Submarine Model Building Reflection

Question 1

Draw a colored sketch of your submarine model in the floating, sinking or neutrally buoyant position.

I choose to sketch my submarine model in the sinking position.

Question 2

Part of the design process, is to think of design ideas to try and then test to see how those design ideas actually work. 

• Describe any design ideas that you had which did not work as expected.  
• Describe any design ideas that you had which did work as expected. 

It took 2 models to get to the model I have now. One model did not work as expected and one model that technically works.

The model that didn't work was a bottle with many medium sized holes placed everywhere. The bottle cap was closed and there was a tube stuck into the interior of the bottle. Inside the bottle there were many rocks. It could sink but because the rocks could move freely inside the bottle, if the bottle tilts just a bit, the whole bottle would be vertical. There were too many rocks inside that I couldn't get the model to float again. 

The second model or the model that technically work was a model that was sketched above. It had 3 large holes and small holes. It had lots of metal taped next to the 3 big holes. The bottle's cap was still on. There was a tube that was stuck into the interior of the bottle. It could sink and rise halfway. I didn't have enough time to make the tube stiff and not be able to move around in the bottle. My model would be complete if the tube was stiff.

Question 3

• Describe at least two ways that your model works like a real submarine.
• Describe at least two ways your model works differently than a real submarine.

2 ways that the model works like a real submarine:

-They both use the same method to sink and float. Both of the submarines take in water to sink and release water to float.

-They both can sink and float as many times as it wants to.

2 ways that the model works differently than a real submarine:

-There is no giant blowing air into a tube that makes the submarine float and sink. For model purposes, we used a tube. But in real life, there can't be a tube.

-The model can't move around, it can only rise and sink. On a real submarine, it can move around.

Question 4

Did you ever feel like you were not going to be able to successfully modify the plastic bottle to make it dive and float like a submarine?  If you did not give up, what strategies helped you persevere and keep going? 

There were many times where I felt like I couldn't modify the bottle to make it work like a submarine. One reason was that the materials were scarce. Materials like stones are actually very important to make the model submarine work. Another reason I felt like I couldn't do it is that when you make a mistake and you have to restart, you feel like you don't have anymore time to create a new one. 

One strategy that helped me kept going was learning from your mistakes. Like if you create a hole in the wrong place and it ruins the whole experiment, you learn from that. Next time you don't add holes in the wrong places. Another strategy that kept me going believing in yourself. I believed that I could make a whole new submarine with my new plan.