Category Archives: Science

Designing the Machine – Rube Goldberg #2

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After we decided on what our simple task would be, we had to decide on how we would make it work. My brother and I made lots of designs, and then we combined them to make one big design, that also led to the simple task of having slime pour on our heads.

 

We started designing by figuring out what we had in our house, so we knew what we could use in our designs. We kept making different designs and showing them to each other. “Look at my design!” “ I don’t like it.” That’s what kept happening, and we could not agree. 

 

We compromised on one design, but we had to test a few things first. We tested some things but some of them did not work, so we knew we could not use it. After that, it was like designing the whole thing all over again. “I want to do this.” “No! I want to do that” That’s what was happening until we figured out what worked. Some things we changed were the dominoes to playing cards, and the ping pong ball to a mini soccer ball. It took a while to agree on everything, but we finally made it work. 

Decision Making – Rube Goldberg #1

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In our class, we started a unit on Rube Goldbergs. The first step in the process was to decide what your simple task will be, and how you were going to make it work. I am doing mine with my brother, and we disagreed on what we were going to do.

We first had to decide what our simple task would be. We kept disagreeing and we could not think of an idea. I thought we should do one thing and he wanted to do something else. We compromised and decided his idea would go in the middle of the Rube Goldberg and mine would be the simple task at the end. After a couple of days, we thought about it and the idea that I had was really hard to do, so we came up with something else. We came up with the idea to have a bucket of slime pour on our heads. We will do that by having a pulley, and one string is attached to a book, and the other side is attached to the bucket. We will have the book fall down so the whole pulley moves and the bucket flips over. Ryan and I will be standing under the bucket, hoping that the slime will pour on our heads.

After we came up with our idea, we needed to decide on how we would make it work. I wanted to do the same thing in two places, and Ryan wanted to do something different, so we could not agree if we would do the same thing in two places, or different things. We were disagreeing throughout all of the planning, and it was hard to compromise. Sometimes we would compromise, and sometimes our ideas would be impossible to put together, so we needed to agree on something.

 

Rocketry Blog Post #3

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Our group changed the fins of our rocket because most other groups fins were small and went really high. That made our group thought that if we make the fins smaller, our rocket will go higher than the first launch. Also small fins would make the rocket lighter so that would also make it go higher than the first launch.

 

When we designed our second rocket some things went well and some things did not.. What went well was our whole group agreed to change the same thing right away. We all had the same idea, so it was really easy to decide what we were going to change on our second rocket. What did not go that well is our group also wanted to change some other things, like the nose cone. We can only change one thing though so we desighted right away that we were going to change the fins.

 

What went well with building our second rocket is we built the body fast, so we had more time to make the things that were harder, like the nose cone. We were able to do that longer, so it is better. What did not go well, is we did not all agree on the fins and which ones we were using. Someone thought we should not use the fins I made and we should use the ones they made. We ended up using both.

 

We collaborated on our design. We also took the time to collaborate on our fins because we smoothed them out to make them even. Also because we did not want our rocket to be really bumpy when the rocket is going up in the air. Our group compromized when we disagreed. When we did not agree on the fins we used both fins that both people made.

 

Rocketry Blog Post #4

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We launched our second rocket and it went a lot higher than I thought. Our first rocket did not go that high, so I was really happy that our second one went much higher than the first rocket. We worked hard on our secod rocket, even if our group did not agree on some things.

 

What stood out about our rocket launch is it went a lot higher than the first one and it went straight back into the ground. My job was to push the launch button. I liked doing that becuase you basecly get to control the rocket and as soon as you press the button, it launches up in the air. I liked being a cinometer reader because you get to find out how high that groups rocket went. 

 

Our rocket went so much more than the first launch. It went 126 feet. We will change the fins to cardbord so we can see if that changes our rocket, even though we are not building a third rocket. We collaborated becuase we all did our jobs for the rocket launch.

 

Our group worked together well and our rocket went really high, and if we did a third rocket, I think that one would go higher than the second one! 

Rocketry Blog Post #2

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We launched rockets that we made from scratch. We built and designed them. I was surprised to see the height it went. Our team worked together on building the rocket, and we were hoping that it would pay off and our rocket will launch really high into the sky. I learned that if you don’t work as a team, your rocket won’t go as high because not everyone’s work would be in the rocket and you have one less person to help you build it. Also you should not talk to your friends instead of helping because then you can say it is your rocket, but only you would no it is not really because you did not help.

