Here in our PLTW (Project Lead The Way) class we do things very differently, we don’t have the usual ‘teacher standing at the front of the room teaching’, Our Teacher Mrs. Sauter is very laid back and cool, in the beginning of the year, on one of our school websites Haiku, she made a ton of these things called Modules. Modules are these mini projects that we complete with a group or by ourselves, in these modules we normally have two challenges, one to be completed as a group and one individually, in the span of 1-2 weeks. After we complete those challenges we have a reflection from the module to reflect what we learned and later we have to complete a quiz. Like for example, I am currently working on the Automation and Robotics module. For my first challenge I had to do research on an Industrial robot. For my research I had to answer some questions to get a better understanding on what an Industrial Robot is. Heres what I learned. The Industrial robot can do many different tasks. Some of the tasks the Industrial Robot can do are welding, painting and handling materials. The Industrial robot can also lift very heavy things, and do the same task everyday, all day for long periods of time, like for years. The Industrial Robot is used in factories, and has six degrees of freedom and six independent joints. The Industrial Robot is multi-functional, it can do many tasks like painting, putting things together, moving things and so much more! The industrial robot is programmed to do the task the owner wants it to do. The Industrial Robot can be automatically controlled and/or reprogrammed. Industrial Robots are very expensive, but they eventually pay off for all the work they produce, some more advantages are it can make things very fast and produce a larger quantity of the product the owner wants. The Industrial Robot can provide employment Jobs/Careers, you can make the Industrial Robots, learn to program it, and/or  run test on the robots. Industrial robots are very cool and can do many things. If I didn’t do this challenge on Industrial Robots then I would have not know what they are, what they can accomplish and what they capable of. After I completed my first challenge, I am now starting on my second challenge. For my second challenge I will be using The Vex Robotic Kit. The Vex Robotics Kit is a kit that people use to build many things that are/can be related to robotics. These Vex Robotics Kits are very cool and very interesting, with the Kits you can make all of these awesome and cool things, you could practically build anything you please. My experience with the Vex Kits are very positive. When your first using the Kits they are very confusing and hard to understand, but the more you use the kits, the more you will start to understand them. When I was starting to use the Vex Program it was very hard for me, I felt like I wanted to quit, but I watched some videos and read some articles to how to understand them better. After watching those videos and reading those articles, I felt better, I sort of knew what to do, but at least I was doing better that I was before. My task is to make a Spinning sign with a catchy title for a Marketing Firm to attract more customers. To save energy I must install a switch for the sign when the store is closed for the night. After I finish that I will just have to complete my reflection and quiz, then I am done with this module and will start another soon! (:

The Industrial Robot.

What’ in the Vex Robotics Kit.

A Vex Robotics Kit.

