My students wrote this piece today in response to our first lab exercise.
This model has some constraints due to
its materials. Firstly, we are restricted by the amount of space given to build
the model--the table. Secondly we are constrained by the zometools--the height,
shape and flexibility. These constraints affect the efficiency of our lab and the final look of our model.
In evolution, there is no final product.
The organism/system is always undergoing change, never reaching a final
product, or final phase in which change stops. Different constraints will
always offer a chance for a new adaptation and lead the organism onto a new
path of evolution.
Nature overcomes the problem of
constraints by building everything with a purpose. No materials are wasted on useless
parts, and every part gets exactly the amount of material it needs to function.
While nature has this happen naturally, we as human builders need to plan out
beforehand, and build with purpose, to overcome limitations in material.
The constraints bring species
opportunities to evolve because they are trying to be fit for the situation and
environment. As we mentioned previously, there are no final products in
evolution, so species are constantly getting more fit to deal with the
constraints. I would say constraints do nothing but inform the final product,
as constraints guide how people work. They inform the decisions we make - how
we will adjust. We won't be able to complete tasks if we are not adhering to
them. So, it would be fair to say that
the final product is a product of constraints.
An innovation we discovered today was
that if you piece together each segment individually, then connect them
together as a whole, the building process is much faster and efficient than if
each person added pieces one by one to the whole model. In addition, connecting
the line segments together in a way that was slightly angled, but not straight
increased the surface area of the model.
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