In Ms. Giroux’s seventh grade technology class we made paper airplanes and learned about the forces of flight and why they stay in the air. I made a few different types of paper airplanes. My first was a traditional paper airplane and it flew fine but it always landed in the dirt. My second paper airplane was a ring shaped paper airplane called a Ring Wing Glider. It was cylindrical and flew really well. We learned about why our paper airplanes stayed in the air. Our paper airplanes stayed in the air because of four main forces. Thrust pushes the airplane forward and is the strength you use to throw the paper airplane. Lift is the air under the wings that forces the plane upward rather than down. If the plane’s center of gravity is not centered the lift either pushes the plane too far up, or straight down. Drag is the air pushing against the plane that slows it down. Gravity pulls it back down to have a smooth landing. In my next wood model I want to make sure my the center of gravity of my plane is in the middle of the fuselage and the rear, I want to have a pointy tip, and I want to make sure my wings are slightly bend up 

Energy is something that is found in the most simple tasks like how I used it this weekend to make myself an egg.  I broke the egg into the pan using mechanical kinetic energy then used electrical kinetic to cook the egg. Turing the electrical into thermal kinetic energy, heating the egg. To lift the egg off the pan and bring it onto a plate I used mechanical energy. I used mechanical energy again to eat my egg and used one last form of energy. As I eat the egg I broke the chemical bonds found in most food releasing chemical potential energy.

Energy is the ability to do work. The law of the conservation of energy says that energy can’t be created or destroyed but can be changed from one form to another. There are two types of energy one type is potential energy and the other type is kinetic energy. Potential energy is built up energy. Its energy that’s built up like a roller coaster when the roller coaster is going up a hill it moves slowly building up energy. When the roller coaster is rocketing down the hill that is a form of kinetic energy because energy is being released.

In Mr. Calvert’s technology class Mr. Calvert showed us a video about how the flooding’s had trapped a soccer team of fourteen year old boys in a cave for ten days. Their oxygen levels were falling and deep sea divers searched high and low looking for the boys. So many countries pitched in to help save these boys. Sadly cave diving is very dangerous and not all of the cave divers came out of the cave alive. On the other hand all the boys came out just fine but needed urgent care.

In Technology, we are making pendants.  In order to make pendants, we need to use a soldering iron.  A soldering iron takes a wire and melts it because the tip of a soldering iron is over 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is basically a hot glue gun, but hotter.  Using it was quite fun.  I got to watch metal melt.

In the future, I hope to solder more.  I am looking forward to soldering circuits in class.  My father says he has soldered things with a big torch.  He was making an electrocardiogram with metal pipes to listen to his heartbeat.

In Mr. Calvert six grade technology class, Mr. Calvert has a way with words. He taught us about atoms and what they are made of. An atom is made up of protons which have a positive charge, neutrons which have no charge, and electrons which have a negative charge. He showed us how powerful a lightning bolt is and how if we could harness the power of a lightning bolt, we wouldn’t be running out of oil right now. He also told us that A lighting bolt has both negative and positive charges and apparently we get to that in high school. I like learning about animals and how they make up everything.

Bad pun that no one will laugh at:

 

Do you know why you can never trust an atom?

Because they make up everything!

My interview with Wahiba Khabood was really interesting. I learned a lot about her that I didn’t know before and found that there were two sides to her one that I had known before the interview and one that I discovered after. The side that I recently found out about had to whole history to it. This side was one out of three of the lives that Wahiba Khabood had. In the book Refugee by Alan Grant, Alan talks about how a refugee has three lives. The first life is the life that they had in their home country. The second life is the life that they have when they travel to a new country and the third life is the life that they make for themselves in the new country.

The interview didn’t feel like an interview it felt like a talk and a reconnection. I personally know Wahiba as a kind and caring person and if she hadn’t told me that she was a Syrian refugee I would have never guessed that she lived through such a horrific experience. When she was living with us I remember her going into her and crying a lot but after this interview I understand why. In the end I found out that Wahiba successfully and legally was one of the fortunate few that took an airplane to the UK.