 

For the launching part, we got our rocket ready by pumping the pumper to fifty so it had enough air pressure and they started counting down. I was hoping that it would go really high because we worked on the rocket for a while, and it would be sad if it did not even get off the launch pad. When they got to 1 the rocket launched of the launch pad. I thought it would go high but it did not. It went low compared to everyone else’s rockets but at least it got off the launch pad. When everyone else’s came down, they were all really happy and ran to get it. Our group did too, because even though it did not go as high as everyone else’s, it still went high. 

 

I think our group will change the fins because they were really big and I think that that added to much weight and also I think they took up too much space and the air slid down the side of the rocket too soon but if the fins were smaller they would be lower down so the air would not slide down the sides till about a half a second later which might help. Also all the groups whose fins were small got really high so maybe if our group does that, our rocket will go higher than it did in the first rocket launch.

 

I think our rocket group did good because even though our rocket did not go very high, it still got off the launch pad and our work paid off because it worked pretty good and in the second launch, I hope it will go even higher!

 

Rocketry Blog Post #1

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Designing and Builded Rocket

 

For the design of our rocket we chose the nose cone to be sharp so that it can cut through the air easier and it can create a path for the rest of the rocket to go through. We choose the fins to be a triangle so the air can slide down the sides. We choose a thin rocket so it can be less weight. We wanted to do the fins with styrofoam so they are sturdy and they can not really flop over like cardboard. We decided to cover almost everything with tape so that everything is more sturdy but we did not want to add too much tape to the rocket so it is less weight and it will get off the launcher.

 

When we were building our rocket, our group did not agree on a lot of things like what tape we were going to use. Our inspiration board helped us because we wrote some materials that we would use so we looked at that. When we were building our rocket, we all wanted to do everything on some things that only one person can do, that the fin templates and taping the rocket. We agreed on somethings though, like how big the fins will be. Sometimes two people wanted something but the other two people wanted something else, so we had to sometimes compromise, and sometimes we had to pick the best way to do it.

 

TeaTown Reflections

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The thing that I liked the most was taking the things out of the pond. I liked taking the things out of the pond because I got to see new animals that I have never seen before and see how they are difrent from other things that we have seen like how some swim on there backs.

One thing that I learned was that land and water are conected is that if it rains then it could effect the land and make the clean water dirty water. Also, some things that live on land like plants, can also grow in the water and survive just like it would on land.

I think that for the next 4th graders, Teatown should have more things that the kids do. For example,at the pond we just watched the person scoop the stuff in the lake but I think that it should be a opption if you want to scoop things out of the water.

Plant Bog Post #4

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On our plants there are seed pods.  Seed pods are exactly what you think it is. A pod for seeds. Seed pods keep the seeds in them from blowing away. A seed pod is smooth and green. It looks like a green thing with bumps on the outside but it is much more. You can open a seed pod and get more seeds. That is the plant cycle.

 

The plant cycle is how more plants are planted from another plant. This is how it works. First you plant a seed and wait for it to grow and soon you see a flower. Once you see a flower, you start polination. The flowers eventually die out and that means seed pods will form. After you see a seed pod you can open them when they are really big. You should see a brown seed. After you have the seed, you can plant the seed so you have a Wisconsin Fast Plant!

 

If a seed is actually a seed in the seed pod, it should be brown and rough. Some seeds might turn out green but those did not grow so if would get smushed. The seed pod is green with lumps.  I am wondering how the seeds will sped  and make now seeds in the wild if nobody can pick off the seeds. 

Plant Blog Post #3

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This is our third blog post on plants. We started cross pollinating our plants. Pollination is so the plants get fertilized and seeds can form in the plant. To pollinate our plants we used a q – tip. With the q – tip we touched a pistol. Then we touched a pistol of another plant so it fertilizes the plant. Now since we pollinated the plant seed pods are starting to form. Seed pods have tiny seeds in it so that people can plant new plants with the seeds. On seed pods there is a green coding thing that keeps the seeds from blowing away. Our plant has a itsy bitsy seed pod but you can’t really see it.  

 

Now the flowers on our plants are dying out. That means seed pods are going to form! Also on our manipulated plant there are buds that are dying and they are pink and we think it is because instead of water we are using red food coloring. On the controlled it is green because we did not change anything. The highest height is around 14 cm!

 

I think that our plants will form bigger seed pods and if you meger them they will be 3 – 4 cm high. because ours are really small. I also think that next week the plants will be about 15 cm. Also that the seed pods might turn a little pink since the buds are pink.