooperating, and presenting our own Physics project. When we were first given the task, I thought that it was going to be boring, and easy. I would input my ideas, and let the rest of the group expand, and finish the project. But when we were put in a situation where if one member didn't pull their weight, everyone in the group fell behind. I liked the idea of finding, creating, and solving our own problems and solving them through physics; but we all know now that not all the problems in the world can be solved through physics. What I believe went well throughout the project was our group's ability to work around, and problem solve all the road blocks that showed up as we went along. Our group was able to change our whole project, and solve that new problem overnight. The hardest part, or the parts that didn't go so well, was the actual creation part of the project. Our group had many communication problems, and we all had this  "I'll do it when I can" attitude, which caused us to fall behind on many blogposts, and we just went with the flow. If we didn't have something done we just did it as soon as we could. Which is still good, but we could have cooperated more as a team. What I learned was that when we finish High School there will be millions of problems, and we'll have to choose which ones we will overcome. And when we choose those problems we have to be all in on solving them, if not it won't work out. Also, it's easier working in a group because you have other people to rely on. If someone wasn't able to, or forgot to do something, we worked as a group to make sure it got done as soon as possible.
If there was one thing I could've changed about this project, it would be the longevity of it. If this project was on-going, throughout the year. Our group's would have more time to find problems to solve, create better ideas, and create those solutions. Also, group's could collect more data, and actually see what is going right, and what is going wrong with their solutions. Which we could then fix, and see over a longer period of time if our solutions are actually working, and whether or not our solutions are making Kamehameha a better place.
Most people don't see this project as being the "Science" that we learn in classrooms, but to be honest, everything we did was science. Science is based on the Scientific Method, and each group had to go through each step to accomplish their solutions. Almost every aspect of what we did could be, or is in some way Physics/Science related. With a few modifications this project would be way more awesome. Hopefully more students will get a chance to experience what we did.

Change

This blog post was supposed to be for friday

Friday's presentations made me realize one thing. Everyone had the same problems as we did. Everyone had difficulties with their groups or had setbacks in their design. Everyone had to adapt their plans and original designs to fit the problem. It made me feel better that we were not the only ones with this problem. I really hope that we did make a change and that all this work wasn't for nothing. We as a group put too much effort into this to not make a change. I can see that everyone put a lot of effort into their projects too. So I ask myself did we make a change? Only time will tell... This image was found at http://sk8rrboi.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/change/

Presentation :)

I am throughly surprised with our final presentation. It went well :) Im really proud of my group for pulling it together. I think that once we got there, we realized that this is something serious. We went up and were prepared. Although we went a little over time, I am happy and content because I rather be over time then under time. We all participated during the presentation and presented our slides with accurate info. Something that wasn't said at the presentation was that although our bags didn't make that big of an immediate impact, it will hopefully have the school consider making new laptop bags for the students. The idea of the a new laptop bag was presented and hopefully, our school will take our request into consideration. Its more about intiating a change and stirring up our school perspective. That is the impact we made through this project.

One more day

The days have passed quickly and the presentation day is upon us. We will use class time tomorrow to practice our presentation and make it perfect for the people that are going to observe our idea. I think that this will be an educational presentation to let the public know about the ongoing problems of cracked screens. I believe that if we can solve this problem. We can save the school and students, thousands of dollars in repairs. We pretty much just made a new and improved laptop bag that takes away the risks of people forgetting to zip up the bag. But tomorrow will be fun.

http://www.e-socrates.org/file.php/43/images/presentation.jpg

Closer

We are coming increasingly close to the presentation day, and we have a base powerpoint and almost complete bag. I think that we can pull this off. We just have to add more detail to our powerpoint and complete the bag by gluing the last pads on. We must meet out of class at least once because we need to make the best possible presentation because of the amount of people that are coming. As long as we all know what we are talking about, we should have an easy time talking about our product.

