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Blog post #3 – Week 3 reflection

In week 3, we did a lot of work on our box. We started with making the top and bottom of the box. We were given a long piece of wood to share with one or two other people. I started from the end of the long piece of wood and measures out my top and bottom of my box while leaving a 1/8 of an inch space in between for the saw. When I had all my lines measured out, I went to a miterbox saw and I cut my wood. I then did the same thing with the front, back and sides of my box. I had to measure the width-1in. because the front and back wood takes up 1/2 in. each.

When we were cutting we had to put a clasp on the wood, so it doesn’t move while you cut. I was hard to cut because sometimes when you pulled back, the saw wouldn’t go back forward, so you had to pick up the saw and reset. The good part about it was it was impossible to make a bad cut because the saw is held in the middle.

Now we are ready to put together our box.

Tech post #2 – Week two reflection

This week was the second week of tech. We did many interesting things this week. These include TinkerCad designs, drafting my box, placing an order for my box materials, and using hand planers. There were many fun and easy things, also there were a lot of hard activities. The first thing I did this week was work on my TinkerCad keychain. It was fun making the keychain and putting the letters in, but is was also challenging to measure where to put the letters and how big they should be. Then, we took our first step in building the box. We designed our box. We had to come up with how big we wanted it to be, the shape, color and details of the box. We had to consider many things when we were designing our box, but eventually I had my box al planned out. The next step in. Making our box was we had to place an order for what wood we would need. We put all the information about our box, into a survey. The last thing we did this week was, we learned how to use hand planers. We learned many things about them, for example the parts of it. There is the front handle, the soul, and the mouth. We also learned that there are different sizes of planers. We also got to try them. The bigger ones were much easier to use than the smaller ones. We had to use two hands for the bigger ones and only one hand for the smaller one. It was much easier to go fast when using the planers, because when I went slow it sometimes made rough cuts and then it would get stuck on the rough parts. Another hard part was lining the wood up straight. It had to be perfectly straight or else, when we would cut straight, the wood would not turnout straight. We did a lot of fun things this week and I can’t wait to start building the box.

News article #2: Biden flops in Iowa, Buttigieg and Bernie voters’ top picks

The results are being slow to get out of Iowa’s caucuses, but there are a few things we already know. These include: Joe Biden didn’t do as well as expected, finishing fourth, and Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders were near or at the top of the list. It was clear Biden didn’t do so well, he wasn’t viable in many caucuses. The details of the numbers are a little “murky,” there will be three sets of numbers and maybe 2 different “winners.” In the last democratic election in Iowa Biden participated in without Obama, he failed too. Therefore, he hasn’t had much success in Iowa before either. However, he came first or second in every one of the polls, and is the former Vice President, yet he still bombed Iowa.

My opinion on this is that Biden probably didn’t do so well, that is clear. I think he will probably do much better in some other states, for he is not known for doing well in Iowa. I think Buttigieg and Sanders’ numbers might decrease in certain places due to Biden’s numbers increasing.

 

Reflecting on Technnology

This quarterly was so fun. I learned so much about electrons and how switches work and basically how electricity works. Along with learning a lot, I also had so much fun making the projects, and circuits. My favorite project was probably the flashlight, because I liked putting all of the parts together and soldering the circuit. My favorite thing to use was the solder machines because it was satisfying seeing the metals parts stick together and harden. I had a really fun time in Technology and can’t wait for next year. Thank You Mr. Calvert!!

Building the Automata

Once I am done with the diagram and base of the automata, the only thing left to do is build the rest of the automata. After the stick was on the top, I realized that the stick was not going straight up and down, so I put a piece of paper connected the cardboard connected to the stick, and the top of the box. I also had another problem, I needed to put more weight on this piece of cardboard, so it is heavy enough to bring the player all the way down and up, pretty fast. To fix this problem, I put pennies on top of the cardboard to weigh it down. Now that I have the whole box working, the only thing left to do is put the player and hoop on. First, I cut out the legs and body and connected it to the stick. Now came the big problems. I had to make the basketball attacked to the wire but not too tight. Eventually I got the wires the right length and attacked them to the hoop. After a lot of problems and obstacles I finally was able to make the basketball player dunk into the hoop.

Automata Diagram and Base

For the final project of Technology, we had to make something called an automata. An automata is a machine in which you spin a stack and something on top of the box moves. For my automata I wanted to do something related to sports. After a lot of thought, I decided to make someone shooting a basketball. In my diagram I started with drawing a box and the wheels inside.  I am going to make is so that the stick is connected to a wheel and the wheel pushes up the basketball player. I then decided to draw the payer and the hoop. I decided to make the basketball player shoot it by connecting the arms to wires when the player goes up, the ball comes down and vice versa. I now  started building the base which is the box. I made a hollow box and then held up each corner with cardboard.  Once I put the wheels in I had the stick going up and down, so my base was complete.

Making the Flashlight

Once we had our diagram, we had to now make the flashlight. We were given a plastic bag with the parts that we need for the circuit inside the flashlight, and the parts we need for the flashlight. First, I drilled a hole into the cap that will have the light and the pipe that will have the switch. I then put together the circuit by soldering the parts together. All that I have to do now is put everything together and decorate the flashlight. The first thing I put together was the circuit and the flashlight hole. I connected the cap to the rest of the flashlight and pulled the switch out. I put a cap on the switch and then I had the basic flashlight done. The last thing I had to do was decorate it. I decorated it to be Mets and Giants theme.

Self-driving cars

Cars are transforming. People are trying to create cars that don´ t need a driver. There are a lot of things to take into consideration  when making one of these. You have to make sure that your car knows what everything is. There have been cars that have mistaken a cargo truck for a bridge, and rammed into it. These are one of the many things you have to consider when making a self-driving car. Another thing people have to be careful of is bad drivers. There are a lot of bad drivers in the world and self-driving cars will have to know how to deal with these people. There are also many other things people have to take into consideration when making a self-driving cars, but these are some of the main ones.

Simple Circuits

Today we made our own simple circuits. Mr. Calvert gave us a light, a battery, a switch, and multiple wires. It was a pretty challenging task because we had to fit the wires under screws. It took a pretty long time to make the light bulb turn on, but eventually I got it.

I had to connect the loose wires and wires from the battery to the switch and light. If I put the switch the other way then it would break the circuit and the bulb won’t light up. All of the wires and object in the circuit have to be touching for the electrons to flow through the circuit and the light to light up.

Overall this project was challenging and fun at the same time.

Paruvian Restaurant Field Trip

Today my whole grade went on a field trip to a peruvian restaurant, called Pollo a La Brasa Misti Restaurant. The food there was great. We got to try the Pollo Saltado, Lomo Saltado, Tallarin Saltado de Carne, Pescado al Ajo and Ensalada de Morada. My favorite one was the Tallarin Saltado de Carne, which was steak and noodles. They also served us a drink called Chicha morada, which I really liked. I also had a great experience. I sat with Sam, Kevin, Aiden, My mom and Kevin’s mom. We all talked about the food and had a great time.