Designing a project brief.

We have now collected some information around our problem. Our next stage is to design a project brief.

A design brief summarises the aim (goals) that we would like our project to achieve. This will help us to come up with some ideas for possible solutions.

This is the first part of our brief. It may change slightly because we are waiting for the results of our survey.

PROJECT NAME: Investigate ways of reducing the number of cars parked outside school, before school and after school at the very busy periods of 8.30am to 9am and 2.45pm to 3.15pm.

Location: Atkinson Road.

GOALS that we would like our project to achieve

1. Encourage parents to park their cars near school, and then walk their child to and from school from this point.

2. Encourage the correct use of the two minute drop off zone.

3. Encourage car safety when parents are dropping off their children at school.

4. Raise awareness of the walking school bus.

If we were able to achieve all these goals, what do you think you might see before and after school during the busy times? POST YOUR COMMENT.

What we recorded by Sufia

On Tuesday the 24th May between 8.30 am and 9am, we recorded the following information.

Twenty two cars broke the rules of the two minute drop off zone. You are only allowed to park in this zone for two minutes and then drive off so that someone else can drop off their child

Engineers recording information.

Cars were driving into the school gates and reversing out into the traffic.

Twenty two cars broke the rules of the two minute drop off zone.

Parking in front of another car.

                          

Public car park used as a drop off zone.

 Cones outside the staff car park at 8.30am

The goal this week is......

YOUR GOAL THIS WEEK IS TO PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAPS TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. This will help me to check your understanding of the learning.

Last week was spent surveying the senior school. We have nearly collected all the information.

We talked of the IMPORTANCE of RECORDING the information correctly. One survey came back with no addresses in the addresses column. Explain why we could not use this survey.


What kind of information do you think we could find out from these surveys?


It is always good to collect information on any problem in more than one way. For this reason we will be meeting at school tomorrow at 8.30am to take digital pictures of -

1. What the two minute drop off zone looks like.

2. What the public car park looks like.

3. What the footpaths look like ( are cars parked on them?)

4. What the driveways look like (are they being blocked by other cars?)

How do we know that these are areas that we need to take pictures of? 


Sarah and James will have a special job in the morning of keeping a tally chart of the number of cars who do not follow the guidelines when using the drop off zone.

Finally, it is always a good idea to scroll down this blog, to check older postings as they will remind you of your past learning.

This weeks goal

Well done to everyone who designed and emailed me their surveys. Ka pai!

Your goal this week is to make sure you collect the information needed in your surveys.

This afternoon you should have all collected your information from your year 4 and year 6 class.
Tomorrow you will need to collect the information from your own class, and then make sure that all your completed surveys are taken to room 20.

It is important we collect all the information as soon as possible, while we all remember.

REMEMBER ALSO TO BE AS ACCURATE (CORRECT) AS POSSIBLE WHEN COLLECTING THE INFORMATION as we will be using this information to make some important decisions.

Why are we collecting this information? CLUE: What was Marisha speaking to you about today? Post your comment below.

What the Engineer saw.

When Marisha works on any project as part of her job, she always goes and has a look around the area where her projects are.

Last Tuesday Marisha recorded a number of things on what she saw outside school. Here are her observations (what she saw).

Observations:

• There were a number of cars already parked from 2:15pm (when Marisha arrived) and waiting including cars parked in the drop off zone.
• The public car park opposite the school gate was already full.
•  Cars were  parked in a way that they were blocking access to driveways.
• A lot of cars parked in the drop off zone did not have drivers in them.
• Also cars were parked on the broken yellow lines near the pedestrian crossing and cars parked on the footpath
• There was heavy queuing and the road was very congested between 2:45pm and 3:15pm

Other general observations:

• There is a 40km/hr speed zone during school peak periods
• The pedestrian crossing outside the school is patrolled during school peak hours
• The 2min parking restriction applies between 2:45pm and 3:15pm
• School gate was closed at 3pm.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THESE OBSERVATIONS?

HOW ELSE COULD WE RECORD INFORMATION ON THIS PROBLEM?

 

Goals this week

1. To complete our feedback to EVERYONE on their MOTAT review.

2. To design our survey table in a word document and email this to Whaea Ara by Friday evening.
We talked a lot about how to make a survey and were shown how to insert a table into a word document on the computer. (Clue: Look at the map of the school and catchment area in your project books).

Remember that our Engineer Marisha will be visiting us next Monday.

Keep up the amazing learning! Your brain muscles are being well and truly exercised!!

What kind of information do we need?

Today we talked a lot about collecting information from other children in the school. We used the information on the map that Marisha made for us as an example to decide on what kind of information we needed to collect.

Using this map, we decided that the most important pieces of information that we need to collect from our class mates are:

1. Where do they live? (Address).

2. How do others travel to school (car, bus, walk, cycle)

3. How do they travel from school

4. Do they have a brother or sister at the school?

5. Does they use the walking school bus?

6. If they are driven to school - would they consider walking?

We have decided the best way to collect this information is to design a survey.

We have also decided that the best year groups to survey are year 4, year 5 and year 6. We think this because they are the year groups most likely to remember all the information we need.

We also went through our project checklist, to remind ourselves how important it is to complete the goals that are set each week.

