November Extra Blog

On Thursday the 26th of November the Pasadena Team went on a field trip to a local engineer firm, known as TTG (TMAD, TAYLOR, GAINS.) As a group we were introduced to two specialists in their field a Mechanical Engineer and an Electrical Engineer. You could tell that both the engineers when they talked about their past education and job experience were passionate about their career and loved what they were doing. The Mechanical Engineer had majored as an Aerospace Engineer, but became licensed to engineer and design buildings. This was because the Mechanical Engineer found it rewarding to have a finished product and in aerospace engineering many project designs never make it to space and there is a slim chance of seeing a finished product. On the other hand the Electrical Engineer had lived in India and his family had all majored as Anesthesiologists and he went for his dreams to become an Electrical Engineer and not follow in the same footsteps as his family. After the Electrical Engineer moved to the United States and got his license in California; and he loves working at his job and all the positive rewards you get as an engineer. Both the engineers when introducing there company spoke of how there office is becoming more sustainable with new renewable energy, and wanted to show us how they are contributing to renewable energy by having us fill out a the sustainability scavenger hunt paper on labeled renewable energy items throughout our guided tour. After meeting with the two engineers we went on our guided tour of the building. One of the most interesting features about the building was the way it was designed in angle to promote community and communication from all the engineers' office spaces and the head corporate offices. At one our stops on the guided tour we met a civil engineer and he had showed us how he designs air filtration systems and plumbing systems using computer drafting programs in both 2-D and 3-D. The Civil Engineer had also explained that based on the number of maximum occupancy of the building influences the designing of the air and plumbing systems in order to meet the needs of the users properly. What I took out from this ACE Mentorship meeting was the fact that being passionate about your career can influence your work efforts and becoming an engineer is tough path but once you are there you are using problem based skills to solve certain circumstances to work alongside your colleagues and to make the project function as a whole.

Blog 9: EQ

1. "I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ."

2. Tell us if it meets the rule of 3 criteria. Tell why it does or why it doesn't.

My Working EQ: "What is the best way for an architect to incorporate the natural surroundings in a building design?"

In response to the rule of 3 criteria: When carefully analyzing my EQ, I found that my EQ did fit the rule of 3 criteria, and below I have supported my response to each of the 3 criteria.

• Providing a framework for studies:

                  My current essential question allows me to access a wide-range of research, offering many open-ended questions. Within my EQ, my question states "what is the best way" this choice of words presents to any viewer that my question can be answered in more than one way. The reason why my EQ can be answered in multiple ways is that you can find many "best ways...to incorporate" nature into a building design; in which all answers can equally be considered "the best way." For example one of my current answers to my Essential Question is through the use of observation many architects can learn the forms of nature's structure and incorporate their observations into a project design. Another possible answer to my EQ is by literally incorporating nature into your design by designing a building that is engineered to mold around pre-existing land marks to purposely not harm the pre-existing cite.

• Taking a stance:

                 Overall my EQ offers an extensive outlook of research, which include facts, historic and modern examples, as well as methods of how to incorporate nature into your design. Keeping in mind that our EQ must argue or support our point can be represented with the word choice of arguing "what is the best way...to incorporate" nature into a building design. This phrase allows me to explore and support my EQ by defending my research supported response answers by finding the "best ways."

• Formatting:

                The wording within my EQ is grammatically correct as well as it uses appropriate language to offer an open-ended response. My EQ uses specific phrases in order to get a specific point across particularly pertaining to  the "best way."

2.
a.  What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?

• This question does not meet the rule of 3 criteria since it can only be answered through a factual based standpoint tying to the stance criteria to argue a point.  

b.  What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?

• This question does not follow the criteria, because its formatting is not specific to defining the EQ. For example "What is most important" instead of address the EQ in that format the EQ could have been worded like "What is the most important factor" (this way specific addresses a factor when securing a conviction.)

c.  What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?

• This question does not follow the criteria, because its formatting is not specific to defining the EQ. For example "What is most important" instead of address the EQ in that format the EQ could have been worded like "What is the most important factor" (this way specific addresses a factor when creating a hairstyle.)

d.  How can an Anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?

• This question does follow the three rule criteria since it offers an elaborate study of different ways an Anesthesiologist can best treat chronic pain. In addition, this question takes a stances that can argue a variety of different standpoints on how to best treat chronic pain. Lastly the formatting on this quest does fit the criteria since it is very specific and clear on its point on "How...Anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?"

3. Based on your review of the rule of 3 and your experience with assessing four EQs, please write another draft EQ for your senior project.

How can an architect sufficiently incorporate nature into a building design?