Presentation

Our presentation is on friday, we have two different designs to be presented. We may only present one though because it is the original design. It all depends if we can finish it in time. The factors would be if we can get more epoxy to glue the pads on. And also if the group meets to finish it. This would be the difference between us using the old design or using the new one. Either way I think that we will have a good presentation to solve a great problem.

http://21cif.com/tutorials/micro/mm/activelinks/images/presentation.gif

Comparing different designs of our bag

Through out this project, we have gone through many different laptop bag designs. Our first design was oriented around the idea of strapping the laptop into the case for maximum protection. This was a great idea, but it was very hard to execute. The hard parts were to sew the bag together, and to sew the zipper onto it. The zipper was definitely the hardest part of this project. Our second design was created by Christina. She made a little pouch for the laptop to fit into. The only problem was that we hadn't put any padding in it yet. But now that there is padding, its a good design. The final design we came across for our laptop bag was like a satchel. It had a flap for the laptop to be put inside of it. Because this was our final bag, we put a lot of padding which makes this bag the safest. We've learned that sewing is not east to do. And neither is executing your plans.

Another Work Day

So today were working and thinking on our own about friday (our presentation). Some of the small things we need to work out now are simple. First we need to figure out what were wearing of friday. It has to be something that looks nice and is appealing to the audience. The next thing we have to work out for friday is who's speaking which parts of the presentation. We have to plan out every little detail so that everything works out well. I think that we should separate the speaking parts by who knows the topic the best. For example, we can have Darin talk about the glueing of the epoxy because he knows that the best. While I might talk about our original plan of putting stepping stones on the dirt walk way because that was my idea. The more we know about our topic, the easier it will be to talk about it in front of the audience.

http://onewebhosting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/blog_powerpoint1.jpg

OMG Becky look at that cushion!

I know this should have gone in an earlier post but I knew this was a problem that we forgot to address in the blog that we overcame. Before sewing the bag, we thought that the yoga mat would be a sufficient amount of padding to protect the computer. We were completely wrong. The yoga mat padding did not work because it was too thin. It would not provide enough increase in the impact time to make a difference in the force the laptop felt when dropped. Matt brought a few peices of a gray padding that he found at his house. To me it was a great idea. The problem was that we did not have enough for both bags. Thankfully Tyler Luke found a similar padding that we were able to use on the second bag. Because of the size and density, the padding is perfect. It is very cushiony and will work well with our second bag. Look how thick it is!!

Evaluating Presentations

After finishing the presentation, I was extremely nervous today for people to see our presentation. I knew it was not the most high tech or pretties, but I knew it would get the job done. Matt and I worked on the presentation last night. Darin contributed some ideas. While Matt and I were finishing up the presentation, Darin and Tyler were glueing the padding to our second bag. As we headed over to Darcy's presentation, it gave me ideas for our powerpoint. Darcy's powerpoint had a little diagram that gave the measurements of their composting bin. I wanted to construct a diagram similar to that but with our bags. Because of my lack of tech savyness, I am definitely going to need someone's help. I also wanted to make our presentation more pretty. Darcy's presentation was really nice so as a group we need to work on the look of our presentation. I want administration to take us seriously. I wanted something like this but more personalized to our design. This image was found at http://www.craftfreely.com/free-knitting-patterns/preview-pattern.cfm?id=1477

Our solution to sewing the padding: Bag 2

After having the bag #2 be sewn by Tanielle, I was beside myself with happiness. I was utterly happy because I we actually got another bag down. I didn't know if it was possible, but thankfully our group pulled together to get it down. Darin and Tyler decided suggested that we sew on the padding. I refused because it took me forever and a day plus a few more weeks, to hand sew all of the corners. It was too much work with not enough time. Darin came up with the idea that we would glue the padding to the bag. He used a special glue that would be a srtong enough adhesive to hold the padding. To fit the bag, they had to cut the padding into long strips and place them in the bag.

