Water Proof Flashlight

In class we have started a new project where we have to make waterproof flashlights. This project was inspired by in 2018 when the Thailand soccer boys got stuck in a cave after practice for a lot of days. It was really dark in that cave, so we decided to make flashlights “for them.” You could make any design you want as long as the flashlight works. I decided to make a design that looks like this. It has the plug that goes right into the cap.

I first had to make a diagram showing what it would look like and what materials I would have to use. I would have to use a ruler to draw all of my materials. The materials I had to use was a l.e.d. light, battery, cap, plug, switch, and three wires. My wires were going to be five inches each. Here is my diagram.

Switches

Lately in late September to early October, in technology class, we have been working on switches for a new game. We have to make three different switches and they had to work in three different ways. Switches only work if tinfoil touches tinfoil. So if you had no tinfoil, than your switch wouldn’t work.

My three different switches work in three different ways. My three ways are shown down below. For the first switch, you have to push the straw against the tinfoil. For the second switch you have to take the two poles and push them together. For the final switch, you have to push down on the straw to make it touch the tinfoil.

In order to make these switches work, you have to connect alligator clips, a bread board, wires, LED lights, and batteries. Once you have everything set up the right way then you are ready to start the game!

Soldering

In class we have been making solder people. We have to use wire to make whatever type of person we wanted to. We could make a soccer player, tennis player, and more. First we used a five inch metal wire and twist it around this stick to make a head, connected to a pair of legs. Then I cut another piece of wire for the arms. And finally, I made another circle for my soccer ball, since I was making a soccer player.

Next, we had to solder all of these pieces of wire together. This is the soldering machine that we used.

As you can see there are two different clips. You put a different piece of wire on each clip, and connect them the way you want it to look when they become one person. Then you use a soldering iron and put it on the metal parts, where the two pieces connect. If the soldering iron isn’t hot, then it won’t work.

This is what a soldering iron looks like.

After you connect all of your pieces together, then you have a solder person!

Circuits

In class on September 21, we learned how to make an electrical circuit. The materials that we used was a light bulb, a switch, batteries, wires, and an alligator clip. We had to connect all of the materials together and then we turn on the light switch to make the bulb light up.

Here is a photo of something similar to what we did in class.

Image result for circuits

As you can see we couldn’t leave any materials out without something to connect to, so our circuit is one big circle. And if you have an open circuit, the light bulb will never light up.

Atoms

On September 13th in technology class, we learned about atoms and how small they were. We also learned about protons, neutrons, electrons, and the nucleus. We learned that the nucleus is in the center of the atoms.  The electrons (negative) float around the nucleus. Protons are the positive part of the nucleus. Then there is the neutrons, they are neutral. They are not positive or negative.

We also learned some fun facts about atoms too. For example if you want to see an atom the size of a grapefruit, you have to make the grapefruit the size of the earth. Also the nucleus in the atom is so small that if you want to see it the size of a blueberry, you have to make the blueberry the size of a football stadium.

Here is a diagram about the nucleus, protons, neutrons, and electrons.

Starting 6th Grade Tech

3 days ago is when I started my first day of middle school. I had many different classes of different academics, such as english, science, social studies, and math. And I also had one quarterly, which was technology!

I was really excited when I got my schedule because I was really looking forward to start tech.

So far we haven’t started a real project but let me talk about some fun things that we have been doing in technology the past few days. On September 5th, we did a fun activity where we had to take different shaped pieces of wood and then we would have to make a tower out of them by copying a certain decision on the smart board. It was also fun because we had to use our brains to think about which size/shaped pieces of wood would be best for the tower.

On September 6th, we got to customize our blogs for school. I really like doing this because I can be creative with my backgrounds, what theme I am going to use and more. It was also fun helping other kids design their blog too.

All of these fun activities is just the start to a great/fun class and I can’t wait to start learning more in technology!

