Making a Difference Design Specifications Criterion A

#1 What product have you chosen to create for this project?

I will make an actual model of a toilet. I chose this because I am more of a visual and hands on person than a sketching artist.

#2 Make a list for yourself of all the things that must be included for the product to be done well, including conditions, dimensions, materials, process and methods that are important for the BOTH designer (you) and the user. This list is your design specifications.

I will need to build a little wooden or plastic house on a plastic platform for stability, and also show the sewage system. I will need plastic boards, plastic pipes, wood, scissors, glue gun and a miniature ceramic cup. This project will need to be useful and easy to build. It also has to be effective and more useful to the people and environment than the toilets used today.

In the Ger district people work hard to live. People dig dirt holes and use them as toilets, but sooner or later they fill up and might just go into the ground water that they will later use. So I decided to make a toilet with a sewage system to prevent the excrement going into the ground water. To see if my project is successful, I will ask people including friends and siblings if they would rather use the dirt holes or the toilets. I will ask questions. For example: Do you think this idea for a toilet is useful in the Ger district? Would you use this toilet? Do you think people would like this idea?

Bayanzurkh Ger District

Bayanzurkh Ger District 2009

From this fieldtrip, I learned how people of the lower class live their daily life. Over 800,000 people live in the ger district. Most of which do not have access to running water. Most of the people have to buy their water. Water is cheap only 0.001 usd per liter but the real problem is to transport it into their homes. The water house sells you water into your own barels, but they are heavy when full. So how do you move barels of water up the hill? People have special carts for doing this. Another problem are the toiletts. Most people in the ger district dig toillets in the ground and build a little house. Eventualy the holes fill up and they have to dig new ones. So I decided to design a new kind of toilet that will also eventualy fill up but not as fast as the daily ones that are used today.

#1 What is this project about? Why are we doing it?
This project is about designing a new model of technology to make the people's lives easier in the ger district.

#2 What do you think you are expected to learn from it? What do YOU hope to learn?
We have to learn how people live when they do not have alot of money and the supplies are scarce. I want to learn how people live their daily life with what they built and already have.

#3 What is life like in the ger district of Ulaanbaatar?
Life is diffiicult. People burn coal and wood to keep warm. They buy water for cooking, washing and drinking. You have to build your own fence for safety and no interfiering. You have to dig your own toilett in your teritory if you do not want it to be used by others.

#4 What technology did you see there?
I saw carts for pushing water up the hill, I saw one old car. I also saw some basic instruments like shovels, rakes and water pipes.

#5 What was the condition of that technology? Could it have been better designed?
It was old and about to break. It could have but I think the way it is now is good too.

#6 List the sources that gave you information for this project.
Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Chilton.

#7 Describe a detailed test that you will do for your final product to see if you did what you intended to do.
My test would be to ask people (parents,teachers,etc.). Would you use the toilet? Why or why not? Would it be helpful to people in the ger district? Why or why not? Do you think this plan is better than the ones used today? Why or why not?