Project Meeting 7

Date: 12^st May 2011

Time: 2100 - 2130

Venue: Online

Members : Gary, Haoyu, Boning

No.	Discussed
1	Confirmation of design ·       Water sensor is workable ·       Confirmed that the design is suitable and to proceed on with building the prototype
2	Method of Construction for Prototype ·       Decided that we try out with our own cheap and available materials ·       Art teacher has also agreed to lend us some pieces of wood to work on the prototype ·       Choose only wood which are water proof
3	Materials to use for the prototype ·       Trial: wood and metal sieve, nails and hammer, saw and tools to cut rings ·       Actual: Plastic if we are capable of doing so
4.	Time to construct Product ·       Haoyu will help to work on the prototype first since he has many wooden planks in his house

 We feel that we are making quick progress. But we decided not to slow down our pace as any problems could crop out after we have completed our prototype. Semi-finals is two months away. We will be meeting up with each other often to discuss on the prototype and to check on its construction progress. However, we are also constantly thinking of new and better ideas to improve our invention. In the mean time, we are still pondering what materials are required for different components of the prototype and how can we ensure that the drawer is easy to use and how we can prevent future problems from appearing once we have our prototype.

Project Meeting 6

Date: 12^th April 2011

Time: 1440-1455

Venue: Outside Staffroom

Members : Gary, Teacher Mentor

No.	Discussed
1	Introducing a new idea: Water Sensor ·       Suggested using a mechanical water sensor to mark the maximum level of water the drawer can hold ·       Water sensor to be added at the front of the drawer (water level can be seen below the handle) ·       Continue brainstorming for ideas on how the water sensor should be like
2	Building of prototype       ·        Each Member to check if they have spare materials at home for building of       prototype       ·        Decided that would and plastic are most suitable to build the prototype:             + Both are cheap and easily available             - Wood may not be waterproof             - It is not easy to mold plastic into our desired shape
3	Inventor's Log ·       Continue updating the inventors Log as we proceed to semi-finals

After this short discussion, we discussed together as a group and aimed to complete building the prototype by the June holidays. However, we have to decide if we will be asking external vendors to build our prototype or building it ourselves with suitable materials that we may find in our homes.

Project Meeting 5: Powerpoint Slides (With teacher mentor)

Date: 22^th February 2011

Time: 1425-1440

Venue: Outside Staffroom

Members : Gary, Hao Yu, Boning(CCA), Akira(CCA)

Mentored by: Teacher Mentor

Discussion and consultation on Prelims PowerPoint Presentation

No.	Discussed
1	Slide 1-Addressing of Group Members and Introduction of Project ·        To add in an image of the PlantPlat in the first slide
2	Entering scenes? ·         Is there any deas to attract audiences’ attention?
3	Need of a Plant Pot Plate ·        Explain clearly why roots need to breathe (Include some pictures) ·        State an example (e.g. Mangrove tress)
4.	Disadvantages of Plant Pot Plate ·        Lifting the pot is inconvenient. How so? à Heavy, back straining ·        Dengue Fever Show related news articles showing that such mosquitoes breeding areas can cause outbreak of dengue.  ·        Some types of plant pot 'dish' is inconvenient because it is difficult to lift the plant pot
5.	Structure of Plant Plat ·        Explain how the drawer works, in details, how the water is emptied (animations)
6.	Advantages of Plant Plat ·        Explain how it can be more convenient ·        How can it reduce dengue cases ·        In what way is it more convenient to empty it as compared to plant pot dish
7.	Others ·        Consider more aesthetic designs (interest of the consumers are very important) ·        Prelims à Show our basic idea (intended product), advantages and how it is better than plant pot plate (state evidences) ·        Semi-finals à  Prototype must be done, choose the right materials

 During this meeting, our teacher mentor gave us many useful tips for improving our Powerpoint slides. We then continued to work hard on the slides and gather more relevant information to include in the slides. Our group then think of more ideas to improve our presentation.

Task allocations:

Haoyu: Work on slides

Akira: Work on scripts

Boning and Gary: Search for related information or articles

Project Meeting 4: Literature Review

Date: 14^th February 2011

Time: 1520-1530

Venue: Classroom

Members : Hao Yu, Gary, Boning, Akira

No.

