The design cycle is a very important when it comes to a project. The cycle has four steps, investigation/research, planning/ideas, creation, and evaluation. The first step, research, is important because you need to know what your doing in the first place. The research helps you to figure out the best way to create the project, methods of doing it, and helps you to make informed decisions. In our case, we made bridges. Researching bridges made it so that we could come up with the best idea that so our bridge be the most durable. The second step, planning and idea, you come up with the idea for your project, using the research you have collected. When we planned, we put all our ideas together and knowledge about bridges. Then we came up with what we thought was a durable idea of a bridge. The third step, creation, you make the idea using your plan, which you made based on your research. The first time we created our bridge, we ended up having to take it apart half way through and start over, because we came up with a better plan. We made five bridges in total. The fianl step, evaluation, you evaluate your design. We tested every bridge with weights, to see how much they could hold. Our bridges held an average of 25 pounds. Very sad, i know. Also in the evaluation phase, you write an evaluation of your project. Stating, what went well, what didnt go well, what you would change if you could do it over, what u liekd about it, what you didnt like about it, etc., etc.

The design cycle is important for several reasons. For one, it helps you get your project organized by following steps in a practical order. Instead of just, for example, building a bridge, then evaluating, then planning, then researching, its in the correct order i already stated above. The design cycle also helps us to learn. It does this by showing us the proper order in which a project should be carried out. It also helps us learn about the porject we are completeing, by the fist step, which is research. The cycle also helps with documentation. Every day we kept a process journal on what we did that day in class. This is a record of what went on. Its important to always have somehting like that. Say for example, your teacher says, im going to give a D for the day, because it looked like you werent completing your work. Then the student could show the teacher, provded they actually did work, and show them them proof they have of what they did that day in class.

In conclusion, The design cycle is an important element when completing a project. You should always go by the steps of the design cycle, even if they arent the exact same steps, but something like them. It just makes a lot more sense, and helps your porject go by easier and quicker.