Ian Waggoner
Overall, this entire project was fun but also extremely stressful. There were many days when I felt overwhelmed and as if we were never going to be able to finish the bench. Like early on we had a lot of trouble trying to get the nichrome wire to heat up properly and actually had to get a different kind of wire and ultimately give up on trying to get the entire bench to heat up. Despite the stress and worry, the three of us did grow closer and learned how to work with each other. Additionally, this project really showed us what it would be like to actually work in an engineering field and have a time limit to plan and construct a product. I kind of do wish that we had chosen something else, something smaller, to work on rather than the bench but in the end it payed off. In the future I would recommend choosing to go with something smaller and cheaper. I really wish we had known that we only had a 50-dollar budget to work with at the beginning of the project but oh well. While I don’t plan on becoming an engineer in any way shape or form, I do think that this project was very insightful and taught me many things about working with time limits and limited resources. It also taught me how important it is to have a backup plan. Over all this project was a great way to learn new things and refine our skills!
Emma Leo
This project was a great example of what the actual field is going to be like. I really enjoyed working with my classmates to create a product. Yes, it was frustrating at times, but when everything came together, we were proud of our work. There are a couple of things I would change about this project however, but it's nothing major. I would tell students about their budget at the beginning of the project instead of when it comes time to actually order the materials needed. We ended up spending some of our own money on the project, totaling to about $100 and while I didn't mind that much, it's still an inconvenience when we could've just picked a cheaper idea. I feel pretty bad about having to say that we were rushed because our metal was on back-order because that was something that could've been avoided by ordering it earlier. I feel like if students need to order metal for their project, they should know that it takes a long time and meet with Mr. Stephens way before they even start thinking about building. I know research is important too and it depends on your product, but some things take a long time to make, and we certainly did not have enough time to build our product. There was even a loose end to the product that nobody seemed to point out and that was that there was an empty spot on the bench that was supposed to be for a power box, but since nobody asked, we didn't address it. Thanks for the engineering experience!
Wyatt Davy
Well i cant believe that i have completed this huge project, i never though that i would see the day. This project has been one of the most fun things that i have done in school. I loved that we could basically build anything that you could think of, having that much creative freedom is awesome. When we first began the process of building the bench and all of our metal was not being delivered i had very little hopes of actually getting the project done. With the help of my two great partners Emma and Ian we managed to finish even with the set backs. Also when we tried to get the heating component to work and nothing seemed to help i thought all hope was lost. Then we ordered a new type of wire and that fixed the problem for a while but we still couldn't heat up the wire to the desired temperature that we wanted. IT turns out that the power boxes that we were using had an automated cut of switch when then wire would get too hot. we did the calculations and the minim amount of volts needed was around 36 and there was no way we could do that. Luckily we had an awesome help from and electrician that explained to us what was wrong so we thought we would just explain the problem. Other that that i loved this project and i am genuinely going to miss this class and the amazing teacher. Thanks for a great 4 years Mrs. Z.