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Passion Project Reflection

I just finished my passion project. I am studying the science of technology of trains. we had 6 weeks to to do it. The 6 weeks were broken up into 3 parts.  In the first two weeks we had to do research. The second 2 weeks we either had to do an interview or we had to go on a site visit. I did an interview. I interviewed a train engineer. He worked for a company called urban engineers. Here’s a link to the company: http://urbanengineers.com/

The last two weeks was creating a final project. We had a couple options of to present our project the choices were ted talk or we could do a we video. I chose the ted talk. I chose the ted talk because I thought it fit best with my topic. The way I created my ted talk was by making a slideshow of images on google slides. When I presented my passion project the image slideshow played behind me while I spoke about what the audience the images.

I spoke about many things, The first thing I talked about one thing I spoke about was the first self moving train the puffing devil and I compared it to a train under construction called Hyperloop 1 I compared the speeds. Hyperloop 1 is a lot faster than the puffing devil, then I talked aabout how Hyperloop 1 was able to go so fast. Another thing I talked about was maglev. Maglev stands for magnetic levitation. What that means is that the train floats above the track. The last thing I talked about was how the trains in the us could go a little faster.

I thought doing this project was really interesting. It was a lot of work but It was definitely worth it. I would definitely do it again.

 

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Passion Project Reflection 1

I want to Learn more about trains. I have always loved trains. I used to live in the city and most weekends I would go on the subway with my dad. I would visit his office where he works. I loved trains and I really wanted to learn more about them because I think they are fascinating.

 

The first thing I did when I thought of my idea was create a web. I write my main topic in the middle and I had other thoughts on the outside. This web helped me grow my thoughts. My goal was to narrow the main topic. I kept on thinking of smaller ideas to narrow it down. I finally found what I wanted my topic to be about. Now I am studying the science and technology behind trains. I did not really want to narrow it down, but I am happy that I did because I am getting really good research and I like what I am studying. Now I realize that Trains would be way to BIG of a topic.

 

After finding my topic I had to think of questions that I wanted to research about. To help answer my questions, I came up with search terms that I could use.  Search terms can be more helpful in research because they usually find more than one answer.

 

Once I was done with developing my idea, questions and search terms, I began my research.   I did not find that much information, but the information I found was very helpful.  Most of my research came from a book. Some more research came from a sight visit. I went to the transit museum in Brooklyn, NY. I used to go there when I lived in NYC though I never went for research.  I used to just go  for fun and my parents read me facts and I took them. They had a lot of good stuff from the evolution of trains to technology they used to build trains. For example in the early 1900’s, workers used Shovels and dynamite machines to help lay subway tracks. I have been finding all sorts of cool facts.

 

All of my notes were recorded in Google slides. Here is a link to my slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SQV69JAc5t-lvqxs6nxVbIHhQBCQzUsiAlV8RZb4nuA/edit#slide=id.p

 

I have been working very hard on my project. I really like researching trains and I think is a very fun project.

 

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Book Partnerships – Touchblue – Jot 2

Me and my partner are still jotting. My second jot was:

I think Tess really cares about Aaron because she is worrying about him a lot and Tess is is saying all the bad stuff that Aaron could say to Natalie.

I think Tess is worried because she doesn’t want Aaron to move out. Tess also feels bad. She feels bad because she doesn’t think Aaron fits in as an island person. She wants Aaron to feel more like an island person. As I read more of the book I am starting to realize that Aaron is asking more questions. I think he is trying to fit in more.

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Book Partnerships – Touchblue – Jot number #1

Our class just started our first book partnerships. I am reading a book called Touchblue by Cynthia Lord. I am reading the book with my friend Connor.

As we read we note important character traits,parts that we can invision and important patterns. My jot was:

I think Tess really hates Eben because she is holding her lucky blue sea glass rock and she says”Don’t let him cause any more trouble for us”

I think she says that because Eben is always causing trouble for Tess and her family whenever she is around them. He is always getting up in their business and calls them upsetting names.  An example of Eben being annoying is whenever he sees Tess he calls her “mess”.

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