Our solution to sewing the padding: Bag 1

In our first bag, Matt suggested that we would sew the corners instead of the whole thing. The problem with sewing the corners is that it takes a lot of work, because the stitches would be done by hand. It was very tedious work because after an hour of hand sewing, the thread gives up and refuses to go through the needle. Nonetheless, we completed the bag. And like Mr. Blake said in class, it is kind of funny that it would be the girl doing the sewing. Just a little sexist but if that what it takes to get a good grade, the so be it. The picture is off the padding in the front. We placed this padding on the four corners of the bag. This padding is good at increasing the impact time. Not bad for free hand :)

Time is just flying by. Our presentations are this friday and we seem to be a little behind schedule. We've overcome many problems already, so this is just one more hurtle to get over. Our bag is finally finished and will hopefully provide more protection then our current school cases. We definitely worked hard through out the course of this project; even though it might now show too well by our final product. We learned that life is hard and not all things come easy. Things may seem easy, but when you actually get into the real thing, its very difficult to keep your original idea working.

Adding the Padding (Rhyme Time!!)

So I decided to add padding to my bag. The main issue we were having with my version of a laptop bag is the padding. The fabric I used to originally make the bag was a quilt material. Because the yoga mat and other padding won't fit into the sewing machine, Matt gave us the idea of sewing at the corners earlier. Because I was not able to sew these past two days, I decided to use his suggestion. I am currently sewing corners of the padding down to the bag. I am also going to cut parts of a foam and attach it to another part of the bag to add extra padding. I hope it turns out well. It is hard because I am sewing it by hand, but I really want a good grade on this project. I hope my group likes it tomorrow. You can see the sewing that I did to the corners. I did multiple overlappings with the thread so it would stay. I plan to apply the padding you see in the corner to the other side of the bag.

A New Plan...

Earlier today our group fumbled through many different ideas on how to finish our bag as soon as possible. While Christina and Matt were discussing what they were going to do tonight. Tyler and I were creating a new plan on how to quickly finish the bag by Wednesday. We combined Christina's idea on padding the inside of her bag, with Matt's idea on how to stitch the fabric around the padding to ensure it would be secured to the inside of the bag. Our plan requires creating a replica of Christina's bag from our leftover material, then using the old fabric we cut out for the previous bag design as the material that would secure the padding on the inside of the bag. Since our group could not decide on what type a padding to use, I proposed that we use both the yoga mat and the foam padding. The yoga mat would sandwich the foam padding creating a spring-like padding that would compress on contact, thus increasing the impact time, which would decrease the chances of damage. Since we already know how Christina built her bag, we could easily replicate the bag, then adapt that design to provide better padding. But this will only work if our group can agree, and work together. Also Tanielle is willing to help sew the bag, but will only be able to sew either after school on Tuesday, or on Wednesday.

CHALLENGES

Today was THE MOST frustrating day so far. our group ran into more problems than before. The zipper issue came up, and then came the idea that we velcro the bag together, which might possibly work, and then our group decided we modify Christina's prototype. As of right now I, Darin, do not know where our project is at. we have less than one day left to finish this bag, and our group is trying to find a million and one ways to create a bag. Me and Tyler have a plan, but I'm not sure if our group wants to do it. Our plan will be discussed with the group, and hopefully implemented.

Help from my Aunty

Last week thursday I went over to my aunties house so that she could help me sew the bag together. We got a lot accomplished. I think that the hardest part of this bag is the zipper. It is very hard to sew it on perfectly so that it will work. My aunty changed the design just a little so that it would be easier to sew together. First we cut out 2 new pieces of fabric. Then we sewed it together almost like a pillow case. Next I put in the padding and sewed the case shut. All i have to do next is put on the zipper. This seems to be the most difficult.

THE EVIL ZIPPER

Matt is having the same problem that I have. Our greatest enemy right now is the EVIL zipper!! I have never realized how hard it is to sew a zipper! The problem is that you have to line one layer up perfectly with the other layer. It is also hard to sew the zipper on. At first our team decided that we would sew the zipper on the outside, but it would not work because the stitch on the zipper would not hold. Tyler suggested we staple it but I don't feel that administration would take us seriously if we presented a stapled bag. I suggested that we superglue the zipper on, but like the stitch, it would not hold the zipper. Our other teammates are not realizing how hard it is to sew a zipper, but we are now discussing other options like super strong velcro. I think the zipper wins this round...