This year we are doing something new, we are going to be participating in the Maker Faire. Basically, we get in a group and we decide on a project, the roles of everyone and how we’re going to work together as a group. In our group there is Mikeyia, Jousie, Elyssa C., Ginger, Andrea and I. We originally had 7 people, but unfortunately we had to get rid of a group member due to lack of distribution of work evenly and it was just too many people. There are 3 things that I’ve learned working with these people and making decisions on what to do and how to do them.
Thing number one, I learned about leadership. In this group I’m considered the leader. And if I’m being honest, it’s so hard to be the leader of 5 people. There’s always something to do and someone asking “What can I do?” “Whats next?” “How can I help?” and sometimes I don’t know the answers to any of them. I am in charge of making sure everyone is on task, but part of that is knowing what everyone is doing and I can’t do that without knowing what needs to be done. Part of being a leader is having confidence in what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. And it’s not that I don’t have confidence in the people in my group or what I’m doing, it’s that sometimes I don’t have confidence in myself. Also another part of being a leader is having focus, and for me personally, sometimes it’s hard to focus on certain things especially when people are constantly asking questions you don’t know the answers to and when there’s so much going on around you. What I now know is that it’s okay to be frustrated and to ask questions and it’s okay to need/take a break regardless of whether or not you’re a leader. Good leaders make decisions in the best interest of their group, which leads me into my next point.
Decision making is hard. You have to make the best decision that interests others as well as yourself. Sometimes when the decision isn’t in your interest but it’s in everyone else’s you have to let go of yours and just go with the flow. It’s like making a sacrifice for the good of your group. And clearly, the decision you make isn’t always going to be the best and it’s not always going to work out because everyone makes mistakes. But when you do make the wrong decision, it’s important to take ownership of the choice you made. Also, when making a decision it’s important to take into consideration all the things that could go well and all the things that could go bad. So, having an internal pros and cons list is always important. If the good does outweigh the bad and everyone agrees then you have your choice. However if your bad outweighs the good then you should probably reconsider the choice you’re about to make. Like I said before, your plan isn’t always going to work out but it’s always good and important to have a plan B or a fall back plan.
And last but not least, I learned a lot about working in a group. Being in a group of 2 is hard enough but a group of 6 is even harder. But somehow we managed to work it out. Working in a group with 5 other girls is not the easiest thing in the world. Everyone has their own ideas, views and insights and taking all of that into consideration is a whole lot of pressure. Also, sometimes it can be annoying because you can’t agree on a certain thing and you expect everyone to be on task and on point when in all reality that is never the case. That to me is annoying. But when you’re working in a group, it can reduce stress because you’re not in charge of so much and you know that at least half of the group will do what they tell you to. Also, working in a group makes things go by faster because you divide and conquer pretty much everything. Even though working in a group is hard, sometimes and most of the time, it’s worth it in the end.
As you can see, I’ve learned a lot this past 6 weeks, but the most valuable thing that I learned is that its okay to need to take a break, it’s okay to be wrong, and it’s all worth it in the end. Being a leader isn’t the easiest thing in the world but when you see the impact you make and how important you are to the group you’re in, everything seems to fall in place and all of a sudden everything makes sense, and it’s all worth it.

This week for the blog post I decided to talk about my maker fair project! My maker fair project is a catapult and it’s coming along great! The catapult is being done by Cindy,Astrid,Sandy, and me. The catapult is just starting to get built but we have made the prototype and we are just going to double the size of the prototype to do the real thing.

So far the process is coming along. We have the majority of our materials and all we need to start doing is plan it all out. We are going to be using the laser cutting machine and the rest would be put together by hand.  Our maker project is great. I enjoy working with my fellow classmates and I think that we chose a good group with one another. (Qualities of my group members) Sandy is good at controlling the group members and getting them focused again, Cindy is good at designing the things and astrid is good at figuring the things out and putting them together. I am good with tools and especially the mallet. 🙂

     Maker Fair a place to show your creativity and skills and what better way to show them than in a dog house. A dog house is a good way to learn about engineering.  

      Along the process we plan to change up the original design of a dog house and turn it to something unique and useful. We plan to create a two story dog house with safe and fun decorations to accommodate any dog.

      So far we have the base done and are planning to complete it by five more classes. The most important is to include the customers request and to work with all the constraints. Our group has enjoyed this project so far because it has tested our engineering skill and our time management skills. Our goals are to complete the dog house by dividing and conquering but the most important aspect is having the maker space to do it and having professional advice along the way and hopefully we finish it.

Along the way I have learned that communication and group discussion is very important to make decisions also being able to manage our time usefully. 

Elyssa J. Castillo
7th period
Maker Fair Project

There are so many ideas you could do for the maker fair…I chose to do a dog house. I chose to do a dog house because I thought it would be a fun experience. But I realized when we were planning it, that is a long process to go through. Like you have to know what you want it to look like. You have to make a really good sketch, so you can understand it. You have to come up with all the measurements, and it’s pretty much just like making a regular house but for a dog.

Okay so first what we did is that we made a sketch of a two story dog house…yeah this dog is going to live better than I do. But we also made to measurements of the doghouse, then we started to do the measurements of the frame. Then when we started to change the design throughout the time that we’ve spent on it. So we’re pitching in all of our ideas and things like that. We’re not done with it yet but so far it actually really fun and it looks pretty good so far:). And I will catch up with you next time on what happens next, thanks for reading:).

