Here I am, posting another blog about my other design project…Oh! Sorry. Hi guys, this is Kankan again! These pictures are featuring my hand-built prototype of our second design project: the smell detector. Now, such a thing doesn’t exist in the world at the present, but if it does, I don’t know about it, so Mr. Layman, naturally, gave us a challenge: build a prototype of a hand-held smell detector that can detect smells. Because this doesn’t exist, the prototype doesn’t have to work (If it did, we would be famous!). This project tested our imagination, crafting skills, and ability to use limited materials. As you can see in these pictures, I used a mix of cardboard, hot glue, and mesh. My design is not very “workable”, but I made it like I drew it on paper. My detector is kind of a compass, but instead of leaning towards north, it leads us to wherever the smell is coming from. Before you say it, I will address several problems. One, it only leads us towards the smell, but it doesn’t tell us what the smell is. Also, there may be other smells in the air. Plus, you might think, Kankan, you didn’t tell us how it works! If you are thinking that, wait, I’m getting to that! I got a great idea when I was planning my project. Cardboard, if you cut it into halves and look closely, cardboard is actually full of holes, like cubbies. So I thought if we could somehow put tiny sensors into the holes, then it could lead us to the smell! So I cut two identical circles, one the face of the compass, the one with the bubble letters with N, S, W, and E on them, and the other circle the back, sandwiching a smaller circle in between them, with black mesh holding it together and a popsicle stick punching straight through the center. And here’s the part where I tell you how this compass works. The small circle inside the bigger ones is the vacuum and inside the holes in the cardboard are tiny sensors. The circle sucks in air through the mesh and the smells in the air go to the sensors. The sensors identify where the smell is coming from and turns the popsicle stick, making its shadow point to the direction where the smell is coming from. The mesh helps keep debris and dirt out from the sensors, only letting the smell in. Cool, right? I mean, it’ll be even cooler if it worked… But that’s okay! This was kind of a rush job, but I think I made it pretty good. I learned how to accurately cut cardboard with a scalpel and also how to make the proportions of the circle’s match. This project was also really fun, and another thank you to Mr. Layman for being so helpful!
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In design, our first unit was making a lightbox that represented one of our favorite places we couldn’t go to because of COVID. It was supposed to be a landscape, but I decided to make something that actually represented me. For my lightbox, I created a cozy scene of a room in my house with bookshelves, a fireplace (because I love fire!) to enhance the cozy feeling, and a rug with a cat plus another cat. These objects are some things that make me feel safe and things that I like to do. The pictures of my final product are below.
I learned so many skills during the creation of my lightbox that may not help in my daily life but was fun to learn! Most of the things I learned
were concerning Adobe Illustrator. I learned how to merge shapes, add them from another website, and even change their color! I had a lot of “trial and error” while I was making my lightbox since it took me a while to figure out how to label my pictures right to get the laser cutter to cut the shapes the way I wanted them. I also learned a little about acrylic paint, like how to apply it evenly so it wouldn’t be clumpy.
I think my lightbox is pretty good already, except for the fact that it is kind of messy. You can see from the pictures that the wires are kind of sticking out a bit, though I wanted it to be like that even though it seems messy. Also, I think my lightbox is a little missing in layers. It is made up of mostly think frames with the symbols on it, and that made it seem a little empty. I would change it so the frames would be a little thicker so the symbols would be closer together and so that would hide the wires more effectively and make the box a little less empty looking. I would also go back and make the paint more perfect, because it is really messy right now, and even though I planned it really thoroughly, I had some problems with the masking tape and with the deciding of the colors.
I really enjoyed this unit and really like my teacher Mr. Layman. He was really patient with all of us even when some of us were making trouble and taught me a lot. He is also really nice! I would choose to take this class every year if he was the teacher even if the project is really dull because Mr. Layman has this way of making boring things fun! So a big thank you Mr. Layman and I hope that I can take his class next year and that the project will be as interesting as the lightbox project!!
In the first Percy Jackson book, The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson doesn’t have a lot of friends, and by the choices and feelings he has about that topic shows that he doesn’t really want any new friends except Grover. This choice also impacts his other choices leading from it, and not always about friends. For example, after the trip to the museum, Percy’s grades kept sinking and he was “called out into the hallway for almost every class”. I think he could have avoided this by trusting Grover and making more friends. In the article “Why Personal Relationships Are Important”, it says that having healthy relationships can help you live longer, get through school positively, and be healthier. Because Percy only has one true friend and is constantly being bullied by his stepfather and the school bully, Nancy Bobofit, his grades are getting lower and his ADHD is not helping. Percy gets it worse because he has dyslexia and ADHD.
When Percy, Grover, and Percy’s mom was attacked by the Minotaur, an ancient Greek monster, Percy’s mom, Sally Jackson, gets vaporized into golden dust. After Percy saw that his mom was gone, his “fear turned into rage”. In the text, it says that when the monster had just vaporized Percy’s mom into golden dust and it was bearing down on Grover, Percy thinks “ … as if he was going to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. I couldn’t allow that” and with that, he charged at the Minotaur and somehow killed it with his bare hands when he could have followed his mom’s directions and crossed the borderline where it would be safe. That action proves that he is stronger than he realized and is willing to risk his life for his friend and his mother, though his mother is gone, or so he thinks.
After a few chapters, and after Percy is claimed by his father, Poseidon, Chiron explains to him that something very powerful was stolen and he is suspected. In the book, Zeus “brought this storm to Camp Half-Blood because of me. I was furious.” And then he states that he will “return the stupid thing”. He only had a few weeks of training, and yet he still accepts it and goes to the oracle to get his prophecy and begin his quest. Percy had only a few weeks of training and now he is going to be going on his own with two other people (Grover and Annabeth) to find and return something to a god that wants him dead with several other gods opposing him.
