I’ve read several new books this year, but one of the ones that had the biggest impact on me was the Shadow and Bone series, written by Leigh Bardugo. It was recommended to me by my friends, and I read the first book of the Shadow and Bone series and both books of the duology of a spin-off series from the world, called Six of Crows. It’s set in a fantasy world where less than a quarter of the population of a country is Grisha, meaning they possess the ability to manipulate different elements of different orders. This is the country that Shadow and Bone took place in; Six of Crows was set in a different country in the same world, featuring different characters with different conflicts, but is just as good! The worldbuilding in the stories is really good, and the way the story is set up in Six of Crows is also really fascinating. There isn’t just one big plan to achieve one goal in the books, there are a lot of interconnected plans striving to achieve a lot of different goals at the same time. It’s the kind of book that isn’t hard to keep up with, you still know what is happening, but is also very fast-paced and intelligent, and as soon as one plan ends or fails or succeeds, another one is immediately in play. It’s very interesting to read! The reading level is intermediate, for readers from 12-15. Recommended!
Kankan’s Blog
"You have to see the world for yourself to appreciate how beautiful it is."
This project didn’t turn out as I imagined, nor as good as I hoped, but it’s still very good! It looks impressive and even works unintentionally, which is the hallmark of a Rube Goldberg machine. It deviated a lot from my original plan, but it still looks amazing! I mostly completed the project within the time limit (Mr. Michie kept forgetting the lightbulb to light my prism), is mostly environmentally friendly, and can be assembled any time as long as the parts still are there! Also, I can just say that I am proud of my improvising skill 🙂
How It Works:
The domino tower falls, starting from the left to the right, and it leads to pushing the wooden stick connected to a ruler under a cardboard piece with a marble and two weights on it. After the wooden stick is pushed off, the ruler is used as a seesaw and as one side goes down, the other goes up and tilts the cardboard piece, rolling the marble down a cardboard tube that’s propped against the box. The marble rolls down the tube and knocks over another wooden stick with a weight on top to ensure it falls backward, onto the button that powers the lightbulb, which shines into the prism!
Problems and Solutions – Reflecting:
- During the planning stage of the project, a day before I started building, I drew the rough draft of the original machine that utilized all the materials we had in the Design Lab. Actually, I had to redraw the first draft several times because the ideas in my head didn’t translate well onto paper, and because I had to reconsider the space of the machine first.
- Speaking of space, I knew I couldn’t take up too much space for the machine because there were, since there were other people working. The original design featured several stools and the space between two tables, but I eventually shortened it with the help of a lightbulb box!
- Another problem was that my machine required the work of gravity to help the marbles move along, so I needed elevation. This was a problem because there weren’t any books available in the Design Center, and all the boxes were baskets provided for each student’s projects. I also utilized the edge of the table to help, which in hindsight was a good idea because when the marble and the stick drops off, it would destabilize the entire machine and would roll onto the carpet.
- After several failed tries and three classes of trying to figure out how to make the first stage of my original plan work, I eventually gave up on it. Some of the fabric was too slippery and required more weight on top to prevent it from falling straight away, even though I ditched the idea of using dominos to push the weights off because the dominos were too light in comparison to said weight. Some of the fabrics slid off easily with minimal weight, but wouldn’t sync with the falling of the previous bolt. I tried taping the wooden sticks to the fabric itself as well as to each other so it would fall consecutively, but the wooden sticks proved too stiff, and only 3 out of 5 trials it worked. Out of those 3 times, I wasn’t satisfied with how it looked.
- From there, I had to take some time to think about how to modify my original design to achieve the same result. In the end, I just went with dominos, and I think that was a good idea. While it did prove to be a bit precarious to set up, it looked really impressive and accomplished the smaller goal (pushing the wooden bar off the table to set the second stage in motion) easily once I adjusted the position of the last domino’s distance between the stick.
