Did your semester go the way you had imagined? Why or why not? I’ve never been the one to think that far ahead. I usually try to go with the flow. I knew this semester was going to be a fun though after learning what the project was going to be. With all the freedom we got and the new experiences I got to receive, I do think this semester was more or less how I planned it would be and more.
List and elaborate on at least three areas of personal growth. Through all the exploring we’ve done, I have gained a new appreciation for San Diego’s landscape and nature in general. Because of this new appreciation, It was sad learning about how big of an impact ocean acidification is putting on our earth. I also feel I have grown in the way that I appreciate my healthy body. My mom has had a broken leg for the past 3 months and has made our home life a whole lot more difficult. I now have a greater respect for handicap persons and the struggles they go through. As the years go by at this school I start to think more and more about my future and all the struggles that are bound to happen. I as I keep improving I start to look at the world in a more mature way. I feel like my work in general is becoming more professional and more advanced. I feel i have changed as a person in that sense. I’m striving for more. List and elaborate on at least three areas of academic growth. Business was something I have always thought about pursuing as a career. I love the science of money and how you can make more with your money depending on how you use it or where you put it. I loved learning about this in Adam’s class and has made me want to learn about it even more. This was also my first year learning real chemistry, I always loved playing with the kits but never knew why the reactions that occurred happened. It was really nice to learn why these reactions occur and even see them put to the test sometimes. During my free time, I invested a lot of my time in building my own electric skateboard. I’m still not finished but am getting closer and closer everyday. Through the build I have been learning tons about engineering and electronics which was something I had no knowledge of before. Did you accomplish or move closer to accomplishing any goals you had at the beginning of the semester? If so, explain how, if not, explain why. I’ve never been a fan of reading. Because of this I never put in the effort of looking up words I didn’t know when forced to read. Because of this I struggled when talking to well educated adults sometimes. I’d have awkward moments because of not knowing a word they said. I’ve now been taking it a lot more serious by looking up these words and expanding my vocabulary. State and describe two goals for next semester. One in an area of personal growth and one in an area of academic growth. Additionally, very specifically explain how you plan to accomplish them. Next semester I have a mandatory spanish class that I am kind of nervous about, but also looking forward too. Both my parents were born in the Dominican Republic and are fluent in spanish. I don't speak very much spanish with them though because I’d rather just talk in my native tongue so I won’t have to think hard about every sentence I say. I do have a general background in spanish though and can carry on a decent conversation. My goal is to push myself a bit further in that class and step out of my comfort zone. Through doing that I hope to invest that grit into other subjects. Did you engage in our project and the work that surrounded it to the best of your ability? If yes, cite and explain examples, if no, reflect on why that was, and what could have been done differently to get you to engage. To be 100% honest, I do feel I could’ve done something a lot more unique with our weather balloon. I also wish we could’ve recovered it, but unfortunately it didn’t follow the wind patterns we were expecting it to. I really wanted to do a launch with life aboard and create a capsule to keep it alive. All our ideas were shut down though because of the chance of the life form not surviving and being charged with animal cruelty. We did however send up a new way we hoped to record data up there. We might never know if it worked or not since it was never recovered. Hopefully we can do a similar launch in the future. If you could design and execute your own semester, your own project, what would it be and why? What would you hope others would learn from it? I would love to do some sort of project having to do with non carbon emitting vehicles that would then be rode around at the end of the year. For example, my electric skateboard is a fuel efficient way of getting around and I’ve learned a bunch about engineering during the build. It also tied in with chemistry when we learned about ocean acidification and how carbon released from cars and many other carbon emitting machines have a really bad impact on our earth. What feedback do you have for us, Andrew and Adam? How could the project have been better? How could our individual classes have been better? I really love how both Andrew and Adam gave us a lot of freedom with what we wanted to do. It forced us to learn how to manage our time better and also gave us opportunities to make the project fun for everyone. I do wish materials were a little more accessible during the project though. We had so many different projects going on and so many materials going around. I wish we had had a more efficient way of storing them and buying exactly what we needed. Other than that this was a great semester and feel I have learned a lot from it.
