To create a project like this you first have get lots and lots of toothpicks and get carrots. Chop them up with a knife into pieces/squares. Stick the toothpicks into the carrots and then make your own design. My design was simple but stable. I had three equal triangles on both sides, a square at each end, slanted, with a couple of toothpicks taped together to put across it to make it two triangles. The top and bottom just long rectangles. To make a stable design, it should be wide and long. Triangles are the strongest shape so create a lot of triangles as supports to make it more stable. When taping two toothpicks together, try and keep them tightly and neatly wrapped around so they don’t fall apart as easy to make them more stable. Lastly, The carrot pieces should be about 1cm wide, high, and in length to be able to stick three or four toothpicks and be able to adjust them without breaking up the carrot piece.

I tested my custom beam to hold the weights up in the bag with the beam holding the handles. I first tried 3 pounds and it held up. I tested 6 pounds and it collapsed. In conclusion, I think that it should have been able to hold 3.1-5.5 pounds. I tried the I beam and it held for both 3 and 6 pounds. I then tried 7 and the 14 and it still held up. In conclusion for the I beam, I am able to hold over twice the weight of the custom beam and maybe more as it still did not collapse. I think that my custom beam fell because the lines on it go vertically making it flexible and easy to bend which is why it broke so easily. The I beam on the other hand had the cardboard holding it made sure it could not able to bend.

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The I beam is shaped like I. In order to make it your first going to get to two-inch-wide pieces of cardboard. Next, you pull the sides up into a U shape. Do it for both and then stick the underside of it to each one by gluing and it makes an I. Let it dry for an hour. I put another strip of cardboard that fits the width and length perfectly and let it dry for an hour. You can use rubber bands or tape to hold it together while it dries. When it is done it looks just like a 3D I. My custom design is 4 stacked 12 by to 2-inch pieces of cardboard stacked on each other. My design is simple but I think compared to the I beam it will hold up better because the I beam has less mass and is made of less cardboard while the custom-built beam has more mass and is made up of more cardboard and I think is sturdier.

I learned in tech we learn about many things about just tools we use in our day-to-day life and we are learning such as the structure of objects and other robotics such as cams. I also found out that we are learning about electricity. This class reminded me of a science camp I did a couple years ago. We were constantly doing 1 project a week and working on that a lot of the time or just about the topic of the week. My prediction about tech is that it will be similar to my science camp that where we have a project and we learn about that topic that the project is in and work on one project a week. In the submissions form where it asked what one human invention could we not live without. I then chose electricity because almost all house appliances and other things such as lights, heating, air-conditioning, and you can’t charge your iPhones, you can’t turn on the tv or charge/use a computer/laptop unless you have a portable electricity machine. When I found out that we were learning about electricity I was very excited. I think we are going to build our own circuits and build more complex things. For structure/building we might build something like a catapult or some other structural things. Finally, another thing I learned is that how we are having one project per week like this week is a nearpod.