Finally a Success

It was our second testing day, attempt number 41. Eli’s dad just got to my house to pick up Eli and we were running out of time for the day. We had been charging Guardian (an Anki Overdrive battery-powered car). Everything was set up perfectly except Guardian. Since we had been charging Guardian, it had a bit too much power and we couldn’t keep it in the normal spot. Every time we put it down, it would just plow its way onto the track and we needed it to stay put. We put it further off the track so it would stop moving. I ran to get Eli’s phone before Guardian could go.

We started the video and Eli said, “Attempt 41” and turned on the shower. After five seconds, the pitcher swung in to the door which hit the video game pieces, which then hit the Jenga pieces and then the Jenga pieces barely hit the Anki overdrive car. At first the car didn’t move and Eli already started yelling, “Noooo!”  I was ready to stop the video when the car started shaking and was about to get on the track. Boom! It got on! Yesssss! But NOOOO! It then spun off the track. We didn’t have time to stop the video before it came back on after doing a 360 degree turn. It somehow made it up our ramp and hit the next step, a pool ball. The ball bumped the button on the WoBoto remote which knocked down the Jenga pieces. Next a Magnatile hit the marble with a string attached to it. The marble pulled down the Magnatile that was in front of the train.

The train was now chugging on its way. We were so excited that I stopped focusing on the camera. Eli kept yelling, “What just happened? What just happened?” He was so excited that he said it around ten times. Next the train hit the Jenga pieces which knocked down the subway train. That caused the bike wheel to spin, which pulled out the first popiscle stick of a chain reaction. All the popsicle sticks went down. It was the best run we’d ever had! At the end of the popsicle stick chain, the heavy marble came down which pulled the string holding the Jenga piece that blocked Thomas the Train. The final stretch was when Thomas the Train pushed the rose into the vase. YYYYEEEEESSSS! We were jumping up and down, but then we watched the video and realized it was garbage! I had forgotten all about video taping and missed taping many of the steps. I was so disappointed. I think we might need to do it again!

Problems We Faced

During my first meetings with Eli, we faced many problems. We couldn’t find a way to use the wheel and we couldn’t find a way to stop the Thomas train from moving on to the track.

When I was looking for things I could use in my Rube Goldberg project after our first meeting, I found a wheel. I had seen it in a few videos and wondered how we could incorporate it into our project. The next time Eli came to my house I showed him the wheel and he also wanted to use it. In the videos some people had a wheel on a table and had something heavy fall off the table. Every time they had a string attached to the heavy object and the wheel, so that when the heavy object would fall off the table it would spin the wheel. They then had different steps after the spinning.

The problem was that we already figured out what we were going to do on the table so we had to think of how to use the wheel on the ground. I thought if a heavy ball would roll down the ramp and gain some speed with a string attached to it it could spin the wheel. We tried it and it was way too hard to have the ball stay on the ramp .The heavy ball didn’t work. We looked in our bags of equipment for something that would stay on the track. I saw a hot rod but it was to light. Finally, we saw a train just lying on the floor. It was perfect and it fit all of our needs! We tested it and it was a SUCCESS! When the wheel spins it pulls out a popsicle stick which starts a chain reaction.

The other problem we faced was that we needed to find a way to have the battery operated Thomas train on when we started the Rube Goldberg, but we needed to keep it from moving until we reached that step. Our first idea was the same as the Anki Overdrive, to have the train hanging off the end of the track and have a domino push it onto the track. The train was too strong so it plowed its way onto the track. Eli thought that we could have something blocking the train. I thought it sounded good, so we decided to try to find a way to use magna tiles to block the train. At first we couldn’t think of an idea so we decided to work on other things and come back to this problem. One night before I went to bed I thought of an idea. I thought we could have a big marble attached to a string fall from a table and could pull the magna tiles away. It worked! We were excited that we could work through these problems.

Post 1 Meeting 1

Today was my first meeting with Eli! It was awesome! We had a lot of equipment and ideas, but we needed to meet to put them together.

The first thing we did was brainstorm ideas and then we got to work. The machine starts in the shower and our original plan was to have a pitcher fill with water and then pour out onto a car to make it move. After our first try we realized it’s a lot easier just to have the pitcher hit the shower door and then the shower door will knock down a lot of Wii disc holders which then hit dominos and then push the Anki overdrive car onto the track. The car has its own power so it can drive up a track. We tried this many times and found a way to make it all work.

