Contractor (Krislyn):

The process of creating our aquaponic system was hard for me to manage. It was hard to get a read on my group because at one point their minds are entirely focused on what they are doing, then all of a sudden they become unmotivated. To help get my group on task again, I needed to be more firm with them. I used to yell at them at one point to get the job done. If that didn't help, I would have to ask teachers to step in and help me get my group in line again. In the beginning of this project, we were always behind the others. Our first problem was that we could not come up with an idea that would work. To fix that problem, we looked at all the ideas we had and decided which one would be better and what model would actually function the best. Second, our prototypes were the last to be completed due to the lack of time we had deciding what idea to use. The one thing I could rely on my group was getting the job done. I felt that even though our strategies were off and on, we were able to get through all the challenges along the way. To me, I really enjoyed seeing how each of my team members worked and what type of work they could accomplish. I got to spent more time with them and create a bond, learning more and more what we could do together. I realized that when we are all focused everything gets done faster and with more quality. One of the major problems we ran into was taking pictures. My group and I came up with the solution to remake the building process. We put on gloves and goggles just like we did during the real thing. We glued and drilled just as before. In the beginning of this project we were assigned a google doc to fill in the information on what was going to be done and when it was going to be completed. This is one of the many things I could trust my group with. They were always able to finish the task on time with aesthetically pleasing work. From teamwork we got through all the dents in the process.





Builder (Noah):

The process of building was an interesting process. When we first started building we made a mistake immediately. This was because we did not go slow we were just rushing through things and were not taking our time. After we made the mistake we slowed down and we learned our lesson and did not make a mistake again. the hardest part of the project was gluing on the bottom of the grow bed. this is the little noches that hold the grow bed in place.  we are done with building, all we have to do now is install the pump. Obviously if we were going to do this again, we would be a lot more carefule when we are gluing. Also the cuts would be a lot better cut than it was.

        I learned that rushing through things will result in bad work. when you slow down every thing will be better and nicer. I also found that the more hads that you have gluing the better. when you have a lot of hands things will be a lot more stable. The reason that we screwed up was that we were not careful lining up the edges. The way we fixed the problem was taping every thing down before we started glueing this made it so that we could check every thing before we glued and it made it so that it was stable when we were gluing everything down. 

        to put the pump in we are going to stick it in the tank and put it over the the side that we have make fore the pipe. we have a pipe for the drain that will be able to move up and down the allow the water level that you desire. we will also recomend that you buy a timer for the pump that will shut it off at a cretan time and will turn it on at a certain  time.




Sales (Trevor):

There is a lack of water in the world right now.  There are also many people dying from famine.  Our aquaponics system is very sustainable and can bring down on the the use of water and you can grow your own fiod from your kitchen.Our aqua pros aquaponics system is a small Eco friendly table size aquaponic kit.  Our main audience we are trying to sell our product to are parents with children.  We believe parents would like to buy this kit because it is made by kids and educational for their children.  This is a very big market it you think about how many parents are out there looking to educate their children with fun.  My team and I come from an aquaponics background of researching and building the product ourself.  We have a lot of competition right now and a lot of the systems have become successful because aquaponics is becoming very popular on the market today.  A competitive advantage we have is we have a larger grow bed that you can separate the grow bed from the tank.  If you help support our aquaponics key by buying it or investing in it you can help solve the problem of drought and famine that is happening around the world today.




