On Monday, we saw what the class looked like and what they had done. We saw the auto shop that was turned into their workshop. We learned that we had to be very careful using the tools.
On Tuesday, we learned about what we are going to do in the class and how we could get an A. Then we played a name game for the rest of the day. We Learned about the class rules and what we were going to do the next day.
On Wednesday, we got into groups and planned how we were going to build our bridges.
On Thursday, we started to build or bridge we started out by glueing the spagetti together to build the frame of the bridge.
August 15, 2016 - August 19, 2016
On Monday, we learned about how websites worked and how we were going to be using html to make them. We made a simple program and saved it to our computer so that we could see what our websites would look like.
On Tuesday we learned more about websites and had lots of issues with the laptops. I couldnt do much in the class because of this. when i finally go to work on my website, I decided to add a picture. I searched up how to add a picture and i made it work. It was easy for me because I had made a website before.
On Wensday, it was was wensday challenge and we got into our groups again. We started to glue the little pieces of speggetti to the 2 foot long pieces so that we could make the frame. In the middle of making the bridge, I had to go make my website "live".
On Thursday, we learned how to use the sbg template. It took me some time to understand what was happening but i managed to do everything right.
On Friday, we started to glue the first panel with a second panel so that we could start to create a triangle like we planned. We did that the whole period because it was a very slow process. We were very slow compared to the other teams because our design was more complicated than theirs. We will probably only end up making two tests before the actual thing.
August 22, 2016 - August 26, 2016
On Monday, we worked on our websites for the first 30 minutes of calss. Then we learned how to open sketchup and export the file in 2d graphics.
On tuesday, we fixed the issue on how the 2d grapics was showing a skeleton instead of a picture. Then we learned how to put the pictures in our website. I already did this before so it wasnt anything new.
On wednesday, we worked on our bridges again. We decided that we were probably not going to make any bridges for tests and that the one we were making was our final one. to finish the bridge we put the last panel/side and glued some reinforcemnts on.
On thursday we worked on our websites again. I just added some things that I thought would be a good addition to the website like a background. On friday, Mr. Willton, who owned a machine workshop, came to the class to speak about how he helped the engineering classes. He was actually a really smart person who made the workshop by himself. He told us about what he did when was our age.
August 29, 2016 - September 1, 2016
On Monday, We learned even more of this website stuff. My friends wanted my assistance for their website.Suddenly, I realized how much I know about HTML from before. I have been able to make a veteran-quality website.
On Tuesday and wednesday, we continued to work on the bridges. Our team is actually ahead and I am pretty confident that we will at least do better than average. I like doing this because when we finish glueing what we want, it is basically free time for us.
On Thursday, a full month of hard work to got to this day. The anxiety was full in everyone's eyes. All of our hard work paid of but we spilled some of the water. My team, Connor's team, won with a score of 13. I learned to use triangles or trapizoids in bridges to help hold more weight.
September 6, 2016 - September 9, 2016
On Tuesday, we worked on our websites and worked on making it up to date. Overall,it was a pretty boring day.
On Wednesday, we finally started our second wednesday challenge. We got into our groups and started to talk about solution to the problem. The problem was to make a device that would tell the difference between a cat and a dog. We thought that we could put food on a pole with grip on it so that if it was a cat, it can climb up. We almost won but it wouldn’t work with an older cat. We learned that we should think of all the things that could possibly happen first.
On Thursday, Mr miller told us how he was going to grade us on our websites:
1)Content = 60% of grade.
2)Style = 20% of grade.
3)Mechanics = 20% of grade
September 12, 2016 - September 15, 2016
On Monday, luckily we weren't exactly working on websites. We were practicing more on SketchUp. We had to make a city with 25 buildings. I planned out shere i would put the buildings and the size of them before i acually made them. The whole period we worked on that and I decided to put it on my website
On Tuesday, We worked on SketchUp today as well, but instead of making cities, we had to make an exact jenga block. We were given a jenga block and we had to practice with its dimensions to get the real deal. People were called by Mr. Miller and explained to us about the safety course and had us send an an email to him.
On Wednesday, Another Wednesday Challlenge. Mr. Miller told us this would be our easiest and hardest challenge to do. We had to make a piece of wood two inches long. For our first try we were not very close, for our second try we were even closer to two inches but we never got it exact. We were the only ones to get the same measurement on all four sides.
On Thursday, in the beginning we went to our normal seats and stuff, then Mr. Miller announced we would be continuing our Wednesday Challenge from yesterday. I was confused because we already finished it. Since our team had finished it, we decided to touch the wood up and then have free time. I used the free time to catch up on all of my entries. I had 7 entries to do and I finished them with my free time.
On Friday, we talked about the JPL competition. The veterans told us what the rules were and basically told us what they needed to focus on. They also talked about the ideas they had for it. I personally like the kevin arm because it was simple and was fast. we would just need it to spill all the water in the vent.
September 19, 2016 - September 23, 2016
On Monday, me, Lucas, Krish, and some others were called to the tech shop to give mr miller our emails so that he could send us the course. We were called first becuase we were the only ones to sign up for it over the weekend like we were supposed to. We need to do the course so that we can work in the workshop.
On Tuesday, Meghan Musser from skillify came to our class to tell us about skillify and how it works. She expalned how skillify was very helpful for things like internships and choosing a career
On Wednesday, it was the usual wednesday challenge. This time we were supposed to take pvc pipes that were cut in half for each person in our team which was a half of the class. Then, each person is supposed to use the pipes to get a marble into a bag from around 20 feet. We got the first marble in but the other team got the second marble in first.
On Thursday, Mr.Neato told us that he was going to grade the websites and told us what he was going to look for. So for the rest of the day we were just working on catching up and putting the pictures and links on our websites.
On Friday, the veterans talked to us about the JPL competition like usual. They showed us their partially working models of the machines they were going to make. Mr willton told them some of the things he thought about them and most of his points were something that they had missed. It was interesting to see what the veterans did after making a sketch-up of it.
September 26, 2016 - September 30, 2016
On Monday, Dr neat showed us how he graded the websites. He told us that he did not look at some things because almost no one had them. I was one of the few who got a 10/10 on my website and I was satisfied.
On Tuesday, at the start of the period we watched a video of the Falkon 9 exploding. We worked on websites for the rest of the period. It was nothing new.
On Wednesday, it was the usual wednesday challenge. This time we were put into groups of 4. My team was the only one to have 3 people. We were only given the instructions for the competion and we had to interpret what the rules meant. These were the rules:
1) Design and build an arch bridge
2) Team must have a design approved by me before they start building
3) The bridge must be made out of all the same unit blocks
4) The winning bridge will be the team with the longest span normalized by
the building blocks longest dimension.
5) The blocks must be countable
6) No adhesives allowed
7) Final competition will be on Friday
8) Must have a PowerPoint describing your teams bridge (template provided)
9) Good Luck! At the first we started to think about what the rules meant in the first place. We found out what an arch bridge was and what longest span normalized by
the building blocks longest dimension meant. we also decided we would use rubber for our material.
On Thursday, we continued to work on the arch bridge. We started by cutting an eraser we had into trapizoids. We then tried stacking them up on two sides and make them meet up so that it would become the bridge. In the end it actually worked and we were the only team that had an idea and made it work so far. I was very proud of myself for actually pulling this off with an eraser that I had and no proper measuring or any precision at all.
On Friday, we talked about JPL again. Kevin showed us his improved version of the kevin arm. I honestly still belive that that is the best device at the moment. Next, they showed us the machine that goes on a rail. It was interestin but it felt like it was too complicated and needed to be simple. After that they showed us the device that would suck the water and drop it into the vessel. They talked about how it would be difficult for the vacum to actually lift the water. Then, they talked about 2 other devices that I didnt really know how they would work.
