MAKER PROJECTS!

By Bella Thomas

Hey Guys,

It’s Bella Thomas here to give you the 411 on our PLTW Class. So, recently in PLTW we were able to create a new innovation or join a group of people who were creating an innovation or redesigning an old invention to make it better. Our group includes Maddie, Rebecca, Zoe and me. After we formed our groups, we had to fill out an application that Ms. Sauter gave us and then we were able to begin our work.

Like I said before, were divided into groups based on the type of innovations or inventions we were going to create. Our group decided to make something that would help relieve student stress because students really get stressed out during test time. If we do not get help relieving our stress it can eventually harm us. When we were thinking of ways to create a stress reliever, we suddenly decided to create bath bombs because baths are really relaxing.  Bath bombs are great for relieving our mental and physical stress.

After we began researching bath bombs, we discovered ways to make them and different types of relaxing ingredients to use. Next we created our BBMZ Bath Bombs logo. BBMZ stands for Bella, Becca, Maddie and Zoe. It’s the first letter of each group member’s name. We also wanted to have a social media presence, so we opened accounts at Twitter and Instagram. We plan to talk about stress and how to avoid it and how to relieve it with Bath Bombs.  If you want follow us on Instagram or Twitter, just search @BBMZBathBombs.

And lastly, we will test out our bath bombs today. If you want to see what happens, just follow our experiments on Instagram and Twitter using @BBMZBathBombs.

 

This week I choose the module mechanical systems. I choose this module because there isn’t not a lot of modules that fit my interest anymore. At first I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to do it, because I thought it was going to be really hard. Mechanical systems is part of engineering and I’m not really interested in that pathway. Me and my partner knew this module was going to be challenging.

The first thing we had to do was was watch a video about mechanisms and cut out the pictures of the mechanisms, then label them. The video was kind of long, and boring but we go through it. I this point I was a little scared about having to make something. After that we had to pick the letter from our last names and make a mechanism. I did the crank and slider. It was complicated trying to put it together and we were a little confused at first but after the teacher explained it to us we got it. I finished the challenge in 45 minutes. I felt really accomplished because I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. Challenge two wasn’t complicated because I already knew most of the basic stuff. Me and my partner did three separate skewers over a flame all at once.

When I finished this module I felt so accomplished because at first I thought it was going to be hard, I was assuming stuff. Mechanical systems was actually fun. We got to make a lot of interesting things. I’m really glad I decided to do this module because I learned so many new stuff. One of the was to try new things, things that might be out of your comfort zone.

Mechanical Systems

Sounds really complicated. Right?

I thought so too, at first, but after taking some notes about the different gears and how we use them in the world, I started to understand the module, and view it differently than I did the first time I heard of it.

One of the things I really liked about this module was not only the design process and getting to do a hands-on project, but just being able to connect the gears we were learning about in class and understanding how they work and add to the creation being made. I loved learning how we use these gears in the real world, it made me start seeing the world differently. Every time I would see a car pass by, I would think of gear trains, differential gears, bevel gears, and more! It was so exciting learning about the things we use in our daily lives and understanding how they work, isn’t it magnificent how little things can contribute and work together and create one big thing?

While working on this module with some classmates, I felt as if there was a hidden meaning behind this engineering module. I thought that meaning was to understand that even though I am only a person, and it seems as if I can’t do much, I can do my best, and if everyone tries, does their best, and works together, we can all contribute to one big-maybe even life changing thing! I think that is simply wonderful!

I hope you have taken what I have said to heart, that way you can know that, although in the whole scheme of things, you may seem small, you are not, and you can do anything, the only person who is stopping you is yourself.

We are about 2-3 months away from school to be done which means we are about 6 months away from our first day of ninth grade. Which also means that it’s time to get serious but to also reflect. Doing the most recent module and completing the makersfaire application made me realise that a big part of completing your projects is taking time. That may sound crazy but when you think about it, it makes sense.

 

Taking time is essential to working on a project. You need to take the time to first fully understand the project so you know what you’re working to achieve. After that, ask questions. I’ve learnt the hard way that asking questions is an okay thing to do and even if you have a million and one questions, ask them. Because in the long run you’ll understand the task 100% or close to which in the long run will benefit you a lot more than that kid that was confused 70% of the time or more. Because honestly, lets face it, we’ve ALL been that kid at one point or another. Probably more than once. Then at the end is when you finally understand what you’re supposed to do, when its too late.

 

The second biggest thing is to try and not to stress. When you don’t stress you give yourself more time and are more relaxed so you can work better and your ideas can flow more freely. Also don’t forget to give yourself breaks, now by breaks I don’t mean spoiling yourself and giving yourself an hour of doing nothing every 10 minutes. But when you’ve been working hard for a while a 5-10 minute break is good for you so you can relax  and “renew your motivation” as said in this picture of a fact.

In conclusion taking time is the best way to guarantee a less stressful project and an easier way to work.

-Bryana Sanchez

The module that I decided to do this time was the robotics module. In this module we had to look up a certain kind of robot that most people used in all sorts of places. The one I had to look up was the Industrial Robot. A Industrial Robot is a kind of robot that is used in factories to do big kind of jobs that the people can’t do because it can either be very heavy or dangerous for someone to try to do. So after looking up that information and posting it, we could actually build a functioning robot that would move and work. It was really hard to do because it had a lot to do with finding the correct parts to use. And if we didn’t have the right part we had to come up with another kind of plan on how to make it. In the end our robot came out pretty good. We also had to try and program the robot to do certain kinds of functions. The first one that my group did was learn how to make the robot move. And it was a really fun but irritating to do because it had to do with a lot of teamwork and anyone could get frustrated easily. In the end it was really fun to do. -Selena A

Helpful Makeup Tips

by Effy Shapter

For my Maker Project, my group is creating a series of makeup tutorials and makeup tips that will be put together in a video. We will include celebrity makeup tutorials such as: Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner, and Lupita Nyongo. We will also include our favorite products and helpful tips when applying makeup.

