Technology Reflection #2

On my last technology reflection post I talked about cutting wood. But now we are starting our actual projects. We had to start with learning the design process which consists of brainstorming, sketching, etc. For brainstorming I started by looking around the internet for some cool project ideas. I came across some very cool looking jewelry box’s so I decided that I am going to make my own jewelry box!

Once I have thought out that idea I began to sketch it. Sketching it was complicated because I also had to think of all the measurements. I just finished my sketch and will be able to start cutting on Tuesday.
Here’s is my sketch:

Technology Reflection #1

In seventh grade technology we have done many fun, interesting things. For example: we have learned about many different types of saw, we learned about different types of wood and the tree they come from, we learned how utensils are made, but the best thing we have done so far (in my opinion) is playing and cutting wood.

We actually just started cutting wood but so far it’s a lot of fun! We use a small saw that looks kind of like a butchers knife. The teeth on it (sharp points to help cut) are so tiny you can barely even see them! When cutting you have to be super careful especially careful to not hurt yourself. Some things to know when cutting is to do it nice and soft. You barely have to press down, you just glide the saw back and forth and like magic your have a nice clean cut. You also want to be sure your hand isn’t in the way, your hand should be helping to hold the wood down but it should also be away from the saw.

We have also broken apart these very light weight, thin pieces of wood. They are so easy to break you can do it with bare hands. The wood is also super soft and smooth and it actually feels pretty good in your hands. It is very easy to get a nice cut when you break it as long as you are breaking it in the right direction. It feels a lot like styrofoam and breaks like it too.

Hope you enjoyed this post because more will be coming your way!

Passion Projects

If you have read my last blog post then you would know that I am doing abstract art for my passion project.

I have created a prototype with me making crayon art. To do this I got a canvas, hot glue, crayons, and a blow dryer. The next step was to put my crayons in rainbow order, and hot glue them onto my canvas. Once I was done with that I blow dryer them, to get the melting affect.

Final Product came out very well, and I was very happy with it.

Final Product

Passion Projects

As you may already know last time I spoke about passion projects, I wasn’t sure if I was going to do photography, or art. But I’ve decided… I’m going to do abstract art!

I will be trying to learn about some of the most famous abstract art pieces in the world! And I will even be creating my own piece of abstract art. I want to learn bout this because I’ve always been interested in art, and art has always been really interesting to me. I will be learning about this by researching on the web, and I go to art classes outside of schools, so I can ask the art teacher their, and I can also ask my dad, because he’s actually an art teacher. For me a success would look like I’ve come through with lots of research, and I have made a piece that I am proud of.

Hope you enjoyed this blog, stay tuned for my next about the research I have been doing, and me making this abstract piece.

Portfolio #11

This post is just to end the unit, and to leave tech on a good note.

I’ve had so much fun in tech this quarter. There were so many cool, and fun hands on projects. And my favorite was deffinetally the flashlight!

Mr. Calvert is a great teacher and helped me with literally everything! (He was also funny, and fun)

Well thanks for reading this short post!

Building a Parachute

Our parachute experiments independent variable is size, we made a small one, medium one, and a large one to see how they do in our experiment. The dependent variable is the time it takes to go to the ground. The two constants are the amount of holes and the length of the string. We will be cutting out a different size circle for‍ every parachute, and the string size for each parachute will be the same (15 inch.) which is the constant. This also has a hole on the top, because we did experiments to see how the best parachute will work, and the best works with a small hole on the top.  

  1. We are trying to discover how well these parachute designs are going to work
  2. If the size affects the time of the parachute descent, then the big one will do the best because it has the largest canopy. It will produce the most drag which will slow down the parachute and therefore it will go to the ground the slowest.
  3. Variables: 

                -Independant; Size of diameter(Small 20 inches,  medium 25 inch, Large   

     30 inch.)

                -Dependant; Time that it takes to drop

                -Constant; length of String

  1. Materials:

                -Garbage bag

                -String

                -Rubber band

                -Egg

 

  1. 1. Put a rubber band on the egg
  2. Cut 4 pieces of string (15 inches each)

          3.Tye the string onto the rubber band 

  1. Tye the string onto the holes in the garbage bag (one in each quadrant)

          5.Repeat for each size parachute.

 

  1. Go to the stairs near the nest (8 meters high)
  2. Mr. Turner will drop each parachute from rest three times.
  3. Record the time it takes for each parachute to reach the ground. 
  4. Record data in data table.
  5. Analyze data . 

