For about two days, everyone in the class was finishing up their flashlight projects, and those who were done just either worked on their blogs, helped others, or did another thing or something. On wednesday, Mr.Calvert introduced us to automatas, or things that run by themselves, but the ones he showed us required you to use a lever of some sort. He also showed us many unique and interesting ways to make one, and I was interested in the topic. The switch I am going to make, is going to have a lever ,that when you rotate it, it will make a thing go up and down. The person I am going to have going up and down, is Big chungus, who is basically a really big rabbit, and I am going to have a really fun time making it. There are many steps that I would have to do to finish this, and I would have to do a lot of measuring and cutting to do it. I hope to start it very soon, because there isn’t much time left in the quarter, and I want to finish the project.

I finished my diagram in like ten minutes, and I was able to do everything else fairly quick. The annoying thing now is that I have to wait for Mr.Calvert to help me get my switch and light bulb into my flashlight. I waited for a long time trying to do it myself, but was unsuccessful, and Mr.Calvert was still helping other students. Eventually he was able to help me and then I was done with the project. Now we just got to test it if it will last in water. I enjoyed the project, even though I had a little rough start, in the end it was all good.

This week we started on a project, which was to build a flashlight that was 7 3/4 in wide and 6 in tall, that could fit in a box that size. Not only did it have to be that size, but it also has to be able to work underwater. At first we had to make a diagram, which is the step that we are still on, but so far I had to redo it once, and we are supposed to finish them tomorrow, and my second diagram doesn’t really have anything on it at the moment. I hope to finish my diagram on Friday, but there is a lot of work I have to do before I can finish it. What I want to do during this project is to build the flashlight, and I want to do it soon.

This week we tried out our switches, on our self driving car activity.  One of my switches broke when I was testing it, so I only had 2 switches that were mine, and I had to borrow a switch from someone else. We didn’t have much time to do the activity, so only 3 people went at my table. After the activity we could either throw it away, keep it, or give it to Mr.Calvert. I just threw mine away, because I didn’t really put much effort into them and I thought they were kind of a simple design.

Each of my switches had a different design, but were similar in a way. My first switch worked like you have a popsicle stick, and whenever you press the back down, because of rubber band holding the popsicle stick, it will go up to touch two pieces of tin foil together which will get the light bulb to turn on. My second switch, has this thing that is like a swing, and there is a piece of cardboard that holds the tinfoil, so whenever you press it down the light bulb will turn on. My last switch is really simple, just one piece of cardboard folded in two pieces, and each side has a piece of tinfoil, so it kind of works like a mouth, because it opens and closes.

I finished all three of my switches for the “Self driving car” activity. This week we started to use the soldering iron, and made solder people. Mr.Calvert gave us a presentation the day before of how to use the soldering iron, but I forgot and messed up my first attempt to solder the solder person’s arms to his body. With some help from my peers, and Mr.Calvert I was able to solder the two pieces together, but the only bad thing about the person was, his neck wasn’t twisted correctly, but it was my first time so… I hope to do more of these projects, and I will get better as they go, so I guess this is an okay start.

We stated a project this week, for a “self driving car” game. It has three different switches, each having a unique and different design. The game 2 people putting down cards in random orders. If a person places a card on the right, you need to use the switch on the right, if there is a card on the left you would have to use the left switch, and if both cards are placed down then the middle switch must be used. It will eventually get faster and faster, and that will make things harder. I didn’t get much done, but I got almost one of my switches done, but I still need to get 2 more and it is probably going to take me a little more time to finish my first switch.

On Monday, we were working on circuits. The activity was to use a battery, light bulb, switch, and wires, to make a lightbulb light as you move the switch. It was difficult to get the wires to stay, but eventually I got a working light bulb. I enjoyed the activity, and I hope to do more activities like this in the future.

This week I was at class for only two days, but in those two days we learned about atoms. Atoms are made of protons, electrons, and neutrons. Originally the name of atoms were atomos, which is greek for uncuttable. It took thousand of years before people had proof that atoms existed. It was an interesting topic that I never really new too much about, and I know that this would help me have a better understanding of electricity.

This week in school, we are learning about human rights for just one day, and for technology Mrs.Moore, talked to us about a solution to the killing of elephants for their ivory. Mrs.Moore found a solution, by using a plant from a rainforest, called a tagua seed. A tagua seed has the same characteristics as ivory, and they have many things in common. This week we went over safety rules, and we did this fun breakout activity! We also got to learn about new tools a soldering iron which can get up to 900 degrees fahrenheit! We would get to do many fun project in the future that I can’t wait to do. I hope to learn more as we go more into the quarter!