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5. Thinking Chair char

The problem that we were faced with was to repurpose old game pieces and make them into something that could solve a common problem in a home, office, or school. Our first plan was to build a trophy display stand using skyrise pieces. We took the skyrise blocks, split them up, and reattached them so that they made a multi-level display. We found that the center, wasn’t as stable as we would’ve liked, and could fall with any slight pressure. So our team went back to the drawing board to brainstorm a different item. We decided to build a thinking chair out of old skyrise and starstruck parts. Our chair could be used in a home or school to take a brain break. The fun bright colors on it create an amazing decorative addition to any classroom. Teachers could use it to give individual students a break or students could ask to use it if they needed some downtime to refocus. When you sit in the chair the comfy back pillows help you relax. You can read a book, use a fidget to refocus, or even just to sit and think. Hence its name, the thinking chair char. If the chaos of you spectacular life is taking a toll on you, just take a break in our thinking chair to relax your mind. When brainstorming our chair design, we decided to continue to use the skyrise cubes because we believed that they were the sturdiest game pieces. We started by arranging the cubes and the starstruck bean bags in multiple ways until we found the most stable and comfortable design (see attached prototype drawings). We tied the cubes together with zip ties. This allowed for a stable base. To further increase stability we used starstruck fencing woven through the base of the chair. So whether a student sits carefully or throws themselves into the chair, the frame does not shift. Zip ties are used to hold wires together and keep license plates on the robot so, we consider these legal to use in our design. We added a cup holder by using game floor tape. We used cardboard to make the seat more comfortable and to enclose the cubbies below the arm rest. Lastly we added the starstruck bean bags as back pillows. We sewed the center of them to make them into more of a pillow form. We added the underneath the foldable armrest in order to have a place to keep materials that can be used when taking a brain break, such as, books, journals, fidgets, putty, etc.