Archive of ‘Science’ category

Ending Rocketry – Launch Two

Alas, the rocketry unit has come to a close. We launched our newly developed rocket into the air. On a terribly windy day and cold, we took our supplies and headed into the launch zone. After using trundle wheels to mark where we were going, assigned people put the launch pad down and attached everything to everything. Then we launched. 19 meters!!! 5 more meters than the last launch, we found our newly made nose cone helpful in developing a better rocket. Expedition mars has succeeded!!!

Rocketry has been a REALLY fun unit. From doing research to being on the field counting down, I loved it all! Even though our rocket didn’t go very far, we still had fun. I’d like to thank my wonderful group for being amazing teammates. I would also like to thank Mr. Casals for helping me with Rocketry videos and all of that. Mrs. Robert as the one actually setting up the launch. Last thank you, all of you!

I made a video documenting ALL the things my team and I did. Here it is!

Expedition Mars and Our Rocket, The Aquarius

This is created by all of our group before we launched! Hope you enjoy!

Expedition Mars – Claire, Ajene, Hunter, Issac

We the people of Expedition Mars, designed a special rocket called the Aquarius, to go as up in the sky as we can make it go. It is special because we designed it as skinny as possible. We also made it so it wouldn’t be too light to get caught in the wind, but not too heavy to not have the best propulsion as possible. when building a model rocket, you really want everything to be medium size, the nose cone, not too pointy, not to round. The body tube, not that heavy, not that light. The fins, just the middle length. We are planning to get the Aquarius as high as a model rocket can go!

When you launch a rocket that has a body tube that is way too heavy, drag and weight catch up with it very soon after it goes into the air, causing your rocket to fall just as it gets into the air. But if the body is too light it will get caught by the wind and will drift very far away, and you will be sad. So you need a body tube not to heavy, so it will go in the air, but not to light, so it won’t go sideways either. You need something just right.

We need a medium fin because the fins get caught in the wind and drift. But if we use a small fin it would n’t do anything or the air would get caught. Or if we use a big fin then it would catch the wind and go very far away. If we use a medium fin then it would push up to the sky. 

If you make a rocket without a nose cone and try to launch it, it won’t work because if the nose cone isn’t there the top of the rocket would be flat. If the top rocket is flat and you launch the rocket, the rocket would only go so far and then wind resistance will come by and say hello and make your rocket go down down down. That’s why we are designing our rocket with a skinny nose cone

We want to make the best thrust and landing that we can muster. Our medium sized everything will hopefully get us up into the air. We hope the Aquarius comes back safely to the landing point. Making a rocket will be difficult but I think our design will work out just right!

Rocketry Reflection – A Great Unit – Launch one

We had been doing rocketry in class! We launched to today! 5 groups worked for (about) two weeks on rockets, made to go in the air. Our group, called Expedition Mars, worked together and created the Aquarius, a beautiful rocket with six fins, one pointy nose cone, and a long body tube. It is fueled on air pressure. (I wouldn’t call that fuel, but still) Using metallic tape, construction paper, hot glue and cardboard, we put together the rocket, piece by piece. It was the perfect design. But due to poor gluing and uneven fins, our rocket only got 14 meters in the air, the lowest of the class. It was devastating, but I think my fellow group mates and I will pull it together for the second launch!

To actually launch the rocket, we needed to do a few things. Before we even put out the launch pad, we needed to take a trundle wheel (look it up) to mark out where we should put everything. Then, in the middle of the field (where we were launching) we would place the launch pad down, and put a pipe in the launch pad. We put the rocket on top of the pipe. Then we would pup the pipe full of air with a bike pump. After putting on our safety goggles and counting down from ten, we would release the air pressure, and the rocket  would go flying. 50 feet away from the launch, kids would be using clinometers (look that up too) to find out how far up the rocket went. We, Expedition mars, went first. As I said, we got 14 meters. Poor us. When a team launched a rocket, they would have to do some jobs. One person, would pump the rocket full of air. Another person, would count down from ten before they launched, (I did that job, I’m super loud). Then one person would record the whole thing, and the last person would release the air pressure. Group took turns doing the clinometer readings. I may post how we built our rocket, which was made by all of my group, but I may not. So, the launch was pretty good!

