P OJECT IDEA 1

Title

The Business of Footwear

Introduction

Donald Burrell a lover of footwear; May it be sandals, sneakers you name it. If it is footwear he loves it.
Donald wishes to turn his love for footwear into a lifelong business. Donald is fully aware that his
preferences in footwear will differ from the prospective customers that he wishes to serve. As such,
Donald decides to conduct a research to identify various preferences in choices of footwear from his
prospective customers.

From the research, Donald wishes to determine the primary choices of footwear

Method of Data collection

A questionnaire will be issued to fifty males and female collectively. This will be done over a period of
two days. On day one, twenty five questionnaires were issued to males only. On day two, twenty five
were issued to females only. On any given day, we will select the first five males between the ages of 16
– 25, ten every other fifth male till we get twenty five males. The same will be done for the females.
Questionnaires issued gathers data on preferred type of footwear, materials used for footwear and
colour, shoe size, age group and sex of participant, price of shoes.

Presentation of Data

Table of Information Gathered From Male Participants

Type Materials
of for Price
Age Group footwear footwear Preferred colour Range
Dress Shoe
sneakers

Leather
Sandals

Orange
Yellow

Brown
Purple

1000 -

2000 -

3000 -

4000 -
Green
Suede

white

2000
Cloth

Black

3000

4000

5000
Blue
Red

16 - 20 0 6 1 2 3 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 1 0 1 4 2
21 - 25 2 9 7 3 8 7 0 1 0 2 0 3 1 7 4 1 2 13 2
Totals 2 15 8 5 11 9 0 2 0 2 0 4 1 11 5 1 3 17 4
 Table of Information Gathered From Female Participants
Type Materials
of for Price
Age Group footwear footwear Preferred colour Range
Dress Shoe
sneakers

Leather
Sandals

Orange
Yellow

Brown
Purple

1000 -

2000 -

3000 -

4000 -
Green
Suede

White

2000
Cloth

Black

3000

4000

5000
Blue
Red
16 - 20 7 2 3 0 9 3 3 0 1 0 1 2 0 4 1 4 7 1 0
21 - 25 8 1 4 3 8 2 1 2 1 0 1 1 0 6 1 5 6 2 0
Totals 15 3 7 3 17 5 4 2 2 0 2 3 0 10 2 9 13 2 0

Analysis (for Males)

The modal group for preferred footwear was sneakers, the modal preference for the material for the
footwear was leather, and the modal colour black was price while the price range was $3000 - $4000.

The overall percentage of those who preferred sandals was 8% while those from the 21-25 age group
measured 11%. The overall percentage of those that preferred sneakers was 60 while from the 21- 25
age group it was 50%. The overall percentage of those who wanted dress shoe was 32% while those who
preferred it from the 21 – 25 age groups was 39%. Overall, the number of participants from the age
group 21 -25 accounted for 72% of all participants.

Discussion

Given that the probability of someone from the age group 21 – 25 buying a shoe is 72%; which is very
high, and that the percentages for the age group 21 – 25 closely resembles the percentages for the
overall data; within similar categories, it is okay to make shoes using the overall data or the data from
the 21 -25 data set.

While Donald focuses on preferences, he may make limited amounts of other types of footwear from
various materials and in various colours, this for the sake of variety.

Conclusion

Donald should focus primarily on sneakers and secondarily on dress shoe; of either leather or suede,
black or white not costing more than $4000.

(Note: information for female may be used for this same project but from a female’s perspective)
 PROJECT IDEA 2

Title

Introduction

Alex Messam knows the type of lifestyle he wants to live; the area and house he want to live in, the car
he wants to drive, how often he wants to party and the parties he wishes to go to, the type of food they
wish to eat and vacation they wish to enjoy. What he may not be aware of is the profession he needs to
successfully sustain such a lifestyle.

Also currently, Alex is not performing at the level he needs to find himself in the professions he needs to
sustain his particular lifestyle.

So in this project Alex will record his family’s expenditure over a 4 week period, and then compare it to
their expected monthly expenditure based on his lifestyle.

The aim of this project is to

1. Sensitize students to the cost of living

2. How to prioritize spending
3. Identify the professions that will suit their lifestyles best, and inadvertently show then the
amount of effort and time they need to invest in order to achieve

Method of Data collection

1. Each day over a four week period, the student will record his daily expense in the table for daily
expenditure.
2. After the four week period has ended, the student will visit any property website to determine
the type of house and community they wish to live in, and retrieve a quote for that house.
3. They will use an online mortgage calculator to determine monthly payments. And record it in
the lifestyle expenditure table.
4. Using the internet they will continue to fill out the lifestyle expenditure table.