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Hypothesis- My group and I and are a pretty creative bunch that want to do something really amazing with our weather balloon. Our plan is to send up a beta fish and have it come back alive. We are going to do this by using a vacuum sealed container that will keep the water aerated so the fish can breathe. The container is a Hydro Flask which claims to be vacuumed sealed. We're really going to test that. To keep the water warm we will be using heat pads around the hydro flask so that the fish doesn't freeze to death. We might also try and use plexiglass instead of the lid of the Hydro Flask to see if we could see what the fish does while in space. I really do believe that the fish will live through this and come back with no injuries. We'll also test the Hydro Flask in a vacuum chamber before sending it up on the weather ballon to really make sure the fish will be safe. Update- Unfortunately our plan of sending a Beta fish to space has been declined due to the fact that there is a possibility of the package not being found and the fish eventually dying which also counts as animal cruelty. We have now moved on to doing a Spacepancake theme to go along with our Chemistry teacher's blog which is called Spacepancake. We'll make space themed pancakes that will be in frame with the Earth below to make an amazing new picture to go on the wallpaper of our teacher's blog.
Testing- Before launching a weather balloon, you must perform a very important test to make sure your package can withstand the harsh winds at high altitudes. The "Shake Test" as we call it one of the most important things to do before launch. You'd rather have something break down here than up there. Our group started off by collecting almost everything that was going to be in the package and fixed it into it designated spot including the pancakes. After doing this we were going to attach it to a paint shaker in order to get the best shake, but unfortunately it was being used for another experiment. Instead I just manually shook it as hard as I could. Sometimes I even flipped it upsidedown. After doing this, we saw that everything was still in their spot, giving us the "OK" for launch. Launch and Recovery- The whole launch and recovery part of this project was the most hectic/crazy/tiresome, but also the most fun and adventurous. We headed north to Oceanside to do the launch since the winds were going to blow the balloon farther south than we had expected. When we got there we realized we had forgotten the tarp which is used as a surface to inflate the balloon without it popping on grass. Since we forgot it we ended up holding it with neoprene gloves while filling it with helium. It turned out that there was not enough helium in the balloon to lift the package. Because of this we had to drive 20 miles to buy more. About an hour and a half later we filled the balloon up and let it fly only to realize that it was the last time we'd ever see that balloon again. The day after launch we checked the GPS to see where the balloon landed. It turned out that it had gone way farther south than we had ever expected. It also turned out that the gps stopped working mid flight and never alerted us where or when it landed. It was going to be like finding a needle in a hay stack. We organized a recovery team to try and find it in the mountains we thought it might have landed in. Right next to where the GPS had given us our last alert. We searched and hiked for hours, using binoculars and all. We never found it. The only chance we have of getting it back is for either the GPS to somehow give us an alert or for someone to find it and contact us since we put our contact information on the package. We will launch anotherone though, and hope that this doesn't happen again. Material list and Schedule Schedule-docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sfhHIC2-4xWj2mMe7AVn9nG7Yct842RfNJR__tK0wSU/edit#gid=0 Materials-docs.google.com/document/d/1-UsGIEf7g3iW-NUmIyBUej9ESeU26IVqucqn2C5i5lc/edit# StoryboardVideo-www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF1awehMmMo&feature=youtu.be Reflection-docs.google.com/document/d/1gARvlvCf8asPs4toZpqglnw9rNxoJwRTIL3h6soU6wU/edit?usp=sharing This Video answers the following
Balsa Rocket Reflection- docs.google.com/document/d/1cZ4lTJNrJdpI0xaXceyTZbeFTXEPiZRQKUUZ97BPMTs/edit# I remember last year, watching teachers and students learn how to make a balsa rocket. I was always too busy to go and try and learn how to make them since I was directing an ancient greek play. I was so glad when I heard that we would be making these amazing rockets this year, since I thought I had lost my chance. I dived into my rocket making it as aerodynamic as possible, while also balancing it perfectly so it would fly straight. When I launched my rocket I was both happy, but also a little disappointed. I was happy that it at least went off the launch pad, since many of the other rockets didn't. I was disappointed because I was thinking that it was going to fly in the air. Maybe even past 75 feet. In reality though, it went about ten to fifteen feet before lawn darting into the ground. I have learned that every little thing goes into a rocket to make it meet your expectations. My rocket might have not flown as high because it was either too heavy or the motor was to moist. I will try my hardest to minimize all these factors so that I can see my rocket really fly. I'll reduce the weight of my rocket while keeping its front heavy design. I'll also build a bigger and better motor that will produce more thrust to send my rocket to infinity and beyond! |
Balsa Rocket Building processMy design
My Review |