Zoo Proposal Spring 2003

Zoo Proposal Spring 2003 Columbian Park Zoo February 10th, 2003 Team Members: Yuansuo Cai Joelle Fleck Bingrui Foo Heather Ide Mike Mendel Shirley Trinh Rachel Smith Mark Casabella Sandy Chieng Majed Nasr Jayson Wan Nicholas Andrews caiy@purdue.edu fleckj@purdue.edu fob@purdue.edu ideha@purdue.edu mmendel@purdue.edu strinh@purdue.edu smith249@purdue.edu casabell@purdue.edu chieng@purdue.edu nasr@purdue.edu wanjs@purdue.edu nandrews@purdue.edu 2 Executive Summary The Columbian Park Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in Indiana dating back to 1908. The zoo houses over 150 animals representing 67 different species. They will be closing down this summer for a duration of two years for the renovation and restoration of the zoo. The mission of the Columbian Park Zoo, our project partner, is to serve as a recreational and educational alternative for the people of Lafayette and the cities within 90 miles of the zoo. The objectives of our projects are to entertain as well as educate students that are in the K-3rd grades, thus meeting the primary goals that the zoo aims for. The fun book will be an activity and coloring book. There will be 20 pages in the book. These pages will include pictures to color with facts, mazes, connect-the-dots, matching games, and word puzzles. It will be fun and educational for the children that the people from the zoo visit. The operation game will be similar to the game “Operation”. It will be an educational game to teach children which geographical areas are home to different animal species. The game will also be portable, since the zoo will require portable projects while they are closed for remodeling for the next three years. They will be able to take portable projects with them when they visit schools, birthday parties, et cetera. The three different quiz balls will contain different pictures of animals, habitats, and needs. This game will incorporate educational questions and a fun environment that the whole class can participate in. The twister-like game will serve more of a recreational purpose. This game will be very similar to the household version of twister; rather than having colors to place your hands or feet on, this game will have pictures of different animals. 3 The expected outcomes for these projects fall within the requirements of the project partner. As a result, our partners will have portable projects to take to the schools that are educational and entertaining at the same time. 4 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION PROJECT DESCRIPTION Fun Book Operation Game Quiz Ball Twister TEAM ORGANIZATION CHART PROJECT PLANNING RESOURCES AND NEEDS Fun Book Operation Game Quiz Ball Twister TEAM BACKGROUND 2 5 5 5 6 6 7 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 5 Introduction Our EPICS partner, the Colombian Park Zoo, has need of several activities for use with their outreach and education program. These activities need to be first of all simple in design and function. This is because of the age group that is going to be using them: young children. They also require that anything developed be portable; therefore it needs to be small and lightweight. In order to accommodate the zoo’s function, the activities are to be animal education based. The list of projects approved by the Zoo and the ones taken up by this semester’s team are: the Fun Book, Zoo Operation, Foam Quiz Ball and Animal Twister. These will follow the guidelines established by the zoo and the EPICS team. This proposal will contain all information relating to these projects, and what the group expects to accomplish. Project Description The Columbia Park Zoo will be closing for remodeling for the next three years. They will require portable projects to take to school visits, birthday parties, et cetera. The Zoo Team plans on meeting the Zoo’s needs by designing several new projects that will be portable. The projects that we are planning on creating are, Animal Quiz Ball, Animal Twister, a Fun Book, and the Operation game. Fun Book The fun book is a coloring and activity book. It will serve as a supplementary learning tool about the six animal groups: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. There will be roughly three activities for each animal group. These 6 activities will include pictures to color, mazes, matching games, word games, and connect-the-dots. The first portion of designing the book will be to design the pages and have them approved by the zoo director, Claudine Laufman. We will then design the book cover and have it approved. We will have the pages and covers printed in the desired quantity and have the books bound. Then the books will be delivered to the zoo for their presentations. Operation Game The game will be similar to the game Operation. It will be an educational game to teach children which geographical areas are home to different animal species. The game board will look like a world map. Sections of the map will be cut out and the animal corresponding to that area will be placed in the cutout. The child will try to remove the animal from the hole in the map with tweezers. If they touch the side of the hole with the tweezers a buzzer will sound and a light might flash. The first component of the process will be to define the project. We will decide the rules of the game and the layout. The next component of the process will be the design phase. We will create a graphical model and draw a possible circuit. In the development phase we will begin purchasing the needed materials. In the building and testing phases we will assemble the game and make sure it works. We then will deliver the project to the zoo. Quiz Ball The Quiz Ball is a fun way for children, primarily children in grades kindergarten through 3rd, to learn about animals. Each Quiz Ball will be a Styrofoam “ball” with eight 7 sides. The ball will either be cut from a large block of Styrofoam or a Styrofoam ball may have sides cut out of it. The cutting device that will likely be used is a wire heated by electrical current. Each side will have a picture of something related to animals. The material used for the pictures has not yet been determined. The ball will be thrown from student to student. Each