October 3, 2016 - October 7, 2016
On Monday through wednesday we were working on the arch bridge. We had a pretty good start and we just have to perfect it and make more blocks of eraser. We are making them less angled so that the arch acan be larger. We alos put some holes in some of the blocks wo that they would be lighter. When we first tried putting up the bridge, we failed. It collapsed on itself. Then we tried to put more of the lighter blocks with holes in them. It worked ad we got the highest score we ever got which was 8. We estimated that we would get a score of 7 just ecause we didn't think we would get 8 again.
On Tuesday, we tested other ways we could build the bridge and thought of ways we could have a plan B.
On Wednesday, we continued to just make our eraser bridge better by adding more of the blokcs. we go to a point where the bridge would collapse if we added more blocks so we made a few of them more lighter by putting holes in them.
On Thursday, it was finally the time we tested our arch bridges. Suprisingly we got a score of 9.14 which is REALLY GOOD. Some other teams did pretty good but I think we won.
Arch Bridge Power point
On Friday, we did JPL again. It was pretty much the same thing like every time. They showed us what they did new and the improvements they made. It was interesting how connor's machine was going to look like in my opinion.
October 10, 2016 - October 15, 2016
On Monday, we watched a video that showed a guy making music with different science experiments and it was cool. The rest of the day we just worked on our websites and made a stairecase in sketchup and that was also cool.
On Tuesday, we learned how to make curved edges in sketchup. It required a lot of lines and it was kind of annoying to erase the lines without messing everything up.
On Wednesday, there was a wednesday challenge, like usual. This time it was stacking cards. We had to make the tallest bridge we could and whoever had the tallest, won. We did not do good this time because none of us had the patents or skill to do it.
On Thursday, today we created a card on sketchup. It was kind of hard to make the curves like always and it was annoying how it deleted the sides instead of the lines because i went off of the card
On Friday, the veterans talked to us about the JPL competition like usual. They showed us their fully working models of the machines they were going to make. Mr willton told them some of the things he thought about them and most of his points were something that they had missed. It was interesting to see how the veterans made their machines actually work.
October 17, 2016 - October 20, 2016
On Monday, we worked on making a pencil with sketchup. This time we didnt have any instructions so it was kind of interesting to see what people did.
On Tuesday, we continued to work on the pencil. At the end of the period I finally finished the penicil. My friend had to help me make the polygon.
the Pencil
On Wednesday, there was the WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE. This time we were alloyed to make teams by ourselves and it could have as many people as we wanted. Most of the class wanted to make the whole class a team so that we could all get an A BUT some people were really stubborn so we had to make two teams in total.
Right Triangle WC
On Thursday, We continued to work on the right triangle. We figured out that if we taped 3 straws that were 3,4,and 5 inches, then we would have a right triangle. We suceeded in making the triangle but we do not know if we won.
October 24, 2016 - October 28, 2016
On Monday, we went over the website and wednesday challenge. Dr.Neat told us how much the webites affected our grades. The grades were not up so I didnt know what my grade was. I was sad.
On Tuesday, I did nothing. I was all up to date so i just sat down and waited for something to happen. Dr neat gave us a lego block to do on sketchuup so i did that and it was kind of fun.
On Wednesday, there was the WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE. This time we were assigned to estimate how many candy corns are needed to fill a sheet of paper. We first thought of taking a picture Of the example that drneato was going to show us but then we decided that that would just be cheating so we just calculated how many would fit in the paper by using math. We divided the area of the paper by the area of the candy corn and got a score of 548. In the end, the winning team had won by just taking a picture of the example.
Candy Corn WC
On Thursday, we worked on the sketchup assignment, making a lego block, and our websites. It was pretty boring.
the Lego Block
On Friday, We did the jpl thingamaginger and it was basically the same thing again. There were some things going on with the group that had a bunch of pullies. I worked on my website while they talked about it.
October 31, 2016 - November 4, 2016
On Monday, ITS HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! I didn't dress up.
