Month: May 2019

Mixtures & Solutions ( Science )

amandel26 # # #

Hello and welcome to Andrew’s Articles! Today we will be talking about mixtures and solutions.

A mixture is the process of combining two or more substances that can be easily separated. A solution is the process of one substance dissolving into another substance that cannot be easily separated. A compound is a thing that is composed of two or more separate elements.

On day 1, we worked with salt, gravel, water, and diatementous earth. We combined the substances to see if they were a mixture or solution. We tested six combinations.Three were mixtures and three were solutions. Some of the things we combined were, salt and gravel, water and gravel, water and salt, salt and diatementous earth, and diatementous earth and water. It got messy quickly. We had measuring spoons to measure everything out, 1 ml, 2 ml, 5 ml, 15 ml, and 25 ml. To measure the water we had a measuring cup made out of plastic with all of the different measurements on them.

On day 2, we worked with cards and sheets of paper. We had a few activities, they were called, Match it, Explain it, Sort it, and the last one was called mixtures. This one really had all the information on it was mixtures. We had time to play mixtures and sort it. In mixtures, you had a cup filled with multicolored letter cubes. There were instructions, and the next step was to separate the cubes by color, and put the blue and green back in the cup, and found out that they were not easily separated. The sort it game was different. Their were cards and categorized sheet to sort the cards on. The categories were mixture, solution, and compound. Some of the words on the cards were salt and water, sand and water,  sand and iron filings, soda, water, air, and more. We sorted the cards into the correct location.

On day 3, We also combined colored sugar with water, vinegar, and vegetable oil. We had to make hypotheses at first. For our first experiment of combining the colored sugar with the water. Our hypothesis was, “ If we mix 1 tsp of colored sugar & 25 ml water, then it will dissolve and turn into a solution. “ Well it did dissolve and it turned into a solution. When we first dumped the colored sugar into the water, it didn’t really dissolve at first. But then after we kept mixing, it all dissolved. Our hypothesis was confirmed.  For our second experiment of combining colored sugar and of oil. Our hypothesis was, “ If we mix 1 tsp of colored sugar and 25 ml of oil, then it will dissolve slower.” I didn’t really dissolve since the oil was thicker, so clearly thicker substances do not dissolve solutes. We mixed it around but still nothing happened. Our hypothesis was not confirmed. For our third experiment of mixing colored sugar with vinegar. Our hypothesis was,” If we mix 1 tsp of colored sugar and 25 ml of vinegar, then the sugar will dissolve into the vinegar just like how it dissolved until the water.” Sure enough, the colored sugar did dissolve. When it first came in contact with the vinegar, it sat there before dissolving with the sugar.

That’s it for this post folks!

Categories: 5th Grade, ScienceLeave a comment

My Interview ( Capstone )

amandel26 # #

Hello and welcome to Andrew’s Articles! Today we are going to talk about my capstone interview.

My interview was at the million air club, a luxurious private lounge for expensive travelers. I was excited to go, but shocked when I arrived.

For my interview, I talked to a pilot named, ” Wesley Archer “. He is a private pilot which means that he flies for fun, and not for commercial purposes. When the interview first started, he told me that he has 840 flight hours, and that he had his license for ten years.

I asked him questions about training for pilots. When I asked, ” What training do you need when you first enter the cockpit, and after you’ve been flying?”.  He answered by saying, you need 10 hours of solo time, and 30 hours with an instructor. He also said, that you have to do an Instrument flight, where they black the windows of the cockpit, except during take off and landing. It teaches you to fly with instruments and learn what they do. After this, you take a written exam, and an oral exam. This helped me learn a lot about training that pilots need, which helped me answer on of my sub questions.

I then asked him about, preparation for takeoff and landing. During takeoff, the first thing he said was check the weather, and check himself, does the pilot feel ready to fly. If the is sick, he is causing himself and the people on board the aircraft a risk. Some of the final things he said were, do a walk a around of the plane, check for dents, and other signs of danger that should be fixed before he flies the plane. This taught me that pilots have a lot of safety measures before doing an element of flying. It is important because if these measures are not completed properly it could lead to a fatal disaster. During landing, pilots have a checklist that they need to complete, including, checking weather at the destination of which he wants to land, checking the wind, and finding clearance from ATC. The landing checklist is important because any difference or mistake could lead to a air crash or a runway excursion.

