Category: Myself as a Learner

Science Energy Transfer Project: Reflect and Share

How well I met the success criteria:

  1. I completed my project within the given time limit.
  2. The dice spins and the result is randomized.
  3. The motor is powered by a battery and is activated by a switch.
  4. The product is quite durable and can be used over a long period of time.
  5. It is also customizable – Can put multiple dice and remove them with relative ease.

How my product works:

  • A switch is pressed and it activates a motor that spins a plate that helps roll the dice.
  • The battery is chemical potential energy and it is transferred into kinetic energy to spin the motor. It also has some sound and heat energy as its waste energy.

Reflections:

  • I am glad I changed the initial design so that the battery is changeable and is flatter (not just a cup shape)
  • If I were to improve my product in the future, I would probably 3D print a container or some way to enclose the battery and hide it. (To make it look more polished.) Currently, the battery is just sitting out in the open which is not super appealing.
  • I believe that adding the bumps on the plate with hot glue was a good decision, as otherwise, the dice wouldn’t really roll randomly. It would just spin in a circle without changing the surface. I think this was a massive oversight when I was designing my product.
  • After I added the bumps, however, the dice roller became super loud due to all the vibrations and bounces in the device. I would try to at least make it a bit quieter as the loud noise is quite annoying once you spin it repeatedly.
  • I might change the activation method. Right now it is activated by a switch that you turn on and off. However, it may be wiser for me to make a button that spins the dice only when it is held down. This would make the product more interactive and would save people the hassle of trying to push down the switch.
  • The aesthetic of the roller is nice, but it looks very homemade and DIY. If I had more time, I probably would add paint or decorations or some LED lights when the dice roller spins. This could make the product seem more professional or polished.

Impact of my product on the environment and potential client:

  • My product could be used in casinos or arcades where a dice roller would be nice to have. It could also be a personal product that people keep at home for board games.
  • The product is made from all recycled materials, like spare wood, and plastic bottles that otherwise would’ve gone to waste. It is built with the environment in mind. However, the battery is not the most environmentally sustainable. It could be replaced with other methods of energy but the battery is the most compact and simple method that I had.

Science Energy Transfer Project: Create and Improve

Day 1:

Before I begin actually building the structure of my roller, I first want to make sure my circuit works, so I got a switch, battery, and motor and soldered the circuit together. It spun and worked well. Then, I took it back apart, because I need to reroute some of the wires under my structure to hide it.

Learning how to solder was quite fun and I was pretty bad at it at first. However, I started to get the hang of it after a few tries. It’s oddly satisfying to be completely honest.

Day 2:

I took Andy’s leftover single-use plastic cup and washed it. I then cut the bottom to get only the top lid. This lid will come in quite handy as I can take the lid off the ring to insert dice into my project. There is also a small hole on top which people can also use to put dice inside.

I then cut out a wooden circle with the help of Ms. Amanda to build the base of my dice roller. This is where my lid will be attached to and where my motor and components will be hidden. I hot-glued it to a piece of cardboard and routed my wires back through. I had to solder them with the structure which was a bit of a struggle but it worked out all right.

Day 3:

I fully assembled the technical part of my project. The motor and switch were soldered together and hot glued to the base as well. I noticed that the switch could fit right against the base, which ended up working very well.

Here’s a picture of the build with the lid on:

Day 4:

I did some testing using dice, and I noticed a problem with my design. When the dice were spinning, they spun against the wall and were not really getting shuffled. It was just being spun around due to the speed of the motor. To fix this, I decided to add some bumps to the surface to vary how the dice would spin to make it actually roll and randomized. I used a hot glue gun to add small spots where the dice would bump and fling upwards too. This definitely helped as afterward the dice would give me a randomized result, rather than just staying the same and spinning.

Some feedback I got from others:

Andy: It’s alright. You might want to use a dice that doesn’t just have the letter C and a dot. Also, I wonder what would happen if you put in multiple dice?

