Reflection

James Popper

I think things that went well in our project were our ability to split up the work efficiently and work together at the same time. From the start, we decided on sketches and plannign almost immediately. Throughout the process of building the marble track, Rowan and I decided to work on the separate parts of our track. I worked on the base and "structural support" of the marble track, while Rowan was in charge of the ramps. While we were building separately, we still came together to discuss the dimensions and placements of all the components. At the end, we collaborated once again to put the final product together. It was very anxiety-inducing, as time was running out. We wanted to start out with a more complex approach to holding the ramps in place with toothpicks, but due to time restraints we switched to tape. 

I think we could have done a much better job with more time. Although I understand that this project was just to see what we could come up with in a short amount of time, I feel like we would have significantly changed and improved our product with more time (more sketches, more planning, therefore better product). We also could have improved our marble track aesthetically. Our track was a wobbly mess of tape, cardboard, and glue. I think we could have laser cut pieces of cardboard, or even wood (if it was allowed), to make our product look cleaner. We could have also thought of a more practical or "real" moving part, instead of a hatch that moved whenever the ball passed through it. We had originally thought of doing a wheel style moving part, where the ball would push a circle of cardboard until it fell down the whole, and also including the whirlpool thing that most marble tracks have. However, we didn't have enough time or the right materials to make them, so we ruled them out.