Blog 5

After meeting with Mr. Lucas for approval for our project, we were again directed towards Mrs. Dyer, the Hawken Upper School director, for her agreement on the terms of our project. When reversing our presentation, my group members and I forgot to account for the radius of the spikeball net (3ft radius) into the overall serving radius of the spikeball court (9ft), and concluded that it would decrease the serving radius to 6ft. This was a grave mistake on our part, and resulted in us to actually create two separate models, the 9ft radius model and the 12ft radius model, to provide Mrs. Dyer the most options for optimizing spikeball play. As spikeball requires a 6ft serving distance, the 9ft model would force players to sreve at or after the sand pit barrier, and could potentially result in a greater proportion of tripping and injurites. Contrastingly, the 12ft model would provide the player with an ample 3ft distance from the border when serving, and could mitigate the rate at which players trip and fall from the barrier, thereby minimizing potential injuries. Moreover, we also listed that one major adavantage for implementing the 12ft model would be that players would not have to feel cramped when playing, and would have an excess of space to fully dive and jump to make great plays while simultaneously staying safe. We also decided to implement a rubber barrier instead of wooden one due to Mrs. Dyer’s concerns of student injuries, and have made the correct changes in both our proposal and skematic designs.