Today Stuart, Kate, and I finished our presentation (without the pictures though) and I also got to work on the project within the last week. First off, I got a good amount of the project done which is a huge weight off my shoulders. All I have to do now is to do the finishing touches (connecting the flat rope to the wood block) which I will be able to do over the break. The second topic we talked about/ finished is the final presentation. All of the slide’s materials are done except for a few picture: before and afters, Mikaela’s modeling pictures, and the video. I am going to make the video from my friend Alex Gressett’s tumbling and stunting videos I have collected over the years. The modeling pictures will be over or maybe a little after the break because I have to construct and find a time that will work for Mikaela and I. Like last time, I blended all the slides together and arranged them, so next week we will be done and practicing our parts.

Today Stuart, Kate, and I worked on the end of year presentation and went over a few things, like new due dates. Even though we set due dates, events got in the way of me getting to work on the project. Construction is a big issue for me, since I am mainly in charge of it. The days I was supposed to work on it I would get sick or have a competition. So hopefully this weekend I will at least get started on it since it is crunch time. Even though time is sort of an issue I will have all of Christmas break to finish it up and take pictures. I feel especially bad since the pictures are a big part of Kate’s slides and she was not able to get very far on her part of the presentation because of me. One good thing that happened is that I finished most of my slides except for the pictures, so I do not really have to stress about doing all of that before Christmas break. Below is a picture of one of my slides!

Today Stuart, Kate, and I did not get a lot done because of the test we took today, but we hit the main points of todays agenda. First we worked on explaining the new design to Stuart. She understood it, but to make it clearer to all of us we did a picture representation of it, which was a lot of fun since we got to use the whiteboard! I had a hard time remembering what some of the new supplies were and where they went in the design, so it ended up being good for me. I also felt bad because I never got around to constructing it because I got the flu towards the end of the week when my dad was off and suppose to help. We also gave out slides for the end of the year assignment; since it is coming up fast. Kate got the model slide, tips on stretching, and how to use the stretcher. Stuart got due dates, how it ended up not costing money because of the changed supplies, and she will be presenting our hook. I got construction, supplies, and the resolved hook issue/ what replaced the hooks. We also as a group wanted to do a summary about what we did over the semester. Next week and over the break we are going to work on our presentation, construct the project, and take the modeling pictures.

Today it was just Kate and I because Stuart was absent. We made pretty big changes to the supplies in the project and fixed the hook issue! We added four new supplies to the project: 2 washers, 2 carabiners, 2 flat ropes, plastic tubing and 2 eye screws. Also I found a place where I got the pulleys for free, so I gave my partners back their money! Now here is the set up of the new Stretcher- The eyespots are screwed into the wood on opposite sides. Then you hook the carabiners through the hole part of the eyespot. Connected to the carabiners are the pulleys. Now at the end of the rope the foot hole is covered in plastic tubing so the users do not get rope burn. Also the handle is now wooden. Another thing is the rope and pulleys appear small, but since they are used for sailing they can actually withstand quite a bit of resistance. Now onto the hook issue!

Instead of using hooks we are going to use two pieces of flat rope and two washer. I do not know the exact size of washer and the flat rope I am going to be using because I found them randomly in my house. We are going to attach the flat rope to the wood and slide the rope over the door. Then you will slide the washer onto the rope, tie a knot, and close the door. This will actually make the project easier to move than the hooks! Since Stuart was out and we made some pretty big changes we emailed her, so we hope she will not be completely lost when we get back from the break. Over the break Kate, me and my dad will hopefully start and maybe finish construction so we can see if it is going to work out. 

Today Stuart, Kate and I worked on, collaborated, and finished our status update slideshow/keynote thing. I also learned how to use keynote in terms of “jazzing up” slides. Which was a huge accomplishment for me because I could not figure out how to work it last week! So I had Stuart and Kate airdrop their presentation to me, so I could put them all in one key not presentation. In terms of my slide, I finally added the picture to my slide about the items needed for my slides. (It is just a collage of all of the supplies) Another thing we did was rehearse to see when each of us were going to be speaking. We also rehearsed because we have never done a presentation were our body language and stuff like that is going to be graded and with all of us hating public speaking, this is a HUGE issue. Also we are trying decide on a hook. One of the ideas I think we are going with a statistic about injuries caused by not stretching properly and if that doesn’t get the audiences attention (which it probably won’t) I will then add a video of tumbling from people like Whitney or Britni Love (youtube them)they are some of the best tumblers ever and people who see people flipping there bodies usually start paying attention.

Today Stuart, Kate, and I worked on our update presentation. We decided for each of us to do at least two slides on different subjects, so each of could have specific speaking parts. Kate is doing tips and benefits of stretching and Stuart’s slides are about our calendar due dates and how we got and intend to use the money. My two slides are talking about the supplies and construction of The Stretcher. The first slide of mine is the supplies were we are going to show all the supplies and what we are doing to get them. For example, how I have some of the supplies in my dad’s barn and how we are ordering online. We are going to talk about how we are getting the money in Stuart’s slide. The second slide is talking about how we are going to construct The Stretcher and how it is going to  be put all together. The picture below shows my slides, but they are not finished for I must add my pictures and jazz it up a bit.