Bowen: I’m sorry Eddie, but I feel like this is a bit unnecessary as you can literally just do this: *shakes dice in container*
But the idea of adding bumps to make it randomized is very creative.

Austin: Very fancy.. very.. fancy. Maybe the casino can use this in the future.

Andrew: woahh.. very cool. It’s a little bit loud though when it spins. But it’s like super satisfying watching the dice roll around.

Here is a video of my final product:

Video Player

 

 

Science Energy Transfer Project: Develop and Plan

After concluding that I would make this dice roller, I started drafting a plan and seeing how I would build it. Initially, I thought I could fit everything inside one plastic bottle (like the one the cafeteria has) but after getting some feedback from my peers I realized that the switch would be placed inconveniently and the battery would be inaccessible. These are all bad ideas and are not very user-friendly.

Because of this, I thought that it would be smart to move the battery outside so the user can replace it once it’s out. Also, I made the entire structure flatter to make the dice more visible.

With this new layout, I had to settle on how the technical stuff would work. I spent some time looking at the available materials and decided that a motor, battery, and switch would do the trick. A wooden circle plate would be attached to the motor and spun.

Success Criteria:

The dice must be rolled randomly.
The dice must be rolled effectively and efficiently.
A button should power the contraption and it should be powered by a battery successfully.

 

Science Energy Transfer Project: Define and Inquire

Energy transfer is a fundamental concept in science and engineering, and it’s important to understand how it works in our daily lives. In this post, I’ll explore some potential ideas for my science project that I could undertake to showcase energy transfer.

Idea 1: Rube Goldberg Machine

A Rube Goldberg machine is a complex machine that performs a simple task in a convoluted way. Rube Goldberg machines can be incredibly complex, and they’re a great way to demonstrate how energy transfer works. I could build one, but it might be a bit too complicated and annoying to make. (way too time consuming)

Here’s a picture of a Rube Goldberg machine that I found:

Crazy Contraption Physics Article for Students | Scholastic Science World Magazine

Pros: Rube Goldberg machines seem like they are fun to build, and they can be very entertaining visually. They also allow me to showcase multiple energy transfer concepts in a single project.

Cons: Rube Goldberg machines can be time-consuming to build, and they require a lot of trial and error to get right. They also require a lot of space, so I’ll need a large workspace to build one.

Idea 2: Wind Turbine

A wind turbine is a device that converts wind energy into electrical energy. I could build a small-scale wind turbine using PVC pipes, a motor, and some other electronics.

I found a video of a small-scale wind turbine on YouTube:

Pros: Wind turbines are a great way to demonstrate how renewable energy works. They also seem relatively simple to build and I could just follow this tutorial.

Cons: Wind turbines require wind to function, so I’ll need to test mine in a location that gets a lot of wind like in the OLE (which isn’t practical.)

Idea 3: Small DIY Car

I could build a car using a small motor, a switch, and some wheels.

Pros: it’s a moving car… who doesn’t like moving objects? It shows energy transfer from a battery to a DC motor which powers the car.

Cons: I probably do not have the ability to control the car’s speed and direction which is upsetting. I don’t want to build a car that only goes forward with no freedom of movement.

Idea 4: Dice Roller

This is something that I thought of when researching and brainstorming ideas for this project. I could make a dice roller out of a motor, battery, and switch. It would be functional and unique.

Pros: Unique, creative, and a fun project. Not too complex but not too simple.

Cons: Getting the right materials and dimensions to fit my motors and materials. The design part is going to be difficult.

In conclusion, there are many potential DIY projects that I could undertake to demonstrate energy transfer. Rube Goldberg machines, wind turbines, and DIY battery-powered cars are just a few examples. Each of these projects has its pros and cons, but the dice roller idea definitely stood out the most. I’ll probably do it since it’s unique and I haven’t seen anyone else do it before.

Mexican Revolution Journal

This is my Mexican Revolution journal that I worked on during this unit.
In my opinion, I believe that the Mexican Revolution was worth it and it was impactful to the people. This is because people got their own land that was distributed by the government through the ejido system. The struggles and battles fought as well as the campaigning from Emiliano Zapata were influential enough to cause a change in the government and bring land reform into the spotlight. The system implemented during the revolution is still in use today and makes up a large portion of Mexico’s current agricultural land.

