Our final presentation for our portable phone charging station was at Ann Richards very first Make-O-Rama fair. The fair was filled of students and teachers’ innovations and inventions, showing off what they had physically made. There was a wide variety of products that students of all ages had made.
Plugged In had a table that held three of our four prototypes (one was stolen); the cardboard model, the acrylic model, and the wood model. We also had a laptop that presented a power point that we had previously made to show the working progress of our product. The students and teachers that stopped at our booth were very intrigued with our portable phone charging station and thought it was a great idea. Our final product was similar to what we had envisioned in the beginning except it didn’t have the lock and key system. This is something that students next year can add on if this product continues to grow and develop and if teachers decide to actually want to use this charging station in their classrooms.
If I had the opportunity to go back and do this project again, I would want to make the final product out of acrylic with the lock doors included. This would take extra work and I would have to go purchase hinges and locks but the final product would be worth it. This project helped me gain my “team work” skills because this type of project was something that I had never worked in a group with before; I had only worked on this type of material individually. Some advice I would give to another group of students with a similar project is to make sure you are doing something that you are passionate about and take interest in. Don’t do something that you won’t have a good time doing because you will be miserable. My favorite part about this project was actually cutting and putting together the prototypes because I love hands on activity.
The most challenging part was transferring all our measurements on Adobe Illustrator to use on the laser cutter. We plan to not take our product anywhere and to keep it where it is. If students next year want to improve and keep working in it, they are more than welcome to but we, as a group will not work on it any further. Taking into consideration our original plan, modifications to the plan, work time, and final product, I would give our group a 95%. I chose this grade because overall, we all worked well together and took initiative action to get things done when they needed to be. We all had a goal of making an easier and effective way for students and/or teachers to charge their phones during the school hours, and we stuck to it and successfully finished it.
StarPathDesign 
I think this idea is very creative and useful! I don’t know everything about this individual project but I understand the concept and it is a good idea that I hope grows. I appreciated the advice about choosing something we are passionate about, because sometimes it’s easier to choose something we think will be easy, but we are so disinterested in what we are doing that we become miserable and it ends up not being easy anyway.
I think that a portable charger is something that would be useful specially in our classes since we use our phones a lot when we get the byod permission. It’s a great idea too because in classes there’s almost not much wall sockets and there’s people who actually need to charge their phones. I also like how you were going to add the locks with the doors had you had the chance to redo it, that would have been nice so you wouldn’t have to worry about your phone being taken. If someone decides to continue on this project it would be interesting to see the final product.
I thought it was really smart of you to make a portable phone charger, it’s something that most people can use because most people do have a phone, and it’s portable! Which is even better. Overall you did a really great job explaining your invention! Good job
I thought this was a really cool design and idea because I think this is something that a lot of people would find useful. I really like how you were able to create something and still carry it out through different prototypes. It must have taken a lot of trial and error. I could see through your explanation that you were definitely using the ARS maker space design system. I also really like your advice on focusing and topics that are interesting to you. That is extremely true because if you don’t like what you’re doing that you won’t put in as much effort as you would if you were totally dedicated to your project. I guess the only questions I would have is how would it work and who and where would people use it? Otherwise, great job!
I complete agree with the fact that it is very important to work on a project that you know you are passionate about. For example, if you are doing something you are not passionate about, then it won’t be a good experience that you can learn from. I also think that by doing more group projects, you can be able to learn more skills and improve on your “teamwork skills”.
I really like your idea of a portable charging station for our school. I think it would be a benefit for both the students and the teachers since technology is causing a greater impact in schools. With a portable charging station students and teachers will never need to bring their phone chargers again or charge them in an outlet our in the open during class where it could potentially be stolen. Although I believe this would be a great idea for our school, I think strict rules should be used if we ever did come to the point where this invention became a reality.
very creative love the idea and concept cause everyone needs to charge their phones. its like life or death of your phone battery! and its very handy when your out places. although I would be afraid of leaving my phone to charge unattended because it could get stolen. I know in classes they say they could get stolen but i can leave my phone in class cause i will eventually come back but with this i feel like you need a system to protect the phones. other than that its perfect!!