Architect (Blaine):

For the past weeks, we have been trying to design a Aquaponics system. I think the biggest problem we had so far is the draining system. We were originally going to use a syphon but we decided it would take to long to make. Now we are going to use a pipe. Are system has the tank on the bottom and a grow bed on the top. We have a square looking hole on the top of the tank to put our pipe through it. The pipe is going to go over the top of the grow bed. We didn't glue the grow bed to the tank because you wouldn't be able to feed the fish. Instead we put these long pieces under the grow bed. I don't no what it's called. Those pieces will make sure the grow bed doesn't tip over and fall. That way, you can lift up the grow bed and feed the fish. We will drill holds on top of the grow bed to drain the water. There will be a timer for the pipe to make sure we don't put to much water and have the system over flow. We changed some stuff from or original design. One we changed was that we were originally gonna have a bell syphon. We changed it because we thought it was going to take to long to build and we didn't have the materials at the time. We thought it was a good idea but we also thought it would take to long. Another thing is we were going to have something to stand up the grow bed from the tank but we learned it isn't going to be stable enough. The thing was going tip over. We thought the space was going to be easier to fit the fish because you can put your hand in and feed it. It would have been easier but it wasn't going to be stable. Instead we put the pieces under the grow bed to make it stable so it doesn't tip over. We didn't glue it so you can lift up the grow bed and than you can feed the fish. We glued a piece wrong on the tank so it messed up our whole thing. We adjusted by putting better glue to cover up the hole. I am really proud of us fixing the problem that we thought was going to ruin our system. Mr. Kaneko was going to buy us new pieces but we fixed it and now it is good again. Overall I like our design. All we got to do is drill the holes and put in the pipes and we should be done. I think it will work good!



Shayla (Documentarian):

Fenton:
Overall this project has been a learning experience for all of us. I have liked my teams progression and dedication to there work. At first I was unhappy with my groups effort but now I'm very proud of everyone in my group, especially noah he really puts the team on his back. The first idea for our beautiful design was when we were watching videos in the green room, and malia actually came up with it. He's like Adrian Peterson for the Minnesota Vikings. Some achievements are when everyone stopped playing games, when we finished are first model on time, and finishing the top part of are box.

Some bad things that happened is that we had some pieces that were not delivered to us on time. I believe that are group gets better and better every week, distractions have not been a problem for a couple weeks. Everyone seems to be getting what there a issued done. I think our design will really pay off in the end, its different than everyone else's, it really shows personality and how are group can work together. 

I really believe we can really work and get stuff done, and I think we have the best ending project. I really respect the teachers for helping out with this process, they have made everything so much easier. We become stronger every week, and I think we will be done on time.

Matt fansler and Isaiah palmero have really improved through these last few weeks, and they actually produce some pretty good work. All of the ideas my group has had, I had agreed with them, and nothing bad has happened from me trusting there ideas. If anything the work has been a lot better than how it was before. 

I think my group will finish soon, and it will be from all of the hard work of my group. I hope that by next week we can have this all done, so then we are ready to sell everything, I hope all the work come out right. Im really working well lately with my teammates. 



Fansler:
Do you wanna save the world? Using an Aquaponic? Wait but what is it? Well we are selling a new type a, Sonic Aquaponic. Well an Aquaponic system is a sustainable food production system that combines fish, plants, and water. Well the first question your probably thinking is what it can do for me? Well firstly you can help save the earth. You can create an educational fun experience for your children. You can make an investment to save money for your fruits and vegetables. Lets get back to your children and even your self. Well your kids learn many educational topics even yourself. First is biology from the entire process. Math from all of the angles of the Aquaponic. Lastly you get to learn engineering from sustainability. Why you should buy our product because ours is different from everyone else's. The biggest thing is we use plexiglass. This will allow people to see what happens in the system. Also it is much bigger than everybody else's. During our time creating this we had many problems. We had calculation problems, building problems, and much more. But if we make mistakes comes solutions. We ended up creating an excellent Aquaponic system that we have here today to share with everyone.

