Tech Summary

This quarterly in tech, I learned many things, and I had a great experience. The first week, I learned about safety rules, I learned about the different super cool tools, and we practiced teamwork. I used what I learned in the first few weeks to help me with the fun projects. The second week, I learned about atoms. Before, I didn’t even know what an atom was. The third week, we started a project. It was sort of to get to know the laser cutter and Vectornator. I learned that Vectornator is challenging and sometimes frustrating.

I especially loved the projects that we did. I made a wooden banner for my grandma using the laser cutter. I made 4 wooden keychains using the laser cutter. I made bespoke jewelry out of wires for my camp friend, using the soldering iron. I gave the jewelry to her yesterday and she loved it. I made 3 different, cool light switches, only out of cardboard, hot glue, tinfoil, and decorations, using the scroll saw. Lastly, I made a flashlight, with pipes, wires, an LED light, a switch, and a battery, using the soldering iron and the drill press. I love how it turned out. For my decorations, I decided to do a sports theme, because I love sports and also because my brother did a sports/Mets theme and I accidentally broke his and then lost it (Sorry Matthew). My favorite project was probably the light switches or the flashlight. Overall, I loved technology so much, I learned a lot from it, I had a great experience, and I loved all of the projects so much.

Here is how my flashlight turned out:

Week 8: Flashlights

This week, we learned about flashlights, and started making them. First, we learned the story of why we have to make flashlights. There is a group of kids and a coach on a soccer team, who decide to explore a tunnel after soccer practice. The water rises behind them, blocking the entrance to the tunnel. None of them know how to swim. So they went deeper into the tunnel, where there is no light. They stayed there for days. Eventually, people found them, but since they couldn’t swim, they couldn’t get out. Professional divers went and brought them food, but they couldn’t figure out how to get the boys out of the tunnel. They ended up figuring it out, and they got the boys out. Our task is to make a waterproof flashlight that can fit in a small box, for the soccer team.

First, we looked at the different parts that we can use for the flashlight, put something together, and sketched it. I decided to use the 45 degree angle pipe, the fitting pipe, a cap, and plug. I sketched it out using stencils and made sure to draw it to scale. The next step was to plan out the inside of the flashlight. We need 3 wires, a light switch, a battery, and an LED light. The light switch has to be somewhere convenient so that it is easy to turn on and off. The switch, battery and light have to be connected to each other by swirly wires, so that the circuit is not too tight. I drew out the circuit inside of the flashlight sketch. Then, I took a wire and traced it along the sketch of wire #1, straightened it out, and measured it with a ruler. You have to add an inch because you have to strip the wire which makes it shorter. I wrote down all of the measurements for my 3 wires. The next step is to cut the wires and strip them. First I cut wire #1, and used special pliers to strip off the plastic on each end, so that I will be able to solder them together. I did that for the other 2 wires. The wire that connects the battery to the light has to be black, and the 2 wires that connect the battery to the switch, and the light to the switch, have to be red. I made sure to do that when cutting the wires. Next week, I will solder the wires. I am really excited to finish this project!

Week 7: Light Switch Part 2

This week, we finished up our light switches. First, I decorated the iPad switch. I drew a box for the screen, and then I drew a bunch of apps and colored them different colors. Then, since I was done and there was still time, I quickly made another button for my iPad, that is also a light switch. The button that I added is an “Off” button. I made it the same way as the home button. I attached a piece of tinfoil at the top right of the iPad. Then I cut a small piece of a rubber band, and hot glued each side an inch apart to the cardboard. I cut out and colored a small cardboard circle, to the middle of the rubber band. Lastly, I hot glued a small piece of tinfoil to the bottom of the circle.

I finished early, so I decided to test out my light switches. They all worked, but I had to make an adjustment to the Starbucks cup and the lever. I couldn’t stick the alligator clip inside of the cup to the bottom, where the tinfoil is. So I cut a hole through the bottom of the cup. Then I tested them a couple more times, made little adjustments, and I was done. The next day, it was time to play the light switch game. One person starts the timer, and one person flips over 2 cards. If one of the cards is red and one is black, the third person hits the light switch that is on the side of the red card. If the cards are both red, the third person hits the middle light switch. If both of the cards are black, the third person doesn’t do anything. Once they get through the whole deck of cards, the person who is timing it stops the timer. The goal is to get through the whole deck as fast as you can. My record time was 35 seconds. From this project, I learned how to make a light switch with only a few materials. 

Week 6: Light Switch

This week, we learned a little bit about how light switches work. To make a light switch, you need at least 1 battery, some wires, and a light bulb. The more batteries you have, the more light it will produce. So our assignment is to make 3 different creative light switches. For the switch to work, you have to have tinfoil not touching tinfoil in the beginning, and then you push or pull something, and tinfoil touches tinfoil.