time a student catches the Quiz Ball, they must answer the question relating to the picture that is face up when they catch it. The questions will be developed in conjunction with the Zoo staff, and will be printed on cardboard or thick paper cards. The total cost of material is not expected to exceed $150. There will be three different Quiz Balls and question sets developed. The first will be of various animals. These will consist of different classes of animals (birds, mammals, etc.) with some being predators and some being prey. The second Quiz ball will be of animals needs, such as shelter and food. The third Quiz Ball will be of animal habitats, such as tundra, taiga, rainforest, prairie, etc. We believe that the outcome of this project will be a useful tool to help the zoo staff in their goal of education and entertainment of school children. Twister The project idea derived from the original game of Twister, with all of the original rules and even the spin board with slight modifications. The only difference is that instead of colored dots, the mat would have pictures of animals of particular species such as mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles, etc. The mat’s material is still undetermined, but it was suggested that the purchase of the original twister board (made of plastic) could be made and it could serve as the basis for our project. Plastic is a good choice 8 since it cannot wear and stretch easily. From there, cutouts can be made and then the animal cutouts (material undetermined) can be implemented. Another idea for the mat’s material is cloth because it is inexpensive and it does not wear easily. If plastic were to be used, melting of plastics could be used to combine the two forms. The spinners would be made of a thick cardboard material fixated with a spinner, and the colorful designs will come later on. More research still needs to be made, but the estimated maximum expenditure for two of these game mats with the spinner would be around 150 dollars, varying depending on the type of material used. Our zoo team feels that the outcome of this project will be positive because Claudine, our project partner, personally selected this project and it fits her criteria of the project being something educational, safe, and fun. The idea was developed initially for kids, since the zoo is mostly used for educating children, so we hope this project will work for a wide range of age groups. The main goal and strive was for us to create a project that was going to be interesting for the children and we hope we achieve this outcome. 9 Team Organization Chart ZOO Team Organization Team Leaders Mark Casabella Joelle Fleck Operation Game Twister and Quiz Ball Mark Casabella Jayson Wan Nicholas Young Sandy Chieng Majed Nasr Fun Book Joelle Fleck Heather Ide Bingrui Foo Yuansuo Cai Shirley Trinh Rachel Smith Mike Mendel Key keepers: Shirley Trinh, Yuansuo Cai Liaison: Heather Ide ESAC: Majed Nasr Project Planning See attached Gantt chart. 10 Resources and Needs Fun Book It is expected that this project will be complete by the end of the semester. In order to make the fun book easily reproducible for the zoo, we will need to put all of the designs for the book onto a CD. This will also allow us to be able to easily print all the pages and covers for the book. We will require only the use of the software lab to complete this project. We will also have to purchase paper for the inside and cover of the book and materials to finish and bind the book. We may also require the use of a printing shop so that the books will look professionally assembled. Operation Game This semester we expect to complete the design process and perhaps start the building phase of our project. In order to design the game we will need to use a circuit simulator such as P-spice. This will also require the use of the software lab. We will have to purchase materials in order to build the game such as a speaker/buzzer, circuit components, plastic animals, a world map, and a case to place the game in. Hopefully the tools we need to build the game can be found in the hardware lab. resources we will probably ask our TA’s and professors for advice. As far as outside Quiz Ball This project should be well into the Production phase by the end of this semester. The Quiz Ball may require some sort of special foam or a special tool to cut and shape the foam. We may also require special equipment or materials to attach an image to the foam balls. The hardware lab will likely be used for this. We may need to seek help from a materials engineer or specialist for choosing and working with foam. 11 Twister The Twister game should be well into the Production phase by the end of this semester. The material for the Twister board has not yet been selected, but we may require special equipment for applying images to that material. Team Background Joelle Fleck is a junior in Electrical Engineering. She has experience in building and designing circuits. Bingrui Foo is a senior in Computer Engineering. He has experience in micro-controller circuits, and some programming languages. Heather Ide is a senior in Electrical Engineering. She has experience in the design and building of electrical circuits. Yuansuo Cai is a senior in Computer Engineering. He has experience in designing circuits, and programming in C and chip language. Nicholas Andrews has basic programming skills and experience with custom foam manufacturing techniques. Mark Casabella has programming experience in several languages and experience with software tools and card printing. Sandy Chieng is experienced in programming in html, as well as other languages, and she has experience with computer graphics. Jed Nasr has general hardware experience as well as experience with software tools. Jayson Wan has good general computer skills with both hardware and software. Rachel Smith is a junior in Electrical Engineering. She has experience with Microsoft and has some artistic ability. Mike Mendel is a sophomore in Electrical Engineering. He has experience with Microsoft Office and Publisher as well as some experience in computer graphics. Shirley Trinh is a sophomore in Liberal Arts. She has experience with Microsoft and has some artistic ability.