Technology #2

Over the past week, we have learned about atoms. We spent a lot of time trying to understand how tiny atoms really are. There are more atoms in one grain of sand than there are grains of sand on the beach. Another comparison was if we made a grapefruit the size of the Earth, each atom would be the size of a blueberry. Then, if you enlarged the blueberry to the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a MARBLE. This was crazy, if you think about how big the world is, and how small the blueberry is.

Isaac Newton Project

We have been doing an Isaac Newton project. We need to make infographics. An infographic is a combination of words and pictures. We need to include a short biography, the three laws of motion and how they affect rocketry. (And pictures, of course!)

I collected information for about a week. Soon we had computer lab where we learned how to arrange everything. (It is harder than it looks.) I got all of my information typed and pasted into my infographic.

We still had a LOT of time until the project was due so I began to edit. I reread my text and cut some out to leave space for images. I began to put in images, making everything as neat as I could. I put boxes around everything and bolded the most important things. By then I THOUGHT is was done. But, of course I wasn’t.

We began to share our infographics and I got a whole bunch of feedback. I began again, bolding, typing and adding images. This went on for anther week, organizing, editing. Soon I loved my infographic. It was just how I wanted it. It is due in a few days but I am not going to change my infographic a bit!

Here it is:

Thanks for reading!

Preparing For Our First Launch

As you know, I have been working on rocketry with my group. In my post Rocketry Rocks! you can read what I have been working on. We began to learn how to use all of the tools for the launch. We learned how to use the launchpad, a trundle wheel and a clinometer.

First we learned how to use a launchpad. You need to fill up your bottle with about 150 milileters of water. You then stick the bottle on the cork that is on the launchpad. Than you pump 90 PSI of air into the bottle. Than a teammate of yours goes to the other side of you bottle and picks up the string. But before you launch your rocket you need to make sure everybody is ready. You need to yell “CLINOMETERS READY?” and then you start the countdown. When they get to one you pull the string. BOOM!!!

A trundle wheel is a wheel that you use for measuring meters. Every time you walk a meter the wheel will give a little click. You start in the middle and go about 15 meters out from the launchpad. You will need somebody to count 15 clicks for you as you are walking.

A clinometer is a tool that you use to measure angles. You release the trigger and point to where you want to measure your angle(usually up). When you get to the angle you let go of the trigger an arrow will point to a number. The number will show what the angle was. Once you have your angle you can make a chart. The chart will help you see how many meters your rocket went up.

This information is all supposed to help you on your launch day. I hope that I will get a good job on Launch Day. I also hope that everything will be successful. I am glad we practiced measuring angles because I would never be able to measure angles on my first time!

Rocketry Rocks!

We have been doing a rocketry unit for the past few weeks. We have done inspiration boards, designs, found our materials and put together our rocket. The people in my group are Audrey, Harry and Marcello. We have been working very hard on our rocket design. We made our fins the other day. Everything went great until we needed to decide the best way to design them. Audrey and I both had different ideas and my whole group had to work together, consider our options and decide what fins to use.

Rocketry is a lot of fun, but it can be very challenging for your group to agree on things. You don’t want even one person, to be upset. That makes it hard because there are four people in my group and there are so many GREAT ideas. It can be hard to choose the best idea! My group and I don’t always get along, but we always figure something out. (Rocketry takes a LOT of teamwork.)

My group (or it could just be me) is really proud of our inspiration board. We worked for a week to find pictures of rockets, fins, diagrams, etc. We arranged them and glued them onto a big poster board. We then all worked together to explain WHY we picked each picture. We presented it to the class and my whole group got to talk about our board. That was one of our biggest accomplishments.

Today we put our whole rocket together. We worked really well together and we accomplished a lot. We sanded our rocket, put duct tape on it, finished the fins, hot glued our rocket together and then we went on Tinkercad where we made a 3D printed nosecone. Like I said before, rocketry takes a lot of teamwork.

My group has had some bumps along the road, but we just keep on going. For rocketry you need perseverance because your ideas will not always work. Rocketry had been great, but I can bet it will just keep on getting better!!!