Next Eli and I both wanted to find a way to get our project on the table. This was our biggest problem because we had to find a way to get everything high enough. We tried many different ideas such as stacking magna-tiles with dominos on top of them and using a board to have a car drive up to the table, but it was too steep. Finally we got the idea of using a remote control robot that we could have on the table with the controller on the ground. Our first idea was to have a ball hit the controller to start the robot. We were so excited but then we realized it’s not so easy to get the ball to hit the remote in the right spot. We also realized that the robot was too far away from the remote so we had to move the tables closer and have the robot climb up a pool table to get on the final table. In the beginning we had a huge pool ball rolling through a big tube but we couldn’t find a consistent enough way for the ball to get pushed into the tube and still hit the remote. Next we had the idea that was simpler. We thought the Anki Overdrive car could hit a ball that was touching the remote to start the robot. We needed a brick behind the remote to keep it from moving. After a couple tries we realized it was very successful.

Once we got onto the big table we realize that we had many options and they could all be really cool with a lot of speed involved. We decided to use a hot rod track that starts on the table and goes all the way to the ground.  It was very steep so the car went down very fast. We attempted to add a loop de loop with some of the equipment, but it did not work. We couldn’t find a way to keep it under control.

It was awesome session, but then Eli’s dad came to pick him up. We realized that we had been working for six hours straight without many breaks. I think we didn’t notice the time because we were having so much fun with the project. We showed our parents quickly what we had worked on and then he left. It was a productive day!

 

Being With Eli

Working with Eli is a ton of fun because we were very close friends and the project is awesome. The best parts about working with Eli are that he is really interested in the project, he works hard, he and I can work through our disagreements and we always fun together.

Eli has a lot of great ideas that I don’t always think are going to work very well but we try them and they’re successful. The same thing goes when I have an idea and Eli doesn’t really think it’s the best. He lets me try. When we are creating new steps in our project we both have the same mindset. We want to build a really good project and have interesting steps in the middle. Eli is also really good to work with because he is thinking of things we can use in his own time. Before our first meeting, both of us did research and collected materials. That helped us start building right away. Eli and I don’t have a lot of time to work together so that means we have to be productive in the time we have. We both like funny steps and like to laugh at our fails. When I started working with Eli I knew that we were going to have a lot of fun and work well with each other.

So far fifth grade has been great. I have a great class and teacher. I’ve been leaning a lot. I think I improved most at my writing. This has been my favorite year because of all the great projects. I hope the rest of the year will as great. I looking forward to the Rube Goldberg and capstone!

On December 1st, my rocketry group the Rampaging Rockets presented a the slideshow we created that covered the whole rocketry unit. I felt like I did a very good job presenting. I just focused on everything I had practiced. I was very loud but I stuttered a bit. I thought my group mates did a great job! It felt really good after we finished it felt like a great way to end the unit.

1: ¿Qué nuevo vocabulario usaste?

-que hora es

-musica

-arte

-almuazo

-phisaca

-coro

 

2: ¿Qué nuevas preguntas usaste?

-que hora es

-la clase de mathematics

-la clase ingles

 

3: How would you grade your work on this Screencast? (sobresaliente = A) (notable = B)

 

notable

 

4: After listening to your screencast what words do you feel you could have practiced more? Quiero practicar las palabras ………

-almearzo

-physica

-education

-mathamatics

 

5: How could you use this new vocabulary outside of Spanish class?

If someone ask me a question.

This is my google drawing food webs.

Rain Forest

A rain forest is a rainy dense forest found in tropical areas. It is home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species. It has a wide range of animal species from termites to boa constrictors. A long time ago most of the world’s land was tropical rain forests. Overtime people have a negative impact. They have burned and chopped down tons of trees.

 

Decomposers

Rain forest have decomposers they need them because they’re a lot of animals that die. Some decomposers are fungi, bacteria and termites. If there were no decomposers there would be so many dead animals lying on ground

 

Producers

There are a ton of producers in the rain forest. 70% of them are trees. There are a lot of different layers of trees. A lot of the animals eat the plants. It is very hot so tropical fruit can grow including banana trees, mango trees and other tropical fruit. Other foods grow there to like cocoa beans and cinnamon trees. Tree and leaves are home to many animals.

 

Consumers

There are a lot of consumers in the rain forest. Some are herbivores others are carnivores. Some animals are Boa Constrictors, a lot snakes, insects, termites, tropical birds, small mammals and cats. A lot of them are herbivores.

 

Human Impact

Humans have a very negative impact on rain forest they burn trees to get land for crops. Over time the soil goes bad and the they do it again. They also cut down trees for the lumber. It is important that we stop this if we don’t some of these species might get to be extinct. Same with the plants.

The rain forest is crazy place full of wildlife we need to protect them.

It is interesting to see the trailers side by side. I noticed that they are similar. The intensity is similar and high. The timing is very similar. When something bad happens it happen in both trailers. When something good happens it happen in both trailers

The end.

For my Colonial America unit I made a slide show about slavery. We did a lot research before we made our books.

I hope you enjoy it!