Technology: Self Driving Car Game Switches

Right now we are making switches to play a self driving car game. The picture above is my three cardboard switches.I just finished making mine. We had to make three unique switches where when you pull, push, or lift cardboard, tinfoil will touch another piece of tin foil which will light up a light. How the first one I made works is you push a tinfoil ball attached to a rubber band, the tinfoil ball swings and touches more tinfoil. How the second one I made works is when you lift a piece of cardboard, tinfoil on the other side goes down and touches another piece of tin foil. For my third switch, when you pull a cardboard handle, the tinfoil on the end moves backward and touches more tinfoil. I am really excited to play the car game!

Technology: Driverless Cars

In technology, we started learning about driverless cars. We learned the benefits and risks of them. One benefit is the blind can drive in them. Another benefit is the cars would be able to communicate with each other and that would cause less accidents. There would also be less traffic jams. A risk though is many people would lose their jobs as drivers. Also, if something unexpected occurs, the car might not be able to react and that might cause an accident. Overall, there are pros and cons to the future cars and I wonder when they are going to be on the roads. We are going to be building switches so we can play a car game in class and I am really excited!

Technology: Electricity, Periodic Table and Atoms

We have been learning about atoms and electricity recently. We even looked at an interactive periodic table. I didn’t know how the periodic table worked before but I learned that the Atomic number that a material is is actually how many protons that material has in an atom. We also learned about electroscopes. We got to test one out. You rub the pipe with a cloth and then put it close to a material. It causes the foil inside to move around. I really thought this was cool. I can’t wait to see what we do next.

Technology: Atoms and Galaxies

Today in class we did a Nearpod about how small atoms are and how big the universe is. I was amazed about how small each atom is and the nucleus inside each atom. I was also amazed at how large our solar system is and the universe around it. I thought the things we learned were really awesome. One thing we learned is if a grapefruit was filled with atoms, you would need to enlarge the grapefruit to be the size of the earth to see one atom, which would be a blueberry. To see the nucleus inside that, you need to enlarge that one blueberry to the size of a football field and on the fifty yard mark, the nucleus would be the size of a marble! I can’t wait to see what we learn next.

Technology: Finished Mechanical Lightswitch

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I finished my mechanical lightswitch. It used gears in a rotating motion to create a vertical motion which flipped the switch on and off. Above I put in a link to the light switch moving. I really enjoyed this project. First we had to wax all the pieces. After that, we assembled all of them. I learned how to use two machines while building this. I learned to use the sander which sanded the wood and made rounded edges, and the drill press which made cut off some wood around the part where the nail goes in. I can’t wait to see what we will be making next!

Technology: Crank C

I am now working on my crank. I am doing crank C which has vertical movement. I am in the middle of folding and gluing it right now. I hope to finish the crank by the end of this week. Next week we are starting the mechanical light switch. I am super excited. I am very happy with how my crank is turning out so far especially since my cam didn’t work and I’m hoping this works.

Technology: Finished Cam

I have finally finished my cam. It took a while but I was able to complete it. I think I didn’t to put in a couple of pieces and that is why it didn’t work. Even though it didn’t work, I am happy I was able to finish and I can’t wait to start our next project which is to build a crank. I think I am going to choose crank c which has vertical movement.

Technology: Building Cams

Right now in class we are building cams. A cam is a type of mechanism. It is able t0 change the direction 0f a rod on top of the cam by turning or moving disks. They are really fun. The tools we needed so far is a ruler, scissors, and a slice cutter. I am working on cutting out all my pieces. In order to cut the pieces in the middle, you use a slice cutter which you hold like a pencil. It has a little blade and you use the blade to cut the pieces out. For the outside pieces, we use scissors. We cut on all the solid lines and fold on all the dotted lines. I am on the second sheet of cam b (each cam has a different resulting action). After I finish cutting, I will fold all my pieces and assemble them to build the cam. This is our first project and I am very excited to keep working on my cam.

Technology: Simple Machines

This week in technology we are learning all about simple machines. A simple machine is created to make life/work easier. Our houses are filled with simple machines. The six simple machines are pulley, lever, wheel and axle, wedge, inclined plane, and screw. The way to figure out work is force applied times how far the object moved. These simple machines make our everyday life easier.

Swift Playgrounds Blog Post

I found Swift Playgrounds very fun and cool. I wrote a code about sports. It included questions about your favorite sport, your position in that sport, your favorite team, your favorite player, and that player’s number. I found it challenging because if you spelled a word wrong or put something in the wrong place, there would be a red dot. I found it cool because you were directly writing the code into the app. Overall I found it so cool and I loved using Swift Playgrounds.