- For the second stage, the elevation part, I originally didn’t have a base. After testing it out a few times, it turned out to be a bad idea, because it rolled all over the place instead of the tube where I wanted it to go. Using cardboard, I constructed sort of a track to guide the marble to the tube.
- Once the marble could roll down the tube, the wooden stick that was supposed to fall backward did not. Because the tube led to the ground, and I think the momentum was a bit too much, the base gave away and fell forward instead. Mr. Michie suggested I raise the spot where the marble hit so the bottom would be more stable, but it still wasn’t consistent. I eventually solved it by connecting a wooden slab to the base to both steady the bottom and raise the colliding point, as well as adding a metal weight to the top to ensure it fell backward.
- In the end, we ran out of time and the button switch we found wasn’t big enough in radius for the wooden stick to hit it consistently, and the force wasn’t enough to press the button, but I still got some great videos of the first two stages, which is what matters!
My initial plan didn’t work out so well. The video below showed my first idea, with some heavy adjustments. While the initial stage worked, it didn’t sync very well with the rest of my plan.
Stage 1 (Original) Success ^^
After several failed retries, on the third class (February 23), I decided to change it up a bit and replaced the pieces of cloth with dominoes. While the ultimate goal of my machine was to press the button to light the lightbulb, I already figured out the stage leading to that. Therefore, I simplified my goal when modifying the first stage to “push the stick off the ledge”, which set off the second stage. In the end, I just went with dominoes. The videos below show my successes (and failures) in it!
Front View ^^
Side View ^^
Time-Lapse of building the domino tower ^^
Slow-Motion video of the dominos falling ^^
Stage 1-2 (Modified) Success ^^
This video shows one of the more successful trials in my new plan with the dominoes. After the tower collapsed, I had to construct it again, and because of its fragile state, be very careful not to knock it over. It’s not very long, but as long as it works, it works. If I have time, I’ll add another stage if I can think of one.
Stage 1 (Modified) Fail ^^
In this video, we can see that sometimes, the end of the domino chain doesn’t exactly hit the stick, even if it’s at the very edge. I had to test and mark out very carefully where that last domino would be positioned to push. It can’t be too close, or it’ll just fall right over the stick, and it can’t be too far, or it’ll miss the stick entirely. This is one of the times where I miscalculated.
Stage 1-2 (Modified) Fail ^^
Another problem is that, once the second stage is set into effect, the metal marble sometimes doesn’t gain enough momentum, and causes the weighted stick at the end to fall forward instead of backward. The purpose of that is to fall onto the button that will turn on the lightbulb that will illuminate the prism, so I need to fall backward. I also added a weighted ball to the top of the stick to make it easier to tip, but I had to counter it with a lighter ball, or the weighing of the tube that carries the rolling ball, so it can stand upright.
Once I have the working lightbulb, I should be able to test it with the full chain!
Concept Sketch:
This is the first idea for the Rube Goldberg machine that I sketched out, and I think it’s possible. I made this with the materials we had at hand in mind and took inspiration from other videos. It’s not very long, but I don’t think it needs to be as long as the point gets across! As long as it works. I may need to make several adjustments if it doesn’t work and we don’t have the materials, but we’ll wait for the trial run next class! It also depends on the light bulb’s power source, whether it’s a switch or a button because there will have to be different ways to turn it on. Also, the positioning of the bulb and the prism will undoubtedly need to be adjusted if the light is to go through without a hitch. Also, the materials I sketched shouldn’t be highly fragile (except for the marbles, maybe) and easy to come by, which should make the machine easy to build. So it’s mostly just building and rebuilding that will take the most time since I can’t just leave it sitting around. Speaking of which, I based this sketch on the space between two tables in the design center. If I can’t use that space to build the machine, the design will have to be altered again. This project is mainly based on improvising and creativity, so it’s hard to plan it out in advance.
This is an excellent video I took inspiration from for my design!
