Hand Warmer Project
Overview
For this project, we had to create a hand warmer that was safe, cheap, environmentally friendly, and effective. Obviously, no hand warmer that we could make in less than a year could fill all of these categories, so we had to make tradeoffs. The most important aspect of this project, however, is the science behind it. Our group went through dozens of prototypes, and we came up with a uniform decision that our hand warmer was to be cheap. We had to present WHY our product was the best to a panel of judges and they choose what groups' hand warmer was the best. The winning hand warmer gets to be put into the San Marin student store and sold for profit.
The Science Behind the Hand Warmer:
The Calcium Chloride and water dissociate together.The water breaks down the calcium chloride into separate ions. The Calcium ions and Oxygen ions bind together and the Chlorine ions and Hydrogen ions also bind together. When the Oxygen and Calcium ions bond and the Hydrogen and Chlorine ions bond the reaction gives off heat by the way of an exothermic reaction. When the water breaks down the salt, the reaction absorbs heat, which means the reaction is endothermic. When the bonds release energy (in the form of heat), the hand warmer takes effect and warms those hands.
Reflection
This project was very enticing and fun to complete. My group worked really well together and I think we thrived off one another's creativity. There was some definite peaks and troughs in this assignment. Of course, let's start with the good. I think I learned that not every situation is perfect and won't work the way we want it to. So, through multiple failures I learned that the first product is definitely not the best. Next, I believe I acquired the ability to think outside the box and think of weird, abstract ideas that may or may not work. This is helpful especially when dealing with open-ended projects. A trough that I had could be the fact that I micromanaged a little too much and I should've let my group members do their own thing. Sometimes we got off topic, so I felt the need to manage it back to acceptable standards, but I probably overdid it. Finally, I felt like our presentation could've been a little better, but we had little time so it was a bit rushed. If we had an extra day or two our presentation could've been more optimal. Overall, this project was very unique and informative, which is a good combination to have in these sorts of projects.
Key Points in my Reflection
-I learned that everything isn't as ideal as they are in our minds, and how I can adapt to make compromises or improvements. This project really made me improve on things that I thought were going to be just fine in my head.
-Gained the ability to think more outside of the box and envision more abstract ideas.
-Micromanaged too much and should've let my group members contribute the way they thought was the best.
- Time management could be improved due to a lack of preparation and time allotment for our presentation
Picture of our great final product
For this project, we had to create a hand warmer that was safe, cheap, environmentally friendly, and effective. Obviously, no hand warmer that we could make in less than a year could fill all of these categories, so we had to make tradeoffs. The most important aspect of this project, however, is the science behind it. Our group went through dozens of prototypes, and we came up with a uniform decision that our hand warmer was to be cheap. We had to present WHY our product was the best to a panel of judges and they choose what groups' hand warmer was the best. The winning hand warmer gets to be put into the San Marin student store and sold for profit.
The Science Behind the Hand Warmer:
The Calcium Chloride and water dissociate together.The water breaks down the calcium chloride into separate ions. The Calcium ions and Oxygen ions bind together and the Chlorine ions and Hydrogen ions also bind together. When the Oxygen and Calcium ions bond and the Hydrogen and Chlorine ions bond the reaction gives off heat by the way of an exothermic reaction. When the water breaks down the salt, the reaction absorbs heat, which means the reaction is endothermic. When the bonds release energy (in the form of heat), the hand warmer takes effect and warms those hands.
Reflection
This project was very enticing and fun to complete. My group worked really well together and I think we thrived off one another's creativity. There was some definite peaks and troughs in this assignment. Of course, let's start with the good. I think I learned that not every situation is perfect and won't work the way we want it to. So, through multiple failures I learned that the first product is definitely not the best. Next, I believe I acquired the ability to think outside the box and think of weird, abstract ideas that may or may not work. This is helpful especially when dealing with open-ended projects. A trough that I had could be the fact that I micromanaged a little too much and I should've let my group members do their own thing. Sometimes we got off topic, so I felt the need to manage it back to acceptable standards, but I probably overdid it. Finally, I felt like our presentation could've been a little better, but we had little time so it was a bit rushed. If we had an extra day or two our presentation could've been more optimal. Overall, this project was very unique and informative, which is a good combination to have in these sorts of projects.
Key Points in my Reflection
-I learned that everything isn't as ideal as they are in our minds, and how I can adapt to make compromises or improvements. This project really made me improve on things that I thought were going to be just fine in my head.
-Gained the ability to think more outside of the box and envision more abstract ideas.
-Micromanaged too much and should've let my group members contribute the way they thought was the best.
- Time management could be improved due to a lack of preparation and time allotment for our presentation
Picture of our great final product