Tech Fair 2016 - Criteria A - Inquiring and Analysing

Introduction

I will be taking part in the annual technology fair at EIS Meadows with my partner, Gabor. We have experience in creating quality technological projects as we were selected last year and the year before to showcase our work at the previous tech fairs with different partners. This year we decided to work together and hope to win the prize as there is less competition for us this year. Tech fair requires a group to come up with a useful idea and bring it to life using various technology related skills that will be acquired in the process of creation. In this blog post I will describe my partner and my two possible ideas for the fair.

Idea 1 + Idea Analysis

For the first idea, we thought about assembling a cleaning robot. It will be a simple construction of a robot designed for moving around and cleaning the surface under it. We believe it will be useful for anybody who does not have the time to clean the floor, someone who is physically disabled or in case the person is too lazy. This project will require some research as we have no experience in creating a robot and materials for the project itself. There are of course benefits, weaknesses, opportunities and risks that come with this idea.

Strengths	Weakness
- Easy to use - Time saving - Takes up little space - Durable	- Looks ugly - Requires recharge/replacement of battery - May take long to assemble - Possibility of malfunctioning
Opportunity	Risks
- To learn about robotics - Robot could be radio controlled - Robot could be made more visually appealing	- Small, could be lost or people could trip over it/step on it/electrocute - Could bring up dust and cause asthma

 

Materials Required:

- Cleaning brush

- Motor

- Fan

- Battery holder

- Superglue

- Electricity wires

Possible Research and Action Plan

Activity	Materials Required	Primary Research	Secondary Research
Finding out how to create a cleaning robot	Internet tools such as YouTube	Possibly interviewing people who have experience in creation of robotics	Watching tutorials / reading up about creating the robot on the internet
Designing the robot on paper by brain-storming the mate-rials needed and making a rough sketch	Pen, paper, ruler	-	-
Acquiring materials and building the robot	Money, materials above	Going to stores to look for the required materials or taking them from home	-

Advantages

- Doesn't take up much space

- Doesn't make noise

- Automatic

- Very useful

- Easy to use

- Easy to fix

- Simple design

Disadvantages

- Easy to break

- May malfunction

- Easy to trip over

- Can be lost

- Visually unappealing

- Requires recharge or change of batteries

- Does not clean a large area / takes long to clean
- We have no experience creating robots

Idea 2 + Idea Analysis

Our idea number two involves exploring the features and possibilities of a simple phone application creator that can be used for educational purposes. My partner, Gabor, and I plan to create a replica of 'Managebac' for Android phone system users as Managebac is only available on IOS platforms. This would allow for efficient communication between students and teachers.

Strengths	Weakness
- Convenient student to teacher communication - No cost to make - Will be made easy to use and visually appealing - Overall helps students be more organised	- May be different to Managebac - May not work as intended and become difficult to use - Teachers will have to use Managebac and our app
Opportunity	Risks
- Some kind of security system might be installed to prevent the app being hacked - New skills of phone app development	- Vulnerable to hackers as we are inexperienced app creators

Materials Required:

- Application creating software

Possible Research and Action Plan

Activity	Materials Required	Primary Research	Secondary Research
Looking for the right app creator	Internet	-	Researching various easy to use app creating software
Learning to use the app creator and seeing how our idea can be implemented with the installed features of the app creator	App creating software	Exploring the features of the app creating software manually	Watching YouTube tutorials and guides on how to use the software
Creating the app	App creating software	Using the previously created plan to create the phone app	-

Advantages

- Generally a useful project.
- Easy access to schoolwork for students using Android platforms.
- Familiar to target audience.
- Communication between students and teachers.

Disadvantages

- Features and possibilities may be limited. The app creation software may be good but restricted to a free trial. The full version may be costly.
- Takes time to learn about app creation.
- Teachers may find using our app is inefficient, destroying the purpose of the project.

Design Brief and Chosen Idea

The idea Gabor and I have chosen to realise as our Tech Fair project was a phone application after thoroughly discussing and comparing the possibilities, ups and downs of both ideas. Thus far we have only found some viable websites and software that are fitting for the creation of our project. We have come up with some guidelines that we would like to achieve with the created product. General things that our phone app should feature despite the fact that it might be hard since we have no experience in creating phone apps:

- First and foremost, an attractive design

- Messaging feature such as the one on Managebac

- Lesson timetables

- Ways to contact teachers and head staff

- Educational resources and websites

- Various organisational tools