MOTAT review by Thomas

A couple of weeks ago our group got to go to MOTAT for free.  We met at the
school and went in 2 cars.  We went and had a look at The Invention trail,
there was a lot of interesting things.  The engineering group from our
school went in 2 groups, the group I was in focused on the Tram and train
invention.

I learnt a lot about the trams, it was first installed into Auckland in 1902
and finished in 1956. It went to lots of places in Auckland.  The prototype
of the electric tram was designed by a Russian engineer.  His name was
Fyodor Pirotsky.  A prototype is a smaller thing of something you are
wanting to build. The tram was useful because it could take the weight of
100 people in just one tram car.  Trams helped us by getting people to other
places faster and was also used to the carry the mail and the Police.

Another fact I learnt about the trams was that over 4 million people have
ridden on the MOTAT tramway since 1967. The tram way at MOTAT is 1.72
kilometres each way.

 

The MOTAT Invention trail by James

Yes !The school holidays were off to a good start with a Sunday visit to MOTAT with the Engineering group .We all met up at Kaurilands School keen to investigate the Inventions Trail wating for us at MOTAT. I knew I was going to learn lots that day and I was up for it.

      I have always been fascinated by Trams and the exhibit 'I am the last Tram' was awesome . It made me think about the way people replace inventions with other inventions all the time. Electric Trams started in New Zealand in 1902 and last tram ran in 1956. Trams solved the problem of getting people from place to place quickly and in a sociable way. 100 people could fit on one tram! But cars trucks and new roads have replaced them. Today cars cause huge traffic jams, pollution, road deaths, and petrol is expensive.
    
Should we bring an old invention back?

I think it's cool the way they are fixing up and using old trams. An old invention is now being used to solve the problem of having family FUN and helping us to remember cool things about our past.

     At MOTAT there are lots of transport vehicles that solved problems to do with fire safty, emergencies, and delivering goods. I saw a replica model A ford  invented by Cecil Wood in 1845. Police chased him for driving at 13 kph -but today on a motor way the legal limit is 100 kph. I think today  that cars are re invented quickly in a way that makes them faster and more powerful .This means the law has to keep up to keep us safe .

MOTAT trip by Kern

We went on Sunday in the school holidays to MOTAT. I went with Whaea Ara and Callum's dad who drove us in his vehicle. We went to MOTAT to see if there were some ideas that would help fix our car park problem.

The old police cars used to be black and white and have a round flashing light that was red. Police cars in our day are sometimes red, green and white. The lights on top are long and flash red and blue. In the old days there weren't as many police cars as there are now.

To make sure things are right they make models first then build it in case there are any problems. Penny Farthings are a very dangerous bike because they shake and wobble.

The first escalator in Auckland ws made in 1954. It was not that big. It was used to transport food over to places as this helped it to stay fresher.

The end.

MOTAT review by Yvette

I learnt that steam trains and cars carry lots of bad gases which leak out into the air, polluting it, and it sometimes gets into the water which harm fish. What I liked about MOTAT was learning new facts about trains, trams and kiwi engineers and seeing lots of old vehicles from the olden days. I loved going to MOTAT with my team.

MOTAT review by Callum

I enjoyed the Motat visit because I liked seeing all the inventions and all different modes of transport. I liked seeing all cool, little videos of things.

I liked learning that one invention along time ago led to all the different inventions Example, the motor large or small play’s a big part of today’s world

Like the bike turned into a motorbike and also lead onto other inventions.

The lever which was a strong stick in those days has now turned into a specially designed toll.

I also liked the old fashion cars and re-mote controlled tanks because all the things I have said are all modes of TRANSPORT!  

  

After looking into the invention/influence of the motor, I was amazed on how many

other inventions or items we use in today’s life started from one idea,

Like the Airplane motor, a propeller was added & new mode of transport was invented. The Hamilton Jet Engine invented by  Sir William Hamilton in the 1950’s used a 100 E Ford car engine to run the jet propulsion unit that made the boat move on water.

  

Old fashion cars only carried 2 people & were very uneconomical on petrol & the environment. They are also not very safe in accidents.

  

Tanks, I could play all day with Tanks but I have to go to School J

The first World War 1 tank invented was around from 1914 to 1918, and history books say

that the first tank was invented in Great Britain in 1915.
Just like the old fashioned cars the early Tanks were very uneconomical on petrol & the environment also not very safe in accidents.

I would like to drive a real Tank one day, I wonder if Motat have a real working Tank???

Goal this week

Firstly welldone to everyone who completed their goal over the holidays.

We talked about three things today.

1. We gave each other written feedback on our MOTAT reviews.

2. We went over the powerpoint that Marisha left us to look at.

3. We have started to make a plan for our project.

You have already practised giving written feedback to each other. We did not have time to give every one feedback SO YOUR GOAL FOR THIS WEEK IS TO make sure that you post feedback to every one elses posts. I will put up the rest of your reviews this evening.

REMEMBER: Your feedback needs to include something you enjoyed about what has been written and also a comment on how they could make it better. Your feedback needs to give detail.

EXAMPLE: I  really liked reading about Cecil wood. I did not know that he built the first motor cycle.
Your review could be improved by telling us how he invented this.

YOU CAN USE THE STARTER SENTENCES BELOWTO HELP YOU
I really liked..........
Your review could be improved by.....

WE ARE ALWAYS KIND AND SUPPORTIVE WITH THE COMMENT WE MAKE.

Also remember to check the blog on Tuesday and Wednesday.