Helpful Makeup Tips:

1. Use moisturizer before your foundation

Using Mosturizer before applying your foundation prevents dryness and helps your foundation stay on longer.

2. Always use primer before applying eyeshadow

Using a primer on your eyes, makes your eyeshadow stay on for the day and softens your eyelids.

-If you don’t own a primer you can put your foundation, concealer, or moisturizer.

-My favorite eye primer is from elf. The elf eyeshadow primer is about $2 and can be found in any drug or grocery store.

3. Use a piece of tape to create the perfect cat eyeliner look

-The winged/cat eyeliner look is very hard to create. Putting pieces of tape on the corner of your eyes help you have even-looking cat eyeliner looks. **Make sure that each piece of tape on each eye, is even.

4. How to make your eyes look bigger

Adding a line of white eyeliner in your waterline creates the illusion of bigger eyes.

5. Go easy on the black

Too much of black eyemakeup leads to the illusion of smaller eyes and easy smudging. -Instead of using only black, use a brown color eye shadow for a more natural look
-For lighter skin tones: instead of using black eyeliner and mascara, use brown eyeliner and mascara for a more natural look

I’m looking forward to sharing Natalia and I’s video with you. It will be posted on here as soon as we finish it.

 

I have done a certain module that wasn’t in the Media Tech pathway that I highly enjoyed. It was a very independent project that was something that would be interesting to do. For the Simulation module, it’s like a interacting game that you would play. You would mess with some buttons and adjust the settings to how you would want it, from there you would get certain results.

For this Simulation, I chose one that related to Heart Disease Risks. For that, the settings that were easy to change were if they were male or female and if they smoked or had diabetes. From there you have to change the settings for the LDL and the HDL. The LDL stands for ‘Low Density Lipoprotein’ or the bad cholesterol. HDL stands for ‘High Density Lipoprotein’ or the good cholesterol that you would want for your body.

You also have three lines that move to the way that you coordinate everything. The purple line is the average to what you have everything to, then you have the yellow line which is how low the risk will be when you change the settings. The blue line is the line that you have which is your risk and it can go up depending on how you have the LDL and the HDL and if they are a smoker and have diabetes.

This module was something that I would like to do, maybe something that wasn’t too complex or anything like that. I would not like to have to do a simulation on something that was really confusing and something that I wouldn’t understand.

 

I chose the Heart Disease Risk  Simulation because I at least knew what the word was and what it meant. There were other ones that I would have chosen, but there is something about Heart Disease Risk that made it so interesting and made it something that I would have wanted to do.

 

This module was something that I didn’t think I would see in the Bio Med pathway. I see the Bio Med pathway as you know more about the body and you dissect things but it is actually something that you know a lot more about the body as with the simulations.

I didn’t think that the simulations would be a part of the Bio-Med pathway, I’m glad that I did it because it was something that I really enjoyed.

BBMZ Bath Bombs

For about 2 weeks so far me and my group, Zoe, Becca and Bella have been working on our maker project. We are making bath bombs! For those of you who don’t know what bath bombs are they are these balls that you make out of flour, baking soda, epsom salt and essential oils. You put them in the bath and they dissolve and they make your bath smell really good. The epsom salt relieves stress so if you are having a stressful day you can just take a bath with one of these and you will feel a lot better!!

Our group name is called BBMZ because it’s all of our first initials and BBMZ bath bombs we think has a good flow! Its easy to remember and catchy. Our product is mainly focused on girls from ARS. Being an ARS student causes lots of stress so we hope that this product will help them.

We are currently working on our logo and social media accounts. Our logo is kinda hard because we have to do it online and figure out how to do an ombre effect with this website. Once we finish making it we are going to print it out as stickers and stick it to boxes. Our social media sites are hopefully going to be coming up soon. We want to get lottos followers and support with this project!

– Maddie I.

Bath Bombs

By: Rebecca Brackin

     In our class PLTW, we have a big grade on a project- our maker project. My group and I had to think long and hard on what we wanted to do. We had brainstormed several ideas. Going into the Maker Project, it’s actually quite hard to decide what you want to do. Our society has created most of the things I could even think of. So, we decided to do something that had already been invented- bath bombs.

You may think that bath bombs is a quite random thing. For those who do not know, a bath bomb is an object that you drop in a bath before you get in, and it fizzes up, dissolving in the water. Bath bombs are proved to relieve stress and be calming to the person using it. We have revolved our project around the world of stress. Everyone experiences stress, and a bath bomb can help relieve it. Lavender, roses, and more- all these ingredients are scientifically proven to relieve stress.

At Ann Richards, girls tend to get stressed, because of the challenging things we do. Bath bombs are kind of what you would say a new trend, so it should appeal to the girls at our school. We wanted our project to be something that would interest the girls at our school & relate to them.

In our project, we have to go through several steps. We have to create a logo to put on our boxes, make the boxes, research stress, make sure the ingredients are safe to use, research how to make bath bombs, and test them out and make them. It  may sound like bath bombs is a super easy project, but there is more behind it than meets the eye.

If you are interested in checking out our Maker Project, and  bunch of other students Maker Projects, be sure to come check it out at the Maker Fair on April 24th.