Felicity's Blog

Of course, all over the news right now is stories of the coronavirus, a disease which has never been seen before, so therefore never before have we ever found a treatment. These days, the scientists and doctors we have today are a lot more advanced so they say that they are rather certain that they will be able to create a vaccine for this disease. Dr Paul Stoffels from the company Johnson and Johnson, said that the company had created a vaccine for the Ebola disease in simply six months, however since this disease has never been seen before, they think that in order to create this vaccine they will have to start from scratch in order to make it, just like the Zika virus. So in other words, it is uncertain how long such a process will take. As the number of cases of the coronavirus grows, the more desperate the people and the more scientists craze over this vaccine, hoping that the coronavirus wont spread as fast so that they can get the vaccine on time. What may become difficult though is that they will have to get samples of this virus from China, leaving risk of spread but it is incredibly important however to get the vaccine no matter what. I think that this vaccine is incredibly important especially since we have no idea how much worse this disease could get and how much it could spread. We should definitely try to nip this disease in the bud before it can create a much bigger problem than presently.

Of course, none of this could be done without financial support. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations says that between three companies, they have invested $12.5 million in order to hunt for vaccines for this rampaging disease. Representatives from the companies Moderna and Iniovo which are based in the States, say that it is possible that they could have a vaccine ready to begin animal testing by February 27th which is amazing since this disease has pretty much just been discovered. The University of Queensland in Australia say that it could potentially be ready in about 6 weeks. All this work and determination is not only great because we may be able to stop this disease from spreading more, but finally there is actually a goa that is important enough to bring most of the world together to  achieve it – creating the vaccine. I hope by reading this you feel more in knowledge about this disease and trust that the scientists are trying the best that they can to solve this issue. Right now is living history, so we need the determination to potentially save future generations from this disease so they dont have to go through what we are now.

– Felicity Bennett (Popham 7)

Looking back at Tech last year, I can’t forget learning how to make an awesome flashlight. The idea of it was to make a flashlight that potentially could be used to help the poor children who were stuck in the cave, so it had to be waterproof.  My flashlight had pipe which went two ways at the end which was a little different to a regular flashlight but it also made it able to stand up by itself. In order to make it I needed wire, a battery holder, an LED light of course the pipe – we also got to decorate it at the end with Sharpies. When it was done I took it home and used it a little but unfortunately I don’t have it anymore. I hope we get to make something awesome again this year too!!!

Today is the last day of quarter two, which means the last day of tech. Because of the winter break, we only had nine weeks of Tech and not ten, but it was still fun. My favorite project was definitely making the flashlight. It took a lot of work having to use the drill press and soldering irons multiple times, but it was worth it! We have learnt all about atoms, positive and negative, and making our own circuits. Au revoir Tech!

What happens if you make a mistake when you are soldering? The solder is very strong and hot, you don’t want to have to pick it off. Well, did you realize that there was a way to unsolder? You don’t have to try to yank it of or make a new circuit, simply put the soldering iron on the dry solder, and it just melts right off! The tech room has now got new soldering irons and these ones actually SMOKE when you use them! They also can reach to 900ºF – so be careful!

In order to make a place for the LED light to shine out from and to use the switch on our flashlight, we have to use a drill press to make a hole. When you use these machines you must have your hair tied back and have on safety goggles. We didn’t use the middle drill press but the far left and right, as they were built for the LED lights or the switch. When you are ready to use it you have to place the object in the middle and use the levers on the side to get a tight grip around it so that it does not come off and start spinning on the drill. When you are ready, you use the main lever to bring the drill down and to place it at the area that you want the hole to be and then you flick the switch at the top and there! You have to make sure you are watching that the drill only goes through one layer of plastic! Once it is off the drill you can sandpaper the object and there you have it!

For the past few days in Tech we have been making flashlights. We started by making a plan and then we tried to find poles in different shapes to make it. From there, we used a big saw to cut the pole to the size we wanted it to be. Then, we will solder the wires, LED light and battery holder together and finally decorating. We have also got a switch to turn it on and off. On top of that, our flashlights will be waterproof – wow!

Switches are very important in a circuit because they can stop and allow the circuit to work and the atoms to pass through. A switch can either be open or closed. If a switch is open it means that the two sides of the circuit are not connected and the atoms can not pass through, but if the circuit is closed then the two sides are connected so the atoms can pass through, creating a full circuit. In tech we have been making our own switches with cardboard and tinfoil. When the two pieces of foil meet, the light in the circuit will light up!

In Tech I made a solder person! I started by cutting an eight inch and a one and a half inch strip of gold wire. After that I used a pencil to wrap the wire around to create the person’s head. From that I bent a shape for the legs and made a stand. The one and a half inch wire was soon to be the arms. Once I had made the arm position I went over to the solder area. I had to clip the body still so that the arms wouldn’t end up in the wrong place and wonky. I have to admit that I was rather frightened of the solder iron. You absolutely do NOT want to get burnt by one of these as they can reach up to around 842ºF! Even though it would be horrible to burn yourself on, this makes it easy to melt the solder. Solder is pretty much a glue for metal!

Yesterday in Tech we built a circuit. Before that we had been making them on the IPad and it was much easier! On the IPad, we discovered that if you connect the negative side of the battery directly to the positive side then the battery will blow up! We saw a blown-up battery that Mr Calvert had and it looked like it had popped. In our basic circuit we used a lightbulb, wire that we skinned using a wire cutter, a blade switch and a battery. For the wire we tried to curl it into a hook shape and used a screw driver to attach it to the lightbulb and switch. Then, the lightbulb lit up! I wonder if we will do another project using circuits…

Over the past few days in Tech we have been studying atoms. We learnt that positive like negative atoms and vise versa. When a positive and a negative come close to each other they go to each other – just like magnets! However, a positive hates a positive and a negative hates a negative. When two of the same go together they try to separate! We did an experiment when we had a pole or ‘magic wand’, and rubbed it with cotton. Then when we put the pole over loose pieces of paper and it would pick them up because of the atoms attracting each other. A basic atom has a nucleus, proton, and electrons. Protons have a positive charge and electrons have a negative charge. The nucleus is neutral!