All posts by amccausland25

Second and third Rube Goldberg meeting

For our second and third meetings we had taped down the structure and we decided to work on our plan. We drew out everything we had already done. Then we tried to think of some ideas for the plan.

While we were thinking Caitlyn, Barbara and I thought of maybe doing a zip-line from one part of the wall to another. The more we thought about, the more reasons not to it came up. How would we attach it to the wall without peeling the paint with tape, how would the marble get onto and of the zip-line and  more.

We tested the marble run a few times and then it broke. We had to tape all of it back together witch wasted quite a lot of time. The dominoes we had last time didn’t really work on the carpet so we moved the whole thing on to a cardboard box. We added that to are sketch as well.  After the two meetings we hadn’t accomplished much, but we had many more days until the project was due.

Our first Rube Goldberg meeting

Before even our first meeting as a group we learned who Rube Goldberg was.  We learned he was a cartoonist who drew crazy machines to do simple tasks such as brushing your teeth. Than we watched some videos about Rube Goldberg machines. Finally it was time to pick who we wanted to work with. My partners are Hana, Barbara and Caitlyn.

For our first meeting we met at Hana’s house. We worked in her basement, and got to work. We started building a step. It was a wooden marble track. We decided to connect it to a little car track for the marble to go through. Then we decided to add dominoes so the marble hit them, they fell and it hit another marble. Unfortunately that didn’t work and we had to scrap the idea. We also tried to use magna-tile-like magnets for a step but it kept falling down so we couldn’t use that idea.

After a while our moms picked us up and we left, thinking of what to do next time.

Rocket Presentation Reflection

On November 30th my class had a rocket presentation. We launched rockets and then made a slide show about it. We shared that with parents and that is what I am reflecting about. I was in Rockets Inc and also did an additional presentation before about access information. In my group I had Kevin, Dani and Ben.

There were 5 different rocket launching groups. Rockets Inc, Radical Rockets, Rocket Crushers, Flying Savages and Rampaging Rockets. I am reflecting on the first half of the presentation that included Rocket Inc, Radical Rockets and Rocket Crushers.

First I should tell you about the process before the presentation. First we made a inspiration board to inspire us. We did research, added quotes, pictures and just things we thought would help us on our journey.

Next we had to design our first out of 3 rockets. My group decided to use a skinny body. We also decided to put a styrofoam cone and a paper cone on top of each other to make a nose cone. Then we cut triangle shapes in paper and hot glued them and the nose cone to the body to make a rocket. We did that 3 times for each rocket sometimes adding to it and sometimes taking away. Our first rocket went the highest, second the lowest and third in between.

Next we did a slideshow. We worked hard making the slideshow and rehearsing it, day after day we practiced until it was practically perfect.

Now it was time for the presentation.When we did our presentation, we had our parents there and everybody was pretty nervous. I presented the overview and it was nerve wracking  but fun. Next we were on to the rocket groups. My group went first. We did ok! A bit shaky but ok! We stumbled a little but the audience clapped when we had finished and my group was happy.

We waited a bit while the other groups in my half presented and then our teacher Mrs Edwards gave a speech and we went on with our day.It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget.

 

1: ¿Qué nuevo vocabulario usaste?

-matemáticas

-arte

-música

-almuerzo

-educación física

-veinticinco.

 

2: ¿Qué nuevas preguntas usaste?

¿A qué hora vas a Heathcote?

-¿A qué hora es la clase de inglés?

¿A qué hora es la clase de matemáticas?

 

3: How would you grade your work on this Screencast? (sobresaliente = A) (notable = B)

 

B because I am not that good with spanish pronunciation

 

4: After listening to your screencast what words do you feel you could have practiced more? Quiero practicar las palabras ………

matemáticas

almuerzo

educación física

cuarenta

 

5: How could you use this new vocabulary outside of Spanish class?

 

If I go to spain I can ask people the time and know how to say it,

Wetlands ecosystem

Wetlands Ecosystem

Wetlands are places with a lot of water. Wetlands stop floods happening because they collect water.I learned really interesting facts while reserching and I hope you do too.

Producers:

Producers are living things that produce their own food from the sun. They are plants, including algae, duckweed, grass, bushes, trees, waterlilies and more. Some producers float on water and others are rooted to the ground. Some trees are more than half underwater. Plants can grow in salt and fresh water, so in every kind of wetland!

Consumers:

Consumers are living things that consume other consumers or producers. There are many different types of consumers in wetlands. Here are a few — crocodiles, hippos, frogs, lizards, turtles, alligators, snakes, ducks, geese, swans and mice. Herons, storks, cranes, caimans, iguanas, geckos, manatees and salamanders are other consumers.

Decomposers:

Decomposers are sometimes referred to as the clean-up crew. This is because they decompose dead animals. If we didn’t have decomposers there would be more dead animals than water in a wetland! Decomposers in a wetland are usually fungus and bacteria. You can’t see decomposing happening but over time things grow smaller and smaller until they disappear.

Location:

Wetlands are usually in places with soil covered with water. Wetlands are in every continent except Antarctica! Louisiana has lots of wetland. Unfortunately most got destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi also has lots of wetlands because of its conditions. Sub-tropical wetlands are the most common.

Things Unique:

Wetland animals have to adapt to their wetlands climate. Some wetlands are quite humid and other are quite cold depending on where on earth they are. There are many different types of wetlands including bogs, swamps, fens and marshes. These wetlands are quite different in wetness and weather.

How we are affecting wetlands:

We are affecting wetlands a lot. One example is we pollute. Lots of stuff we just throw in the garbage gets thrown into wetlands. The animals in wetlands eat that garbage and die. We also are not caring about wetlands. wetlands are getting smaller and smaller because of farming practices, and people not caring about wetlands and using them to make cities.

We can help by trying to recycle. We can also compost food and try to not use plastic bags which kill a lot of animals. We can use brown paper bags and reusable bags and also try to help by forming groups to help or writing letters.

I hope you enjoyed my entry. Maybe you could help out by creating a group in your town or using brown paper bags. Help out with wetlands!

Free write #1

Spring is Upon Us!!!

Saplings all over the ground waiting to burst

Pink petals in the trees falling delicately

Rising animals from hibernation

Interesting hikes along the mountain

Never an ugly sight in sight

Great wheather even in April showers

 

In t shirts and shorts (most of the time)

Spring has a shimmer

 

Heaven on earth

Evening sunset is to die for

Roses are red bluebells are blue

Exellent spring is and you are too

Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!

Almost Summary

In A to Z myst.ery the school skeleton Dink finds out that the school skeleton is missing from the nurse’s office when he goes in for a paper cut. Mr. Dillon makes an announcement that whoever finds the school skeleton first, their class gets free tickets to the aquarium.

Dink talkes to Ruth Rose and Josh about how there was a sneaker footprint under the skeleton in powder. They made letters to everyone it could be and no ones foot fit the footprint. When they waked past there lockers they saw another powdered footprint in between Dink’ and Joshes lockers. Dink looks in sides his locker and finds nothing strange then Josh looked in his locker and finds a piece of paper of a skeleton with a 2 on it’s forehead and a key.

Josh hands it to Ruth Rose and she discovers that if you place the key insight spot it says key 2 skeleton. They go down to the custodian’s office and he says he hasn’t seen the key before and its a copy. Soon lots of people are there with the same picture and key as them.

Who do you think will solve the mystery and get the class trip to the aquarium?