Construction Notes

Christina

This has been a fantastic journey. We started off not knowing what to do…not a single drop of creative juice to be found in any of us. But with time (and many group meetings later) we came up with this research idea. It was first brought up one day on a ride home in my friend’s car after a rusty old camper cut us off and all of its lung-choking exhaust was pulled into our car. My friend quickly rolled down the window to let out the foul air and hissed, “Man, this stinks,” to which I replied, “Well, you wouldn’t expect it to smell like flowers would you?” This was the opener to the compressed air car topic.

We thought of comparing the compressed air car and a normal gasoline car but quickly realized that there was no comparison! First of all, not only is the compressed air car ridiculously easy on the wallet, it is also incredibly environmentally friendly. However, new technology is expensive, which means that car parts would be pricier than those of a typical vehicle. That’s when we decided on comparing it with an electric hybrid.

Most of our research took place on the Internet. After finding the necessary specifications for each type of vehicle, we calculated the approximate size of their carbon footprints in terms of joules used per kilometer. The other portion of our research required us to survey an agricultural sciences class and determine if the appearance of the car affected their choice of vehicle. We calculated this via the Chi squared test.

Here are copies of our surveys:

Although this e-portfolio was meant to be focused around research, data collection and statistics, I felt like it really tested our team-working ability. Initially it was a challenge, but slowly we fell into our places and we eventually figured out how our group worked as a system. It worked out in the end!

Ryan

This project is probably one of the most interesting projects I have ever worked on, I’ve learned a lot of new information about compressed air cars, electric hybrids and of course my group members. This project has also been one of the most time consuming and hectic projects to work on as well. The four of our schedules never seemed to align and we seemed to be meeting ever Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (same place, same time 11 o’clock behind Starbucks). Along with interpreting the data from our surveys and learning to use wordpress there were a lot of obstacles to overcome. But I think the thing that really pulled us through though was our ability to work well as a team.

Derek

I thought that this e-portfolio project was a very interesting one. It was a lot of work for such a short period of time but it was a lot of fun as well. I gained many skills in the teamwork and communication departments as well as developed my organization skills. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such great group members (Christina, Chloe, and Ryan). Lastly, support the UBC farm my fellow students!

Chloe

I am really glad this project is over, as it was certainly the most time-consuming project of my school year. Cars were never in my field of interest, but I am glad we chose compressed air cars and hybrid cars as our topic since it brought me a lot of new and interesting information. I had the opportunity to practice applying materials we learned in class such as data gathering and Chi squared testing. I am sure these new skills will help me in the long run. One important thing I learned: always press “Update Page” after editing/adding material when using wordpress! Thanks to my group members for all their hard work; I had fun at our  meetings.