Step 1: Identify the Problem
Problem: Stretch a paper bridge between two blocks.
Constraints: ~Must not let it touch the table
~must use only paper
~must not kill, only maim.
Constraints: ~Must not let it touch the table
~must use only paper
~must not kill, only maim.
Step 2: Brainstorm Solutions
So we sat around staring at each other, my three other group members and me, until we realized we only had about five minutes left. Panicking, we started to spout off ideas. This is fine, even encouraged, at this stage in the design process, except for the fact that the extent of our ideas was pretty much laying the paper flat on across the blocks and variations on such. So we played around with the paper for a bit, hoping an idea would come to us, and practiced origami, until one group member magically came up with the idea of folding the corners of two slips of paper over each other in a way my small mind has still not managed to grasp. And that is the story of our brainstorming process.
Step 3: Develop a Solution
Now, if you read Step 2, you can probably guess which idea we went with, but if you can't, it was the magical pinch-it-in-the-middle idea. It was easy, stable, and could stretch as far as we wanted it to.
Step 4: Construct and Test a Prototype
Well, you see...we already did that. As magical group member created idea, prototype was being built. We did test it, though, to see if we could make it longer, which gave us an extra few inches.
Step 5: Evaluate the Solution
It worked.
Step 6: Present the Solution
So we call our teacher over to check our results, and competing with the rest of the class for the title of "King of the Engineering Class at Watkins Mill High School, Period 2 in room A001 for the one day known as Today", won the title. Huzzah.