Noah:
As a builder I learned how to work hard and stay focused. While building this we had to watch videos and from these videos I learned how to stay focused and learned how to glue plexiglass. We learned to double check your work because we made an error by putting the length 4/16 short of what it's suppose to be but luckily mr.hines forgot to order one piece and we were able to adjust that piece to the short pieces we just got. At first I panicked because I didn't realize I made that mistake but then I learned to stay calm. Luckily we didn't have to order and new pieces and waste money. Gluing the plexiglass together was easy because of the practice we did. We just planned out how we were going to do it and we got the job done for the grow bed. But for the fish tank I forgot to tell mr.hines the dimensions of the last piece so we were still missing that base. But we problem solved and like in the videos we built the sides first and that was pretty challenging. We didn't have strong tape so we couldn't get the 45 degree angle. Then we problem solved and put the ruler behind and just held it there to make it stable. It was hard getting the other pieces stable too but we figured it out we just needed more hands to make it stable. Next time we won't make mistakes anymore and well get the dimensions right.  This is what I learned from doing it this time. 



Malia:
Our Aquaponic System works in a very unique way, it's not like your normal aquaponic system where its side by side. Our Aquaponic system is a stackable system,the fish bed is on top, and the fish tank is on the bottom.  The grow bed lays on the top of the fish tank, that way you can see the plants grow. The grow bed has different sorts of plants such as herbs and vegetables. The grow bed has plants, then there is gravel, then there is water. The water sprinkles down to the fish bed like a sprinkler. Then on the bottom I'd the fish tank. The fish tank had one type of fish called Talapia. The fish tank is see through so you can the fishes. The fish tank also has a pump in it to help the water stay clean and circulate good. From the fish bed there is a tube that leads down to the fish tank to give it some extra water. There will be a little light on the bottom of the grow bed is you can see the top of the fish tank. Our system is very sustainable. There is no need for anything chemical wise, there is neither any harmless things added on to the system. From the beginning we had to adjust our system, because we had a different design first of all, then somebody came up with the stackable design and we all agreed on that. Another thing we had to change was , that we wanted the grow bed to just sit on the fish tank, but then we wanted people to see the top, so we added little pillars on the side so people can see it better. Some challenges we had was that some of our measurements were wrong so we had a hard time adjusting it, then when we got all the plexiglass pieces we were missing on so we got a little delayed. We had some successes, like after we didn't have the piece, our teacher got it for us and we weren't delayed we got caught up. Lessons learned was that we really need to make sure everything is exact, because if it isn't the whole thing is messed up. We also need to make sure that when you start to glue everything is flush and 90 degrees.



IP:

Coltrane:
I, as the contractor of a wildly successful group, had the responsibility of organizing my group’s thoughts and being a decisive input into the overall design of our aquaponics model. At first, I was quite daunted by the task at hand but, after I got to know my group and their individual ideology better, I was able to choose a path that would mutually, at the very least, satisfy everyone. When beginning the creation of our aquaponics kit, our first true hurtle we had to overcome was the essential figure of our kit. There were a few prepositions and we had to rule out some as well; ergo, a kit supported by everyone. After that, everyone became more invested in their own tasks: Bradley with the design, Kris with building, Isaiah with entrepreneurship and Bryson with documenting the work of everyone. Because of the fact that most of the work that could possibly be done in regards to the physical aquaponics kit  was circumstantial, my group members utilized their time by working on improving their individual skills to be used in the creation of the entirety of the aquaponics kit. Some of the trepidations we experienced as a group over the course of this project were that sometimes we had too much time on our hands so while we had around 3 hours to work, we utilized maybe only around half or it and for the rest of the time, found ways to distract ourselves. I admittedly fell prey to procrastination too, but I also found ways to fight it. Periodically throughout the project, my group and I would meet and discuss what we had accomplished, what we expected ourselves to finish at the end of the day, and finally, what we expected ourselves to have as a final product. To date, our achievements are as follows: Partial completion of the Kickstarter page, partial completion of the aquaponics kit, partial completion of the kickstarter videos, completion of the schematic of the model, completion the elevator pitch as well as a full explanation of creation. I feel that during this project, we have matured as a group and now excel in our individual selected fields. Truthfully, I was worried at the start, but currently, I am proud of the progress my group made and am happy to call each of the members accordingly, my teammates.