Presentation and Final Paper

Now that Matt has an accessible sewing machine, we as a group need to concentrate on our presentation and our final paper. I have a feeling it will sneak up on us if we don't start now. Maybe we can present the two types of laptop bags that we have made to the board. I really do not want to look dumb in front of the large crowd that we are presenting to. Personally, I hope that everyone in our group will contribute to the presentation. I think we are going to make a powerpoint. Maybe we can show a step by step piece of how we made the laptop bag. Because we dont have a picture of our powerpoint, I placed the powerpoint icon. It can be found at http://soe.ucdavis.edu/ms0809/180Sec1/DooleyJ/Web/Power%20Point/powerpt.jpeg

Another day

Today was another average day, our group did not meet because we didn't have class. But hopefully Matt is working on the bag with his newfound sewing machine. This new idea for the bag is that instead of sewing the pads down, we will just sew the fabric together so that it will hold it into place. This is a much better idea seeing that we dont have an industrial size machine that can sew something so big. After this is done, we will have our bag that will be ready to put into action.

Starting over AGAIN

So, unfortunately our laptop bag plan didn't go as planned, and now we have a prototype that is very well made (Props to Christina for saving the group's ***), but most likely won't be able to protect a computer from damage if it was to be tested. Therefore, our group decided hat we would move forward with our efforts to try and sew together the laptop bag. This time, Matt suggested that the mat be sewn into the fabric, and be enclosed, instead of being sewn onto the fabric. This will save time, and hopefully solve the problem Christina ran into earlier. Matt will try and sew as much of the bag as possible, and our group will move forward from there. Sorry there is no picture to go along with this post, but unfortunately our group spent today doing nothing, AGAIN.

UMMM Im speechless

Today was an upside down topsy turvy day that 2 out of the 4 people in my group even know about. Our plan was that the bag that we have been working on in class was supposed to sewn by Tanielle. That did not work out. So we went to our second plan. We decided that my aunty would sew it. Because of scheduling, we only started sewing tonight. After trying to sew one of the yoga mat paddings to the fabric, I realized that the yoga mat was a bad idea for padding. We would need an industrialized sewing machine because it is WAY too much padding to sew. With time ticking down, Christina, Aunty Alysa, and Dad designed a new laptop bag. We made a laptop bag using quilt and velcro. I sewed it myself. Im really frustrated today because all the work that we did just went down the drain. I made a bag and it is a good sleeve. It is definitely lighter then our current lap top bag but we need to add more cushioning. Tomorrow comes a new day and hopefully less stress :)

Rushing to meet our timeline

Today was a class work day. We talked amongst each other to see how we were going to sew the case together. Were slowly getting things together which means we might make our deadline. Christina is going to see her aunty after school today and hopefully get this all sewn. Although this is only a prototype, it is very important to our success. This will show us what we need to do to improve when we make our second model. Were planning on inputting a plastic lair in order to hold the top screen into the case. We will probably do this after the bag is sewn together. Something else that we might find a problem is sewing on the zipper. The zipper I bought was too big, so we are going to have to cut it and make it fit.

Questions

So im not too sure, exactly how the bag is being swen. We need to collaborate as a group as to how we are sewing the bag. It is hard because we all have an idea of how the bag is supposed to look but Im not too sure if we all have the same idea. We need to sew the bag in the next two days. I really hope we can get this done. Im glad that everyone brought the things they need though :)

Fun Times

We spend last period with all of our materials. Luckily everyone brought their things. We got to measure and cut out a rough draft of our case. This time was spend problem solving and also discussing what modifications were to be made so that the bag would be light, yet durable. We have a sort of denim material for the outside and the inside. Then a yoga matt material for the padding. To add to the safety of our laptop. We will be adding elastic straps to hold the laptop to the bag. And now we just need to sew.

http://neverfails.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/sewing.jpg