Musical Insturments

In tech I learned that many people around the world use trees and wood to make musical instruments. One example is Africa, the African people use wood to make drums, it takes them a long time to carve and sand the wood. The Falaschi Lutherie also use wood to make instruments, but they only use the best type of wood. This wood needs to be seasoned, but not too dry, this process is very time consuming. Like the Falaschi Lutherie many people around the world also like using the best quality wood, leaving many trees in danger. Pau Brasil is one example of an endangered tree, this wood is typically used to make violin bows. The Mpingo wood is also used quite often, this wood is used to make most of the woodwind instruments.

7th Grade Tech

In 6th grade I built a mini gingerbread house with my friend out of cardboard in 6th grade tech and we added solder people. We had this idea when we were scrolling through images on google, when we were trying to find an idea, then we decided upon making a gingerbread house. We also used markers to decorate the house, and used hot glue to keep everything in place. After we finished building the gingerbread house we left it in tech and gave it to Mr. Calvert.

Break the Lock

In tech we were challenged to break a box with 3 locks! Each team had one side of the room, each side had the same clues. Every team was allowed to have Mr. Calvert’s help a certain amount of times. Every clue would help you break the lock, you just need the right one and use it properly! There’s also a box with a hint, but, the box with the hint is also locked. After one team opens the box with the hint and they’re done using it they must give it to the other team to use. Without this hint, solving the lock code would be really hard! Now let’s start!

Atoms

In every atom there are the proton, neutron, and electron. The protons are the positively charged, the electrons which are negatively charged, and the neutron, which have an electrical charge. The neutron has the same weight as the proton. The electron, the negatively charged one, can be found on the outside of the neutron, and lastly the protons are found in the nucleus. The most important part of the atom is the nucleus, the nucleus is the center of the entire atom, it’s so tiny that if the neutron was the size of the earth the nucleus would only be as big as a marble!

Gingerbread House!

After finishing my flashlight me and Eliana (Ellie) decided to work on a project for fun together! The project is a little gingerbread house, the gingerbread house is made out of cardboard. Not only are we making a gingerbread house we’re also making little solder people to go with it! Lastly we’re adding candy canes which are made out of pipe cleaners! The solder people will be made out of solder, and the gingerbread house will be held together by hot glue!

Nikola Tesla

In class we learned about Nikola Tesla, he was credited for being a mad scientist. At his time period people thought that he was crazy person. Only now he is known for his brilliant ideas. Some of them are the tesla coil, radio, and many more. It is now said that Nikola Tesla was too advanced for his time. Nikola Tesla was also really competitive, he and Thomas Edison both competed against who made the best light bold for a festival, and Nikola Tesla won.

Circuits

To be able to make an effective flashlight you need to know stuff about circuits. The circuit needed for the flashlight must be a closed circuit. Closed circuit means that all the wires are connected to something. One wire can be connected to the light and another can be connected to the switch. Closed circuit also means the circuit can’t have any gaps, or else it won’t work. Another necessary thing you need to know is that your circuit can’t have a route in which the wires will always go back to the battery without something in between or else the battery will explode. Something you can put in between the battery is a light.

Flashlights!

After the self driving car games we now get to make flashlights! Making the flashlights requires lots of materials. Some examples are the light, the wires, switches, and many more. This unit combines all that we’ve learned, the soldering iron, light switches and so on. To connect the materials you use solder. Before you can even start soldering you need a plan. There are a few basic rules you need to follow. The flashlight needs to fit in a certain box, the flashlight also needs to be waterproof. When you’ve made the plan you need Mr. Calvert’s approval. Even after planning your still not done! The next step requires you to list the materials you need and the exact lengths. Finally after that is done you need Mr. Calvert’s approval again. After he says yes you can start your soldering!

Self Driving Car Game

After lots of work on our switches we finally got to test them out using the self driving car game! The rules for the game are simple, you attach your three switches to the alligator clips, making sure that the alligator clips touch the tinfoil or else the switch won’t work. The alligator clips are attached to the breadboard, and the breadboard is attached to the battery. Once all the alligator clips are all attached you can try by activating your switch, you can do that by pushing down your switch and seeing if the light will light up. After setting up you can start! 2 players would throw down 2 cards, if both cards are red you activate the middle switch. If there is only one red you active the switch that is closer to the person that threw down the red. lastly if there is no reds you don’t hit anything. Now you can start playing!

Car Switches

After learning about self driving cars Mr. Calvert challenged us to make our own self driving car game! Each person is required to make three car switches. The one below is one of mine. It works because when the metal touches the metal it sets off a reaction. So when you push the popsicle stick down then the switch will conduct!

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