Tech Post #6-Not going a planned

This year in tech I was planning on doing all kinds of crazy things like soldering and making all kinds of things. But right now all that I am making is blog posts.

As you have learned from my last post things are not going as planned. We have been stuck at home for the past month and are expected to be waiting at least one more until we are back in school. The virus has spread so much that were not exactly sure were going back to school.

But we had to make de with a bad situation. We have now started a mechanical engineering  unit. Our first lesson was yesterday. It was the most fun lesson I had in all of my E-learning experience.

So until  we can go back to school we are making due of a bad situation by learning about Mechanical Engingneering. Stay tuned for more updates.

Tech Post #5 – E-Learning

There has been a slight problem in our tech projects. The Corona Virus. The virus made it to Scarsdale last week, and the Scarsdale district had no choice but to close all schools. The following week nobody really knew what to do, most people were taking a few days off and relaxing because they thought that they were going back to school on Thursday. It turns out that is not the case, we might not even go back to school this year. This is one serious virus.

Under the circumstances we had a find a way to learn things from Mr. Calvert digitally. We first started by doing Ed puzzle. A useful platform that allows you to watch a video posted by a teacher, and answer questions on it. We also now have tech office hours so if you would like to ask Mr. Calvert a question, he will give you an answer. Sometimes we also may do a zoom meeting, this allows us to see each other face to face like face time.

Through the struggles of the virus we are still learning. Right now we are in a unit of atoms. We are learning about how small atoms are, and the pieces there made of.

So far E-learning in Tech has Ben going well!

Tech Post #3- beginning our automata.

In tech for the past few days we have been beginning our automata. We started by putting together laser cut cardboard pieces. Then we hot glued them together, I managed to not get burned! After putting together the pieces I got my laser cut big wheel. This wheel would be the key to my automata. I am planning on doing a fish jumping out of water. The tail of my fish will also be moving. The next thing I need to do is to attach the big wheel to my other pieces. To do this I will need to attach my wheel to a piston and attach the piston to my cardboard.

After a lot of hard work I will be done with my automata.

After starting the automata we will work and finish our automata over time.

Capstone#6-Working On My Final Product

After writing my essay I had to put all of my information into a slideshow,. Either an ignite, or a Ted Talk. An Ignite is where you have a three minute presentation, and slides turn every fifteen seconds. A ted talk is a presentation that you can turn the slides whenever you want, and you can make your presentation as long as you want. I chose the Ted Talk because I have complete control over when the slides turn.

Before I could start my slide show, I had to make a script. I started by copying and pasting my essay onto a google doc. I then adjusted it to make it sound like it would sound if someone was talking to you in person. One thing I did to adjust my script was that I made it sound less formal / more entertaining. Once I had my script finished I had to make my slides. After all what’s a slideshow without slides.

I started by finding important images that were crucial to my project, such as the first elevator. Once I had these Images I found more entertaining images that went well, with what I was saying. I then separated my script into parts. Since I had twenty-four slides, I split my script into twenty-four parts.

After my basic slides were done I had to make my presentation even more entertaining for the audience. One thing I did was ask the audience questions, such as: “Has anyone here ever been to the Freedom Tower?” Another thing I did was add animations. The thing with animations is that any unnecessary animations can cause a distraction and you don’t want that. I added two animations, one of which showed where the Freedom Tower was on a scale. The other was when I was talking about a building that sunk into the ground, I made the building sink down into the screen.

So far I think that I am making a lot of progress on my Capstone Project, and so far in my few rehearsals I have done well. I memorized all of my lines and talked at a steady pace. But the most important part is that I might have gotten some people interested in skyscrapers, and I taught them quite a few things about them.

Capstone#2 – Crafting a Main Inquiry Question and Sub Questions

For the second part of my Capstone assignment I had to create a main inquiry question and five sub questions. It took me a few days to figure out a question that would go well with my Skyscraper’s topic. 

The first thing I had to do to pick my main inquiry question was do a little research. I watched a video that showed how skyscrapers have evolved and got taller over time. This led me to think that I should do something about how skyscrapers have evolved. I then went onto a website called PBS.org and I did some research about some special features of different Skyscrapers. This led me to making my first Inquiry Question.

 My first main Inquiry Question was How has the building of skyscrapers evolved? What factors have contributed the most to the building of skyscrapers. Soon after I came up with that question I realized that my question only supported building a Skyscraper, not Skyscrapers in general. I then changed my main inquiry question to How has the skyscraper design evolved, and what factors have contributed the most to it’s evolution? I think this is a much better question because this question allows me to research the building of skyscrapers and lets me research special features of each skyscraper! 

Capstone has been a fun project so far. I like how you are able to do research whenever I want and am able to make a final presentation with models and digital examples I can point to.

I am really enjoying Capstone!

Capstone#1 Choosing Topics

Our teacher assigned us a project called Capstone. It was a project where we picked a topic that we are interested in and we do a presentation on it. The presentation can be a TedTalk, an iMovie and so on. You can also build models and other visuals to go with your presentation.

As for picking what I wanted to study, my two first possibilities for topics were “Soccer” and “Structural Engineering.” I used a poster board to narrow down my topics. I did this by writing one of the topics down on a post it and putting it in the center of the poster board. Then I put questions I had on the topic next to the post it. I then realized that I had more questions on “Structural Engineering” than “Soccer,” so I picked “Structural Engineering.” Then I realized that the topic was too broad. I had to find a more direct topic. I then realized that on my “Structural Engineering” chart I had a lot of questions about Skyscrapers. I then picked “Skyscrapers” as my topic. I picked “Skyscrapers” because I’m interested in how you are able to build buildings that go so high in the air.

I am thinking of building a model of the world’s tallest skyscraper, and maybe some other tall skyscrapers. I think this will help show my audience what I am saying. While I’m talking about different parts of the skyscraper I can point to the parts on the model(s).

I think that Capstone will be a fun project, I am really looking forward to it.