Intro to heredity

Hi guys!!! So, we have been doing some end of year stuffs and we did a like a On-demand essay on anything. here it is:

Intro to Heredity with Claire Breslow

So, let’s say you have blue eyes, but…. your mom and dad have brown eyes. So, where did you get your blue eyes? This is where heredity comes in. Heredity is the genes that get passed down from family member to family member, but you are going to need a bit of a scientific background on this. Let’s get started.

Cells are the smallest living organism you can find. There are unicellular living things, which have only one cell, but there are multicellular living things too, with multiple cells. You, for example, are multicellular. In a cell, there’s a nucleus, which is like that cells headquarters. In a nucleus, there is DNA. DNA is basically the code for our genetics. DNA is tightly packed, VERY tightly packed, into things called chromosomes. Chromosomes are made of DNA, and they usually look like an X, but you can never be sure. Each half of a chromosome is called a chromatid. Each part of a chromosome makes up some of your genes, and that is where we will begin.

Let’s use something simple for you to understand. Earlobes. There are two types of earlobes, attached, and free. The free earlobe, is dominant, meaning only one piece of DNA has to be preset for the trait to show. But attached earlobes are recessive, so two of them have to be present for the trait to show. We can represent free earlobes with a capital E, and attached, with a lowercase e. So, if you have attached earlobes, you would be represented with ee. But, if you have free earlobes, you can be EE, or Ee, because as I said, the dominant trait can be shown, even if only on is present.

Okay, now that you know the basics of heredity, we can get a little more advanced. Here’s the question, how can you tell what gene a baby will have. (We are still using earlobes) So, let’s say, one parent has free earlobes, EE. But the other parent, has Ee. So what will their baby be? Let’s find out. Draw a square on a piece of paper. Then you divide the square into four parts. You put the Ee parent on the top, and the EE parent on the left side. Put the Ee parents E on top of the top left square. Then put that parents e on top of the top right square. Then put EE parent’s first E on the left side of the top left square, and do the same to the other E on the bottom left square. Whoof, that was confusing. Now see if you can follow me here. Line each of the e’s up in each the squares. So, the top left square should have EE,and the bottom left square also has EE, but the top right square has Ee, and the bottom right square also says Ee. Now you know that there is a 50% chance that the baby is EE, and a 50% chance it will be Ee. So, no matter what, the baby will have free earlobes. This method is called a punnet square, and it is very helpful.

Now, you know some stuff about heredity, but this is just the Need To Know facts. Heredity is a SUPER LARGE field and you should keep on studying. Just saying the Ameba Sisters biology videos got me hooked on heredity and made me know everything that I am telling you now. So, KEEP CALM AND TRACK YOUR TRAITS!!!

Research Projects

                            Our class has been working on researching.  I learned something very important: NOTES! Yes, notes. Why? Okay, so we each had a partner and every partnership had an animal. My animal was the alligator. We got a bunch of books about alligators, and we read them! But we didn’t just read, we took notes, lots of notes. We came up with five subtopics, alligator communication, types of alligators, alligators are good parents, alligator meals and alligator hunting. We studied important vocabulary, not copying and much more. It was hard work researching, but I managed to get all the information down. Then I put it into a Google Slide presentation, in comic book form! Here it is… 

   

 

Our animal book was just practice, because something bigger was coming. My country studies book. We had to choose a country to study. I chose Egypt. We took notes and more notes from some library databases and just facts that I already knew. We took note after note after note. Then I put my information in captions, my side information into speech bubbles (for my character to say), and visual information into pictures. I spent about two weeks to complete it. I worked hard for those weeks and I put a lot of effort into it. I hope you enjoy!

 

Plant Experiments (Week 2-3)

Our controlled quad is doing great. Since there’s no bees in the classroom, we have been taping the plants for pollination. We observed that the petals of the flowers are falling off. Mrs. Luciano told us that it was normal. “The flower petals are falling of so it can grow seed pods” She had said. Our plant is green, bright bright green. It has a few yellow leaves, but that’s okay. Our seed pods are turning brown and it is getting ready to fall. The plant is almost at the end of its life. We are going from seed to seed. Our manipulated plant has no flowers, is dying and looks like it got zapped by lightning. There’s buds, but I don’t think their going to be flowers any time soon.

