Archive by Author | ayang26

Tech Post #2 – Forces of Flight and Paper Airplanes

Recently in technology class we have been learning about the forces of flight and how that affects the flight of an airplane. We started off by building paper airplanes. After building my first paper airplane, I decided that the wings needed to be thinner and the tip needed to have a sharper point. So I built a second one, and it flew much farther and faster. Here is what it looked like:

Then, we learned about the four forces of flight: thrust, lift, drag, and weight. Thrust is the force that we give the paper airplane when we throw it forwards. While the airplane is flying, the air is providing upward lift on it. But there is also wind pushing back against the airplane, which is called drag. The last force is the weight force. Weight comes from gravity, which pulls the airplane downwards.

Finally, we learned about different wing and airplane designs. The wing location, wing shape, and nose length all play a big role in how well the airplane flies. I have decided that for my wooden airplane design I want the wings to placed in the middle, so it can be be a compromise of stable and quick to respond. I also want the wings to be rounded, so that it can fly better in unstable air. Lastly, I want the nose length to be a compromise of both long and short, so that it can fly for a longer period of time but also recover easily from a stall.

I found this lesson very fascinating and fun and I can’t wait to build my wooden airplane!

Tech Post #1 – Properties: How Bells Are Made

One of the properties that bells have is sonority. This means that it makes a sound when it is struck. The shape and material of each bell effects the pitch of the ring. Mainly, bells are made of different types of metal. Additionally, bells also have high tensile strength. This means that they are extremely hard to break by just pulling it apart.

Tech Post #9

This is my last post in 6th grade technology and it’s also the last day of school, which means the quarter ends today. Technology this quarter has been a really fun and exciting experience for me, and I feel like it would have been even better if we were actually at school instead of doing E-learning. I really liked how every Monday we would get assigned a nearpod, and every Wednesday we would get assigned a project. More importantly, the teacher was also really nice and it was great to have worked with him and my classmates. I really enjoyed technology quarterly and I will miss it over the summer. I hope 7th grade technology is just as fun!

Tech Post #8

This week in tech we didn’t get assigned a project. Instead, we had to watch a thirty-minute NOVA movie on metals and then answer a few questions on google forms. At first the link didn’t work for me so I had trouble getting to it, but once it did work the video and questions were pretty easy to complete. I enjoy the projects more because we can actually build something with our hands and get off of the iPads, but we’ve also had projects every week so this assignment was a great break from the projects. Next week is the last week of school, and I hope we have a fun project to do!

Tech Post #7

Yesterday I built my own electroscope. The process was pretty easy and simple, and testing if it worked was really fun and cool. The materials I used to build it were thin cardboard, a glass cup, tin foil, a paper clip, and some tape. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a balloon so I used a plastic water bottle instead. Since the plastic water bottle isn’t as strong as the balloon, the experiment didn’t really work. It was an interesting experience to build the electroscope, and I’m sure it would have been a lot more exciting if I had a balloon. Below is a picture of my electroscope.

Tech Post #6

This week was shortened because of Memorial Day. Since we had Monday off, we weren’t able to learn a new topic for the week, which means this week we didn’t have a tech project. During class on Tuesday, we continued learning about gears. I am still unclear if gears are officially a simple machine or not, because some people say they are, but some people say they aren’t. So are they really simple machines? We learned about how to find the mechanical advantage of gears, and what specific types of gears do. It was a fun week, but I’m looking forwards to next weeks project, because sadly this week we didn’t have one.

Tech Post #5

Yesterday for tech homework we had the choice to build a catapult or a shaduf. In class we have been learning about levers, and catapults and shadufs both are made up of levers. I chose to make a catapult. There were two types of catapults that we could make, and to be honest, I chose the one that looked easier, although the other catapult had a frame and I wanted to try it out as well. Building the catapult was really fun, and so was testing it! The marble inside of the bottle cap went really far, which made it more exciting! I can’t wait for next weeks project! Below is a picture of my catapult.

Tech Post #4

This week was my first time creating something with fab maker studio. It was kind of confusing when it came to folding the paper, so I decided to start out easy and create a rectangular prism. After printing the shape out, I cut out the shape of the unfolded-rectangular prism. Once I cut it out, I folded it, which was the hardest part, because the lines of where to fold weren’t there. So I had to fold it where I thought was correct. It turned out pretty good for my first project using fab maker studio, but I don’t think I folded it right because some sides didn’t match up to the other sides. Next time I use fab maker studio, I might try something more complicated and fun. Below I attached a picture of my rectangular prism.

Tech Post #3

Yesterday, I built two cubes. One just a plain cube, and the other one a truss cube. The truss cube could hold more weight then the plain cube could, because it had triangles, which doesn’t collapse since the angles are locked and won’t break unless the opposite side of an angle breaks. I used toothpicks and cut up carrots to build the cubes. It was a tough process, since my toothpicks weren’t sharp on both ends, and the toothpicks kept getting loose. I had to re-build the cubes quite a few times before the toothpicks would stop falling out of the carrots. It was challenging, but also fun. Below I attached a picture of my two cubes:

Tech Post #2

Yesterday Mr. Calvert assigned our first tech project. We had to create a regular, simple, cardboard sandwich beam, and another beam that was more detailed and would be able to hold more weight. I built an I-Beam, which definitely was able to hold more weight then the simple beam. The process took me a while, since I had to glue the cardboard, then wait an hour for the glue to cure, then glue more pieces, and so on. I could have built the I-Beam to be a little bit more strong and steady, but it was good for my first try. Overall, this building a better beam project was a really fun and exciting experience for me.

Below I attached a picture of my I-Beam and my simple beam: