Debatable Issue – Should we be More Focused on Underwater Exploration or Outer Space Exploration?

Our teacher Mrs. Edwards assigned our class a debate project. She split our class into teams, in our reading/writing groups. My reading/writing group consisted of me, Ally, Kevin, and Sam.

Each team got to choose their debate topic. The choices were: Should animals be kept in zoos? Should people be more focused on underwater exploration or outer space exploration? Should we ban plastic bags? Should you drink tap or bottled water? Should we be more focused on protecting sharks from humans or humans from sharks? Kevin and Sam wanted to pick Should people be more focused on underwater exploration or outer space exploration?, but Ally and I wanted to pick Should animals be kept in zoos? Eventually we let Kevin and Sam have their first pick, but the second and third pick would be ones Ally and I wanted.

Mrs. Edwards used sticks with everyone’s names on it to pick which group would go first. But, there was another group that wanted to pick Should people be more focused on underwater exploration or outer space exploration? Luckily Mrs. Edwards chose Ally first, so we got our first pick.

After everyone chose a topic, we started reading articles that were in our debate bin. We couldn’t decide what side we would be on during the real debate, because we all wanted to be on the outer space side.

We had a lot of arguments, but with the final debates nearing closer we decided Ally and I would be on the outer space side, and Sam and Kevin would be on the underwater side.

We had few practice debates because we always were in different places with different schedules and other things to do.

But our final debate went better than I thought it would.

Check it out:

Rube Goldberg #7 – Fails, Successes, and the Video

We hypothesized how many fails we would have to get to one success. All our guesses were off. Ally guessed 4 fails, I guessed 6 fails, and Hana guessed 24 fails. At the time, Barbara wasn’t there to guess. The real number of fails was 8. We got 2 successes, because during our first one we were too loud so we re-filmed a success.

I feel bad for Barbara because she missed it, but then she got to edit most of the video, even though she wasn’t there to start it. She got most of the credit (technically she gave it to herself, but she deserves it). I think Barbara made the movie on iMovie, because I think she was more used to it.

Our video starts off with me explaining the steps, then we show the fails, and then the success.

This is our final video:

Here are some videos we watched for inspiration:

Audri’s Rube Goldberg Monster Trap

Magnets and Marbles!

Rube Goldberg #6 – Cooperation

During this project, our cooperation wasn’t the best. We fought a lot, and that caused us to get distracted. There were times when we were really frustrated and angry at each other, but there were times when we compromised. I think we could of cooperated more, but I feel like we were trying really hard already.

Also, being in a group of four meant we fought more, but I’m also glad we formed a team because we got to know each other a lot more, plus this was a great learning experience.

Overall, I think out of ten, with ten being the best and one being the worst, I would rate our cooperation a seven. I would rate it a seven because we didn’t cooperate that well, but it was really hard because we were in a group of four. If I was in a group of two, however, I would rate it a six or five.

Rube Goldberg #5 – Challenges

The biggest challenge we had was when Hana’s brother got the flu. We were close to finishing building our machine when he got it. Hana’s parents didn’t want us to get the flu from Hana’s brother, so they moved the machine to my house. We had to rebuild the whole machine at my house, and we were running out of time. Hana’s basement was bigger and emptier, so at my house we had to squeeze the machine so it would fit, and we couldn’t keep it there for long.

And a few days after Hana’s brother got the flu, Hana got it, too. Hana’s mom gave Hana’s iPad to Barbara’s mom so Barbara could work on our video, since we recorded everything on Hana’s iPad. We used WeVideo, since we already knew how to use it, but we found out that WeVideo is a whole lot easier to use on the computer. So while we were using the iPad, we had some trouble.

I think that the challenges effected us, but we tried hard to overcome them.

Rube Goldberg #4 – The Sketch

My team drew our Rube Goldberg Sketch on the long weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The sketch would be due in a few days, so they had to meet to finish it, even if it was without me.

I was currently in Vermont skiing, and so I couldn’t contribute. They arranged a sleepover to finish it at Hana’s house, and they succeeded in finishing it. They drew our sketch, then showed me it. Our sketch was simple enough, drawn on a piece of paper.

Our sketch was different than our final machine, because we realized some things worked and others didn’t, so we had to change a few things.

This is our sketch: