After I finished my flashlight, I started using the blocks to make figures that are hard to make because it is based off of balance. I had to use support blocks while I was putting it up and then I took them out at the end. The first structure I did didn’t work but the second one did. Let me show you a picture.

IThis is the one that stood up for a long time until it took it down.

In order to power my flashlight I needed a switch, 3 wires, and an LED light. I took a while because the solder kept breaking off, but I finally finished soldering and but the circut in my flashlight. I hot glued any place where water could let in so it would be waterproof. I was so happy that it worked after all the time it took.

When I started my flashlight, it took me a long time to draw my diagram to scale but I got it eventually. After that, I drilled a hole in the cap of one of my pieces for the LED light. I started designing my flashlight and glued grips on the end of my curved pieces that it would be easy to hold it. I loved designing my flashlight because I made it look like a flower. The straight piece that connects the pipes was the stem and I colored it green and the cap was the flower and I hot glued colorful bending pipes on them for petals. Then I put my name on the list to start soldering my wires.

We have been working on our switches for a while now. I have made three and they all. Work in order to make the light bulb light up, the two pieces of foil must touch, closing the circut.Today we are playing a game using our circuits. The game was very funny because I kept messing up! I learned that use can use conductive materials to close a circut.

In order to make our soder people, we had to twist them in a certain way around a pencil. It was frustrating at first because the metal wouldn’t bend because it was a strong type of metal.

Today in class we made circuits. I managed to make the light bulb light up but I was having trouble screwing in the wires because they kept slipping out. I also learned how to use switches. Let me show you a picture of my circut.

In order to make the circut, I flipped the switch and the lightbulb turned on. If the lightbulb wasn’t working that would probably mean the battery has low to no voltage or the lightbulb was dead.

I was worried that I might start a fire if the positive and negative wires touched. Luckily, I didn’t because I was safe will the tools.

Mr. Calvert showed us a song to help us learn about the Periodic Table. I learned that there are 118 elements in the periodic table. I didn’t learn all 118 of them but I can remember some like gold, silver, calcium, mercury, hydrogen and uranium. I don’t remember a lot of the rest but I hope to learn more about them this year. I know that there were a few new elements added this year. Maybe when I’m older there will be even more elements.

Today we split up into two groups and tried to get into a box with two locks on it. Our team worked together while doing the clues. We corporated and used many strategies including:

• Listening to everyone and their ideas
• Breaking into smaller groups to accomplish one big task
• Letting everyone see the clues

I feel like our team did very well and we even did an extra lock! I really liked this challenge and hope to do more throughout this quarter.

Today I learned a lot about atoms.

• I learned that the more electrons in an atom, the more orbitals
• The electrons in orbitals don’t have to be in certain levels. They may be spread out in clouds, groups around the nucleus.
• Ernest Rutherford discovered the nucleus and without him we wouldn’t fully understand atoms

In addition, I learned that insulators are things that don’t conduct electricity. Insulators help protect people from getting electrified and stop the flow of electricity.

Yesterday in technology, I learned about how to be safe while using the tools. Let me list some of them:

• Don’t wear loose clothing like necklaces,  large earrings or baggy sleeves
• Don’t leave machines unattended while they are running
• Tie your hair up
• Stop and think before you do something

Mr. Calvert showed us a video of someone that got a drill stuck in his hair and that influenced me to be very careful.