This is a small engineering project we’re doing in science. Our task is to find inspiration from energy conversions and build a machine that shows our understanding of energy transformations!
Ideas:
Rube Goldburg Machine – Rainbow
A Rube Goldberg machine, essentially, a chain reaction. Made from miscellaneous materials that can be found anywhere, they are highly customizable and rely mostly on creativity to get a small task done. It converts potential energy to kinetic as the machine progresses through its phases. Something like dominoes, or the like. However, it would be hard to plan and would probably take up a lot of space. Also, after I construct each class, I would need to take it down again and build it up every single time. I want to build this machine to create a rainbow with a prism, involving a light bulb. I could build a Rube Goldberg machine to press the button for a light bulb to shine, thus fulfilling the energy conversion part, and the light from the bulb would create a rainbow from a prism with light energy. The hard part would be pressing the button, as well as getting the light bulb in the right angle and place to form a rainbow.
This is a really good music video detailing a complicated Rube Goldberg machine!
Water Wheel
A water wheel would easily convert potential energy to kinetic and is a good way to procure renewable energy, as it is already in use in several countries instead of fossil fuels. It would be fairly easy to build the wheel itself, but the container that keeps the water from flowing out would be complicated, as well as how the water would be reused. I suppose this could be solved by a circular water pump to keep the water flowing.
This article has good DIY instructions on how to build one.
https://www.kiwico.com/diy/stem/motion-mechanics/water-wheel
Solar Battery
A solar battery is a really good way to make renewable energy from sunlight, and energy from that into a battery would be very useful, since you can bring it with you anywhere with sunlight, and don’t need fossil fuels. However, the battery itself would be very hard to make. Converting solar energy to electricity that we can actually use is a concept that I’m not familiar with. I could buy a battery and modify it somehow to make it able to absorb sunlight, but I’m not sure that would count as me building it.
Limitations:
Time; We only have two weeks, around five classes, and at least two of them will be spent planning and writing these blog posts. Like I mentioned with the Rainbow Maker, I would have to build the machine, then take it down again every class.
Materials; The prism will definitely need to be bought, but everything else should be okay. The purpose of a Rube Goldberg machine is to build it from the materials you have on hand anyway, and since this is an engineering center, there should be plenty of useful materials. The lightbulb and circuits should be available in the circuits center. With all of the materials here, it’s just a matter of assembling them.
Skill; Right now, I have little to no knowledge at all about circuits, which could prove to be problematic to the circuits part of the light bulb. Mr. Michie said he’d help me through it, and it’s only a small part of the entire machine, but one of the most important. Also, I haven’t made a Rube Goldberg machine by myself before (always in a group), and the creativity I have by myself is limited, as well as materials and space.
In design this year, as one of our last projects, our topic was food waste. Our task was to design at least one prototype of a machine to help with some kind of food waste problem, be it wasting cheese dust from Cheetos or keeping donuts from going stale. The pictures you see above were one of my digital prototypes I built on Minecraft, and involves drying out fruit peels for a natural perfume, and crushing bread crusts from sandwiches and pizza, then drying it to make cereal. I originally planned to make this two different machines for two different purposes, as the bread still needed to be mushed and then dried to make cereal, but then I just added a retractable flat machine on one side (as you can see in the pictures) for that function. I successfully designed it suitably for several occasions, successfully solving several problems at once. One obstacle, however, was the retractable bread crusher. At first, I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate it into my design, as if it was on top of the crushed bread crumbs, it would block the fake sunlight streaming from the top. But then I figured out to make it retractable, then that led to the idea of the lights above the tray to be retractable, so on sunny days, it can absorb natural sunlight, and can be taken off to charge as well. Unfortunately, I don’t have a prototype of my other design, but the picture below is my technical sketch.
