Sadly, today is the last day of tech. I am very happy about tech this quarter and my only regret is that we had so many virtual days. Creating my project was super fun and I loved learning new things like how to cut and what the different saws/blades were used for. Overall this was my favorite quarterly because I got to do a lot of hands on work instead of sitting at a desk typing.
The first form of the glass is a mixture of lots of materials. The material was very moldable. It went through a process and got turned into a much stronger and not ductile. Is also had good tensile strength.
This week is going to be very short, only Monday and Tuesday and then winter break starts. Since there are only two more days left of school, that leaves me with very limited options to write about. Recently we have been learning about the different types of wood and what softwoods are and what hardwoods are. We learned what the difference between a hard wood and a softwood is as well.
Recently we’ve been working on a new building project. So far what I have done is draw a draft of the design, write all of the measurements, draw joints, and label the amount of balsa wood needed for the project. So far it is pretty fun but the anticipation of what it is going to be by the time we are done is a lot.
Today I’m going to talk about wood cutting. It was a super fun experience and also ended up being some pretty chill classes. I learned that there is more that meets the eye, for example you have to use different tools to cut different ways. One thing I cut with the wood is my name. I also enjoyed learning about the history of lumber. Overall it was a super fun experience.
Today I watched videos about timber harvesting, they were very interesting and I feel like I learned a lot. One main thing I observed was that when we harvested timber a long time ago the process was slow and mainly man done. On the other had, today the process is much faster and mainly done by machines. Timber harvesting is very different now than from a while ago.
I am ambivalent towards the ending of the school year. I am excited to move on and grow up but also a part of me will miss sixth grade. All though I had multiple bad experiences this year, tech was not one of them. I never found myself wishing I was doing something else and was always excited to learn new things and build new projects. In the end tech this year completely surpassed my expectations and My only regret is that it had to be through ZOOM.
Yesterday was a very unique and special day compared to the others, instead of building a project we watched a video and answered questions. This was a great change of scenery although to be honest it wasn’t as fun as building hands on but I still enjoyed it a lot. Overall it was a pretty fun project and I am sad that the school year is coming to an end.
Yesterday we made Electroscopes, it was probably my least favorite project so far. It was very interesting, but in my opinion it was a bit boring, at least compared to making catapults. Another thing was that it was probably the hardest project, and considering that the hardest and most time consuming project was actually not that fun is very unfortunate. Overall it was very interesting and I learned a lot but it wasn’t my favorite and I think that the next tech project will be better.
This week we had no project so I’m going to be writing about my thoughts on tech so far. First of all it is obviously a very different experience than my other quarterlies because we are doing everything via the Internet. The many great things about tech is the NEARPODS which allow me to do things however fast or slow I want, another thing I like is that it is a zoom that is pretty late so I can sleep in if I want! Overall though, it is easily my favorite quarterly and Mr. Calvert is one of my favorite teachers too!