 Today, Stuart and I (Kate became sick earlier today) talked about money, our model issue, a new issue about the hooks that are in this project, and a little bit about our end of the year presentation. On the money subject we all brought our money for this week, excluding Kate of course because she was absent. My group decided it would be good to have a person model the correct ways to use The Stretcher so I asked a friend of mine, Mikaela Albrick to model for us. Now on the to the hook subject, I realized we forgot to look for a hook to hold the project up. We found one that may work, but there is a chance it may not work. If the the hook does not work out I will most likely construct one out of wood. We talked about the presentation and how we should do somewhat of a public service announcement by telling people to never stretch cold, and to do aerobic   exercises such as a slow jog before stretching and specifically before using The Stretcher.

Today, Stuart, Kate, and I worked on a new schedule. Since we made the final adjustments to The Stretcher’s supplies list, we now needed a bit more time for everything to get in. We decided all three of us are going to bring in $1.44 for three weeks. This will end in the total amount of $13.00 (rounded up). The due date of the money is the 15th of November. I will then order the supplies off my home computer on November 16th since we can’t do online shopping on our school Macs. Hopefully all the supplies will be in the thursday right before November 22nd so we can bring them to class and start to put things together design wise (no nails yet). The next week we have off so we will not be doing anything. The friday we get back which is the 6th we will definitely start working on the project. Also we were talking about having visual representations of people using the product so I am going to ask one of my friends from cheer to model the product for us. This will probably happen in mid-December the actually date will to be announced because I still have not asked her. 

Today Stuart, Kate, and I sis not get much accomplished because of the test and how long it took us (me especially) to take. Although for the time issue we cleared up confusion amongst the supplies I had found in my fathers barn. Not only had I found the perfect rope to use I also had a block of wood that would work well in the project. Also we looked at the graph and decided that along with the model we were going to make we were going to ask some of my friends form my gym to try it out and give us some thoughts on how to make it better. This of course will be later in towards the middle of December which will give us enough time to make adjustments as needed. The picture I am attaching below is what my group envisions that the actual product will end up looking like.

Today Stuart, Kate and I created a somewhat descriptive graph of our invention, created a survey, decided definitely what products we are going to use, and if we were going to use a steel or wooden bar. First we made our decision on the bar. We decided to use a wooden bar because it would be easier to drill the holes need for the pulleys. After that we decided on the products for (hopefully) the last time. We are using a 25 inch long and 2.5 inch wide block of wood, a zinc plated fixed pulley, over the door hangers, and 150 inches of rope. I have the rope, we are going to Home Depot this weekend to just look at prices, the pulley was $10.60 for two of them and we are purchasing them at Hardwareworld.com, and finally the over the door hanger from target probably within the 5-15 dollar price range. We then created a survey which will be linked below and decided I would take to my gym and ask my other friends in sports to take. I would also link the graph, but in the picture the words were backwards.

Today Stuart and I (Kate was out for cheerleading because of a pep rally.) created a new design and changed the materials we will need because of this new design. The new design includes a wooden or some type of strong metal bar such as steel. Also this new design exclude the elastic tubing because after talking about it would not provide the right resistance or pull to get the most out of using this invention to stretch. The elastic tubing would not let your leg or arm be pulled it would just give away to the resistance your leg was causing. In the new design the bar will be attached with most likely screws to the over the door hanger. Then we will attach the pulleys to opposite ends of the bar. Once that is done we will string the rope with a hole on one end to put your foot through and a grip on the other end to hold on to to pull.  This is what we did on 10/4/13.

Today Stuart, Kate, and I looked at the supplies we need and when we will be needing them by. We decided that we were going to use elastic tubing (resistance bands), rope, and a new item called a stretch strap. We found the stretch strap while looking at stretching supplies. A stretch strap is a braided rope like material with two hoops at the end. This is perfect for what we need because your foot or arm must go through some type of hole for you to be able to successfully use The Stretcher. We decided we are going to buy the elastic tubing and rope in bulk so when the materials arrive we can cut and shorten it as needed, we will only need one stretching strap though. We will hopefully purchase and and have the materials by late October or early November because that will give us enough time to raise the money and figure out our next step. On the calendar subject we also set a calendar up for or our today. We hope to by December to start prototyping and working out the kinks of the project and by the day of the presentation we have the end results.

(Day we will have the supplies by)

Kate, Stuarts, and I's project was a stretcher that you put your leg or arm through and when you manipulate your bodies in certain ways it stretches your hamstring, quad, and shoulder. Today we made measurement, decided what materials we need, and estimated how much we will need of each material. First we measured the door and estimated how much rope the project will require. We estimated we would need probably 140 inches of rope/ a more elastic type rope. For the elastic type of rope we decided on fifty-six inches of elastic tubing and 84 inches of regular rope that will be put through a pulley so you can stretch yourself. This device will be hung over a door way for easy use and easy transportation if you want The Stretcher to be moved to another room. Hopefully this invention will be used by athletes to reduce the amount of tears in the athletes muscle. This device will save them them the pain of the tear and also the time rehabilitation takes. This is the summary of what we did on 9/20/13.