In this project, I’ve learned how to make realistic solutions to food waste problems, with real world materials and is feasible to do so, even if I can’t build it myself. A piece of advice I’d give to future students, is to gravitate towards something you can do. For example, can you actually build this? Is it interesting towards you? Does it solve a problem? Does it solve your clients problem? Trust in your first ideas and always keep note of them to come back later! It’s surprisingly useful… Kudos to Mr. Layman for thinking of this while we’re in e-learning!
Many of us know the earth is slowly declining… it won’t be long before it becomes a floating ball in space, with jewel blue oceans becoming brown and dead, lush green lands clogged with fumes. But luckily, if this problem is solved soon, our earth will endure. It is up to our generation to do so, to prepare the earth for the future generation. We won’t ever have a completely sustainable world. There is no perfect picture of sustainability, more like our personal interpretation. But we can try to get as close as possible, and people like you and me, people that aren’t in positions to make powerful decisions that will impact our earth in a good way, can help a lot. Sustainable practices have three main facets: environmental (the one we associate the most with “sustainable cities”), economic (the way we trade goods, our carbon footprint, our economy basically), and social (our government, our new society, our community). Of course, there are many facets alone branching off from their main topic, but the overall way is simple. Consider: if many people do the exact same thing for their earth, contributing to a bigger cause, it’s just a matter of time until we’re all doing it. After all, a city is made up of its people.
Shows the three main facets of sustainability, how they overlap, and a general definition. (ConceptDraw.com)
One of the most important aspects in our lives is our diet. Some have special dietary restrictions, like not eating meat or special requirements in their religion. But our diets have more sway in the future of our earth too. Our diet, consisting mostly of meat (with the exception of the vegetarians out there), is slowly releasing carbon emissions that add to the growing mass of toxic clouds covering our planet. It does not help that the way meat is being processed is adding to that cause. Many of the modern farming methods (although efficient), including tilling the soil, release the carbon embedded in the soil into the air instead of the plants absorbing it (Pitchfork Farms). If we didn’t, the carbon in the soil would have been happily absorbed by the crops, and the number of carbon emissions from farms would have reduced drastically. Of course, these carbon emissions don’t just come from the soil. Burps from cows alone release hundreds of carbon particles. Farmers cannot deal with that entirely, but they have found the cause, and therefore a solution. The food being fed to all animals are not reminiscent of their diet in the wild. This world has a precise cycle, and we are disrupting it.
To fix this problem, many farmers, including the ones from Pitchfork Farms, have let loose their animals in their fields. The animals will nibble on the insect-bitten crops, getting rid of the need to use pesticides, and, since they’re eating the food they were meant to, the gas in their stomach will lessen. In turn, their waste is a natural fertilizer, and it leaves the ground bare and already ready for new planting. This way, most of the carbon emissions coming from farms (as that is what produces many of the world’s annual emissions) will be lessened. So, even though this helps tremendously with the decrease of carbon in our atmosphere, some of the meat in our diet must go. According to “Project Drawdown”, a project launched by the government for regenerative agriculture, plant-rich diets help the earth more as meat and dairy industries releases a lot of carbon emissions and eating plant-rich diets allow us to get close to “net zero,” meaning giving the earth back what we took, having an equilibrium. “$1 trillion in annual health-care costs and lost productivity would be saved.” (Sustainable Jungle). Numerous studies all echo the same truth: meat, at least the way it is farmed today, is unsustainable (not to mention inhumane).
Shows the differences between regenerative farming and modern farming. (Thomas Kloepfer)
Sustainable living is another facet of sustainable practices. More simply, sustainable living is a method of reducing one’s “carbon footprint”. (Sustainable Living) One of the simplest ways to do so is to use clean energy. Clean and reusable energy is derived from unlimited natural resources, like from the sun, wind, water, geothermal, and biomass. This is especially useful, as it prevents the most negative repercussions on the earth and allows us to use it indefinitely. This solution is probably the easiest, and we already hold the knowledge and materials to do so. We have solar panels, turbines, and the most commonly used: windmills. In fact, we have been informed that ISB is entirely powered by wind energy (Paola). Unfortunately, some governments reject the use of reusable energy. The problem with this is that since renewable energy is, well, renewable, some fossil fuels and factories dealing with our carbon-emitting energy will be pushed out of business. And while that may not seem so bad; a small price to pay for our Earth’s wellbeing, it doesn’t seem this way to those people working, and the decrease in people paying for that energy will also decrease the taxes, the money, going to the government. Of course, some countries already are well into this phase, and as of right now, there’s nothing we can do short of marching up to them and making them change their minds.