Presentation of Data
 EXPENDITURE OF WEEK 1
Item Day 1 day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Total
Travel
Food
Rent/mortgage
Electricity
Water
Internet
Telephone
Cable
Recreational

Other

Total

Lifestyle Monthly Expenditure

Item Total
Travel
Food
Rent/mortgage
Electricity
Water
Internet
Telephone
Cable
Recreational

Other
 PROJECT IDEA 3

Title

Growing Tomatoes

Introduction

Donald Burrell is set on farming organic tomatoes for the rest of his life. His father was a major producer
of tomato also, and had a massive farm where his (the father’s) employees tilled and water the soil
around each plant daily. Donald is interested in owning a farm, not in doing so much work, so after some
research, he saw where he could grow them using the hydroponic method.

What he did not know was how long the hydroponic method would take to produce adult plants; that
would intern bear fruit. This was important to him as he knew that the longer it took to get adult plants
the lower the amount of crop he would yield in a year and the lower his revenue would be.

He wishes to conduct an experiment to determine

1. The growth rate of tomatoes by organic means in water as against soil, and,
2. Hence, which method is better

Method of Data collection

1. Plant three tomato plants in soil

2. Label plants A and B
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2, for method of hydroponic using D and E
4. Record how long it took each plant to germinate
5. After germination record the height of the plant every morning over a 3 weeks period
6. Plot a graph of day vs height for each plant
7. Compare growth rate
Presentation of Data

Table showing vertical Growth of Tomato plant

/cm
Day Plant A Plant B Plant C Plant D
0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
2 1.0 1.5 1.0 1.0
4 1.5 2.0 2.2 2.4
6 2.2 2.2 3.7 3.7
8 3.2 2.7 5.4 5.7
10 4.3 3.2 7.0 7.2
12 4.9 3.5 8.1 Died
14 5.7 4.2 9.5 -
16 6.6 4.8 11.0 -
18 7.4 5.3 12.5 -
20 8.2 5.8 14.0 -
22 9.0 6.3 15.4 -
 Growth rate of Plant A
y = 0.4114x - 0.0238
10.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
Height\cm

5.0
Plant A
4.0
3.0 Linear (Plant A)
2.0
1.0
0.0
-1.0 0 5 10 15 20 25
Days

Growth rate of Plant B y = 0.2607x + 0.5929

7.0
6.0
5.0
Height/cm

4.0
3.0 Plant B
2.0 Linear (Plant B)
1.0
0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Days
 Growth rate of Plant C
18.0 y = 0.7141x - 0.3736
16.0
14.0
12.0
Height/cm

10.0
Plant C
8.0
6.0 Linear (Plant C)
4.0
2.0
0.0
0 10 20 30
Days

Growth rate of Plant D

8.0 y = 0.7343x - 0.3381
7.0
6.0
5.0
Height/cm

4.0
Plant D
3.0
Linear (Plant D)
2.0
1.0
0.0
-1.0 0 5 10 15
Days

Analysis

The growth rate of plants A and B were 0.4114 cm/day and 0.2607 cm/day respectively. This is a
difference of 0.1507 cm/day. While the growth rate of plants C and D are 0.7141 cm/day and 0.7343
cm/day. A difference of only 0.0202 cm/day compared to the difference in plants A and B. On day 10,
plant A and B ad an height of 4.3 and 3.2 cm respectively, an average height of 3.75 cm. While Plants C
(7.0 cm) and D (7.2 cm) averaged a height of 7.1

Discussion

Given that the average height of plants A and B (grown in soil) was 3.75 cm on day 10, while plants C and
D (grown in hydroponic solution) was 7.1. This suggests that the hydroponic solution grows food faster.
This is supported by the growth rate of plants C and D which is at least 0.3 cm/day faster than plants A
and B. The reason for this may be because the hydroponic solution has all that is needed for the plant to
grow, while with the plants grown in soil, they will have to search for nutrients at all times for the plant
grow, this makes the time for the plant to grow longer and the rate slower.

Conclusion

Tomato plants grown in hydroponic solution grows faster.

