Self Harm
At the beginning of our project, we were discussing ideas and most of them sounded too much like previous ones and we needed new kinds of engineering ideas. After careful consideration, we decided that we would attempt to at least partially solve Self Harm while using the engineering design cycle. The engineering design cycle, is a method to approach engineering projects(see the engineering design cycle under core terms per project), many of which are deeply ingrained in the natural sciences(physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sciences). Through our research, we discovered that some of the main causes of self harm include, addictions, negative thoughts or worries, and specific traumatic events, among others. After absorbing this information, my group and I decided that we had to use something that is meditative in nature in order to combat the complex subsequent emotions. After many ideas, such as a gadget or an outdoors camp, we came up with a solution, which was a group, (or "goody bag" as we called it) of objects, that people would use to, almost meditatively fidget with and/or be inspired by. We included objects, such as a stress ball, buckyballs, clay, and an infinity puzzle to act as objects for meditation or objects to show control. While our project, at its most basic level, may not fully solve self harm, we hope it will at least lessen the urge to physically abuse oneself. We also made a slideshow based on our project(see below).
Reflection
During this project, me and my group did a lot of research into the causes and current treatments for self harm in order to come up with solutions. At times, it seemed very difficult for me, in particular, to annotate sources, and once it was due, I had to redo it because it was in the wrong format. However, once I understood the format, (bullet points instead of sentences) I reorganized it completely. After this, my group and I had to decide on a solution, which was difficult, because we had to reimagine what we knew about the concept of therapy through meditation. However, we eventually came up with a solution that may work in certain cases. Nonetheless, if our solution does not work, a person suffering from self harm should pursue other forms of help, such as counselling or a non-addictive medical prescription. During this project, I not only learned about the causes and dangers of self harm, but also that perseverance, in all of its forms, eventually produces a zenith of accomplishment.