At the moment we are working on our maker project. The group and I decided we wanted to build a dollhouse for kids at safe place. Safe Place is an orginization where people who go through abuse can go to find a safe place. We wanted to build this dollhouse because we wanted the kids at Safe Place to have something to do and also be able to interact with other children. We based our ideas over looking at simple ways to build a dollhouse with our own ideas. We also will be able to use the 3-Dprinter for building furniture. Im very excited about this project and I’m also looking forward to the outcome.

On our last module, we had to work on the mechanical systems. We first saw a video and took notes on many different mechanisms that we saw. There was a Chain Drive, Rack and Pinion, Belt Drive, and a lot of other more. We had to decide on a mechanism and build it. I chose to build a Chain Drive.

Building the Chain Drive was difficult and easy at the same time, but I finally got the hang of it and finished it. The picture below is my finished Chain Drive.

After finishing the Chain Drive me and my partner had to build our own mechanism using the other mechanisms that we took notes on. We mechanism had  to be able to beat an egg. So using what we learned in class, we started building. We worked together and used a chain drive and added two gears so it could beat two eggs at the same time.

Building our own mechanism took some time. But we finished it. It had it’s hard times because after we placed some parts together we noticed that we had it all wrong so we had to start over again.

I really enjoyed working on this module because I learned a lot from it. Some parts were a little difficult but some were easy. 🙂

BY: Sara V.

Computer Science

Hello my name is Leslie and today I am going to talk about the last module I did. The last module I did was computer science which is in the engineering pathway.

For the first challenge my partner(Sara) and I had to define computer science in our own words. Another thing we had to do for this challenge is answering some questions like, what are some complex examples of computers? The picture on the right is a list of what we thought of computer science.

Before starting the second challenge we had to watch two videos. The first video was about computer science and the second video was about little bits. After I had finished watching those two videos we started with our second challenge. For the second challenge we started playing with the LittleBits kits to get to know the kit. After playing with the kit we had to design a computer that is a work of art. We designed a buzzer that is placed on the arm and whenever you shake someone’s hand the buzzer would go on.

By: Leslie Morales

As you already know from previous blog post is that we do modules in PLTW so the last two weeks in PLTW I have been working on my module with my group. The module that we decided to do was in the biomedical field and it was simulations applications in medicine, the simulation that we did was the life expectancy in the U.S. population.

For this module first we had to watch a video to get a better idea of what bioengineering was. Next was challenge one, for this challenge we had to read an article and we had to answer the following questions What stimulated the FDAs move toward promoting the use of simulation in testing?  How are they responding? Do you think simulation will become the only way we test medical devices and procedures? Why or why not?  What does the FDA think? How does this relate to the use of simulation in other fields? What was the main idea of this article? How does it fit in the “big picture” of health care? and I said that the FDA saw the science engineers working with simulations and they saw that the simulations were responding very well so they decided to keep using the simulations. Yes and no because it is a good way to test medical devices since they respond so well, but also there has to be other ways to test the medical device. Its not like the simulations can feel what an actual human body would be able to feel with a medical device also you wouldn’t be able to actually see how the human body would react. What I think the main idea of this article was to show how simulations are becoming a big part of the medical side of things by giving evidence to show people.

Next was challenge two and for this challenge we had to go to a website called  Wolfram’s online simulations, we had to find a simulation that we were interested in and make a presentation about that simulation. As I said in the beginning that we chose life expectancy in the U.S. population when we went to the website it showed us a graph for the probability survival rate for both males and females. So the purpose of the simulation is to look at the increasing and decreasing life expectancy rates for the U.S. population. By looking at the simulation we will know what to expect in the future for certain groups of people and their death rates in certain times and places. Something that surprised me i challenge two was that its  scientifically proven that men develop health problems about 10 years before women. As I was researching I found out that for every 1,000 men who have cardiovascular problems between the age of 55 and 65, there are only 25 women in the same situation, and this really blew my mind. In the end I found out a lot about our population and this has to be one of my favorite modules.

~Alyssa Infante

In a STEM Perceptions study (conducted by Microsoft), 57% of boys and 68% of girls who chose a high tech career say they were inspired by one person, one event, or one class during their middle or high school years. You’d think that with this astounding statistic, our education system would allow the opportunity for students to connect with tech workers in the real world to better ensure their futures. But as our career paths are morphing into todays oddities, most schools are not adapting with it. Only 20% of American students participate in STEM based classrooms, therefore a vast majority of our middle and high school kids do not have an opportunity to be inspired through a wide variety of role models. But one company has broken all the class rules, giving students the ability to communicate with professionals in today’s relevant work fields.

Nepris’s team of experienced engineers are dedicated to developing new technology solutions in schools all over the world. They have spent hundreds of hours teaming up with companies, universities, non-profits, chambers of commerce, technology council and the likes to close the gap between industry and education. In truth, there is only so much a teacher can do to enrich their students learning, whether that be with field trips, special guests, or project mentors. Schools in rural areas lack the opportunity to connect with diverse industries, and most companies find it hard to accommodate with curriculum for younger audiences. When boundaries like these pop up, who says there isn’t an easier, faster way to teach students through alternative routes, like the internet?

I had the opportunity to skype a professional through Nepris, mentoring my group and I through our questions and wonderings about a topic revolved around our maker faire project. Not only were we paired up with the perfect mentor, we received informational emails, guiding us through the steps and ensuring we were happy with our partner. The application was so easy, and we were able to be inspired with new ideas in little to no time.

~McClain D.

 

Being an engineer is not easy. Some people think that its really simple to create and build something. That was me, but now that my team and I have decided to create something I have noticed that its not as easy as it looks. Here is my journey so far.

As the Maker Fair gets closer our project is progressing. In the beginning, my team had a completely different idea of what our project was going to be. At the beginning we thought we could create this amazing tree chime that would make all this amazing things, but as many of us know not all ideas come true.

Our journey has been a progress in making. At the begging we did not what we wanted the tree chime to look and how it would work. As engineers do, we spend three days drafting our own ideas and including measurements and everything else needed. Once we were done with drafting, we noticed that some of the object from the original idea won’t work and would take more time then we had to construct them. From there we went to drafting again. Luckily it only took half a class period, because we’ve discussed what was going to be in the tree chime and what wouldn’t.

Luckily during that class we created the top of our tree, and we made it look like an original acacia tree. We compared styles because we didn’t want it to be an “original” tree and not everybody knows about the acacia tree. Once we had done that we moved to the tree truck. My team and I, decided to make the tree two different trunks and then combine them.

All of that was made out of cardboard, in case we made mistakes we knew what to fix. Once we were sure that everything was correct we  looked up what were the best material to use. Luckily we had scheduled a nepris video chat with a person that built things with reusable things and concentrated on building to make sound.

Luckily he was helpful and he had given us a lot of subjection on how to make better sound. Once we were done chatting with him we were really proud of what we had , and decided to go forward with actually constructing the actual tree chime.

It has been a week since we where at school, and once we were back we noticed that a lot of material were not the right size so we had to go back. We still haven’t finished out tree chime, but patience is the key to ending with a good result.

By: Bunmi Oni

The frustration is real.

The pressure is on.

People are forming groups,

not acting like them.

But I am a one-woman show.

I have changed my project

4 times.

I am just now starting

to get started.

I must finish in one month,

or face the utter humiliation

of not being part of Make-o-Rama.

I am determined,

to make this project

absolutely

positively

my own.

The frustration is real.

The pressure is on.

And I am not working

for a grade.

I am working

to make this

perfect.

For the Makers Project we are creating a dollhouse. This will be delivered to Safe -Place for the children. The dollhouse will be large enough to fit 3+ people to play on at once, which is quite convenient for eager and playful children.

This Report below displays our progress on our doll house:

1:24 Scale Residential Model Objects

by clintkc, published Jan 27, 2012

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16567

Maker Project Status Report

Tasks we have planned for this cycle:

Task	Person(s) responsible	Estimated time to complete in hours	Estimated expected competition (days)	Completed by end of cycle? (Yes or No)
Collecting Materials to start with the construction	Lily Bedford, and Ray-mya Hardeman	24hr	1	no
Building prototype	Lily Bedford,and Ray-mya Hardeman	24 hr	3	yes
Blueprint Completion	Lily Bedford and Ray-mya (room for more group members)	1hr 30min	1 class period	yes
Completed Project	Lily Bedford and Ray-mya (room for more group members)	480 hr	20

Materials:

 

Material	Acquired – Yes or No
Paint: All colors of rainbow brown, black, and grey	no
Old cloth from clothes and other items(fabric)	yes
Wood(1/4in; 2×4’): $11.92 /each 12 pieces needed	no
2 in screws	yes

Hello all! Welcome to my latest and greatest blog post! Come along on this journey on my groups latest module. During these last few weeks, our group has chosen the computer science module *cue gasping*. It’s actually a lot less scary than I thought it would be. Little Bits is basically just hands on coding, so scary computer business, just little magnets connecting to see what they do.

We came upon this module when we were scrolling through the PLTW haiku page looking for a module we hadn’t done yet. We were looking through the engineering modules and we came across computer science. At first we thought “it’s computer science, it’s going to be boring, and just coding. we’re not doing that.” But then, we asked someone if they had done the module, and they had said it was so fun and it was great. So we checked it out, and automatically fell in love and said “we have to do this.”

While we were doing our module, we also had to be moving on with our maker project and application. We had to fill out the Maker Application, and be assembling/thinking of an idea of something to make with our Little Bits.

Our maker project is a grand idea. Not only are we using our imagination for a new product, but we are also including a social issue. We are making an LED t-shirt that lights up and supports gay rights. We are also asking the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) at our school if they wanted to make anything to hand out as we are modeling our shirts at the Makerama this year. they will probably just make a small pamphlet or something.

So in conclusion, please, do not be afraid of the words COMPUTER SCIENCE because the chances are, you’re more scared of them than they are of you. Just ask around and make sure it is something you love though. Don’t just jump head first into something you don’t know anything about. Signing off, :).

Hey everyone, Maite here. I wanted to talk to y’all today about the change and evolution of our plans and ideas on our projects. As we begin to work on our maker projects more deeply, my group and I realized there was room for lots of change and improvement. Our original plan was to make a fashion line or piece of clothing with some sort of lighting.

 

As we kept working it changed to a t shirt with some sort of LED light design. We stopped thinking about changing the plan and just working on it. We continued finding our materials and such and when the Intel people came to see what we were working on and talk to us, we came to the decision that we needed to add some things to make our ideas better. Mrs. Sauter also gave us the idea of having our t-shirt support some social issue or have some purpose other than to simply light up. Something people will want it for.

 

So as we got rid of some parts of our project, and added some others, our project became much better. We now have a much more solid plan, with lots of materials and technology we know we will use. Also, we are making our t-shirt to support gay rights and equality. Now instead of having no purpose our project stands for something as well. So what I’m saying is, change is good! Don’t be afraid to get rid of some ideas, or throw out new crazy ones!