Tech Post #7 – Completing Cams and Followers

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

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!

 

     

Tech Post #5 – Designing Automatas

 

In class the other day, we designed our own automatas. We drew them out on paper, then we used Vectornator to make cams and followers. We are starting to assemble our boxes and we are going to print out our cams and followers soon. We all have different ideas to design our automata and there are many ways to use the different cams and followers. I am making an automata that has to do with tennis.

 

 

Tech Post #4 – Vectornator

In class, we all learned how to use and app called Vectornator. It is interesting because there are so many different things you can do with it. You can make shapes, create drawings, and experiment. Today, we learned how to make shapes like circles with perfect measurements and to even make a smaller circle directly in the middle of the bigger one.

Tech Post #3 – Automatas

On Friday, we all tried to guess what made the automatas work. Each table had a different automata and we rotated from table to table to try to guess what was in the automata that made the pole or flag move either up and down, or left and right. It was challenging because there could have been many possibility’s of what was in the box, but there had to be only one. We all tried to draw what we thought was in the box and we all had many different ideas. Today, we all got to see what was actually inside of the automatas and it was pretty surprising.

Tech Post #2 – Safety Breakout

Yesterday in tech, we played a fun game called breakout edu. There was a box with many locks and it was filled with safety googles. There was a box on each side of the room and an extra box in the middle of the room. We split into two teams and looked for clues so that we could figure out the combinations of the locks and unlock the box. We eventually unlocked all three of the boxes with nine minutes remaining! It was really fun and exciting.

Tech Post #1 – Safety

In tech, the first thing we did was talk about safety. Safety is so important in the classroom because there are a lot of things that could hurt us. I learned to wear safety googles so that nothing will get into my eyes, I learned that soldering irons can heat up to 842º! I think that the main rule in the classroom is to think before you act. There are many ways to get hurt in this class. You can cut yourself with scissors, you can burn yourself with hot glue guns or even soldering irons! All of these safety rules make sure that no one gets hurt.