Tech – 3D Printing

Emma Ha on

When I look around my house, I see a few things that look like they were made by 3D printers. I see coasters on the kitchen table, the organizer on my desk that holds my extra paper, pens, pencils, and erasers. My mom’s makeup organizer that is on her bathroom counter, and even the soap dish sitting beside it. There are many things that are made by 3D printers in my house and I probably never noticed them. I think that 3D printing can change so many things. For example, It takes up less resources than using the actual thing, there might be less steps in the procedure to make the object, and it might just be easier. 3D printing could help save our environment and keep the world around us healthier. 3D printing could definitely affect artists. I think that artists could definitely benefit from 3D printing, they could use it to make their art better and add new and different things to it.

Tech – Lumber Harvesting

Emma Ha on

Harvesting lumber looks like hard work. You have to get onto the tree and cut it down. It looks like it can be very dangerous, but the job has to be done by someone. I couldn’t imagine being up there on the tree while cutting it down. It must be very scary. A long time ago, many jobs were probably hard and frightening because we didn’t have machines to help us. Now, harvesting lumber is easy. There are barely any humans working. All the machines are doing the hard work. People are just controlling them and making sure that they go in the right place. It is crazy how much machines have changed our lives.

Tech – Building

Emma Ha on

Building something means to create something. It means to use materials to create an object or something similar. I have built things before. In tech last year, we built automatas where we used different shapes of cardboard and pieces of wood. I do not have the automata because I didn’t get to finish it last year, we went into all virtual in the middle of my tech quarter.

I do enjoy building things because it makes my think about how I want my design to look and how I want it to work.  When building things, I like it when people don’t tell me what to do so I can use my imagination. Building things is an activity that I don’t get to do very often, so I like to take my time and enjoy it while I can.

Tech Post #10 – Atoms

Emma Ha on

The coronavirus led to no school, so now we have to take online classes. This means that we can’t make and solder our jewelry pieces as usual. The good thing is that we are learning about atoms now. Atoms are so interesting. Atoms are so tiny that the human eye cannot even see it. Atoms also can’t be seen using a regular microscope. People have created advanced microscopes to see the atoms. We also learned a little bit about the universe. Both the universe and atoms have an unbelievable size. The universe is monstrously large, and atoms are so unbelievably small.

Using and Transferring Energy

Emma Ha on

This weekend, I went biking with my mom, my brother, and my friend. I used mechanical energy to make the pedals move up and down with y feet. I transferred that energy into thermal energy because I was creating heat while the pedals were moving.

What is ENERGY?

Emma Ha on

Energy is what makes things work. There are two main categories of energy, potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy is stored energy. For example, when a roller coaster is slowly creeping up a hill, it has potential energy which is stored inside of it. That potential energy soon turns to kinetic energy when the roller coaster zooms down the hill. Kinetic energy is the energy of movement/motion.

Tech Post #9 – Creating Pendants

Emma Ha on

In class, we started to make our pendants. We cut and blended wire to create the first circle and we are starting to make a jump ring. To do this, we are using many tools like mandrills, which are the cylinder things that help to shape the circle of the pendant. There is also another tool called a round nose plier which has two long tips, they help bend the wire into the shape that you want. Another tool that we used is the side cutter which helps to cut of any excess wire. I am so excited to start making the inside of the pendant.

Tech Post #8 – Designing Pendants

Emma Ha on

In class, we started to design our own jewelry. We started with pendants. We needed to draw pendants with five wires in it with six wire in total. We also had to make sure that all of our wires were connected to the outside circular wire. When we start making the pendants, we have to be careful to wear safety goggles and make sure that we won’t get anything in our eyes.

 

Tech Post #7 – Completing Cams and Followers

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In tech, we are finishing up our boxes and putting our cams and followers in with the piston and axle. I added a few weights onto my follower to make sure that there was more downward force. I also glued many of my parts together. I glued my cam to my axle so that my automata worked better and I glued my piston to my follower. My automata works nicely, but it isn’t very decorative and there is nothing but a stick on top. I am hoping to finish up the inside of my box soon so that I can start decorating the top.

Tech Post #6 – Creating Automatas

Emma Ha on

We finally got to start making our own automatas! First, we hot glued the separate pieces together. It was hard to keep all the pieces together and to put them together properly. After that, we had to get our cams and followers and try to attach them to the separate box with the axle and piston. We also had to get a cylinder to attach to the top hole in the box. I cut out the middle bar of my box to ensure that my cams and followers would fit. To make our automatas better, we are hot gluing two cams and two followers together to make them thicker. I really hope that my automata comes out good and I can get my design on it!

 

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