Suggested steps to follow are listed below:
- Discuss within your group potential project ideas. Any work on this topic done as a group should be recorded in the group invention notebook, following the other guidelines for group entries given in the telephone case.
- Library research is an essential component of this module. Look at Library Search Strategies to get ideas for how to proceed. Random searches are inefficient; you need a search plan, a careful division of labor, and it is important to stay in touch with each other as you explore.
- Decide as a group on the path you wish to explore, what kinds of tests you may want to do, and what materials you will need.
- Design a model or prototype that will illustrate the feasibility of your idea, as well as its potential benefits. You will not be able to prototype an entire system, but you could construct a working model or an aspect of it, or provide an experimental demonstration of the feasibility of a key component. The point of such a demonstration is to convince skeptical backers that this is not a 'pie-in-the-sky' solution which could never be implemented.
- Submit a proposal, [Due March 7] including a list of materials you plan on purchasing. Your proposal should be similar to the caveat you prepared for the telephone module and must include:
- How might your system benefit the local or global environment?
- A description of what you plan to build, including preliminary sketches.
- A brief description of how you arrived at your idea, including what alternatives you considered.
- Test your ideas.
- Build as much of your model or prototype as you can.
- Test aspects of its functioning. Record numerical data in your group notebooks, what conclusions you can derive from each experiment, and what the next experiment ought to be.
- Use experimental results to illustrate the potential and the limitations of the total system you would like to design. Data from the tests of the prototype should suggest how the system could actually be built or implemented.
- Marketability: Determine the approximate cost of the total system. Show how you arrived at these costs. Who will use the system? Will likely users be able to afford it?
- Environmental benefits: Include an analysis of the environmental benefits of your system. For example, if you are building a solar water heater, discuss the anticipated reduction in power demand and acid rain from utilities. Don't forget to include the environmental costs of the technology you are designing! What, for example, is the environmental cost of manufacturing solar cells?
- Present your system to the rest of the class. [March 28] Your presentation should include:
- The rationale for your system--who will use it? How will it benefit the local or global environment?
- A description of your system, with visuals that illustrate it.
- A demonstration of a prototype or model that illustrates the potential for your system and its feasibility. The prototype should get the audience excited about the idea--you're looking for that 'wow' effect that Bell got with his early telephone demonstrations. Regarding feasibility, include marketing considerations.
- A brief description of how you arrived at your system--what your initial goals were, what steps you went through.
- A written report that includes: [Due March 28]
- The rationale for your system
- The detailed description, with visuals--similar to what you would put in a patent, focusing on its unique features
- Experimental data obtained from your prototype
- A narrative of the process you went through, including sketches of intermediate stages and alternatives you considered but decided not to pursue.
- A brief individual paper [Due March 30] in which you analyze and compare your group's processes to those of other groups and to A.C. Rich's processes. Your entry should include:
- The goals and steps your group followed, and your sense of how well this process worked. In hindsight, are there times the group should have done something differently?
- The goals steps other groups followed, and how they differed from yours.
- The goals and steps Rich followed, and how they differed from yours.
- What lessons did you learn from considering 1-3 above? What will you do differently next time, when you work with a group on a new invention task?
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This page was last edited: Sunday, July 18, 1999