Our experiment is over, we got our conclusion.  We put our manipulated plant on a diet of regular water, not dyed. But the second round of flowers just came, and there’s flowers galore. I looked today and I saw something horrifying, our manipulated plant dyed! I am so sad. But it proved our experiment. I’d like to say a thank you to Mrs. Luciano, for teaching us and helping us along, the school district, for the seeds. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!  

Plant Experiments (Week 1)

Our class has been studying plants. We have been doing experiments. We got two quads and put soil and seed in each hole. A quad is a box with four holes in it. We have a controlled quad and a manipulated quad. The controlled quad has everything, water, light, dirt, etc. But our manipulated quad, we have dying the water red before giving it to the plant. Our hypothesis was, “If we dye the water instead of giving the plant regular water than the plant will cease to grow and will become unhealthy because the water has chemicals in it.”  

    We have been dying the water strongly but we kept giving it the same amount of water, three drops. Over the week I noticed that our manipulated plant was turning red and brown. Then, one day one of the manipulated plants became crunchy and red, and it died! But our controlled plant was fine and now has flowers. Our manipulated plant was about 5 ½ cm and grew to 7 cm. But our controlled plant was 4 ½ cm and it grew to 10 ½ cm. Our manipulated plant is reddish greenish brownish and our controlled one is green and has yellow flowers.

Making Mavlev Trains (Day 3)

Yesterday’s goal was to carry as many beads as possible on the train without falling off or the train ceasing to levitate. We put more magnet on the track. We did this because we learned from a previous experiment that two magnets can hold one higher. We put two ring magnets on a pencil and it levitated. Than we added a ring magnet on the bottom. The magnet on the top floated higher. Therefore two magnets are stronger than one.

 

Our final track was two strip magnets on each side, doubling the magnetic field. Our train had two tiny strip magnets on each side. This makes the train levitate across the track with weights on it. I think the train was successful because the weight on it was even and the poles were alike on either side.

 

This was our final drawing for our train.

We used the EDP (engineering design process) to help us. The first stage “Ask” is a stage where we ask questions that relate to our problem. The next stage, the “Imagine” stage, we brainstorm some ideas and chose the idea the we think is right. The next stage, the “Plan” stage, we draw our final idea out and get some things we need. The next stage, the “Create” stage is when we, well, create it! The last stage, the “Improve” stage is when we look at our design and say, “Did it work?” and “How can I make this better?” My experience with my group was great. Thank you to Mrs. Luciano for teaching us about this and helping us along, and thank you to the school district for the magnets! I had a wonderful time. Thank you.

Making Maglev Trains (Day 2)

Today we went all the way back to the imagine stage. Then we drew our plan out. We put two strip magnets on the track and two strip magnets on the train. We took a long time placing and making the magnets face the right way. We had to make sure the magnetic poles on the train were facing the same poles on the track. I never realized how important tape was for mini maglev trains. Then we talked about it and moved the magnets a little… AND IT FLOATED ACROSS THE BOX!

 

Sadly, we failed to get it right away, but after a long time it finally worked. Yay! We learned that sometimes it takes one little millimeter push to change everything. We had to put tape in certain places because if we did not, the magnets will fall! The north and south poles were very important to us.

 

Next time we are going to carry “people” across the box on the train. We are going to modify our train to carry as many as possible. I look forward to working with my group and I already have a big fat idea to crush Monday’s goal!  

Making Maglev Trains (Day 1)

In class we have been working on “Maglev trains”. You might wonder: “ What is a maglev train?” A maglev train uses magnets to levitate on the tracks instead of rolling on the track. On the bottom of the train, there are magnets that are facing north or south. On the top of the track, there are magnets facing the SAME way that the magnets on the train are facing. The magnets will repel and the train will levitate. With a push, the train could go up to a speed of 3500 k/h. We are creating mini ones inside our classroom. My group used the “ Engineering Design Process” to create it. We put three strip magnets on the track and five disk magnets on the train. 

This is our train now

But, it did not work. We took it apart, took stuff away, planned more things, put stuff together and cut some foam. Now we have one side up but the other side is down. We failed on getting the train to float but got our main design. Now we have to flip some magnets and add more tape. Now we need to go back to the planning stage. I saw that we needed to work on how to find our poles and put them the right way. Next time we are going to level our train out.

 

My experience with my group was awesome. I think we work great together. We had some disagreements but we kept going and now we are going to plan our design again. My group is wondering if our original idea was correct and our magnets were not placed the right way. I look forward to work on our maglev train again.