 

This is one of our parachutes. As you can tell from the picture this is our small parachute. This parachutes independent variable is size, we are going to cut out a 20 inch circle from a plastic bag for the canopy. 

‍‍‍

This is our medium size parachute. The canopy is 25 inches and I think it will do the best.

This is our large parachute. This parachutes size will be 30 inch. This parachute is practically the same thing as all the other parachutes. It still has a hole at the top, and it’s still the same size string and egg. 

Our parachute experiments independent variable is size, we made a small one, medium one, and a large one to see how they do in our experiment. The dependent variable is the time it takes to go to the ground. The two constants are the amount of holes and the length of the string. We will be cutting out a different size circle for‍ every parachute, and the string size for each parachute will be the same (15 inch.) which is the constant. This also has a hole on the top, because we did experiments to see how the best parachute will work, and the best works with a small hole on the top.  

  1. We are trying to discover how well these parachute designs are going to work
  2. If the size affects the time of the parachute descent, then the big one will do the best because it has the largest canopy. It will produce the most drag which will slow down the parachute and therefore it will go to the ground the slowest.
  3. Variables: 

                -Independant; Size of diameter(Small 20 inches,  medium 25 inch, Large   

     30 inch.)

                -Dependant; Time that it takes to drop

                -Constant; length of String

  1. Materials:

                -Garbage bag

                -String

                -Rubber band

                -Egg

 

  1. 1. Put a rubber band on the egg
  2. Cut 4 pieces of string (15 inches each)

          3.Tye the string onto the rubber band 

  1. Tye the string onto the holes in the garbage bag (one in each quadrant)

          5.Repeat for each size parachute.

 

  1. Go to the stairs near the nest (8 meters high)
  2. Mr. Turner will drop each parachute from rest three times.
  3. Record the time it takes for each parachute to reach the ground. 
  4. Record data in data table.
  5. Analyze data . 

 

 

Portfolio #10

If you had read my last post then you would know that I have finished designing my flashlight, and now it’s time to make my flashlight come to life!

The first thing yo do was to cut my pipe. I cut my pipe with a saw, and made it the length I wanted. The next step was to cut holes where I wanted the switch to be, and where I wanted the light to be. The hole for the switch was on my pipe, and the hole for the light was on my cap. To cut these holes I used a big machine called a drill press. Once I was done with that, I soldered the wire and the piece that holds the battery together.

Once all those steps were finished It was time to test to see if the light turned on. And guess what… it did!

And since it turned on that meant it was time to be put into my flashlight. So I poked the light through the top, and I poked the switch through the hole, and then I put the tops, and the elbow piece onto it.

And poof! My flashlight was 90% done. It was completely finished because it still needed to be decorated. I decorated it by putting mini Pom Poms onto it to make it look a little prettier.

Final Product…

 

Portfolio #9

If you read my last few blogs, then you would know that in this unit I’ll be making and designing my own water proof flashlight!

The first thing that I had to do to make my flashlight come together was design it! To do this Mr. Calvert gave us each a sheet of paper that looked like this:

So what I had to do was draw the flashlight that I wanted to make. But the tricky part was the measuring. The boxes on the sheet is  how we measured our pipes. But it was a little tricky, because we had to make it some what to scale.

But after working really hard on it I finally finished, and this is what the final sketch looked like:

I hope you enjoyed this post, my next post will be making my flashlight come to life!

Portfolio #8

So if you read my last blog post then you would know that I started a new unit.

The reason I explained that story on my last blog post is so I can give you guys an understanding of what were doing in this unit.

We are going to b e making our own water proof flashlights. The reason we are making them water prof is because if we were the scuba divers in this situation we would need flashlights, but they can’t be any normal flashlight, it has to be water proof. If it wasn’t water proof, then you wouldn’t be able to bring as flashlight in the cave.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I hope you tune in for my next post, where I’ll be desighning my flashlight!

Portfolio #7

The unit of making switches has ended, which means that it was time for a new unit.

This unit, we were learning about this soccer team who decided to go into a cave, but their was a huge rainstorm, which flooded the cave, and trapped them inside. The cave kept on flooding so they would have to go deeper, and deeper into the cave.

And to help the class get a better understanding of this, we whacked a video. And scuba divers had to come from all over the world to help these children get out!

Eventually the scuba divers found them but came to the real problem… How will they get them out?

Their idea was to get them out by getting professional scuba divers to carry the boys out one at a time.

And after over a week! The boys were finally out of the cave.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post stay tuned for the next one to!