After the threesome left Half-Blood hill, the borderline for Camp Half-Blood, Argus drove them to the nearest bus station and from there, got on a bus to get to their destination. But some trouble just stepped onto the bus. The three Furies, or the Kindly Ones, are hunting them down for their master, Hades. During the fight, Percy took Annabeth’s invisibility cap (with her permission) and hid from the Furies while Annabeth and Grover distracted them, Percy was home free. He could have just stepped off the bus and continued on with his quest, but he didn’t. He saved his friends and gained their trust, making them an effective team, which is really important in the story. This, again, proves that Percy is very loyal to his friends and will do anything for them, even if it means risking his life.
I think these choices so far shapes Percy’s life and affect the people around him and connect them together. Most of his choices in the book so far has been returning for his friends when he could have gone alone, but he didn’t, and so building trust is important, and after he did gain their trust, they became friends and so the article I mentioned, “Why Personal Relationships Are Important”, is coming true! Even though he doesn’t have school anymore, he is still learning, and his friends are helping him get through that. We don’t know whether he will live longer, because being hunted by monsters tend to shorten ones’ life span, but then again, it might. We will just have to wait and see!
n the book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, I think that Percy’s main character trait is loyal to his friends. In chapter 1, page 3, Percy tries to stand up for his best friend Grover when the school bully, Nancy Bobofit, throws pieces of her peanut butter sandwich into Grover’s hair, and Percy starts to stand up saying “That’s it.” Grover stops him by saying that Percy is already on probation and that he liked peanut butter, so don’t worry, but the fact that Percy was willing to risk his place in the school by standing up for Grover shows that he is very loyal to his friends.
After a few more chapters, on page 57, Percy’s mom got turned into golden dust by a monster that was chasing after him and Grover, and while Grover was unconscious and the monster was bearing down on him, Percy could of a made it to safety, he chose to instead save his only friend and risk his life in this sentence ‘…as if he was going to make Grover dissolve. I couldn’t allow that.’
In the two sentences from the text, both times Percy was willing to stand up for his friend even if he risked his life and a place in his school. Most people wouldn’t, but Percy’s only friend is Grover, so he wouldn’t want to lose him. And while most people would have run screaming from the scene, Percy chose to overcome his fear and save his friend.
During the fifth-grade summer break, I thought that sixth grade would be like teenager stuff like really advanced math and chemistry. I was kind of disappointed when it wasn’t, but during this year, I found out that sixth grade is much much more interesting! I’ve had so much fun, even with this pandemic going on. My teachers have made sixth grade enjoyable and interesting, and I want to thank them for that. Too bad some of my teachers are leaving, and I will really miss them. I just want them to know that I will always remember them and thank them for all that they taught me.
When I started middle school, I was most excited about the lockers, how grown-up we are going to be, and generally that I am not going to be in elementary school anymore. Now, don’t get me wrong, but I love elementary school, I have a lot of fond memories, but to be honest? I felt a little relieved that I can be in a different environment. Now that I am looking back on my experiences, I learned how valuable they are to me.
I have made new friendship bonds and some of them just fell apart this year. I know that eventually that even the strongest bond might break, but for now, I am enjoying it. I will hang on onto the friends I have and have fun! I know that I will make new friends and break up with old ones, and I am kind of scared, but the prospect of new friends is exciting to me. I don’t like change, but sometimes even I understand that it is necessary, and sometimes even welcomed!
Something I am really looking forward to seventh grade is the Future Space! I think it is so cool, and I want to go there. I have peeked in there and saw students learning really cool stuff, and the space itself is really cool. There is like a well-like cylinder that looks down into the library and there is a mini auditorium with tiers of comfy pillows that looks down into a white-board. I assume that it is for announcements. So, anyway, I think it is really cool, and I am thinking about applying.
So that is some of my experiences of sixth grade. I am enjoying middle school a lot, and am eager to go on into seventh grade. See you next year!
This is a photo of my old 3d grade class. This is really important to me because some of my most epic memories (embarrassing and funny!) were made there. I am the girl smiling in the first row, the second left. My BFF, or best friends forever (who I had to leave behind when I moved here!) is the girl also in the front row, the second right. Warning: this is a bit personal! My old crush is the boy in the third row, the immediate right, the one with curly golden hair, a funny expression, and glasses. Live back then was simpler…
Our humanities class has a big project named Early Humans and Us. It is a project about the ascend from early humans to modern humans. There are three topics in the project: technology, diet, and community. I chose diet. This is my thinglink. Hope you learn something from it!
This is my groups’ design project. We call it Galaxy Basketball because it is kind of like a basketball game in the galaxy, though we didn’t paint the inside. It is still fun though, due to the huge smiles on the fourth graders’ faces! One thing I would like to change is the color to make it more like a galaxy and less like poisonous clouds in a background of black. My biggest success was the actual building of the project. It turned out all right, and it was fun, cutting out the parts and gluing them together. One piece of advice I would give a future student doing this project is to give it lots of thought. Once you start, there’s no turning back, though you can tweak some things around!
My Skiing Trip. My narrative draft is about a time I went skiing in Japan with my family and got a really bad stomach ache in the middle of a slope. At first, I considered writing about my small cute kitten, but I decided that wouldn’t make a good story. My first draft was rough, but know it is pretty descriptive. I think my narrative is pretty good, but I feel like if I wrote about something else, it would be better. But I am still proud of my narrative! And I still like skiing, no matter my experiences. Don’t get me wrong!
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