Reflection: Luke says...

Pre-camp reflections

Read the introduction, objectives and theoretical background to the project and then answer the following questions:

- What interests you about this project?
Ans: Designing infrastructure has always interested me, designing it to suit people's needs and desires. The practicality of the design is also a very important point in infrastructure, for example, taking up less space, or putting the occupied space to its full potential use. This project will give me a brief experience of what it would be like in that type of economical world.

- What do you want to learn by doing this project?
Ans: I want to learn about how to conduct this project to its full practicality, to learn how to apply this to possible future careers that I may take up.

- What questions do you have about this project?
Ans: What types of career opportunities will I be able to apply my new gained knowledge from this project into?

- What do you personally want to have achieved by the end of this project?
Ans: I want to have achieved a successful final product and also bond with my group mates and get to know them better. My ultimate objective for this project, is to have fun!

Reflections on Plenary Sessions

For each plenary session, consolidate your learning by answering the following questions:

- What are your key learning points?

Ans: For the first plenary session by Prof Kerry Sieh, I learnt the many different effects from the movement of the plates of the earth like how the magnitude of the earthquakes can cause the damage on the people living in the area of the earthquake. The tsunamis caused by the movement of plates can be up to 25 meters tall. The way geologists tell the time period in which the tsunamis occur are from, for example, the bat’s droppings in the caves in concurrence with the remains from the tsunamis. Over the years, when earthquakes occur, the sea level will rise and land will start to sink lower.

For the second plenary session by Prof Seah Hock Soon, I learnt that the use of mathematics and physics is very vast in the world of animation. Geometry and algebra is used in the animation shapes. Special effects for the different animations like 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional animation are made using the calculus including limits, functions, derivatives and integrals. The laws of physics are also used for dynamics of fire, water and fabric movement. Different lighting is used to cast shadows on the objects to make them seem 3 dimensional. 2 dimensional animation requires drawing frames and coloring them repeatedly, and the cost is high because of all the labour, for example, the cost of making ‘The Lion King’ was 45 million US dollars, while the first 3 dimensional production, ‘Toy Story’, costed 30 million US dollars.

For the third plenary session by Prof Ma Jan, I learnt that Nano-technology is useful for various things like killing bacteria, and preventing cancerous tumors from growing bigger and developing into cancer, it can also be used for beauty purposes like the Nano-cell treatment for freckles. It is used to make water cleaner so that more seafood can reproduce and be in more abundant numbers. Nano-technology can also be used to make materials harder and more durable and resistant. Nano-technology is used to make a coating on cars that make the cars bullet and scratch proof. The army is going to put Nano-technology into practice with protective vehicles in the army, so that they will be bullet resistant, thus protecting the people inside it. Nano-technology is also used in the military uniforms to help camouflage and protect each individual. The different sizes of Nano-cells make the different opacity of objects, for example, more nano-cells will make a more transparent object while, fewer and bigger cells will make a more opaque object.

- What new questions do you have about the topic?

Ans: Since the land will keep sinking due to constant earthquakes around the world, how can this problem be resolved, to prevent the sinking of entire cities?

If the first 3 dimensional animation had cost 30 million US dollars, how about the more advanced, using higher end technology animations these days?

How will Nano-Technology be used to help in the camouflage of people’s faces, as the material cannot be applied on their face?

Reflections on Applied Project Challenge: Your Accomplishments

- Discuss how the project has deepened your understanding and broadened your awareness of the selected discipline.
Ans: It has deepened my understandings of how to make a more stable building and how the architectural design is very important. I also learned that discipline is very important in carrying out a process such as a project to be able to complete the task swiftly and concentratedly with quality. I also learnt that with the collaboration of ideas and putting together our labour to complete the project, we can produce our best product.

- What do you now understand about this discipline that you were unaware of at the beginning?
Ans: I now understand how when we are disciplined in completing the task, even when we are having fun at the same time, we can complete the project quickly and still have good quality, having fun always produces a better outcome.

- Describe how what you have learned from doing this project can be connected to what you are learning at school.
Ans: It can be applied into the syllabus of physics that we will be learning in term 3 when we go back to school. This will also help us understand what we learn in our physics more easily.

- Describe how you can apply what you have learned from doing this project.
Ans: We could consider doing this as a living for a future career as an architect or an engineer, designing and improving structures and the practicality of different machines or infrastructure.

- At the end of the project, what new questions do you now have?
Ans: What would there be in line in a career in engineering or architecture?