Introduction 

During the last couple of weeks of science 9 honours, we have been looking at solution fluency. Since we were in the physics unit, our task was to make an electrical device that would solve any sort of problem. But doing so, there were a couple of things we needed to complete before, and after making the circuit. Before we made the circuit, we did some research on how to make the circuit and some background knowledge of the problem that we wanted to solve. After making the circuit, we did a dragon’s den pitch concept. We had to present our idea to some teachers, then they would ask us some following questions

1) Define 

• To get started, one of the first things we did was zoom call a man named Saul-Paul Mwame. Saul is a social entrepreneur/beekeeper who gave us some tips on problem-solving techniques. He used beekeeping as an example and walked us through his process of problem-solving. I think that helped a lot with making sure that we all had a starting point and getting familiar with all the concepts, it also made sure that the process of this project would go a lot smoother. The second thing that we did was brainstorm some potential ideas whether it was a problem worldwide or even locally. The problem we ended up choosing was sticky residue on an object. We chose this problem because we knew that almost everybody was affected by this problem. Sticky residue is caused by many things like stickers, name/money tags, and many more. Sticky residue is fairly simple but is also very annoying and can be very time-consuming to remove. It comes on your hands, then your hands also turn sticky, lint quickly collects on the sticky surface, so the stickiness you’d turn linty and gross. Similarly, it could damage your object if you keep picking at it for long periods of time. Even though it’s only a 1st world problem, having this device could save you lots of time and effort.

Zoom call with Saul Mwame                        Example of sticky residue

2) Discover

• There are many ways that you would solve this problem without our device, but the life hacks you use could be inefficient and wasteful.  You could run some of your objects underwater, others you can’t. For instance, a laptop. If you run it underwater, it would damage the laptop, and additionally, you are wasting lots of water that could be put to a better cause. Likewise, you could use a hairdryer for your object, but you could put your object in danger from things like overheating. Most objects we take labels off of are made out of plastic. The intense heat would melt and ruin your object. A very popular thing to use is oil, acetone, and rubbing alcohol because of the fast and easy results. On one hand, oil can be pretty messy and leave an oily touch to the object. But on the other hand, strong liquids like acetone and rubbing alcohol may leave a distinctive smell on your object and to your surroundings. Additionally, most of these alternative ways do not get your label or sticker off in one piece, it usually leaves a mess. Soaking it in mixtures in liquids is high maintenance and time-consuming. On the contrary, there has been an adhesive remover called goo gone. Although the product gives you quick and easy results, there are one too many hazards that come with the products such as irritating skin/eyes and trigger asthma, also needing ventilation and wearing gloves and googles depending on the person.

Hairdryer                                               Goo Gone product display

3) Dream

• Besides the final result of our prototype, our group had a bit of a setback before thinking of the heater 3000. Our original idea was completely unrelated to the heater 3000. Our original idea was to create a phone case built-in wireless charger. But after a couple of days, we found out that the portable charger idea had already existed so we came up with a new plan after some brainstorming. Before we came up with our final design, we had some potential ideas in mind such as, the heat plate taking up the whole lid. This idea was not the best because the heat would overheat the product, another reason was that holding and using the heater would be very inconvenient.

4) Deliver

• As a part of our project, to finish it off, we had presented our device to 3 staff members as a dragon’s den concept whether they would invest in our product judging from the importance of our problem, the circuit, and the overall result. As far as I can tell, our group had some minor setbacks presenting. Our main reason was that we were unaware that the day to present was Tuesday since the week before, we were told that the presentations would take place Wednesday.  Likewise, our group only had about 15 minutes during lunch to come up with a presentation plan. Considering our circumstances, I believe that our group did well although we missed some points while presenting like how it was lightweight, portable, and mess-free. In order for our device to function, we needed to include a circuit. For starters, our circuit was a simple series circuit. The negative charge from the 9v battery which doubled as a switch connected to the ground and microbit then transfer into the bulb then the charge would go back into the battery making it a complete circuit.

Our group presenting in front of the dragons

5) Debrief  

• After we had decided on having the heater 3000 as our final decision, the first thing that we did was design the exterior of our design. Since Hanan in our group had experience working with 3D printers that is what our outside layer was made out of. She made sure to design and print the box and lid. Ali was in charge of the coding of the microbit. I did most of the research and coming u As a whole, we all contributed to the making of the circuit. We had thought out the plan on paper beforehand and thought everything through step by step starting from how the lid would look like, the area for heat to come out of, and the light indicator hole. Similar to other groups, we had come across a series of problems. Our first problem was making sure that the lid had fit on top of the actual box so that the lid would not slip and slide. After 3 different prototypes of the lid, we got the last one to somewhat fit. The second problem we encountered was making sure that there was a spot left for the switch. Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources, we could not get the switch that we originally planned on, so instead, we just left the battery pack switch inside the box. Our last problem was the biggest issue because it was supposed to be the main element of how our device worked. This was finding a heat source. Whether it was a heat plate or wire, due to the lack of resources, we could not actually get a heat source. So instead we used a microbit to represent the heat that was coming out, to make the mircobit and the wires that were attached to it a bit more organized, we 3D printed a mircobit holder. Our end result was a portable and lightweight invention which included a white and black-looking box with a microbit and microbit stand at the front. We came to the conclusion that there could have been some improvements in order to get better results, especially getting a heat source, since that was our main element to the device. Additionally adding more components to the heater to make a more complex and advanced circuit/device. If we were to add an extra component it would be a heat adjuster so that you could control the heat level, it would also be a parallel series instead of a simple series circuit. To sum it up, I thought that this project was very educational, fun, and very hands-on. Our group was the biggest reason why we succeeded. Whenever we encountered a problem we were very resilient and came up with a new idea quickly. I hope to do many more projects like this in the future.

Ali coding the microbit                                             The circuit inside the device

The final end result                         Our failed results

Website Sources: 

Groth, L. (2021, August 10). How to remove sticker and adhesive residue. Retrieved December 16, 2021, from https://www.rd.com/article/how-to-remove-sticker-residue/

Pollard, S., & Says, R. (2019, July 10). How to remove even the most annoying stickers & labels. Retrieved December 16, 2021, from https://hellonest.co/how-to-remove-sticker-residue/

Combiths, S. (2019, May 03). 5 big mistakes you might make using goo gone. Retrieved December 17, 2021, from https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/goo-gone-instructions-clothes-265939

Photo sources: 

“adhesive label residue” by summervillain is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

“Stain Removal” by J. Sibiga Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0