Dragon’s den innovation project

GROUP MEMBERS:

HANAN, EUN-SAE, ALI-MEER

INTRODUCTION:

Over the past few weeks Ms. Yorke’s science 9 honors class has been learning about electrical circuits and the properties needed to make a full electrical circuit. Last week we began working on a project to solve a world problem. We brainstormed world problems, problems in our country, problems in British Colombia and finally problems in Port Coquitlam. My group came up with different problems that could have better solutions. Coming up with problems and what could be the solution for the problem was difficult at the start but them became easier as we thought more. When we settled on an idea, we filled out a graphic organizer and wrote out our ideas and what our device would look like. The next day we got to building our circuits. We 3d printed a box and lid to fit our circuit and fit the circuit inside of the box. When 3d printing the box and lid we ran into some problems with the size of the lid and fitting everything into the box neatly. Once we finally got everything working, we found out about a microbit holder that could hold our microbit in place instead of us holding it. We presented the next day in front of our 3 riverside dragons. It was a little intimidating, but we got over it and did a good job on our project.

DEFINE:

After brainstorming my group agreed on one problem. The problem we chose was labels and stickers not coming off or items. When buying items many people have to deal with parts of labels or stickers sticking onto a surface leaving residue. An easy way to take labels off would be to apply water but that doesn’t always work. If there is a sticker on a laptop or phone it may be hard to apply water without damaging the device. Another way could be to heat up the item using a blow dryer but that can also damage the items from overexposure to high heat. We finally came up with a solution to make a small portable heater that can remove labels. Inside the heater would be a circuit that would power the heater and outside would be the heat plate that would heat up the item. The device would heat up the label with just enough heat that your item wouldn’t be damaged and would melt the glue on the label making it easier to peel. The heater would also be very light weight and easy to carry so it can also be used as a small heater for when you are cold.

DISCOVER:

Our device is a label remover that can heat up an object to help remove a label. In the past a device like this has tried to be made but still isn’t as effective. One version of an attempted device is a plastic scrapper¹.It gets under the label or sticker and helps peel it off. The only problem is that if you need the label or sticker off of your object the plastic scrapper will rip it. Also, when using the plastic scrapper to remove a sticker or label the residue from the sticker will still remain on your object. Our device can fix both of those problems by carefully heating up the label for easy peeling. The second purpose that our label remover serves, a heater, has also been tried to solve. Heaters have been made and are used by many people but aren’t very portable. Our device I made lightweight and is easy to take with you if you go out in the cold or are at home.

DREAM:

Before we designed and made our prototype of our label remover, we had some other ideas of what our project would look like. Our original idea wasn’t to make a label remover, but to make a phone charger in case with a built-in wireless charger. We designed and planned out what was needed and how it would look like. We soon discovered that make a wireless charger inside of a phone case would be very difficult. We needed to think of something new. We brainstormed again about annoying problems that people faced in their everyday life. We came up with different ideas such a mosquito spray that automatically when it detects mosquitoes and an alarm clock that doesn’t turn off until you get up and get out of bed. We didn’t have any good ideas, so we decided to search up some annoying problems that people faced every day. We found a problem that stated that stickers and labels would be hard to remove from objects and chose that as our idea. We then designed different models of what our end result would look like. That led to our device, the heater 3000.

DELIVER:

Our device is called the heater 3000. It is a portable label remover that is lightweight and can easy help remove labels and stickers. From the outside all it looked like was a small white box with a microbit sticking out. Inside of the box was our circuit. Our circuit consisted of a battery pack for our microbit, a microbit, wires, and a light bulb. In our circuit the electricity came from the battery and connected to the ground and 3-volt microbit pins. From the microbit the electricity when into the light bulb and back into the microbit making a complete circuit. The light in the circuit stuck outside of the box and was there to signify if the heater was on or off. We couldn’t get a real heat plate for the project and had to improvise. We coded and put the microbit outside of the box to act as a heat plate in our circuit. Our circuit was a simple series circuit but building the box for the circuit was the hardest part. The box for our circuit was 3d printed and designed by me. The box printed easily but the lid gave us lots of trouble. The first time I printed the lid it was too small and moved around a lot on the box. The second lid I printed was way too big and wouldn’t fit on the box. When I printed the third lid it was better but still a little small. Before presenting we took 10 minutes before class to practice what who would say and who would answer what question. We each wrote down a copy of what we would say on each other’s phone and waited for our turn. When we presented, we were quite nervous but did a good job in explaining our device and the used of it.

DEBREIF:

Overall, I thought that our project was a success and will help a lot of people get labels off or heat themselves up. I enjoyed how this project was hands on and was different than what we usually do in class. It made us think creatively and outside the box by making us think about problems in the world and what their solution could be. If we had more time, I would fix the design of the box and reprint the lid to fit on the box. I would also make a hole in the lid for the switch to stick out of. The last thing I would change it to make a heat adjuster added into the circuit. This would require another hole in the lid or box for the adjuster to fit in. My group worked productively and never gave up when we ran into a problem. We always managed to find a way around our problems. I found this project fun and hope we do more partner projects like this in the future.