PROJECT IDEA 4

Title

Economics of Painting

Introduction

It is time for your school to receive a face lift, and your principal consults you on the ways you wish to
see this done, it was decided that painting the schools Administrative block should be first and foremost.
He then leaves the planning of the project to you. As such, you consulted a painter who said the
following to you

1. The building requires two (2) coats of paint.

2. Each 10-meters squared of the building requires 5-litres of paint per coat
3. He can cover 40-meters squared per hour painting and only paints 4 hours daily as any longer is
detrimental to his health
4. And his daily rate of painting is $2750

With this you, have split the project with a person responsible for each of the four walls. Each person
will determine

1. the area of the building that needs to be painted

Option A (two group members will do this option)

2. the amount of paint required for the specific colour of paint and its cost

Option B (another two will do this option)

3. the cost of labour

The group (if group is four members) or the fifth member will then determine
4. the total cost of the project

Method of Data collection

1. Stand 390 cm from the base of the building

2. Using a clinometers app, measure the angle of elevation to the top of the building
3. Calculate the height of the building
4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 for 500 cm
5. Using a tape, measure the width of the surface of the building
6. Calculate the total surface area
7. Calculate the area of all windows and doors and subtract from the total surface area to
determine the surface area that needs to be painted.
Presentation of Data

Calculation for height and Area of wall

The height of the side A, standing 390cm from the base of the building = 390cm ∗ tan (53.21) =
521.50 cm

The height of the side A, standing 500cm from the base of the building = 500cm ∗ tan (46.67) =
530.00 cm
530+521.5
Average calculated height = 2
= 525.75 𝑐𝑚

Height of the wall (average height + height of person measuring angle of elevation) =525.75 𝑐𝑚 +
175.00 𝑐𝑚 = 700 𝑐𝑚

This is the same as 7𝑚

Width of wall is12𝑚

Therefore Height of wall =7𝑚 ∗ 12𝑚 = 84 𝑚2

Area of Windows and doors

Area of Window (𝐴𝑤 )

𝐴𝑤 = 1.82 𝑚 ∗ 3.65 𝑚 = 6.643 𝑚2

Area of door (𝐴𝑑 )

𝐴𝑑 = 4.14𝑚 ∗ 1.35𝑚 = 5.589𝑚2

Area of door window (𝐴𝑑𝑤 )

𝐴𝑑𝑤 = 0.9 𝑚 ∗ 2.6𝑚 = 2.34𝑚 2

Prices

The price of labour is $2750 per day

The price of paint is $2400 per tin of paint, there are 3.78 𝑙 in each tin of paint

Analysis

There are three windows, two door windows and one door, all these areas of the wall labeled side A
does not need painting. So the Area of the wall that does not need painting is 𝐴𝑛 . Now

𝐴𝑛 = 𝐴𝑑 + 2𝐴𝑑𝑤 + 3𝐴𝑤 = 30.198𝑚2

So the total Area that needs paint is 𝐴𝑡 = ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 − 𝐴𝑛 = 84𝑚2 + 30.198𝑚2 = 53.802𝑚2

Option A

Given that the ratio of area to paint needed is 10𝑚2 ∶ 5 𝑙

53.802𝑚2 ∗5 𝑙
For an area of 53.802𝑚2 we would need 10𝑚2
= 26.541 𝑙

26.541 𝑙
Since there are 3.78𝑙 of paint per tin we would need 𝑙 = 7.02 𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑟 8 𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑠
3.78
𝑡𝑖𝑛

Given that the cost per tin is $2400 the total cost for paint is = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 ∗
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡 = 8 ∗ $2400 = $19200

Given that there will be two coats of paint applied, the value will be $38,400

Option B

Given that the area of the wall that needs to be painted is 53.802𝑚2 and the painters work rate per
𝑚2 53.802𝑚2
hour is 40 , then total time needed for the painter to paint the given area is = 𝑚2
= 1.327 ℎ𝑟
ℎ𝑟 40
ℎ𝑟
or 1 ℎ𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 20 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠. Given that the time will be doubled since a second coat of paint will be added, the
actual time that will be taken is 2ℎ𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 40 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠, which is below the 4 ℎ𝑟 stipulation given by the
painter, he will complete the job within one day and his cost for the job on Side A will be $2750

Discussion

The total area of the building that needed painting is 107.604m2 given that the area that needs paint
will get two coats of paint, the time needed for the wall to be painted is 2 ℎ𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 40 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠, since the
paint will be applied twice.

Conclusion

The cost for the project is $41,150 and will take 2 ℎ𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 40 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠 to complete.