Capstone Post #7 – Presenting

It’s presenting time! I was so excited to present my capstone presentation but I was also really nervous and scared. I didn’t want to mess up in front of a huge crowd so I had butterflies in my stomach. My stomach hurt so much but I was so excited to present. By the way, this is what I was feeling for the parent presentation, not the other classes.

Now let me talk to you guys a little bit about my feelings for presenting in front of other classes. For some reason, I was not scared at all. In fact I was so excited that I wanted to present multiple times. It was because I didn’t feel the pressure in front of other classes.

The one thing that I didn’t like when it came to presenting in front of the parents is that, we couldn’t choose who’s presentation that we watched, it was more assigned where you are presenting, and who’s you are watching. Although I thought the presentation where I was was amazing, I wish I saw more.

Capstone was such an amazing project and I’m so happy that I got to do it. It was a great experience to learn more about rescue dogs and I hope I have another project just like it.

Capstone Post #6 – Working on Final Product

It is almost presenting time! I have been working on writing and memorizing my script, and especially getting my presentation ready with all of the animation and photos. Let me tell you guys a little bit about what was hard for me, what was easy for me, and what I had the most fun doing.

Memorizing my script was the hardest part for me. It was hard for me because there was so much to memorize that it was a little overwhelming. You saw my script earlier in my blog post. And the actual one is actually even longer than what you saw. So as you can imagine, it took a long time to memorize my script and to feel comfortable enough with it to present it in front of a big crowd.

Finding photos to support my script was the easiest part for me. Luckily, my topic was easy enough to find really helpful photos to support what I am saying. It was also easy for me because since I like being creative, I get to use my creativity in finding photos and using animations for them.

Since I just mentioned it, let’s talk about how much I love animations. Animating my photos is fun for me, because it also let’s me be creative. But the hard thing about animations is that you can do them, but it can’t be to distracting to the audience. I think this part is fun also because I like challenges.

But overall, finding photos, memorizing my script, and doing animations was the most fun part of capstone for me. It got me excited to present because I knew it was coming soon, and like I said earlier, it let’s me be creative in so many ways.

Capstone Post #5 – Answering Main Inquiry Question

Sub Question #1 – What is a rescue dog and how are they different from puppy store dogs?

First you might be wanting to know before I get started, what is a rescue dog? According to Wikipedia, the definition of a rescue dog is, “a dog that has been placed in a new home after being abused, neglected, or abandoned by it’s previous owner.”

I want to tell you a little more about the comparison between a rescue dog and puppy store dogs, so here it is. Some differences between a rescue dog and a puppy store dog is that puppy store dogs cost much more than rescue dogs. Rescue dogs can cost two hundred dollars up to five hundred dollars, while most of this money is for the actual rescue organization so they can keep on rescuing more dogs and provide them with necessary, medical care. While that’s the cost of rescue dogs, a puppy store dog can cost over a thousand dollars! Another difference is that rescue dogs usually come from shelters or they are stray dogs and puppy store dogs usually come from puppy mills or as others may know it, puppy farms. Let me tell you a little bit more about animal shelters. There are two different types of animal shelters.

First is a high kill animal shelter. High kill animal shelters are absolutely dreadful because most of the animals they get, they kill in a certain amount of time.

Isn’t this just shocking? Way over half of these animals are being killed!!!!

Next comes the other type of animal shelter, the wonderful one. The other type of animal shelters are organization that rescue any type of animal and then wait until they find that animal’s forever home. This is the shelter that you want to get your dog from. These shelters are much better than the other ones. You also might be wanting to know what a puppy mill is. A puppy mill is a place that takes dogs and makes them get pregnant, and then they sell those babies to the pet stores. And one of the bad things about puppy mills is that they take horrible care of the dogs. They get horrible shelter, not a lot of water and food, and no love. Unbelievable right? I know.

Let me quickly show you a video of what a puppy mill looks like.

Sub Question #2 – What are the pros and cons of rescuing a dog?

Next I’m going to tell you a little bit about the pros and cons of rescuing a dog so you will be aware if you want to rescue one. One pro of rescuing a dog is that when you are buying one, you are donating money to these organazations so they can continue rescuing animals. Another pro is that you are saving an animals life. If you think about it, you are rescuing an animal who has been locked up in a shelter for a long time and now, your giving that animal a happy, free, new life. In addition, a pro is that once you rescue a rescue dog, you can learn more about them by taking care of them. There are so many other pros of rescuing a dog like spaying and neutering might be included in the adoption and your dog might already be trained well because of the organization you adopted it from, but let’s move on to some of the cons of rescuing a dog.

One con of rescuing a dog is that you won’t know the dogs past experience so you won’t know it’s personality and if it has been abused or neglected before. I can relate. I have two rescue dogs and one of them is as happy as can be, while the other one is still adjusting to our family because it had been treated horribly when it was younger. Another con of rescuing a dog is that if you are allergic to some breeds of dogs then it might be more difficult to find a dog that is good for you because with rescue dogs, you usually don’t know the breed of your dog.

Sub Question #3 – What is the process of adopting a dog?

You might be asking yourself, “If I want to adopt a dog, I need to know the process of it. So let me tell you it. First comes part one. Step one in part one is to find a dog that you want to adopt. Make sure you read all of the statistics about it like it’s age, gender, breed, and more. Step two is to go to the shelter or store that you are buying it from so you can go and meet the dog.

Next comes part two, preparing for a new dog. So the first step in part two is to buy all of the items that you might need to take care of the new dog. For example you might need dog food, a food bowl, dog toys and bones, a harness or a collar, a leash, a crate, and lastly a dog bed if you want your dog to sleep on one. The next step is to find a vet for the dog that you are going to adopt, so you can bring the dog to it when needed. This will be helpful later. Lastly, you have to make sure your house if ready and set up for a new dog, this is also known as dog – proofing your house.

After that comes part three, adopting the dog. So first you have to fill out the paperwork assigned to you in order to adopt the dog. After that you have to pay the place that you adopted your dog from for however much adopting that dog costs. Next up you have to set up a home visit with your shelter that you used depending on if your shelter tells you to do so. If they don’t tell you to do that then you don’t need to worry about this step. The final step for part three is you have to set up a time with the shelter to go get your dog that you want to adopt. Then you have to go get it.

The next part which is part four is mostly about what you need to do when owning a dog. So the first step in part four is to train the dog that you have just adopted if necessary. For step two you have to make your dog socialize with other pets. This is important because you want your dog to have other pet friends. Step three is that you have to bring your dog to the vet that you called up earlier. I told you that it would be helpful for later. And last but not least, just be patient with your dog. It can’t learn so many things at once just like us. Raise your hand if you have trouble learning many things at once. Well if you raised your hand then you can relate to these dogs.

Sub Question #4 – What are some organizations working to help rescue dogs?

You might be wanting to know some organizations as a guide on how to rescue dogs and take care of them, so let me tell you a little more about some rescue organizations.

One organization is Rescue Dogs Rock NYC. They are a non for profit dog rescue organization. Their mission is to save abused dogs, save dogs that are at risk for being killed in a shelter, and to provide loving homes to dogs. According to their website, the way they get their information out to the world is that they post stuff online and tell people in person in community events, school assemblies and more.

Another organization is the Second Chance Rescue also known as the SCR. The Second Chance Rescue is also another non for profit organization. Their mission is to reduce animal overpopulation in shelters, to rescue injured animals and make them become healthy again and more. Did you know that they rescue and give homes to about a thousand animals a year! Crazy, I know right! This is just one organization that’s rescuing a thousand dogs and by more organizations doing this, we can have so many dogs rescued. And not just dogs rescued, all animals.

A final rescue organization that we can look at is the ASPCA, which stands for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Want to know a fun fact about the ASPCA? Did you know that there the first humane society to be established in North America, and today is one of the largest in the world. Well I don’t think so. They are a giant rescue organization that is helping to rescue many animals.

Sub Question #5 – What are some bad things happening to dogs lately?

Now let me teach you about some horrible things happening to dogs lately. In the past few years, many things have been happening to all dogs that we should be stopping right this second.

One of these problems is dog fighting. Dog fighting is a sport when dogs are forced to fight each other to entertain people and the thing about dog fighting is that it is illegal but people still do it! Your probably thinking what a horrible thing, and if you are, your thinking is right. Dog fighting can cause numerous bad things like blood loss, lacerations, puncture wounds, and broken bones and in dog fights, mostly every dog gets hurt. Dog fighting happens in a fourteen to twenty square-foot pit. In rural areas, dog fights usually happen in barns or outdoor pits. But on the other end, in urban areas they can happen in garages, basements, warehouses, abandoned buildings, back alleys, neighborhood playgrounds, or even on the street!

Another one of these problems is animal hoarding. Animal hoarding happens when a owner of pets owns more pets than he or she can take care of. There are some horrible things that can happen during animal hoarding. Some of these things are animal starvation, illness, not a lot of nutrition, sanitation, shelter.

You might be asking yourself, in order to stop animal hoarding, we have to know how to look out for it. So let me tell you some signs of animal hoarding. One sign of animal hoarding is if someone owns many pets and they don’t even know how many pets they own. Another sign is if the owner’s home is deteriorated. This means that the persons house has been becoming worse. Also a sign of animal hoarding is if there is a intense smell of ammonia in the house. There are many more signs of animal hoarding but let’s get to my main inquiry question.

Main Inquiry Question

Now I’m going to talk to you guys about my main inquiry question which is, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of rescuing a dog and what can we do to make sure all dogs are being treated well?”

So for the first part of my question I talked about that earlier in the script. Just to sum it up, some pros might be that spaying and neutering might be included or your dog might already be trained well and more. And some cons might be that you don’t know if the dog is a breed that your allergic to or you might not know your dogs past experience with other owners.

To make sure all dogs are being treated well, first we can stop all of these problems that I was talking about earlier. As a reminder some of these problems is dog fighting, animal hoarding and more. Finally we can rescue dogs. By rescuing a dog, we can save a life and convince others to do so too!

Capstone Post #4 – Site Visit

Finally I was up to my site visit. A site visit is a place that you visit related to your topic where you can learn more about your topic and take photos and notes to help you. I know your probably thinking, “Why do you have to have a site visit and a interview?” I’m thinking that too, but later on all I realize is that it just is supposed to help you with your presentation and it really does help you.

Coming up with a place that I was going to be visiting was very easy for me. I know lucky for me right? There are many places that I could visit that would give me more information on my topic so I narrowed all of my ideas down to an animal shelter. I already knew an animal shelter that I could go to because I know someone that works there that can help me with setting an appointment to go visit the place and have someone to tell me about it.

For my site visit I went to the Humane Society of Westchester. The Humane Society of Westchester is a non high kill animal shelter that takes all different types of animals to then take care of them and then give them to their forever homes. I took a day off from school to come visit this shelter and learn more about it. Here are some photos of the shelter.

These are photos of the cat room. As you can see, there are many toys for the cats to play with and they all have each other as company.

This is what the dog area looked like. Each dog lived in it’s own area with information about the dog on the door to it’s area. The dog’s areas are all lined up in a line as you can see. In the third photo, their is a photo of a piece of paper written about a certain dog’s information. They have that on every dog’s door. It gives information about the dog like I said earlier to inform the people that work there, or the people that might want to adopt that dog.

I decided to go here as my site visit because I thought that visiting an animal shelter will give me a little more background information about them and how rescue dogs came from them. I wanted to know what it was like for dogs or any other animals that live in shelters like these that are NOT high kill shelters.