The interview was valuable for my research because it opened my mind more to see what the pilots connection to a runway excursion was, and how it you deal with it. The pilot gave me a understanding of what he had to go through before earning his license. My opinion on runway excursions, I mostly blame towards pilot error, but he explained that to their are more reasons of why a runway excursion can happen, such as, the saying, ” slippery when wet “, means that the outside conditions affected the plane in a negative way. It seems likely for a pilot to make an error, because there are so many automated systems that cause conflict for pilots. Actually, it is not that serious because pilots have a phenomenal amount of training and skill and there is autopilot do fly the plane for you after a course is set.

It inspired me to want to learn more on the topic, because there are so many innovations to help pilots fly the plane.

That’s it for this post folks!

Categories: 5th Grade, CapstoneLeave a comment

My Site Visit ( Capstone )

amandel26 # #

Hello and welcome to Andrew’s Articles! Today we are going to talk about my site visit.

For my Site Visit, I went to the Westchester County Airport Air Traffic Control Tower. When we first arrived, the manager of the Air Traffic Control greeted us and took us into his office. He explained to us how he and his crew operate the Air Traffic Control tower.

Then he moved on to tell us what a flight strip is, and how it works. Each plane that takes off and lands gets a flight strip because the airport has to keep track of all the planes that took off and landed.

When we went into the Air Traffic Control tower, their were several controllers talking back and fourth to the pilots. One was on clearance control. Clearance control is ground control, getting the planes to the terminal to unload their passengers and back on the runway to take off to their next destination. The other controller was on sky patrol, monitoring what planes are landing, and which ones are taking off, and to get the planes out of the their airspace.

To become a controller you would have to go have training anywhere between 1 – 5 years. You have to go a special school for aviation.

This taught me the job of the Air Traffic Control tower is very important, and plays a big role in aviation safety. Because it can help avoid runway excursions by keeping the planes a distance apart, and monitoring were they are on the runway.

That’s it for this post folks!

Categories: 5th Grade, CapstoneLeave a comment

Choosing My Inquiry Question & My Sub Questions ( Capstone )

amandel26 # #

Hello and welcome to Andrew’s Articles! Today I will be talking about my capstone project.

Continuing from were we left of last time… We have come up with a main inquiry question, and five sub questions. Since I’m doing runway excursions, part of aviation, my main inquiry question is,

” What are runway excursions, and how can they be prevented? “. I did this because I wanted to make sure that I explain what a runway excursion is. I thought this was a good idea since runway excursions is a specific topic, that no one really thinks about when their flying in a commercial aircraft.

My sub questions are under my main inquiry question. They are supposed to guide me and help me understand my topic in a more superior manner. They are in line with the same theme of my main inquiry question.

The process of coming up with my questions took a lot of thought. I really got stuck a lot a needed some help to conclude whether the question I came up with is good or not, and also to help me think of more questions to use. My main inquiry was struggle to find. First I thought that my first one was so good, then three days later it totally back fired on me. In my first main inquiry question, I had totally forgot to say, ” what is a runway excursion ” which as I looked back, I thought that was a really dumb mistake.

That’s it for this post folks!

Categories: 5th Grade, CapstoneLeave a comment

Choosing a topic ( Capstone )

amandel26 # # #

Hello and welcome to Andrew’s Articles! Today I will be talking about my capstone project.

For capstone I want to do something in aviation. I thought of a few ideas for it, but they changed dramatically. I cycled through some topics and then came up with runway excursions, and I really like this topic for capstone. Narrowing down topics for capstone was the hard part, I had so many interests! Now, I’ll tell you why. I Pre – searched some websites to use for information. Then I realized that you needed an interview, that through me off track. To make matters worse, I later was informed that I needed a site visit.

At this point, I really had no idea what to do. During lunch recess, I ran into Mrs. Furgatch. I then explained the struggle, and out of the blue she happened to know a pilot. What a relief! Then I told her that I needed a site visit, she understood and told to tour the Westchester county airport ATC, ( Air traffic control ). She went their a long time ago so I knew it would work out. Sure enough, I was right. If it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be doing snails for capstone.

I then learned that I needed a back up topic, I Pre – searched a little, came up across some information on Amazon, and then I went for it. Never found an idea for an interview or site visit, so I think i’ll just stick with aviation ( runway excursions ) for now. In addition, it sounds really interesting. But the best part is I get to learn something new.

 

Categories: 5th Grade, CapstoneLeave a comment