Term Review- Durkin

               I believe a lot was learned this semester about each of the topics identified in the course goals.  In the case of teamwork we each had to learn how to truly open our minds to the ideas of others and collaborate as we could only have one final bridge design as opposed to each doing individual design. Through teamwork we also had to construct a somewhat strict plan, in order to make sure we had the best design possible we made sure to meet outside of class and try to work on different ideas to discuss, in order to keep on schedule.  The time outside of class was necessary when coming up with our bridge design due to the number of calculations and different details and testing that we needed to be able to come up with a detailed final bridge plan.  To do these calculations as well as to come up with better and better designs we learned the importance of documentation.  To do the calculations it was important to know the dimensions of the bridge as well as the numbers that resulted when virtually testing our bridge design like through WPBD.  It was also important to take pictures so that we could visualize what has worked and what hasn’t, what we should include in our design and what we shouldn’t. After learning to use different calculations and programs to predict the amount of weight our bridge would hold it was interesting to be able to physical build and test it.  One of my favorite parts, and what I believe to be the most beneficial part of this course was actually the final building and testing of our bridges because it brought all of the analysis and computer work we had done to life. For me the least beneficial part of this course may have been the library resource lecturer as the information he gave us was not of great use to my group during this course.

            Last week our group did the final testing of our bridge which did not quite turn out as well as we had hoped but was not too much of a disappointment either.  Since then we have been working on our final report which we will turn in next class.