Our Word Problem:
We decided to address the issue of picking the right pet. Many people select the wrong pet and our survey determined if you should get a cat or a dog. This is a issue because people can get the wrong pet and end up abusing it or giving it to the pound. Our survey will make sure this does not happen. We used the nine step engineering design cycle to make our survey.
Step 1: Identify Need
Our initial need or problem was cats vs. dogs. The solution to this issue would be proving which was a better pet. We thought about this for a few days and decided to change it. The cats vs. dogs issue had limited solutions so we looked for a new idea. We then decided to research finding the right pet when buying a new pet.
Step 2: Research Problem We started our research by splitting into three teams. I researched dogs, Ryan researched cats, and Andersen researched general information about pets. We then put our research together to see what we had found. We summarized each article we read and annotated them so we could easily find information.
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Step 3: Develop Possible Solution
We developed 20+ possible solutions and then selected the most promising one. Our Solutions were very different but in the end we decided to make a survey. Our solutions were:
Decide on winner Decide which is better for different people / living conditions
Make a test that decides whether you should get a cat or dog or neither Inform people about each side and characteristics of each animal
Genetically modified dogs Decide that they are both bad
Decide which is better for different living conditions Decide cats are better (stop arguments)
Decide dogs are better (stop arguments) Decide that they are equal
Genetically modified cats Give everyone a cat and a dog Find a animal to replace them Train cats to rely on people more
Train cats to pee in the toilet Train dogs to work best with people
Train dogs to walk themselves Train kittens to retract their claws
Make it a law that you can’t argue Robot dogs
Robot cats Kill all cats
Kill all dogs Kill both cats and dogs
Make owning pets illegal Breed doats
Make people like dogs Make people like cats
Kill all humans Make a new perfect animal
Make humans act like pets Declaw every domestic cat
Decide on winner Decide which is better for different people / living conditions
Make a test that decides whether you should get a cat or dog or neither Inform people about each side and characteristics of each animal
Genetically modified dogs Decide that they are both bad
Decide which is better for different living conditions Decide cats are better (stop arguments)
Decide dogs are better (stop arguments) Decide that they are equal
Genetically modified cats Give everyone a cat and a dog Find a animal to replace them Train cats to rely on people more
Train cats to pee in the toilet Train dogs to work best with people
Train dogs to walk themselves Train kittens to retract their claws
Make it a law that you can’t argue Robot dogs
Robot cats Kill all cats
Kill all dogs Kill both cats and dogs
Make owning pets illegal Breed doats
Make people like dogs Make people like cats
Kill all humans Make a new perfect animal
Make humans act like pets Declaw every domestic cat
Step 5: Construct a Prototype
Our prototype was designed using google forms. We made a survey with seven questions. Those questions included "How much money are you willing to spend?" and How much extra exercise do you want?". We used different categories to find if you were a cat or dog person. A pro cat response would send you to a cat question and a pro dog response would send you to a dog question. In the end you could be all dog, somewhat dog, all cat, or somewhat cat.
Step 6: Test and Evaluate Prototype We tested our survey by giving it to a few classmates. They took the survey and told us how to change it. We also took the survey and we tested every possible solution. We found any issues in the survey that would mess it up. After evaluating our survey we added a new outcome. It said that you should not get a pet. This would come up if you said you were not willing to spend any money on your pet.
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Step 7: Communicate Desgin
We communicated our design by giving the link to our website to everyone. We put our website link on the board so everyone could easily type it in. Our classmates them took our survey and we found what types of pets people liked. Every one who took it also learned which pet they should buy. We ended up getting 29 responses.
Step 8: Redesign
After we got our results we changed our survey. We made the questions more specific by adding times and amounts. We added things like per day and money per year. We used the feedback from the classroom to make our survey even better.
Step 9: Repeat
We repeated the design cycle until we had a complete survey.
Reflection:
During this project I learned a lot about how I work as a group and as an individual. I learned that the fist idea you come up with is not necessarily the best. We wanted to do a dogs vs. cats project where we said which was a better pet. We wanted to stick with this idea but in the end we decided that we needed to change it. We were able to make a new issue that still related to cats and dogs.
Our group did a good job with time management. We used our Gantt chart to plan out the project. We used the chart to make sure we were able to finish our project in time. We set deadlines for our many different tasks like research and practicing our presentation. We also used the 3x5 rule to make our presentation interesting to the class. We used visual aids to show what we learned.
We could also improve on some things. We could practice our body language when we present. We could get more comfortable with what we are saying and we can use eye contact to make our presentation better.
Our group did a good job with time management. We used our Gantt chart to plan out the project. We used the chart to make sure we were able to finish our project in time. We set deadlines for our many different tasks like research and practicing our presentation. We also used the 3x5 rule to make our presentation interesting to the class. We used visual aids to show what we learned.
We could also improve on some things. We could practice our body language when we present. We could get more comfortable with what we are saying and we can use eye contact to make our presentation better.