But we already do have some changes. Public transportation is getting more and more common, even though we don’t use it as much due to covid, but like in China, public bikes and rides are not unusual. More people are purchasing electric cars, even though that electricity is coming from fossil fuels. And if we do put available clean energy out there for people to use and get if they want, some most likely will, as people want to do things for their earth, they just don’t know how. “In a nutshell, to live a sustainable lifestyle you should try to have as little of an impact on the Earth as possible, while also trying to replace the resources you do use.” (Wessexwater). Spending time reading or playing outside with your friends can move your entertainment methods to an eco-friendlier place!
There are many types of sustainable economies, one of which is the capitalist economy. A capitalist economy is a market system that produces and sells goods for profit. (Econation) This is most similar to ours right now. But an ideal sustainable economy is when “the overall demand for natural resources (also known as an ecological footprint) must be less than nature’s renewable supply of resources (also known as biocapacity).” (Econation), also called net zero. A constant drive for new economics is already unneeded, more than that, it’s damaging. “The economic drive in most countries (measured in the GPA) is more than enough to provide a high standard of living and well-being for everyone.” (Sustainable Economy).
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. All we really need to do is to stop and think – do we really need this? Can we use this for a long time? Will this be beneficial to our family? And will the cost be worth it? Using everything we have to its fullest extent allows us each to decrease our carbon footprint. Again, if everyone does it, it builds up to the entire world. Also, by not taking as much, only what we need, factories and companies will stop making so much and therefore saving a lot of resources that can go to the poor. Less outcome, less demand, and net-zero becomes ever more achievable. Although equality can never be fully achieved, we must strive to provide the same opportunities for everyone. Some people cannot afford to buy electricity, and some do not have good educational opportunities, or good job offers simply because of their skin color or background. Children all around the world are being abused and bullied because of their preferences in people. But places like ISB and many other schools are doing their part, encouraging those children and providing a safe, welcome community. We can be understanding and patient with our friends; don’t push if they won’t tell you yet. Respect their pronouns and become Allies to the LGBTQIA + community!
Now that we’ve gone over many aspects of sustainable living, we can see that this future is very close – in arms’ reach. For sustainable living, each person just needs to reuse everything they can, eat less meat, and shop from eco-friendly places with products that are durable and easy to recycle and use. We don’t need to donate, or contribute to global scale projects, like stopping deforestation and stopping microplastics from reaching the ocean; do their own thing, and if everyone does their own thing, well, that’s everyone! Make different friends, put aside our differences and make a welcoming community for everyone! In the end, we’re all human beings. Every life is sacred, don’t waste it on pitying yourself, and the notion of “making the world a better place” seems closer than ever and easy to achieve! We just need a bunch of small solutions to make the world a better place for our future generation. On a global scale, cities can donate money to building parks, and in Milan, Italy, a project by the government was launched, focusing on a “vertical forest” (Weforum)! More and more countries can devote their energy to building better shelters for orphans, free healthcare and food for the less fortunate. Even you can help yourself! Did you know, water from boiling noodles is very nourishing for plants? If you have some left over, make sure to indulge them! Encourage your friends to buy products from eco-friendly places and share your unused objects. Eat less meat and make a welcoming, inclusive community! Together, we can change the world.
