Engineering Design Process

 The Engineering Design Process

Step 1: Define

• Our team defined our problem as the need to move an object from point A to point B

Step 2: Ask

• Our biggest constraints were time and materials
• We only had 20 minutes to design and build our model
• We first researched different ways to make catapults out of KNEX

Step 3: Imagine 

• Our group decided almost immediately that we wanted to launch something using elastic energy
• Our options were then narrowed down too

1. A ballista
2. A catapult
3. A trebuchet

Step 4: Plan

• 
  Our group decided that a ballista would be the easiest to construct and drew out a rough sketch of our ideas
• We knew our materials had a rubber band that we could use to power the design and the KNEX pieces to build the structure

Step 5: Create

• We made the ballista to the best we could with the pieces we had and used a washer piece as ammo

Step 6: Test

• We tried to fire the ballista and the front was ripped off by the force of the rubber band

Step 7: Communicate

• We decided an extra layer to stabilize the front would probably be the best course of action

Step 8: Redesign

• We added that particular modification and a few other structural additions to make the build able to be pulled back

Final Product:

What I learned

• KNEX is not the best material to use if lots of force is going to be applied (They bend too easily)
• A way to attach the ammo to the launching mechanism is helpful and necessary
• Stability is key, especially when there is force involved