On Tuesday, while I was about to start the bottom of the lego block on sketchup, Dr. Neat told me that he wanted me and some other people to help him organize the next wednesday challenge. We talked about the rules and what I had to do for the rest of the period.
On Wednesday, it was the WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE and I had to take all the E sketchups that everyone made on to a flashdrive so that we can give it to the other teams. Nothing went wrong and everything went smoothly. I found it interesting how everyone made there Es.
E WC
I WAS A JUDGE
E results
On Thursday, today we continued the wednesday and I had to pass the sketchups to the other teams. After that, we had to pass out cardboard to each of them according to the size they wanted. It was a lot more annoying than the first day.
On Friday, The JPL groups presented. It was the same thing except, this time each group has a real-life model to demonstrate with and the group with a bunch of pulleys actually accomplished something this time even though they were still behind. I'm excited to see the results of the competition.
November 7, 2016 - November 11, 2016
On Monday, we talked about the websites and who had the best website. I was not proud of the grade i got before this one but this time i got a 10/10 so I was happy. The second thing we did was assemble the groups that were together in the wednesday challenge and have them choose the E that they wanted to get graded.
On Tuesday, I was unfortunately David was absent and we could not grade the E’s because he had the flash drive that had all the sketchups on them. Instead, I was called to finish the test thingamagiger that allowed me to work in the workshop which was funish.
On Wednesday, there was a new wednesday challenge. For this challenge we had to decide the ratio of the weight of two objects which was a metal block and a bag of nuts. Once we decided our ratio, we then weighed them both to see if our prediction was correct.
'Group members' is not in WC form... Group Members: Elizabeth, Arthur, Paul and me
Ratio WC
On Thursday, the JPL people were given time to demonstrate or describe their inventions. It was the same thing but I liked seeing Kevin’s arm work.
On Friday, Nothing happened because there was no school. I did nothing at home either.
November 14, 2016 - November 18, 2016
On Monday, Today we are just working on our websites. dr. Neato came around to check if we had our Wednesday Challenges and Lego Blocks. We finally finished grading the Es and we showed the class who won.
On Tuesday, Dr.neato showed us how to do the bridge project thing. I couldnt work on it because i was so behind on the website.
On Wednesday, there was a new wednesday challenge. For this challenge We were asked to put adhesive on two tabs of aluminum. Use sheer force to separate them. Use an apparatix and milk gallons for sheer force. Suprisingly everyone passed the test.
sheer force WC
the Puller thingamagiger that pulls the tabs apart
On Thursday, The whole day we were to work on our websiteds and wednesday challenge. Lucas' computer broke, so he lost all his stuff on his laptop but it was still on filezilla. That was the only interesting thing that ahppened.
On Friday, We Today's the last day of JPL. I got to start and end the timer for each group. I went behind the scenes, and got to see each group's approach and build.
November 28, 2016 - December 2, 2016
On Monday, I was tired. We started out by doing a sketchup and learned how to rotate things and how rotating things on different points of a shape will turn it different ways.
On Tuesday, JPL talked to us about what happened in the competition on ?Saturday?. Sam's device didnt work because one of the ropes got tuck on one of the bars. The kevin arm worked smoothly exept for the fact that it lost some/lot of water. The vacum device did the worst but go the boing award for creativity or something. No one qualified or the finals sad face.
On Wednesday, there was a wednesday challenge. This wasnt anything exactly special but it was fun. We had to make a structure out of marshmallows, gram crackers, and pretzels in sketchup. Then we got a sketchup from another team and we ahd to build it in real life.
sheer force WC
On Thursday, We continued the wednesday challenge. Today we had to build the other teams structure. The other team did not measure the objects before they made the sketchup so there were problems with the proportions. Other than that it was pretty simple.
On Friday, We had a free day. We watched myth busters for the whole class and it was fun. I got to work on my website and watch tv.
December 5, 2016 - December 9, 2016
On Monday, Dr neat announced the final. The final is to build a machine that does what the jpl challenge but half the size. By size i meant length. We half to do it under 18.38 seconds