Discussed

1

Literature Review ·         Research on cases of dengue fever in Singapore and what control and preventions have been done by the government ·         Research on similar inventions – Green and Environmental inventions ·         Research on the percentage of plant-keepers and the inconvenience of keeping the plants (Idea of survey abolished--too troublesome and may not recieve very accurate results)

Tasks

Haoyu – Research on Dengue Fever and Green inventions (books resources)

Boning – Research on Dengue Fever and Surveys (internet resources)

Gary – Research on Green inventions and Surveys

Akira – Compile and Create Presentation slides


The main topic of this discussion is to research for important pieces of information to explain the underlying problem of our project and how we are going to solve it. We are also researching for similar ideas to ensure that our invention has never been invented before. This is also for updating our literature review.

Project Meeting 3 - Designs and Shapes of Product (with teacher mentor) 7th February 2011

Date: 7^th February 2011

Time: 1350 - 1415

Venue: Outside Staffroom

Members : Hao Yu(absent), Gary, Boning, Akira

No.	Discussed
1	Design of product ·         Material: claylike-plastic  -Strong -Not very costly
2	Hinges       Not feasible. It will increase the cost for the Plantplat.
3	Preparation for Prelims ·         Start Preparation on Slides  ·         Prepare script

Tasks Allocation:

Haoyu and Akira: Work on slides and script respectively. Update slides and scripts when necessary

Boning: Consider the advantages and disadvantages of other materials

Gary: Think of other outer designs and shape of the PlantPlat for aesthetics qualities and further convenience

During this meeting, our group started to consider more improvements to our product for increase aesthetics value or other conveniences. At the same time, we started to prepare our slides as our teacher mentor advised us to prepare early to avoid last minute preparations.

Project Meeting 2 (with teacher mentor) 31th January 2011

Date: 31^th January 2011

Time: 1400-1420

Venue: Outside Staffroom

Members : Hao Yu, Gary, Boning, Akira

No.	Discussed
1	Scientific background for the need of the project ·         Research on why the need for clearing of excess water in the plant pot ·     Discussed advantages and disadvantages of plant pot dish
2	Aesthetics qualities ·         Think of several designs to customise the product ·         More variety of overall shape for the PlantPlat instead of just having cuboid shapes ·         Appealing ·         What is the most suitable material for making the PlantPlat? Wood? Plastic? Clay?
3	The use of hinges?       ·   Can use to position the plant pot       ·   Costly

Roles Allocation (temp)

Gary- Leader

Boning- Asst. Leader

Haoyu- Secretary

Akira- Admin and Logs

Tasks

Gary: Research on the need of holes in plant pots (point 1)

Boning: Research on the need of holes (point 1)

Akira: Discuss with Haoyu about the use of hinges (point 1)

Haoyu: Design & brush up on hinges idea

First Meeting-Brainstorming Ideas 13 January 2011

 Date: 13^th January 2011

Time: 1330-1400

Venue: 2i2 Classroom

Members : Hao Yu, Gary, Boning, Akira

No.	Discussed
1	Category ·         Cat 3 Inventions
2	Ideas we thought of ·         A new and improved Plant pot plate, the PlantPlat. ·         Fights dengue, helps out the old people... ·         The triple lock idea which will triple the bad qualities
3	Any others ·         Will stick to the Plant Plat until new better ideas are made up ·         Next meeting 14th January 2011, 1330 to 1430 at 2i2 Classroom ·         Teacher mentor? ·         Should we go for IVP?

We got the idea of a Plant Plat when one of our group members suggested about improvements that could be made to a plant pot dish. He stated that it is very tedious to empty the water in the plant pot dish because one has to lift the whole plant pot to be able to empty the water in the plant pot dish. The stagnant water is also a good breeding spot for mosquitoes. Thus, our group thought of adding a drawer to the plant pot dish to collect the water so that there is no need to lift the heavy plant pot to empty the water. Instead, water can be emptied easily by pulling out the drawer and pouring the water away. It can also prevent mosquitoes from breeding because it is covered.

We also thought of another idea which is to create a lock  which can solve the problem of losing the key or forgetting the code by combining 3 locks, a padlock, the combination lock and the type of lock which requires a pin code. However we realized that the idea was not feasible as this lock would have the flaws of all three locks, ie. losing the key or forgetting th e code.