Tinkercad/Simscale
Tinkercad and Simscale were both online software that we used to model different experiments. Tinkercad allowed us to model experiments with circuits and all of the related components. It was a useful way to get more familiar with circuits without needing the materials to physcially build them. Simscale is a software connected to Onshape. It allows to to simulate the way structures will react in different situations, like heat and pressure.
Experiments
We originally attempted to use the 3D printers to print molds but the 3D printer didn't like the material that we used so it died. We spent a long time struggling with that and trying to fix it but ultimately failed. After that we were a month behind and had no way to do a large part of our project so we just decided to use bowls to try and make hollow ice domes. After multiple failed attempts and a few broken bowls we had domes to run our tests with, even if we had to modify our tests slightly.
Lab Report
We conducted multiple experiments involving domes of ice, too see if ice was actually resilient enough to provide basic protection against the elements. Tests were conducted using rocks and sand. Our results showed that ice was surprisingly resilient, especially when it had just been removed from the freezer and hadn't started melting yet. As long as the ice stayed fully frozen it barely even was dented by dropping a rock on it from 3 feet high. Our lab report included descriptions of our experiments and how they would be performed, tables with our experiment results, pictures, and an analysis of our results.
Reflection
This step didn't go that great for our group. We got really caught up on the 3D printer thing and that put us way behind. As soon as it broke we should have just started trying new ideas. I have definitely learned from my mistakes and in the future I will give up right away when things go wrong. However, despite all the negative parts of this step our group did learn a lot of things. We learned how to become more adaptable when things don't go to plan. We had to readjust an important part of our project and we did that fairly well. We also used the time we were trying to fix the 3D printer to start on future steps and improve on past assignments, like completing 3D models.