Brad:
This project I have been paired up with a good group and I think that everyone is doing there job very well. I have made a good amount of mistakes with the designing and my group is so good that they are rushing me which is good is sometimes just impossible to do. But the main thing that is holding back your productivity in the way of building is the siders. Your design has a slider so that it can adjust to any size tank and any body can use it. Well what I messed up on is that I did not put a hole in the design to cut so I had to make it easier to cut so that we could cut it. One thing that did come out of this is that the siders look better then before because it added some difference and it is not all plexiglass. My schematic did turn out well but of course it changed when I built it because I thought that I could cut it but it could not because the router could not do what I thought it could. The sliders were supposed to be a piece of plexiglass supported  by guide slides. Instead of that I made a tube guiding a wire that is bent in to a u shape that goes into another tube and this is better because all you need to do is drill a hole is which very easy. Your basic design is very simplistic and easy to use this is going to be one of our main selling points. Also today specifically I drilled holes in the plexiglass for the slider I also did some of the slider slides and of course I worked on this. Even though I made some mistakes I think that it is going  to turn out very well and I think ours is the one to be picked.  

Kris K:

The main things I did throughout this project was the construction of the prototype, the sanding of the plexiglass, the starting of the gluing, the drilling of the holes, the cutting of the copper wire we are going to use for our sliders.

Some of the challenges that I overcame when building this Aquaponics kit was having pieces of plexiglass that were not straight edge, the design had to been changed, and drilling.

When we first got the pieces of plexiglass almost all of the sides did not have straight edges. To fix the edges to make them straight me and bradley helped each other sanding them down. At first we did one individually but we found out that it is a lot more effective when one person holds the straightedge while the other person sands it.

The original design had to be changed as well. Bradley had made it so that we would cut holes in the sides of the plexiglass to put our sliders into, but that was a big flaw and it could not be done because we cannot cut it ourselves because it would be uneven and probably crack and shatter. We decided that we could actually use tubing (copper) for the sliders and in turn just drill holes into the  sides of our plexiglass and put the tubing in instead.

Drilling was a small problem but it was a really easy one. At first I didn't know how to drill good (thank god we used a practice piece) and the holes were coming out shattered, jagged, and uneven. I fixed this by drilling straight downwards and watching while drilling so they would come out straight. We also found it is more effective when you slow down at the very end so the plexiglass doesn't shatter and crack.


Isaiah:
My name is Isaiah Browning and I would like to talk to you about aquaponics. What is aquaponics? Aquaponics is a mix between hydroponics and aquaculture. This is our newest design. Our newest designs goal is to educate young families and kids about aquaponics and sustainability. How does it work? Our M.A.P. or mini aquaponics. In the middle is a big area for you to grow your plants so that you can have the luxury of growing many different plants. Between the grow bed and the bottom of the kit is a two centimeter space which holds your pumps, timers, and a filtration device which allows you to grow the healthiest plants you want. Setup is easy and quick. You simply put the kit above your aquarium.  Put one side on (bottom) , put on the divider (middle  part), put on the other side, then add both end caps. We also just added a really cool feature that is unique to our kit. On the end of the kit we have panels extend so the kit will fit to any aquarium size.

Here at M.A.P. our goal is to raise awareness about sustainability. Though we are just in high school we still felt like we could make a difference in the world so we set out to change it. We started our company a little over a few months ago with the goal to try and fix a problem that effected everyone worldwide which was sustainability. Through collaborating together we came up with the idea of making a aquaponics kit that would fit the need for any budget and any home. Our designers and builders came up with countless sketches but finely settled on the most reliable, cost efficient, easy to work design. After we came up the sketches we knew we had to test them out so we made models out of card board and tested it. The results were in and they were great! Not only did our kit work great but it's also the easiest to use out there. After seeing the results we knew we had to make more. Taking a step up from card board we decided that plexiglass would be the best material to make our kits because of its unique acrylic, lightweight, not shatter glass. We already made the first kit and saw the potential of greatness that it could have. There's one problem. We don't have the funds to make more kits. That's were you come in Kickstarter pledgers. With your help we can take this small idea and give every house hold in America a mini aquaponics kit! 