The 57 Hours I Spent Tracking Central Ideas – LNF Final Assessment

About the Book

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater is about an agender, quoiromantic teenager named Sasha whose life suddenly changes after their skirt gets lit on fire while they were riding on the 57 Bus. The book is split into 4 main parts: Sasha’s perspective, Richard’s (the criminal’s) perspective, the fire, and the aftermath. Throughout the story, we learn about Sasha’s life and how it differs from Richard’s even though they both live in the same city. We also learn about the flaws in the criminal justice system and how Sasha gets treated after the burn. Both people face challenges such as stereotyping, performing well academically, and encountering the justice system. While reading the book, I took notes on central ideas, themes, and character development.

I enjoyed reading this book as it was fun to read, unique, and allowed me to think about many major issues from multiple perspectives.

Tracking Themes & Central Ideas

Throughout my reading, I added to this notebook page where I listed possible themes, ideas, and issues that the author intended to express through their writing. After finishing the book, I ended up with two main central ideas:

Knowledge of genderqueer identity was not widespread.
Teenagers should be tried as juveniles regardless of the crime they commit.

The Central Ideas

While reading, I noticed that the author went into detail about Sasha’s personality, hobbies, and interests. The information was very intriguing and allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of what type of person Sasha is. I decided to create a notebook page dedicated to all of the information I could find about Sasha.

These interesting details about Sasha could further help me understand and prove the central idea of knowledge on genderqueer identity was not widespread. 

I then gathered all the evidence I could find to prove and support this central idea. Here is the notebook page that includes evidence, context, and explanations.

The second main central idea I found was that teenagers should be tried as juveniles regardless of the crime they commit.

I noticed that the text showed Richard’s perspective and experiences, and gave light to how he felt during the entire incident and the aftermath. I also noticed that the author gave lots of context on how the juvenile justice system worked, and that led me to this central idea. According to the text, laws were implemented that charged some juveniles as adults if they committed certain crimes. This law was implemented because of a myth that there were children that were “born to be dangerous to society,” and that if they were not charged as adults, they would take advantage of juvenile protections and cause chaos in the world. This myth turned out to be untrue as the data collected did not suggest that this was true. In fact, crime rates were declining. Anyways, because of the many paragraphs about this issue I read in the book, I thought that it was a big idea that the author wanted to express as it was mentioned all throughout the story.

 

This page includes quotes from the book and ideas that I jotted down while reading. The overall idea that I wanted to capture in my notes was that although Richard committed a horrible crime, he should not be penalized so severely for it. Being charged as an adult would impact his future. A quote from the text says that the criminal justice system “keeps its victims moving in a circle until swallowed in the vortex of crime.” It’s basically saying that once someone is charged as an adult, they are likely to be criminals for the rest of their lives.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I recommend this article from the New York Times, written by the author herself. I’d also suggest reading the book so that you can gain your own understanding and perspective on the ideas expressed through the story.

Thank you for your time! ❤️

Am I a Humanist?

 

I agree with many of the ideas and values of humanism. Each person should have the potential to succeed in society regardless of bloodline and status. I also strongly agree with the thought that everyone should have access to education. The fact that many humanists tried to make knowledge more accessible is great. The people should be making decisions based off of their own opinion and interests rather than only thinking about religion. The government and religious churches should be separate from each other as they can often conflict with each other. Finally, using the arts and architecture to spread new ideas to the average person helps humans progress and can allow people to think of the world in a different way.

Science Ocean Habitat Thinglink Project

What is your biggest take away from 6th-grade science?

I think my biggest take away from science is how energy works, and how heat is transferred. It was really fascinating learning how some objects could go from warm to cool, and also the different states of matter.

What would you like to work on for next year in science?

I would love to learn more about energy, and maybe more about how it works and is used in everyday life.