The vertical forest in the heart of Milan. (Sustainable Jungle)
Works Cited:
Pictures:
– Sustainable Development. Conceptdraw, www.conceptdraw.com/examples/
sustainable-development-diagram. Accessed 30 May 2022.
– Sustainable Living. Sustainable Jungle, www.sustainablejungle.com/
sustainable-living/what-is-sustainable-living/
#:~:text=Sustainable%20living%20is%20a%20practical,reducing%20one’s%20%E2%80%9Cca
rbon%20footprint%E2%80%9D. Accessed 17 May 2022.
Sources:
– Sustainable Living. Sustainable Jungle, www.sustainablejungle.com/
sustainable-living/what-is-sustainable-living/
#:~:text=Sustainable%20living%20is%20a%20practical,reducing%20one’s%20%E2%80%9Cca
rbon%20footprint%E2%80%9D. Accessed 17 May 2022.
– ADEC Innovations (ADEC ESG).” What Is Social Sustainability, ADEC Innovations,
www.adecesg.com/resources/faq/what-is-social-sustainability/. Accessed 18
May 2022.
– Dunn, Andy. “World Economic Forum.” 7 Innovative Projects for Making Cities More
Sustainable, World Economic Forum, 4 Sept. 2020, www.weforum.org/agenda/
2020/09/cities-sustainability-innovation-global-goals/. Accessed 13 May
2022.
– “Econation.” Sustainable Economy, Econation, econation.one/sustainable-economy/.
Accessed 18 May 2022.
– 14 Ways to Live More Sustainably. Wessexwater, www.wessexwater.co.uk/community/
blog/14-ways-to-live-a-more-sustainable-lifestyle. Accessed 17 May 2022.
– “Global Impact.” Social Sustainability, Global Impact, www.unglobalcompact.org/
what-is-gc/our-work/social. Accessed 18 May 2022.
– How to Build a Sustainable City: 7 Practices and Examples. SMD Magazine, 26 Nov.
2021, sustainabilitymattersdaily.com/sustainable-city/. Accessed 13 May
2022.
– What Is Sustainable Living and 25+ Ultimate Ideas for Sustainable Living.
www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-ideas-for-sustainable-living.php.
Accessed 17 May 2022.
– Thomas Kloepfer: pitchforkfarms11@gmail.com
Surprisingly, I struggled the most with gluing together the sides, which shouldn’t be hard considering it’s literally just a box. But it did give me a hard time, mostly because it wasn’t holding together strong or fast enough for me to get the other pieces together then the rubber bands on, and by the time I got that done, I had to awkwardly reglue some sides because it already dried and wasn’t holding together, as well as some gaps. I did also have some trouble drawing the designs on Affinity, as I had to hand-trace almost every design until Mr. Layman offered to use his miraculous solution for me!
I’m really proud of the designs as well! I think I did a pretty decent job tracing the lines (and learned a steady hand!) and fixing them that only a computer would be able to pick out. I’m also proud of my choice of aesthetic and where I put my designs. It all turned out really well, albeit after multiple tries.
I plan to listen to “End of Time” by Alan Walker, because it’s at the front of my playlist! Every time I open my playlist, I hear at least the beginning notes of it, and so it has this symbolic meaning for me. It would be a sign that my project works!
Thank you Mr. Layman for organizing this project and allowing us so much free reign. I had fun during this! Read my previous post for more details.
This year in design, our main project was to design and create by ourselves a fully-functional Bluetooth speaker according to an aesthetic. My aesthetic, as you can see, is fairycore, and the shape of the speaker is an old-fashioned gramophone. Credits to O’Malley and her brother for helping me fashion the 3-D printed horn! Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy! And thanks so much Mr. Layman!!
For our final assessment in our choice revolution unit, we had to write a journal starring a character living through the events of that revolution, like what we did in our Russian revolution unit. But instead of just one journal entry, we were allowed to write three. This is my journal in which my character, Carmen Lopéz, lives through the events of the Cuban revolution!
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