First, I drew some sketches. For my first sketch, I designed a Starbucks coffee cup. When I was done, I got started building. The cup is made out of cardboard that I curved, and closed with another piece of cardboard at the bottom. I put a piece of tinfoil at the inside-bottom of the cup. Then I got a straw, and hot glued a piece of tinfoil to the bottom, as well as the middle of a cut rubber band. I glued one end of the rubber band to one side/top of the cup, and the other end to the other side/top of the cup. Here’s how it works – you attach one alligator clip to the straw tinfoil and another alligator clip to the cup tinfoil. You push the straw down, and the tinfoil on the straw, touches the tinfoil on the bottom of the cup, and the light switch lights up.

Then, I drew another sketch. I decided to do a lever/scale. I cut out a base for the lever out of cardboard. Next I cut out a triangle, so that the lever can move up and down/ side to side. Then I cut out a long oval for the lever. I hot glued some Pom poms for decoration. I taped the middle of the lever to the top of the triangle. Then, I hot glued one piece of tinfoil to one side of the lever, and another piece of tinfoil to the base of the lever, so that when you push down on the lever, the tinfoil on the lever touches the tinfoil on the base.

Lastly, I drew a sketch of an iPad. The home button has a piece of tinfoil on the bottom, and the iPad has another piece of tinfoil on it. I taped each end of a cut rubber band to the iPad, and taped the home button to that. So when you push the home button down, the tinfoil on the home button touches the tinfoil on the iPad. Next week I will decorate the iPad.

Week 5: Jewelry Part 2

This week, we worked on the bespoke jewelry again. Bespoke means customized jewelry for someone else. On Monday, we put double sided tape on top of the burger drawing, and stuck the wire frame to the tape. This makes it like a stencil, so it is easier to create an accurate burger out of wire. On Tuesday, I started working on the burger. It was really challenging. First I cut off two small pieces of wire for the pieces that connect the burger to the frame. I stuck those to the tape, over the stencil. 

Then, I started shaping the bun. I used the round nose plier to make a soft bend for the top of the bun. Then, I brought the wire around to make the bottom line of the bun. This part was really hard. I also had to make it match up with the stencil. I curved the corners of the bun, and stuck it to the tape, making sure it matches up with the stencil. 

Next, I worked on the lettuce. I decided to make a wire with a bunch of curves. I used the round nose pliers for this. It wa’s hard to get the wire to look curvy like lettuce. But, I finally got it. Then I worked on the burger. This wasn’t so hard. I made a rectangle with rounded corners and stuck it to the tape. The last part was the bottom bun. I had to make it fit into the stencil, and look like a bun. I was so happy when I finished. Sadly, I never got time to Solder it. But, I learned how. You get some solder on the soldering iron, and then you put flux on the shaped wire to get some of the dirt and oil off of it. Next, you put a tiny bit of solder on the joints of the wire, to connect them. You do that for all of the joints. And then you are done. I will do this next week.

Here is how it looks so far:

Tech Week 4: Jewelry Making

This week, we started working on making jewelry for a person of our choice. I chose to make it for my camp friend. We had to make an interview for the person we are making the jewelry for to try to get an idea of what to make. I used the information I learned from my friend to draw a bunch of different possible designs. I drew a burger because that is an inside joke, some of her favorite brand logos, an ice cream cone because she loves ice cream, our camp logo, a TikTok logo because she loves TikTok, a microphone because she loves singing, her initials, her name, her first initial, a volleyball because she loves volleyball, and more. My 2 top choices were the brand (aviator nation) logo or a burger. I counted the number of wires it would take to make the aviator nation logo, and it was more than 6. Our max number of wires we are allowed to make is 6. Then I counted the number of wires in the burger design, and it was exactly 6. So I chose the burger.

Next, we started making the border for the jewelry charm. It was very confusing, but I managed to do it. The materials that I used were a mandrel, round nose pliers, chain nose pliers, wire cutters, safety goggles, and wire. I shaped my wire by putting it around the mandrel. I then had to bend a wire, make a loop with the other one using the round nose pliers and cut the extra wire off. Next, I made a coil around the neck of the loop by wrapping the wire around it a few times. The bracelet will go through the loop. The charm part is an open circle. I am super excited to finish this project next week!

Tech Week 3: Laser Cutter Workshop

This week was really fun. The whole week, we worked on making things from Vectornator to the Laser Cutter. At the beginning of the week, I made a wooden banner. It came out amazing. We got to choose a banner style to use, and then we added text. This taught me a little bit about how to make curves in Vectornator. I used what I learned from this, to make my next wooden piece.

Most of this week, we learned how to actually make a bunch of curves with anchors, so that we can draw anything, use the curves to write words, and more. Then I made 4 keychains. First, I thought of ideas, and sketched them out on a blank piece of paper. This part was a little bit challenging. After that I made sure to draw to scale, on the real paper with boxes. I decided to make 4 keychains. 3 – 2 by 2 inch circles with different designs, and 1 rectangle that is 3 by 1 inch. This part was probably the most challenging. I learned how to use the pencil brush in Vectornator, and it is very annoying. I used that brush to trace my design. My keychains are being cut right now. I’m super excited to see how they turn out!