PROJECT IDEA 5

Title

Building a Bench

Introduction

The school has just painted the classrooms of the 5th-form block. The school wants to keep the classes
as clean as possible for as long a time as possible. They determine that in order to do this, they must
keep the amount of students who stays inside the classroom as low as possible. This means that most of
the students will be outside as a result. As such the school decides place benches (under trees or under
a gazebo). As a student of building technology, your teacher asked you to design benches made of
(wood and metal or concrete). He gave the following constrains,

1. The supporting arch of the base must be a semicircle

2. The surfaces of the bench must be flat
3. If concrete, the width of each leg must be 7 cm
4. The ratio of water to dry components is 1:1
5. The ratio of the dry components cement, sand and aggregate is 1:2:3 respectively

With these, you are to

1. design a bench model with a scale of 1 cm on drawing: 10 cm in actuality

2. determine the amount of materials needed to make the bench

Method of Data collection

1. Get a standard sized chair used by students in a classroom

2. Measure and record the distance from ground to seat
3. Measure and record distance from seat to the top of the back support of the seat.
4. Measure and record the length and width of the seat.
 5. Use these measurements to design a bench to seat three (3) persons.

Presentation of Data

Analysis

Let the volume of one bench side 𝑣𝑏𝑠 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 (𝐴𝑡 ) ∗
𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒

Now 𝐴𝑡 = 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐴 (𝐴𝑎 ) + 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐵 (𝐴𝑏 ) − 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐶 (𝐴𝑐 ) − 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐷 (𝐴𝑑 )

𝐴𝑎 = 𝐿 ∗ 𝑊 = 1 𝑐𝑚 ∗ 20 𝑐𝑚 = 20 𝑐𝑚2

𝐴𝑏 = 𝐿 ∗ 𝑊 = 3.6 𝑐𝑚 ∗ 4 𝑐𝑚 = 14.4 𝑐𝑚2

1 1 22 11 2
𝐴𝑐 = 𝜋𝑟 2 = ∗ ∗ (1𝑐𝑚)2 = 𝑐𝑚 ≈ 1.6 𝑐𝑚2
2 2 7 7

𝐴𝑑 = 𝐿 ∗ 𝑊 = 2𝑐𝑚 ∗ 2.28 𝑐𝑚 = 4.56 𝑐𝑚2

Therefore 𝐴𝑡 = 28.24 𝑐𝑚2

And 𝑉𝑏𝑠 = 28.24 𝑐𝑚2 ∗ 4 𝑐𝑚 = 112.96 𝑐𝑚3 and since there are two sides the volume of the two sides
is 225.92 𝑐𝑚3 .

Now, the volume of the seat 𝑉ℶ = 𝐿 ∗ 𝑊 ∗ 𝐻 = 12 𝑐𝑚 ∗ 4 𝑐𝑚 ∗ 0.7 𝑐𝑚 = 33.6 𝑐𝑚3

Hence the total volume of one bench is 𝑉𝑏 where 𝑉𝑏 = 2𝑉𝑏𝑠 + 𝑉ℶ = 259.52 𝑐𝑚3

But recall that these sets of calculations were done using the scaled values, so we must now find the
actual volume.

From the introduction, we see that the ratio of scaled drawing to actual model is 1 cm: 10 cm.
Therefore, for every 1 𝑐𝑚3 scaled we have1000 𝑐𝑚3 𝑜𝑟 1 𝑚3 . So the ratio of scaled volume to actual
volume is1 𝑐𝑚3 ∶ 1 𝑚3 , giving us an actual volume of 259.52 𝑚3 , but we will use a volume of 260 𝑚3 .

Now we will calculate the material needed by measurement of 12𝑙 construction buckets.

Given that the ratio of wet and dry components is 1:1, then the volume of the dry parts=
𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 1
𝑠𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑠
∗ 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 2 ∗ 260 𝑚3 = 130 𝑚3 .

𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 1
So the volume of cement needed= 𝑠𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑠
∗ 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 6 ∗ 130 𝑚3 = 21.66∗ ≈ 22 𝑚3 .

22 5
One bucket holds 12𝑙, so we will need = 1 buckets of cement (recall1𝑚3 = 1𝑙)
12 6

5 2
The number of buckets of sand is = 2 ∗ 1 6 = 3 3 buckets of sand, since ratio of cement to sand is 1:2.
5 1
And similarly, the number of buckets of aggregate needed =3 ∗ 1 6 = 5 2.

Discussion/conclusion

A suitable design for a bench is shown in the presentation of Data above. Also, for every bench it will
require,
5 2 1
11 𝑏𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟, 1 6 𝑏𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 3 3 𝑏𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 5 2 𝑏𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑔𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒.