Capstone #4: Answering My Main Inquiry Question

I finally finished my script and even my slideshow! I think once I go over it I will start rehearsing. 

When answering my question I had to start with finding resources. I found a few search terms, (and I’ll be honest I really hated this part). Some that really helped me were, “How are tanks built?”, “Design of military tanks”, and “Army tanks and the process of building them”. I had some trouble creating search terms, but eventually, after typing in my search terms I already made, I formed a few new questions. I then made search terms for those questions. And, this is how most of my search terms were formed.

I think I got a good amount of notes from YouTube videos, though there weren’t that many. I think most of the extremely helpful notes came from my interview. Probably because it’s almost like a personal article. I have everything I need answers to. I will be doing a Ted-Talk for my presentation. I really want to find a way to make it more interesting though. I think some people will get bored during the presentation. If I had to do a second presentation on tanks, I would probably do something about the different flaws and advancements over the years. Only because it is something that has really interested me. 

I am really excited for my presentation. I hope I do well. I am not really good at public speaking, so I think this will definitely be hard for me. But I have help.

 

Capstone #3: Site Visit

For Capstone we require at least one site visit. I probably wasn’t going to some military base, so I went to a museum called The Museum of American Armor. It was really helpful and I got something pretty cool too.

For my site visit, I brought two things to document my visit. A notepad and my phone. I took some notes and pictures, which will probably help in my presentation. For example, one thing I learned is, when a tank is shot or penetrated, the army will try and fix it. But, once burned, they won’t touch it. The reason being, When a tank is burned, the temper on the metal is gone and a bullet can easily penetrate the metal. I also learned that there is a tank (The M18 Hellcat), that uses an airplane engine. This was extremely interesting. I also found out everything -except the guns- on the tanks were functional in the museum.

Once I got some more research about tanks, the employee took me around to see different armored vehicles and some guns. At one exhibit, the employee gave me a bullet shell from World War II. It was a really cool artifact that I might incorporate into my presentation.

Overall, I think I learned a lot of new information. Before, I thought I wouldn’t get much new information, but I was very wrong.

This is the bullet shell
This is part of the M18 Hellcat’s wheels
This is the entrance to the museum
This is the full M18 Hellcat

   

Capstone #2: Interview

For my Capstone interview, I contacted my uncle who knew a military engineer and gave him my questions. He forwarded my questions to the engineer. I was extremely satisfied with my answers.

I had around 8 pages of answers, and about 2 paragraphs per answer. I didn’t use all of the answers because I didn’t think they would be useful in my presentation. Once I actually got the answers, you might be thinking, “What would you do with them?”. Well, the same as any other research, take notes on it. I learned about the different engineering behind tanks, different types of armor and what the most common weaponry is. For example, I learned that the most common weapon type on tanks is, a Smoothbore gun. This is usually the main gun. I got a good amount of research and notes from the answers. I think they really helped me in finding more about the engineering of tanks, and I also got a few good search terms and links from it.

I thanked the engineer and I am very grateful that he took time out of his (probably extremely busy) work to answer my questions.

 

 

Rube Goldberg #6 My reflection

I think that this project not only tested our skills at designing, but it also tested our patience. To get to this finished product it took a long time and we had to keep on testing and modifying. It also tested how well we knew the design process because if you skipped just one step it could throw the whole process off. I think this was a good learning experience and I think that this project was very fun. Maybe if we had even more time then we could make these projects superb.

New York Hall of Science

Last week our whole grade went to the New York Hall of Science. It is a museum but it is a little different. It is an interactive museum.We got to do a lot of pleasurable activities. For instance there was a game room with a rock wall and a surf simulator. It would inflate up an it would feel like we were on a wave. There was a bubble room where we would pull a rope and it would create a giant rectangular bubble. There was also a space exhibit where we got to play a game to grab the rocks with a claw without going out of the ship. We also got to code and drive a rover, just like they would in mars except a little simpler.

We had two workshops. One was about simple machines and we got to use levers, wheels, scales and pulleys. In the second workshop we made a peg board pinball machine and everybody loved it. We used plastic and wood pieces to create a fun game to play, but it was very sad when we had to take it apart.

Overall (since I really like science) it was one of the better field trips.

 

This is the bubble room

Redesigning our Rocket

This is our revised rocket

After the first launch my group had to redesign our rocket. Our first step was to analyze the problem. Our problem was that our wings were unbalanced. This was because we only had 2 wings. We also thought it was a little top heavy so we had a lot of debates of if we should keep the extension we had before or take off. We decided we would cut it shorter and put it on the rocket. But we also didn’t know if we should 3D print our nose cone or keep the one we had before. At the end we decided we would add more wings, take away the extension, and 3D print our nosecone. Redesigning was actually very fun and I cannot wait to launch our revised rocket.

 

 

Rocketry Launch No.1

In school we have been doing rocketry. Yesterday we had our first launch and everyone was excited. We have recorded data and made graphs to see which groups rocket went the highest, and which groups went the lowest.

Based on the data, Blasting Rockets (My Group) launched lowest yesterday in the field with ≈ 20 m, and J.E.X.L launched the highest with 57.5 m.

Our rocket didn’t go that high compared to other rockets. Why didn’t our rocket go high? The reason is that, the rocket had a 2nd bottle extension.* The extension was to attach the nose cone. We thought it wouldn’t add that much weight because it was hollow. Our hypothesis was incorrect. The extension made the rocket top heavy which made it go in a U shape*. We also only had 2 wings, which made it unbalanced. The mix of those was bad. The reason it was bad is, when we only had 2 wings it leaned a little towards the right. The extension made it fall even more towards the right and eventually it turned completely over and fell at a very low height.

In the second launch, I think we should take away the extension and add more wings. Adding wings will add stability, and taking away the extension will take away that extra weight.

I learned there are different ways to launch water rockets. At first I only knew about the liquid nitrogen and the cork and base. I learned there is also a launch pad with a bike pump. The launch pad is the one we used.

I only have one question now; Will our rocket go the highest after the revisions?

 

Rocketry

In class we are doing a rocketry project. We build and design our own rockets. We work in groups of four. This is a little frustrating for me sometimes, because, I am used to building alone. So far, we have done/made, Inspiration boards, brainstormed ideas for our designs and made prototypes. I am surprised with all the freedom we have with this project. I have heard from different classes that say they have to use specific materials.

I’m proud of the ways we thought of materials and how we thought of ways to make the rocket fly higher. I’m also proud of how we included these ways when we were thinking about materials and shapes. I’m looking forward to putting everything together and building our rocket that we are determined to get high.

I already had an interest in rocketry and the fact that we got to do it in school made me ecstatic. At first I thought it was going to be sort of competitive but after watching the old rocketry video, I realized groups actually help other groups to make their rockets great. This rocketry unit has been super fun and I can’t wait to launch our rockets.

PSA

In class we were studying ecosystems to make a PSA. We had to do major research and we worked so hard to make these videos really good. I had to figure out the perfect music and what notes to play but overall I really liked it. I think everyone in my class worked really hard and that this project was really fun.  My PSA is about saving the tundra.