Teaming and Communication:

We started out by getting an idea and agreeing on it. The problem was that we did this three times because the teachers would not allow us to do the projects we were suggesting. We then worked together on finding the materials that we needed to make our project work. We showed our work to the teachers and they agreed that this would work. We at that point found ourselves a mentor and he helped us further our project. We then finished the assembly of the project and started on this website, and once we finish, we will have a finished project.

Research and Innovation:

Our team worked on this project late in the game. We had researched two previous projects, a double-decker bridge and a methane digester. When we chose those projects, they were rejected two weeks later for each, which cut significantly into our time. But we already had a design for our methane digester, so we came up with a topic that would work with the same design, a water evaporator and condenser. Since we couldn’t use a fire, we decided to use a pressure cooker to produce the steam and we used a copper tube to transport the steam. This was the way that we showed innovation.

Three lessons our team learned:

1.   Patience: Our group was told twice that our ideas were not appropriate and we had to start again. This tested our patience, especially when everyone else had already started the process of getting their materials. We learned that there was nothing we could do about it but continue to work.

2. Teamwork: We had to work together in order to get caught up to everyone else. Though we fought a lot, we still managed to get our act together and get the work done, which eventually ended with a prototype and a completed project.

3. Innovation: Our group had to improvise in order for our project to succeed. For something that hasn’t been made before, there weren’t standard parts for this project, so we had to improvise some parts and customize others, like the opening at the top of our pressure cooker.