Essential Project Design Reflection – Project II Isabella Tyler

Please use the expandable boxes to describe, verify, and substantiate the following components of your
project.
Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skills
Describe how the project is focused on teaching key knowledge and understanding derived from
standards, and success skills including critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, and self-
management.

Our project focused on this importance of critical thinking, along with perseverance. It also focused on
standards topics such as the use of measurements (length, width, height, angles, etc.). When given this printer,
it allows students to think critically about how they could create such a thing into an object that could now be
used in everyday life. They are given obstacles such as the shape of the device and the many parts that may or
may not interfere with their designs. By working with a teach, we were able to come up with many different
ideas on what to make out of the printer but also work together to find solutions to any problems that had
occurred during the design process. There were points where we had to work on a certain part of the project
alone and this is where self-management came in. We had to make sure that what we were doing was not only
correct but would be beneficial to the project to prevent any setbacks from occurring.

Academic Language
Explain what content areas are involved in your project and how using the language of the content area
and its standards will helps you and your students better understand the concepts of the discipline.

The content areas used during this project was mathematics along with engineering. Throughout the design
and building process, we encountered a lot of academic language that would need to be understood by
students if they were going to recreate this project. The use of the language helped us build a deeper
understanding of how different measurements and parts work together in order to achieve the higher goal of
creating the pinball machine. Different academic language that was used was length, width, height, angle, etc.
By using these words, it can help students relay messages when collaborating for them to create this deeper
understanding of how to build something new.

Challenging Problem or Question

Explain how the project is based on a meaningful problem to solve or a question to answer which was
open-ended and engaging.
As we worked on our project, we encountered many problems/obstacles that tested our critical thinking and
problem-solving skills. One of the problems was wondering how we were going to fit the pinball machine base
into the actual printer. While there could have been many solutions to this problem, we decided to raise it up
to the top of the printer’s shell in order to maximize space for the performance. Another was how do we angle
the pinball machine in a way that the ball was able to shoot up the tunnel but also be able to fall down the base
of the machine without compromising either of those things. There are many different solutions based on how
strong our ball launcher was, how many pieces were on the base of the machine, how long the machine is, and
what part of the machine we were tilting (I.e. the base in the center or tilting the entire machine). These are all
different solutions that can be determined based on personal preference and collaboration with a team that
allows the students to apply the content area specific material with many different outcomes available.

Was the problem or question challenging for you? How do you know?
Yes, it was because we knew that going into this design that it was going to be extremely difficult to execute
since we had minimal knowledge on how to create a pinball machine. It took us many hours to brainstorm
different ideas and to collaborate with each other in order to come up with solutions. Many times, with the
previous problems stated, it was all trial and error. Sometimes we had some great ideas, but they simply did
not achieve what we were looking for, thus sending us back to the drawing board. It tested us on our
knowledge of math and engineering, which we all had plenty of mathematical knowledge but minimal
engineering experience.

Sustained Inquiry
Describe the evidence you generated questions, found and used resources, asked further questions, and
developed answers and solutions.
We were questioning how we would even start off making the pinball machine. We then we wonder how many
pieces of the printer we could incorporate into the final pinball machine. We were stuck on how we would
allow the ball to launch but also be tilted enough for the ball to fall backwards.

Authenticity
Did the project have a real-world context, use real-world processes, tools, and quality standards, make a
real impact, and/or is connected society's concerns, interests, and identities? Substantiate your answer
with evidence.
I think this project allows students to be able to make that real-world connection to the academic material
being presented to them in class. Many times, students will question the use of material and how it can be used
outside of school and this is a great way to demonstrated that. It can also allow students who are intrigued by
this process to investigate potential jobs that could use similar techniques that are used for this project. You
also have the use of tools that students may not have encountered without this project, such as power tools,
different types of paints and glues, etc. Not only does the material connect with the real-world, but so does the
life-skills. This would be your critical thinking skills and the use of perseverance which can be great skills to
have after high school. With the high engagement that is most likely to occur with this project, it will allow
students to absorb the information in ways that maybe a lecture or worksheet could not.

Voice & Choice

Describe how the project allowed you to make some choices about the products you created, how you
worked, how you researched, and how you used your time.
It allowed me to have free range in the design and building process as I collaborated with my group members.
We allowed each other to try ideas in a trial and error fashion so we could find the best solution to any
problems we encountered. This project allowed us to work together as a team while being able to think
independently and presenting our ideas. When researching, we decided to find any tutorials on how to build a
pinball machine so we could get some inspiration on the design. Overall, we spent a lot of time deconstructing
the printer and then trying to figure out the configuration of the pinball base.

Reflection
In what ways did you reflect on what and how you learned, and on the project’s design and
implementation?
I learned that there is almost always going to be problems that you will encounter during the process. It is
important to work through the problems to find solutions. I realized that there was a lot of math skills needed
to build the machine. We often would need to use tools to make sure that certain parts were flat

Critique & Revision

Explain how you were able to give and receive feedback on your work, in order to revise your ideas and
products or conduct further inquiry.
We gave feedback to each other when it came to revise the work that we had done. We often would ask other
groups what they thought we should do for certain parts of the machine and sometimes they would want to
assist us. We were lucky when Joe and Cody aided in cutting down certain parts for us.

Public Product
Explain how you were able to demonstrate what you learned through your presentation. What did you
learn from your audience?
I was able to describe how we encountered a lot of problems and what steps we took to find a solution to the
problems. We also demonstrated how the pinball machine worked and how we created each piece for the
machine. I learned that everyone thought we were in over our heads for our project, but people were
impressed that we stuck with it and made it work.