Capstone Blog Post #3

I chose Adobe Spark for my Capstone project because I have done other projects with it. I’m familiar with Adobe Spark and I find it simple to use.

The part I enjoyed the most is when I got to read my script. I learned to take my time and not rush through it. Another part I really liked was getting the images for the video that matched my script. My favorite image is where it showed the stages of it sinking.

The part that was most challenging for me was thinking of my topic and my main inquiry question. At first, I was deciding between baseball, global warming, and the Titanic. At the beginning of the year I read about the Titanic and then I got really interested and wanted to learn more.

I am really looking forward to sharing my project because I put a lot of time and work into it and I am very proud of my work.

 https://youtu.be/uhzCLlvMYQE

Capstone Blog Post #1

The topic I chose is the sinking of the Titanic. My main inquiry question is: What impact did the sinking of the Titanic have on the building of future boats?

 

After reading a few books about the Titanic I became extremely interested in how it sank, why it sank, and whether boats are built more safely today.

 

It was challenging choosing my main inquiry question because there were so many options I could choose from. For instance, a couple of the options had to do with the people or crew on the ship or why there were not that many lifeboats to save everyone.

 

After determining my main inquiry question I had to think about the building of the Titanic and what changes might be made today. My first sub question explores what happened to the Titanic to make it sink. My second sub question is important because it will give me information on how the ship was designed to keep passengers safe and how safety measures developed over the years. My third sub question will help me find information about the education a person must have to design and to build an enormous ship. My fourth sub question is helpful to learn about how ship technology has changed over the years. Finally, my fifth sub question is how laws have changed since the sinking of the Titanic.

 

I usually do not like to research topics however, I have learned that if you’re interested in a topic it can be very enjoyable to research. 

False Fire

It was Friday the 13th, anything could happen… Everyone was waiting for the bell to ring when suddenly the fire alarm went off. Everyone was evacuating the building all of the Kindergarteners were covering their ears. Three fire trucks arrived on the scene and pulled up to the top of the front circle and they put a wheel chock against their tires to prevent the truck from rolling down the front circle. The police stopped traffic to allow the fire trucks to get to the school. No one knew if there was a fire or not. Some people thought there was a fire in the kitchen of the school other people thought there was something wrong with the wires in the school. The students and the staff were outside for about 10 minutes. Then everyone was told that it was safe to enter the building. It turned out it was just a false alarm. 

Halloween Parade

This year Heathcote Elementary school celebrated Halloween indoors. Heathcote usually celebrates Halloween outside in the front circle but this year they had it in the auditorium because it was raining. The theme for the Halloween parade was the Wizard of Oz so all of the staff dressed up as characters such as, Dorathy, Lion, Scarecrow, the Witch and many more. Instead of walking around the front circle everyone walked on stage than off stage by class. There were a lot of inflatable costumes. The parade was on October 31. According to Winston, a fifth-grader at Heathcote, “I would prefer to have the Halloween parade outside because it’s our last year at Heathcote and I want my parents to come.”

Rocketry Blog Post #4

The design of our rocket stands out to me because I think it was a really cool design. I liked the colors and the Three Musketeers logo. What stands out to me about our class’ launch was most of the rockets went really high.

My team job was being the air pumper. I felt it went well because I was careful about filling the air to 50. 

It was not my favorite job being the clinometer reader. Since it rained the day before, I didn’t like standing in the mud.

On our second launch our rocket went much higher than on our first launch. 

 

Our rocket went 129 feet high.  We are thinking about changing the cardboard fins into foam fins. We are thinking about this change because the group that used foam fins on their rocket went the highest. 

 

My team’s collaboration was okay. For example, no one was screaming at each other. One problem when our team was graphing the data was we didn’t agree on how high the rocket went.  

Rocketry Blog Post #3

 

Our group changed the design of the body of the rocket. We made it thinner, shorter and the tape neater to see if that would affect the rocket to go higher. Our second rocket went much higher than our first rocket. We didn’t have any challenging parts.

 

Our first attempt to build our second rocket was when we wrapped paper around the PVC pipe and sealed it with tape. The next day when we got to school, our rocket unraveled. The next attempt to build our second rocket was when we made a Superman rocket. One half of the body was blue tape and the other side was red. The nose cone was yellow and we wrapped it with yellow tape to the rocket body. We also made a Superman logo but instead of an S, we put the number three since we were The Three Musketeers.

 

In our group people listened to each other’s ideas. We had some disagreements but they were not big during the design and build phase.

Rocketry Blog Post #2

 

 My group’s first rocket stood out because it was the biggest and was colorful. It also went the lowest. One rocket that stood out was the one with the pink nose cone, white fins and black body. The tape was very neat and cool.

My job was placing the rocket on the PVC pipe and pressing the button to launch the rocket. I liked this job because I liked pressing the button to make it launch. I feel like I did a good job at being the clinometer reader but it wasn’t my favorite because I had to stand in the mud.

My group is changed the body of the rocket. We made it thinner and shorter to make the rocket go higher. We also measured the rocket that went the highest and used those measurements.

Our group worked well except when we argued about who would hold and keep the rocket. We decided to do a raffle to settle it. 

 

 

Rocketry Blog Post #1

We used an inspiration board to help us build the rocket. I’m going to tell you how we made the nose cone. First, we got paper and cut out a circle. We cut halfway through the circle and pulled the two corners to make a cone shape.

 Now I’m going to tell you how we made the body. We got a PVC pipe and paper. Then we wrapped the paper around the PVC pipe. Then we slid out the PVC pipe and taped the paper to make a tube.

 Now I’m going to tell you how we made the fins. We looked online for rocket fins and we found one that we liked. We cut it out on cardboard.

We picked a thick PVC pipe so it can carry more air and go higher and a pointy nose cone so it cuts through the air better.   

Our first launch did not go well because we used too much tape. Another reason is we made the rocket too tall.