Bryson:

architect: 

Our design started out as an irregular design.  It was going to have the fish tank on the top, and the plants on the bottom.  However, that idea was quickly scrapped after we decided that the plants would not have enough room to grow. There was a lot of ideas that flew around, but we eventually ended up on our current design, where we have six boxes sitting on top of the fish tank.  Each of these boxes are used to plant a separate plant, and the water flows through in two different pipes, and flows out the sides of the box.  I think our biggest challenge was actually coming up with the design.  We ended up with our design after going through three or four other designs.  We kept on adjusting the one with the boxes on the bottom, thinking that we might be able to get it to work.  We gave up on that design because it was both too complicated, and the plants would be very short due to the minimal space above the plants.  When we moved to the design with the boxes above the aquarium, we had another dilemma,  we thought that it would be better if we had something like brackets on the bottom, and then we thought it might be too complicated.  Eventually, we made the bottom of the boxes of one row one piece.  This saved us having any extra pieces to produce as well as allowed us to let the boxes rest on top of the aquarium without anything holding it but the bottoms of the boxes.  A complicated explanation, however there are not many ways of describing how the boxes sit on top of our aquarium.  I think this process taught us a lot about the building and design process, seeing as we did make a lot of edits and a lot of mistakes.  A really good example of this is that when we got the pieces we discovered several things that were either forgotten, or we did wrong.  The first thing, was that I forgot to add holes where the tubing on the boxes would go to travel through the boxes.  The second thing was that when I scaled the drawing differently due to the different piece size, I didn't account for the boxes on top.  In other words, the boxes we have are now offset from the piece they sit on.  I think we lost some space that could've been used for planting, as well as it may disrupt the aesthetics of the aquaponics tank.  It has taught me, personally, that you need to be careful and check and recheck something before you decide to submit for the final copy.


builder:

Currently we are in the middle of building the prototype for our aquaponics kit. We have been sanding all of our pieces for the past few days. All our pieces were cut badly so we  had to sand all of them to make the sides straight. Our design had a lot of boxes so we have a lot of pieces to sand. All of us worked together to sand all the pieces so we would get done faster. Sometimes we sanded the pieces badly like some of the sides got curved because we sanded badly. That prolonged the process because we had to go back and re-sand those pieces. We glued a couple pieces already. We glued one of the sided to the base of the aquarium. We can't glue anymore anymore pieces because the measurements were wrong. We cut those pieces and we are sanding them now so we can glue them. We glued three of four sides of one of the small boxes. We have have to get a few pieces cut because we need holes in them and we forgot to put them in. 

Our plan is to first complete all the sanding. We need to finish that before we do anything else. After we finish that, we will start gluing. We will assemble the aquarium first, then do the small boxes.

I learned a lot of lessons during this project. I learned that even the smallest mistake can ruin the whole project. We have to plan everything before we start building and before we get our pieces cut. We had a couple wrong measurements and we didn't put holes in enough pieces. We should've double and triple checked our final blue print so we wouldn't have to get them cut again. While gluing, we should have about three people helping: one to glue, one to make sure the sides are aligned, and one to make sure the piece is straight. When we glued, we only had two people, one gluing and the other holding the pieces in place. The piece slid a little to the side and was glued like that. Now it is permanently like that. It's not bad enough to ruin the whole kit, but it it isn't aligned and isn't as good as it could be. I don't think it will leak, but we should've had more people helping on that so we could prevent that from happening.

contractor: 

