Pre Culmination Prep

Today Lucy switched with Hannah so now Hannah is doing the parachute with me. To start, today we connected the strings then made a pouch with the leftover garbage bag. We tested the parachute out and it worked with some heavy weight but then it started going to the side and backwards. I confronted Mary Margaret about this and she advised me to make a hole in the top of the parachute. Next lab class, Hannah and i will start with a small hole in the top and work from there.

Mini Culmination Prep

To begin, our group (The Pirate Ninjas/A1) took a really long time to pick the jobs. Most of the people, including me, wanted to do the robotix lab. I ended up being placed in the one section that I said I didn't want to be in and wasn't good at. we ended up having to pick a number between 1 and 100. After the jobs were picked, Lucy and I went to go start making the parachute. We went and grabbed the big trashcan bags and cut it into a big square. The farthest we got today was punching holes in the corners. The trash bag is now in my file cabinet!

Science Commercials

Recovery Systems

My partners and I set out with the challenge of creating a parachute that would balance perfectly when dropped off a ledge. When we opened our supply bag, there was already a parachute made. We then tested it by going up to the sixth grade and dropping it down the stairs. It worked well. Our next task was to delay the fall even more. W e layed out the parachute and made the strings tight to the middle. we then connected it to the weight. That was the one that worked the best. We then realized that we could unfold the bag that was the base of our parachute. We unfolded it and made the strigs tight to the middle again. We lauched it, but it folded in half and didn't have any resistance. That was because the strings weren't the same length.

Launching From The Moon

Today my partners and I attempted to transport a load of supplies from one end of a string to the other. The materials we were permitted to use to carry the supplies were balloons, a straw, tape, and a cardboard tube. Everything except the tape cost money to use, including every launch attempt. We started out with $4.7 million dollars. It would have been much easier if the other end of the string wasn't higher than the other end. At the end of class we managed to successfully transport the balloon and two sticks to the other side. Unfortunaltley, we did not have enough time to transport anything else.

Remote Repair

Today the teachers decided to try out a new method of communicating between partners when we were separated. The mission was for the partners to spread out in different parts of the room and assemble a component of a robot and talk to each other using Google chat. The teachers had changed the way that we communicated this week and instead of using Google Chat we used ichat. One of the girls in my group didn't have an aim account so we had to quickly set one up. It ended up taking all of the time we had to build things. Next time I will try to be more efficient with my time. :)

Practice Grab and Preview

Graphing and Motion Detecters

Today in class, my group and I used motion detectors to graph acceleration, velocity, and position. I learned that acceleration is how fast you are speeding up and velocity is speed. When somebody walks away from the motion detector the graph line goes up and when a person goes towards the motion detector, the line goes down. Today was soo fun!

Sience

If we are on the moon where the acceleration due to gravity is 1.6m/s^2 and we were playing softball, it would be much different than if we were playing on earth. Once the ball has been thrown, it would go the same speed and would have the same amount of inertia as it would on earth except it would take longer to fall back down. You also wouldn't have to use as much force.

Robotix

Today in class, my partners Gillian, Kayla, and I created a robot that could be used to push or carry things from one area to another. We started with a lot of cords which really confused me. After our teacher helped us understand a different way to move the robot, we added the wheels and put something that would allow us to push rocks in front. We tried it out and we all were really confused when it wouldn't go. Then we realized that the cord that connected the wheel to the battery pack was resisting. We raised the wheel and it worked! Heres the final product:

Thrust Structures

For this lab, my group and I had to create a thrust structure. Although we didn't get it finished, we had learned many things. I particullarlily learned that if it is more compact, it will be stronger. we went through many test launchers. i lso ended up burning myself alot. :)