The maker-fair is a project that we will be participating in this year. For our groups project we will be building a 3 by 3 by 3 dog house. Our job is to make sure that Chiki (Chikita) is satisfied with her new house. Chiki’s house will consist of a removable stair case for storage purposes, and the paint to fit her high standards. During the process of Chiki’s dog house we have faced many challenges. At the moment we haven’t yet completed the dog house but when we do it will be fantastic.

During these previous project I have learned leadership & responsibility. Knowing that I have actually worked in the field of “business” I understand the problems and confusions.

By Mikeyia Murray

Right now in PLTW, my group is working on our Maker project. What I love about this project is that there are no limits, which allows us to go above and beyond and really create something spectacular. It allows us to make our imaginations and ideas a reality. Also it’s a lot of fun and allows me to learn new skills I never thought I would know. For example, learning how to use a saw and laser cutter.

Pieces of the real canopy, made with fluorescent acrylic also by the laser cutter.

When we started this project we had an idea to build a unique wind instrument. We had found these wind tubes online, that when you put them in the wind they make musical sounds. We wanted to use them and manipulate them in our instrument to create a beautiful sound when the wind blew through it. But, in life we don’t always stick to our original plans or ideas. Sometimes things come along or we realize that what we first had in mind wouldn’t work out. This happened to my group, as we were planning our project we came up with better ideas and our project has turned into an art piece. I love that we got to explore new things to make this project the best it could be.

Prototype of the tree canopy made by the laser cutter!

Our design for our art piece is a tree. We are making the trunk of the tree out of wood, and the canopy is made out of fluorescent acrylic. We plan to hang marbles and beads from the canopy and put pieces of glass into the trunk. So, when the beads and glass hit it will create a sound like a wind chime. The base will be a pound made out of wood, where more things will hang. We use the laser cutter to build mostly everything in this project. I love how much our project has transformed but still incorporate the original use of wind.

Of course, we’re not done yet. Right now in our building stage we just finished the prototype and are on to the actual thing. It’s exciting, to think that our idea is finally coming to life. I never thought that I would build something like this. In the beginning of the Make Project I was really not looking forward to it, and thought I could just make something simple and easy. I realize now that I’m glad I chose to do this project and it has been a great learning experience for me. It has taught me an important life lesson. Don’t always choose the most simple and easiest things, choose the harder things that will make you the most proud in the end. I can’t wait to see what the final product of our Art Piece will be. I’m so proud of what my group has already accomplished and I know it will be great.

This six weeks, everyone in the 7th period has started their maker project. Students have projects ranging from dog houses to apps for phones. So have we have begun with the first steps of our projects. We are putting all of plans together. We all have high hopes for our maker projects. And we all planned to present them at the maker faire.

My group only consists of two people. Candace Castillo and I are creating a wooden speaker. We got this idea by branching off of our first ever challenge. In our first  challenge, we had the job of creating a speaker using recycled materials. We used materials such as soda cans, aluminum foil, and plastic cups. We have decided to produce a more developed speaker of our recycled ammature version. Our version will be a wood speaker with an intricate design that will project sound.

Our goal for the speaker is that it will have 3 main attributes. One being that the speaker will be eco friendly, we will only being using wood with our speaker. No wires required.  We will rely on the design to amplify the sound. Portable, the speaker will be a relatively small so that the user can take the speaker anyway. And most importantly, the speaker will have loud sound, and the volume of the sound will rely on the volume buttons on the phone. We also plan to make the speaker affordable if we do sell it which is highly unlikely.

At the moment, my partner and I are going over designs. We also used inspiration from a substitute, we once had. She showed us a friend of her’s who had a Esty account who created wooden speaker. We also found designs from a website called Koostik which sells wooden speakers as well. We used these as a base idea for our speaker. Though we haven’t started construction, we have a mentor from Nepris. We hope that the mentor will help us when it comes to creating the speaker and other good information. We are extremely excited to present this at the maker faire.

Website for wooden speakers: Koostik.com