Tech Week 2: Atoms Lesson

This week we learned about atoms. I learned that atoms are microscopic things that make up everything. There are 118 different types of atoms. They are made up of Electrons, neutrons, and protons, but each atom has a different amount of each. We played a few small games about atoms, and they were fun, but I still learned a lot from them. We also learned about laser cutters. If you drew something on a drawing app and zoomed in, it would be pixelated and blurry. But laser cutters only understand smooth lines and curves (which is a good thing.) They don’t understand pixels. I am really excited to use Vectornator and the laser cutter.

Yesterday we learned about lightning and how it works. Mr. Calvert drew a model of Tessa outside of her beach house during a storm. There are atoms working under her and above her in the cloud. Luckily, she made it inside the house before getting struck by lightning. Today, we worked on our banners in Vectornator. I learned how to make text curve, and I learned how frustrating Vectornator is. At first, I was going to make my text curve on my banner. But there were so many problems that I just got rid of that idea and made my text straight. I am super excited to see how it turns out!

Week 1: Tech Safety Lesson

This week I learned about the safety in the 6th grade tech room. I learned about all of the safety rules. 1. Think before you act. 2. Tie hair back and no baggy clothes. 3. Don’t assume you know training before tools. 4. No talking when using machinery. 5. Always wear safety goggles. Those are just some of the rules. We also watched a short video of a guy named Felix who got his hair stuck in one of the tools, and he got hurt. He also probably had to chop his hair off after that. After watching that video I definitely will make sure to tie my hair back before tech. My takeaway from this lesson is to make sure you always follow the safety rules, or else something bad might happen to you or somebody else.

Today my table worked with 2 other tables to find clues to solve locks. Which will eventually open a box with safety goggles inside. There were 3 or 4 clues on pieces of paper. We mainly had to use the safety chart plus the clues to help us solve the locks. We used teamwork, and listened to each other, and we eventually solved it. We had 30 minutes to break into the box, and we finished with over 5 minutes left! My takeaway from this lesson was that teamwork makes the dream work. It also expanded my knowledge on the safety rules, because we had to keep looking at the safety chart in order to solve the locks.

Capstone Blog Post #3

Imagine this. You are a set designer, but you can’t get an idea what to design. You are stressed about not having enough time. But then, you remember that since you are designing a set for a Broadway show, you have two whole years to work! This happens a lot to set designers. For my Capstone project, I decided to research about setting up a stage. My main inquiry question is, “What is the process of designing and building a stage, including the backdrop, sets, and props?” The steps of setting up a stage are:

Design and paint the backdrop, then hang it up above the stage.

Design and build the sets and props.

Put everything in place and see how it looks while rehearsing the show.

 

The first step to setting up a stage is to design and paint the backdrop, and then hang it up above the stage. The designer has to make a bunch of sketches of possible backdrop designs before the painter begins. After that, the painter has to lay out plastic sheeting on a big, clear floor. Then, they put the fabric canvas over it, look at the sketches, and paint on the canvas with a few different sized roller brushes. Then, they attach the top of the backdrop to a horizontal pole, make sure there are no wrinkles, and raise the pole to the top of the stage. In the article, InventionLand.com, it states, “Set designers will typically begin researching the play and its setting to get inspiration for walls, color schemes and different furniture items or props that should be present.”

 

The second step to setting up a stage is to design and build sets and props. The designer has to talk to the director and producer about the show, and read the script a couple times. They talk about the setting and mood of the story. Then, the designer makes a few sketches of possible sets, and once they choose their favorite design, they make a 3D model using an app. The builders start building once they have all the materials, while looking at the 3D model and sketch. They put the finished set on a platform with wheels, and see how it looks on the stage. A famous set designer, Klara Zieglerova once had to start designing a set 2 years in advance for a big Broadway show! It was a long process.

 

The final step to setting up a stage is to put everything in place and see how it looks while rehearsing the show. Stage designers have to make a few sketches of what the stage should look like once it is all ready. The builders and director put everything on the stage, make some adjustments, and see how everything looks. Then, they watch the actors rehearse and make more changes to the sets or backdrop. After that, everything is ready and the show can begin. The show usually starts around a week after the stage is set up and ready.

 

The process of setting up a stage is designing and painting the backdrop, designing and building the sets, and putting everything together to see how it looks. Setting up a stage can take a long time, and a lot of people are a part of the process. The biggest stage ever is Radio City Music Hall, in New York. For that stage, sets can be huge! I wonder what it would be like for only one person to set up a stage all by themselves, but they only have a few weeks to finish?