The process in which it takes to build a working and running aquaponics system in very a hard task. There are many little tasks our group had to accomplish the duration of this project was very long. The first step we had to take was to make a rough outline of the design of our system. We had to make a scale drawing of it to find out the dimensions of our system. After we made a scale drawing we made a model with the demotions we came up with. The model was made up of cardboard, it was a rough draft of the model by making this model it helped us work out certain flaws in our design. While we were making the model we were also working on our kickstarter material. On the kickstarter we had to have a description of our product, a video explaining the product and what was going on, and rewards for people who donated money to our project. We had to change the detentions a little before we made the next model. Our design was six individual boxes, but the problem was that we didn't know how to circulate the water through the boxes back into the tank. We solved the problem by drilling whole in the sides and putting gas kits into the boxes so that the tubes could go through. In the middle of this process I was thinking about the team I got and I was thinking that I was really lucky because they always on task and they know what there objectives are. This model was made out of styrofoam. The goal of this model was to make it as precise as we could try to make no mistakes. This one really counted because it was the one right before the actual model that we would make out of plexiglass, and when we have to make it out of plexiglass we can't make any mistakes. The one thing we know we could fix right after we built the model out of plexiglass the platform the boxes was sitting on. Our model had six boxes and it was sitting on a platform of the tank but we made it to short so it collapsed into the tank. We were ready for the plexiglass, but before we could get the plexiglass we had to write down all of our detentions in detail, how much we want where we need the holes. We sent it to a laser cutting plexiglass professional, but when we got the pieces back the cuts of the plexiglass were not exactly 90 degrees. This was a huge problem for our group because we have so many pieces it took us a long time to sand them down to 90 degree angles. It set us back from building for a while. When we got the plexiglass we also noticed that we forgot to put on the pieces sheet that we needed holes in some pieces this did not really set us back because we had to sand for so long, when we were done sanding the pieces were done getting wholes cut into them. We also forgot to a count for the 1/4 inch over lap of the plexiglass on one of the pieces so we had to cut it down a little and sand it. After that we were ready to build the final model out of plexiglass. 


More Descriptive Pitch:

We are the creators and designers of the MPX Aquaponics system and we are students at Mid Pacific Institute. Our team is made up by Kai Wilding(salesman), Marshall Mamiya(documentarian), Sean Hochman(builder), Austin Nakamura(Architect), and Josh Millar(contractor) and we are all 9th grade students. We have always thought of sustainability as a huge part in our lives. And through our learning to 9th grade we have learnt about sustainability and our earth. As we have all grown up in the debt and low resources of past generations we have always hoped we could make a difference in this world and create a sustainable future for our generation and future children. Every last one of us in this project are just young hopeful students, who have been given an opportunity to make a difference. And now with your help we can reach our dream. We can create a more sustainable lifestyle for everyone and change the world.  

Aquaponics uses a safe Eco system that doesn't require chemicals or enhancing materials to grow the plants. The waste that is produced by the fish is used by the plants for them to grow. This valuable resource allows you to have a sustainable amount of fish and plants for your use. Instead of going to the store and buying vegetables and fish you can take some from your own aquaponics system. It will save you money by shorting your water usage water compared to other growing methods. Across the United States fresh water has been decreasing for us to drink throughout the years. About one quarter of the world's population is in the state having water storage for themselves. The aquaponics system will hopefully help lower that percent because of the fact that aquaponics system use less amount of water compared the original agriculture method that uses irrigation.

Our aquaponics system has a fish tank on the bottom and the 6 individual grow beds on the top. The pump sends the water from the fish tank through the grow beds nurturing the plants using the fish's manure. Since you don't want your plant's roots wet all day long the pump is on a timer. The timer is on for 2 hours constantly circulating the water. When the 2 hours is up the water will flow back into the fish tank. Since the water isn't absorbed by the soil so you do not have to use as much water, as you would in traditional agriculture. Due to evaporation you have to refill the tank only once a week.