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:
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!
My class and I have been working on something called WeVideo. WeVideo is an app that lets you make your own movies, videos, and PSA’s. I made a PSA about ocean pollution. Just in case you’re wondering PSA stands for public service announcement. The topics we could do for our PSA’s were, Oceans, Temperate Rainforests, Deserts, Tropical Rainforests, Tundra, and Wetlands.
Making these videos/PSA’s was a very long process. This process involved, researching, writing a script, finding pictures/videos, and, well making the video.
Researching got complicated because I would jot the research I find in my book to my reading notebook and when I was done I would realize I have a lot of the same thing just in different wording. Believe me, that was really annoying.
After I did my research I started writing my PSA script. What I did to write my script was, go back into my research, see all my facts, and then right something, for example, I would right, Narrator says, Oceans are in danger, or Graphic would be help save the oceans. For most of time I just kept saying narrator, graphic, narrator, graphic. Then as I said next was, finding pictures/videos.
Finding pictures and videos on WeVideo was fairly hard, but then I got introduced to a website called. CC Search. This made finding my pictures so much easier! That made finding pictures so much easier because it was basically finding non copyrighted pictures on google.
When I was finally done with all those steps I started to actually put all those things in the PSA video. That got kinda hard at the end because I had to make 60 seconds on the dot. That got pretty hard… Belive me.
When I was finished it was all worth it at the end, Hope you enjoy my video!
