Project Description

Project 1-University Physics

Introduction

One thing a scientist or engineer has to do is design something to meet a set of criteria.  Your exercise here will be to do that but with a twist.  You will decide on the criteria as a class.  Once the class has reached concensus on the criteria, all entries in the design competition will be judged accordingly.

The Assignment


The goal here is to design the “best” paper airplane as a group.  Each group may submit up to three different planes into the competition, but the best plane's performance will be used to determine the groups grade.  The only instructor imposed limitation is that the airplane may not take up more than one 8.5” by 11” piece of paper.

The Criteria


The class as a whole will decide the criteria.  There may be more than one criteria but if so, each criterion must be given its own relative weight in the overall scoring.  Each criteria must be objective (sorry...no points for looks at this point) and measurable.  Record each criterion, its definition and weighting, in your lab notebook.  Leave space underneath to record all the entries’ scores.  In addition, the group will set a minimum set of requirements that all planes must meet.  These requirement may be changed once during the project in light of initial test results.

The Assessment


Each entry will be judged according to how they rate under each criterion.  The key here is to use the techniques from Unit 1 to determine not just the numbers but also their errors.  For example, a plane that flies 10 meters may or may not actually fly farther than a plne that flies 9.5 meters.  You will need to determine if the difference in these two numbers is actually significant.

Any plane that meets all the minimum criteria will receive thirty points.  Each criteria not met will cause a deduction of points that will be determined once the criteria are determined.

Extra Credit will be awarded to the highest score.

All disputes will be settled by the instructor...his rulings are final.

Final Notes


There will be some activities on the course's project web page you will need to complete for this project.  Be sure to check these and do them before their due dates.  Each activity will be worth five homework points if completed on time and none if not.  The project time will be about a week in duration with most of the work being done outside of class.  The final judging will take place in the gym if possible, on the upper soccer field if not.