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 .................
Solutions
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Botany
Downs Secondary College
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Click
here for a PDF file of Cherry, Astha, Denisha
and Mandy's research, poster, prototype and board game.
These students are Year 9.
Be
patient, these files might take
a wee while to download.
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness - Dirty
hands and clean hands cannot touch the same thing is
an excellent concept to understand. In theory a good
device but there is not information about how it performed
in practice. With your experience in using it, are the
changes that you would make to the design? It's a sophisticated
design with an intention to water conservation and controlling
the amount of water used.
Durability
- Materials
are durable but the connections may deteriorate with
use and exposure to water.
User-friendliness
- Appearance
shows it's a straight forward device to use although
instructions a diagram may be helpful to a user.
Prof
Norris comments...
Communication
- The poster would be great for New Zealand kids.
However, you say it is ignorance as to why people
do not wash their hands, but some people do not have
the same access to water and soap you do. Paper towels
would be totally unknown in these schools. You have
put a lot of effort into the research.
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Click
here for a PDF file of Vanessa, Carmen, Morgan
and Clair's research, poster, prototype and board game.
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness
- Where
does the water come from? There are some clever ideas
about controlling the flow of water with the rubber bands
and cap and associated pedal to pull the cap open, however
how the apparatus functions as a hand washer is not clear.
Does the person wash their hands in the container or at
the bottom of the outlet pipe? It's not clear what the
nylon is used for.
Durability
- Materials
are durable and constructed to last. Rubber bands may
need replacing from time to time.
User-friendliness
- The
system will need a diagram to explain it's use to users.
Prof
Norris comments...
Communication
- The poster is quite cute. Paper
towels would be unknown in these schools. It does assume
everyone has access to water, and soap. Would the PNG
kids know what the germ graphics were?. It's a nice
poster but would have to be part of a bigger education
campaign that included teaching what germs were.
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Click
here for the PDF file of Lisa, Aishu and Perzaan's
research.
Click
here for the PDF file of their sanitation education.
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness
- This
is done so that their hands don’t come into contact
with the ‘dirty hand’ string. This is a good
concept to understand. The
way it is described it sounds as though it is effective
in controlling the use of water and allowing the user
to use it without contaminating the clean water outlet.
However, there is insufficient written information or
photographic detail to fully understand how it is constructed
and how it will function.
Durability
- Materials
are durable but there is insufficient info to understand
how durable the connections will be.
User-friendliness
- The
system will need a diagram to explain it's use to users.
Prof
Norris comments...
Communication
- I think you are perhaps thinking from a NZ point of
view rather than a PNG one. The antiseptic hand wipe
would be expensive, impossible to transport and impractical.
Your guidelines might be a little too complicated. Pictures
would be better than a lot of words. Who exactly is
this poster for?
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness - Concept
is basic and effective. From the photo it is not quite
clear how the system functions. The description of materials
differs from what is shown.
Durability
- The appearance from the photo is of a well constructed
and durable device. Rather than bronze, stainless steel
nails do not rust and would be stronger than bronze nails.
Good comment about methods of improving the design recognising
some materials corrode i.e. rust.
User-friendliness
- Great presentation but lacking in some clearly describing
what was built and how it functioned during the trial.
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness - It is great you looked closely at the
specifications. It's a simple, classy looking device and
a simple classy construction. However there will be problems
with cross contamination. How do you go about catching
water?
Durability
- You
have not explained what the cotton balls are for? I am
intrigued.
User-friendliness
- It
is a reasonably user friendly device.
Prof
Norris comments...
Communication
- Your comparisons table is really good. The poster
is very cute. The drawings are really appropriate. I
really like the 'wash your hands' whenever you can because
it is a realistic way of looking at the problem. I also
really like the bucket which is so much more realistic
than the sinks etc. that the rest of your class have
done.. The toilet is good too. Well done! This is one
of the best I have seen.
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By
Kendall, Amber, Amanda and Karenza 9E8
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John
la Roche, engineer comments...Here
is my assessment of this very well thought out and described
project.
Kendall, Amber, Amanda and Karenza,
Congratulations, you have done extremely well. You
have described very well the differences between a New
Zealand school and one in the PNG Eastern Highlands.
Your descriptions of the importance of water and how it
should be used to cleanse hands are excellent. Very
well done. I particularly like your comment
about the need to educate children in a way that appeals
and having fun.
Your use of Tea Tree oil, vinegar and lemon for helping
to sterilise the hands before washing with water was well
described and could be very effective.
I'm not sure if there is a similar species of tree in
PNG with similar properties to Tea Tree, but there could
well be. Certainly vinegar and lemons, or
more possibly limes rather than lemons, should be
readily available in PNG.
Your device for catching water with a funnel into a container
using a mesh filter to keep out leaves is also well thought
out. A problem in some parts of PNG is malaria
spread by mosquitoes which breed in stagnant water. Mosquitoes
can breed in water tanks. A mesh filter is
therefore very important. It would need
regular cleaning to ensure that it was not blocked when
rain comes.
And congratulations on thinking up your foot operated
plug valve mechanism to release enough water to
wash your hands while not contaminating anything with
dirty hands. Possibly 20 seconds might be
rather long at times when water is scarce. There
might be a need to limit the flow of water in some way
during dry conditions. Your recommendation
to lather your hands to soften and remove dirt before
rinsing is also an important way using the minimum quantity.
NZ School children should learn to do this and save water!
And well done to collect the waste water and
use it on a garden.
You mention an non-return valve at the bottom of the tank
but have not shown this on your diagram.
I'm not sure how this could work and still allow water
to flow from the tank. Provided the foot operated
wooden lever to the plug valve gave a reasonably water
tight seal, you shouldn't need a non-return valve.
However as mentioned above, limiting the quantity of water
in dry periods would be important.
Congratulations, you have obviously done a lot of research,
put in a great deal of thought, and come up with a very
effective solution. Very well done.
Elaine
Burgess, plant scientist comments...
Tee
Tree oil (leptospernum) is very anti microbial and a variety
is also found in Papua New Guinea so could be sourced
locally, with vinegar (ethanolic by product of fermentation) it
is also anti microbial. Lemon juice would have a
weaker effect. My only criticism is how would the hands
be dried?.
Prof
Norris comments...
Communication
- it assumes the kids in PNG know about germs. The word
slaughter is over the top even though it rhymes with
water!. It is an attractive poster which shows a lot
of effort. However there is nothing in the poster about
illness.
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Click
here for the PDF file of James, Sharvan, and Nathan's
brief and materials work with photos of the design and
here
for a slideshow on PNG.
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John
Cocks, engineer comments...
Effectiveness
- From
what can be understood from the photo the device looks
to be well thought out and constructed so is to enable
effective handwashing. It would be helpful to describe
in more detail how the system works from a point of view
of how it was constructed and how it functions. This is
different to describing how a user uses it.
Durability
- An
impressive device. Materials described are durable however
more detail is needed about the joints in the system to
know how durable these would be. It is good to see a tools
list.
User-friendliness
- The
concept is user friendly. The ideas are very clever. You
are to be commended for your creativity.
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