Month: February 2019

In class we learned about the invention of driverless cars. They function with a laser camera on top and small cameras all over the body of the car. These could help blind people to drive and get around easily on their own. For one of our classś projects we are making a driverless car game. We make this game with pulleys, levers, and switches that touch tinfoil to tinfoil creating a bright light. Another person at that table will continuously be flipping cards. Based on the color of the cards a different light will be flipped each time.

Today in class we learned how you can light batteries on fire. You can do this if you have a wire coming from one side of the battery straight to the other side. What happens is it gets really fast really quickly. The way to stop this is by putting a lightbulb in between the wires. The light bulbs attracts the electrons in the battery with its copper. The other things in a battery are zinc. The zinc being left behind becomes positive rather than just staying neutral.

In class we learned about atoms and their origin. They were first thought of by a man named Democritus. he figured that if you took a piece of cheese and cut it in little pieces, that you wouldn’t be able to cut it anymore. He first named the atom, atomas. Atomas translates to uncuttable which we now know is not true. In fact it is possible to break apart an atom into many parts. We learned that atoms are made with three main parts that they can be divided into. Protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons have a positive charge, Electrons have a negative charge, and neutrons have no charge, instead they are neutral. (hence the name.)

For Human Rights Day Alexandra Mor, a jewelry designer, came into our classroom to talk. We learned about how 25,000 elephants are killed a year, most of the time for fine jewelry. So when Alexandra decided to move to Bali, Indonesia she found a nut, called the tagua nut, that holds the same qualities as ivory. This nut could lead many hunters to stop killing elephants for their tusks because the tagua nut in one year can make as much ivory as an elephant produces in a lifetime! Alexandra uses this nut in her jewelry and raises awareness about elephants being hurt. Every piece of jewelry made with the tagua nut that Alexandra sells, 20% of its proceeds go to an elephant organization.