Group 4 project is an integral part of the IBDP, this type of collaborative project teaches us crucial skills that we need to develop over the course of the IB. Group 4 mainly focuses on the way the students are able to create a project with little to no teacher aid. This year’s project was to create an environmentally sustainable green house. This project was the integration of the science disciplines with the collaboration of the economics and the business students. This project was intended to be a proposal for the school to change and rebuild the existing green house, to make it green and sustainable for a longer duration. The existing green house was made of cloth which was not the best material to use, as where the school is located there is constant unannounced rain which can contaminate and create an extraneous cleaning process. There were other discrepancies, as this green house was an open greenhouse without elements of an enclosed environment or ecosystem.
The main idea was to create a better version of the existing green house, that would satisfy the needs of all the disciplines. The idea had to be moderately priced, the inside temperature should be accommodating to the plants, addition of new elements that would increase the yield of the green house, most of all the right materials to use and how to make use of the latest technology. I was part of the Design and Technology group; we were the bridge between all the disciplines and were responsible for liaising with everyone. We had to build a model that would accommodate the needed specifications, the model had to be 5 by 4 by 3 feet. We planned to use materials such as PVC roofing, polyethylene, polycarbonate for the other clear cover. The inner structure was to be made with either aluminum or steel. The final material was decided after the physics and chemistry students had experimented with all the materials. Inside the greenhouse there needs to be plants, which were experimented by the biology and the environmental sciences, this gave the design students the specifications of the environment that we were supposed to create for the longevity plants.
The process began with writing down research points. the research points were an integral part of the process as it gave us a direction that we could hypothetically take in the way we design our greenhouse. In the points, we looked at the existing designs, what material was used, the pros and cons of each of them, how they were built and what were the key features that a greenhouse needs. After gathering all the information, the group discussed the possible features that we want to provide in the green house and what is feasible in the time span given. Then we came up with 3-4 design ideas, we checked them against the specifications to see which one was the best option. When we had finalized the design, we had to create a cutting list which included all the materials that we needed from the aluminum to the hinges. This also helped us narrow down on the material that we will be using, we ended up with an aluminum structure and polycarbonate as the cover. This lead to us making a Gantt chart, which helped us track our progress plan, it also helped up create a timeline that we need to follow in order to compete the task on time. This was not like the projects that the students of our school have attempted in the past therefore we had very limited references for the time management aspects to create a project like that. After we had planned everything the economics and the business students joined us to calculate the costing of everything that was being used. The next step of the process was to start measuring and marking all the aluminum angle bars. As I was one of the group leaders it was our job to make sure everything ran smoothly therefore I was responsible for cutting the aluminum bars to make the structure. The team assembled the base and then they started attaching all the metal bars to the base. It took us a whole day to complete the metal framework.
After we had the metal base ready we measured and marked we started working with the polycarbonate, this created challenges for us that we were not expecting. The challenges ranged from the movement of a massive piece of polycarbonate to the fact that it took 3-4 people to cut the polycarbonate. We had to measure the exact areas of polycarbonate as the resources we had were limited. Later in the process we cut the polycarbonate, we went on and riveted everything together, the riveting process took a lot of time yet we drilled and rivet a lot in the time we had. Finally, we had to clean up all the edges and add the draining system to the green house. The draining system was a PVC pipe cut into half and attached to the slanted roof for rain water harvesting, this water would be filtered and used for the water based plants that go inside the greenhouse. The final project took 3 days with 6-7 students working on the green house. On the final day, as we had 2 team leaders both him and I stayed back in school till 6 pm to finish up the model, that was exhausting as we had been working in the workshop nonstop since the morning as well.
This was a stimulating project for the brain as it required a lot of the skills that are needed in the real world, collaboration, communication, problem solving skills and logical thinking. This project helped enhance these aspects of my learning as well as the learning I had for the subject. There were many challenges we faced with the equipment not working as we would like it to but that gave us the opportunity to learn to improvise and adapt to the requirements of the situation.