I like many things. For example, I like to do origami. But for the Passion/Compassion project, we are supposed to be presenting something we are passionate about, or do something to help others.
I am thinking about doing a presentation about singing bowls. Really, that’s like my new thing that I like. This singing bowl thing I had recently discovered. I had a meeting with Mr. Williams at his office, and I saw that singing bowl. I decided to try playing it, and it worked! The way how it is played is using a wooden stick like thing. And you roll it gently around the edge of the bowl. It creates some sort of melody that doesn’t sound like it is coming from the singing bowl. When I first heard the melody, it took me a few moments to realize that it is coming from the singing bowl. Later, Mr. Williams taught me how to play it.
So, this is what I am going do for my presentation: the singing bowl.

A few days ago, Mr. Calvert announced that we would using an app called Vectornator. Here’s how it goes, first Mr. Calvert taught use how to use Vectornator. It is sort of like Notability — an app that you can draw on, but Vectornator was more complicated than that. It wasn’t just about drawing, typing, and writing, but you can use that to send a file to a laser cutter machine, that cuts wood to cut out designs that you want.

After Mr. Calvert taught us how to use it, I started making designs. You are supposed to send a file to Vectornator, and then you trace it over with a thick line, so the machine knows where to cut the wood.

The first one I made was a banner that said my first, middle, and last name (Lucy, Han, Zhou). You had to trace over the banner with a line, then you but the text on the banner. You can also change the font. My font was loopy and cursive.

I really like my banner — once it was cut out —, but I also wanted to make another one. But the problem was that I didn’t know what to make! I randomly went on my iPad to search for something, when I saw the Sora icon. It was a little thing that was soaring up. I really like the little figure, so I decided to make it. I traced over it very carefully, making the outside line red, so that the machine knows that it will cut it out there.

I also made the details carefully. Last (I wished I done this first), I checked the size. The size was pretty small, so I wanted it to be bigger, but when I made it bigger, the lines that I traced it over did not go with the size, so I made it the original size.

Once, it printed out, it was really cute! I thinking of coloring this thing now!

I’m probably going to cut a lot of wood, and I also enjoy doing this. The sad part is that Tech class only lasts a quarter for school, and then I will have to switch to a different one. I think all of the projects that we did in Tech class are fun! Thank you Mr. Calvert!

I made the sketch. I made the outside of the flashlight, but something is still missing — the light! Why else would it be called a flashlight without a light?

So, once I made the outside of the flashlight, I need to cut and stripe the wires. Since I drew my flashlight to scale and I added the wires on my sketch, I can use a wire and trace the wire I drew! It was all very simple. First, I got a wire, and I curved it along, the wire I drew (I made a little kink so I knew the the wire ended), then I straitened the wire out; after that, I got a ruler and measured the wire. I had to trace the wire three times, because I had three wires — one from the LED light to the switch, another from the switch to the battery, and last a wire from the battery to the LED light.

Once I was done writing down the wire length, I had to add one inch to the original length, because I was stripping the wire. First I cut the wire, then I used a tool to strip the wire. This tool had a hole that you would place the wire in, and the you pull. The outside rubber part of the wire would come off leaving the inside mental thing that the electrons would go through. I stripped all three wires — both ends.

Then, after I cut and stripped the wire, I got my battery, my big chunky LED light, and the switch. I had to solder the all of the pieces together. I signed up for the soldering iron.

For the soldering iron, I had to make a little hook for each end for the wire. Then, I would attached it to some “helping hands”. I would put a little flux (this is real poison. DO NOT EAT) on the parts that I wanted to solder together.

Then, I put the inside of the flashlight with the outside, and it worked! The flashlight project was so much fun, we even got to take them home!

After finishing the drawn to scale sketch, you make the flashlight (of course)! I was supposed to cut the straight pipes into the size I wanted it to be, but I found a perfect pipe in the bin, and Mr. Calvert was nice to allow me to use it for my flashlight. So, I don’t need to cut anything! Mr. Calvert said that we can use the plugs, and elbow pipes right from the bin because he didn’t have any that we had to cut.

Okay, so now I have the pipes, but I still needed to drill holes for the LED light and switch. We had to use the drill press to make the holes. There are two drill presses. One is for the LED light and one is for the switch. The LED light hole is bigger than the switch, so that’s why we need two drills. Drilling wasn’t that hard. All you have to do is wear lab goggles, put the pipe under the drill — the pipe goes into this thing which tightens the pipe so that you can drill the hole, and turn the drill on and drill the hole.

Once I was finished, I used markers to decorate my flashlight. But I was not done yet, I needed to cut and strip the wires, get my switch, battery, and LED light, and glue them altogether.

Making the outside of the flashlight was fun to make!

A few weeks ago, we started a new project about making our own flashlight. First, we drew a sketch about what our flashlight looked like. Then after the rough draft, we had to use grid paper to make a sketch. We can make the flashlight anyway we wanted it. But, it need one led light, plus a switch, and a battery. Oh, and there’s one more thing, it had to be small enough to fit inside a box.

Drawing it to scale was really hard, but to make it more easy, we had this cheat-sheet thingy. First we had to find the pipes that we want to use for the flashlight. Then, we use the cheat-sheet to measure how big and then we sketch it. (You have to draw the sketch together.)

I had a cap, a straight pipe, an elbow pipe, and a plug. Making the cap, the straight pipe, and plug was easy. You had to use rulers, and some curves to make it. But, for the elbow pipe, it was really hard because there was one really giant curve and a very small curve. That’s why I had to sort of estimate the curves.

My drawing of the outside of the flashlight wasn’t the most  accurate, but I can work with it.

After drawing the outside of the flashlight, you have to draw the inside. You have to draw the led light, the switch, and the battery. You also have to draw the wires that connect to the three things. This part was really simple because I didn’t have to be too accurate.

This is my sketch for my flashlight.

Today I’ll talk about the three switches that we did as our second project. Mr. Calvert said that we had to make three different switches — not the same — different. So basically, we had to use materials from the material shelf. We could use anything from the material shelf, and also stuff that we can use to decorate our switches. But, in order to make the switches, we had to use aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is a really good conductor, so we had to have the aluminum foil touching to make the electrons to flow. But we also had to have it not touching to make the switch open, that way the electrons won’t flow.

I made three different switches (with the help of Mandy). The first switch sort of has an axle to it. You push the popsicle one way, it touches the tin foil, and the electrons will move; you push it the other way, the switch is open. The second switch has a straw which you push down. That makes the tin foil touch tin foil. You move it toward the side, the switch is open. The third one is the best switch. You push it down, and it pops right up. That’s because I used rubber bands to make it so that it will pop right up.

The three switches were really nice, and at the end I had to throw them out (or take them home)! That’s because Mr. Calvert said that if everyone kept their switches in the technology room, that meant that Mr. Calvert would have about three hundred switches in total! So I thought about it. Either way, if I took them home, they would end up taking some space in my room, so I decided to throw all three switches away.