galavamarino28's blog

This week was so much fun! We got to finish up our final project which was our flashlights. This week I soldered my circuit together. This circuit would go inside my flash light. I also cut all the pipes for my flashlight and drilled both of my holes into the flashlight. The switch hole and the light hole. Then when I was done with everything I stylized my flashlight. I used two colors, red and blue. 

This week we started to work on our flashlights. We also watched a movie about plastic pollution in the world. The flashlight had to be waterproof and fit in a small box. I made a design that could also be used as a hammer. I also started to cut the wires that would go into my circuit inside my flashlight. Next week I am going to solder my wires and make my circuit. This week I also started to cut the pipes for my flashlight.

This week we were finishing up our jewelry pieces and switches. Since I already finished my jewelry piece I started on my switches. My first design was a knife (cardboard knife covered in aluminum) that would cut an aluminum ball which in my head was like a potato. My other design was I put aluminum around the two grabbing parts on a clip and made them touch when you squeeze. My last design was an aluminum rubber band that then was flipped like a lever and touched aluminum foil on a piece of cardboard. Making these switches was hard. They all had to be different and it was hard to come up with ideas. 

This week we finished up or soldering pieces. I made two lines for my mom and one for my dad that were matching. Then we started a new project about making electrical switches. The switches all had to work in different ways. We also got to use the glue guns and the scroll saws which were really fun. The scroll saw was kind of scary.

This week we started to solder. First we watched videos about the history of copper.  The video told us how we use copper today. Then we started to make an amulet/circle where our design from our brainstorming sheet would go. I am going to give my amulet to my dad for Father’s Day. Making the amulet was very difficult and we used many different pliers. This part was very stressful. I am super excited and scared to solder my amulet together.

This week we finished up our scaling laser printing project. I made a star bookmark with a hole so I can put a ribbon through that hole. I ended up putting a blue yarn string through it. This week we learned about the periodic table and started to brainstorm ideas to solder. I am going to do a pendant for my dad that I am going to give to him on Father’s Day. It will be a mountain because he loves to explore and a squiggly line through the mountain because his name is A. Then on the top right I am going to make a heart. The hard part about brainstorming this was that we could only use 6 lines (lines of copper) for our design. Also the hard part was getting everything to connect.

This week was REALLY FUN! We learned and got to use the laser printer a lot. We learned about this app named Vectornator where you can draw or trace designs and then print them out on the laser printer. This was really fun to do. I printed out some things from my favorite video game. I have always not been the best at art so being able to trace on Vectornator makes things a lot easier. The laser printer is a very cool tool. It is complex and easy to use at the same time. We also learned how to scale. This is where you make a laser print a certain size. This is really hard to do.

This week was a very educational week. We learned about atoms. We learned a lot about protons and neutrons. We learned how neutrons can’t be together. This week we learned how an atom was structured and what past scientists believed about atoms before they were discovered. We learned about how one scientist thought about something called eluvium but it was really static electricity. We did the experiment that this scientist did that led him to believe elevium was a thing, this was really fun. We also learned how to use our first tool in the lab. We learned how to use the laser printer. I printed a banner that said “Gonzalo’s World of Wonder” which is for my room.

Tech was really fun this week. We had a scavenger hunt where you were divided into two teams and you had to find clues around the room to unlock a box with safety goggles. There was also a helping box that if you unlocked it gave you something that would help you find one of the codes to the locks. There were 3 locks. One direction lock, one 4 digit number lock, and one word lock. We were the first team to find all the clues and open the box with the safety goggles. Then we opened the helping box and it turned out that it was a flashlight that uncovered a hidden text in one of our clues. This week we also started to learn about atoms. We learned that it is super small and that light can’t reflect off of it. On Friday we learned about the periodic table. That day was really fun for me because I have always been interested in that type of stuff. We mostly learned about gold and copper on that day.