Ideas

Throughout this six weeks we could submit a maker project application or carry on with another module. My team and I were getting a little bored with doing the same process over and over, so we decided to create an idea. Coming up with a maker idea was a little challenging because we wanted to be unique with it. Through this process we came up with many weird and different idea, from dog treats to make up. We realized that coming up with a whole new idea was really hard so we decided to improve an idea already existing. Our idea was bath bombs, bath bombs have been in the recent trend, so we thought that this would be the perfect idea to add a little something.

Applying

Before we could start with it we had to fill out an application and hopefully get accepted. At first I thought that this was going to be the hardest part, but it was the really helpful part. When filling it out, it asks you all the questions that makes you think if the idea is doable and reasonable. I found that it helped with our project by making us look up how much all the products are going to cost to inform us how much one product will be. We finished and turned it in. The next class period we were informed that we were accepted! I was so thrilled that we could get working.

Bath Bombs

For those who don’t know what a bath bomb is, it is a ball filled with ingredients like, essential oils, epsom salt, citric acid and so much more. All these ingredients mixed together to relieve your stress and help you relax. All bath bombs are made the same but you can have different ones with different senses. Making a bath bomb is really easy with a few easy steps. Get all the need ingredients and mix them together, crush up all the hard parts. Get your container to shape it and fill it up, put it together to get a sphere like shape. Let it dry for a couple of hours and boom, you have a ready to go bath bomb.

Why

The target for us are students at our school. Since our school is such high goals of for us, we tend to get a lot of homework and sometimes it’s very stressful. We’ve all experienced a stressful time in our lives and all we want it to stop and have a moment for ourselves. What better way to get that relaxed, stress free feeling? Take a bath, let your body stop and relax.

Learning

Throughout this process of our maker project has taught me a lot. I learned that you need to plan everything out, make sure it will work. A couple days ago members from Intel came to our school and was looking at our projects. One man took time to sit down with us a line listen to what we have then told us his feedback. It was really helpful to have him ask questions because some of them we never even thought about but would be very useful in our project. I have been really having fun working with my team mates on this. I am so grateful for having a team that is willing to go above and beyond on this project but still have fun doing so. This time around I really enjoy what our whole project is about, I can’t wait to see the final product at makarama.

What is maker faire?

Maker fair is when people from Austin come together for this fair where we show each others invention and talk about how you make it and even try it out! Make o Rama is where our school get to see the inventions that we make. Make o Rama is on April 24 so that means we only have about a total of 4 weeks left to make out maker project. Let’s get started!

What is a maker fair project?

A maker fair project is when you invent something that hasn’t been invented yet. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a new invention, you can also renovate it. For example, in the beginning of the maker faire processes Ms. Sauter told us to come up with an idea for the maker faire. My original idea was to build a dog purse but to make it comfortable for the dog. My invention was basically renovating a dog purse but all I was doing was trying to make it better for the dogs.

What is my maker project?

I am working with a group of 3 people. Yoselin, Karla R, and I are making a HUGE spin art machine. This idea came from Yoselin. I wanted to join her group because I saw how interesting it seemed and how fun it would be if we made it. When we came together our minds combine and had huge ideas like to make sure it was safe for little kids to use, or to what the size it was going to be, but once we got settled in everything came to together like pieces from a puzzle.

My thoughts and experiences about maker project.

I am super grateful to have this group because we make the best group ever. When we first got started we notice that we had a lot to think about. Like how big the box was going to be, or what motor are we going to use, and what wood should we get to make are huge spin art machine. We called and emailed lots of companies to see what type of motor they were using and finally, after we got fed up that they didn’t answer our emails back we decided to call them instead. The first company we called was super rude to us. They were acting like we were 5 year olds that was playing with play dough. When we asked them what type of motor they were using that answered us in a very negative tone that made us very upset with them. Once we got off the phone we decided to email another person that Ms. Sauter had recommended us. He replied to us very nicely and quickly that we were so excited to meet him. We original scheduled to meet him on a thursday but sadly, there wa bad weather and school was canceled for the day. When we came back from school we were super upset that we couldn’t have a meeting with him. We had so many questions to ask him but sure enough, the weather had to go horribly bad. When we came back as we entered the classroom my teammates and I were wondering why there were random people here. When they finally introduce themselves I get super excited bc wise they were here to help us with our maker faire project. There was this really now guy who helped us ALOT. and I actually do mean ALOT. He helped us figure or what our motor was going to be (box fan) and how we could put the motor into our box. Then he helped us by showing us how to find how many inches the motor can be so when we spin it it won’t go hiring every single Corner of the box. We even used math to do this. Finally now we have an idea of what we can do and we were super grateful of him to helping us with our project.

Why should we try Making an invention?

The truth is, I love this project! I am super excited to see the final results. I think we all should make our own little inventions because it helps you understand how everything works and once you understand that you can put on creativity and imagination and mix it all together and I will make a super great project. I am super glad that we had this opportunity to make our own invention as if we have this opportunity next year I will so totally take it.              By: Ariela V

This week in PLTW, choosing a new module to do was actually pretty challenging. Usually, I select the ones that fit my interests, only this time there wasn’t really one that fit that criteria. One of my only options was Mechanical Systems, and I wasn’t too excited about it. It was apart of the Engineering pathway, and It wasn’t something I was interested in learning. Once my partner and I began the module, we knew it wouldn’t be easy. Each mechanism had a different name and job, and it was all very confusing at first. I was reluctant to begin challenge 1, only because I didn’t really understand what I was supposed to be doing. Although, with the guidance of our teacher, Mrs. Sauter, I was able to understand my assigned mechanism surprisingly quick. I finished challenge one in less than 45 minutes,and once I had finished, I was proud that I was able to get past the challenge and learn something completely different from what I’m used to. Challenge 2 was even  better, considering I already knew how most of it worked, and I had already had practice. When I finished my “Top Chef” skewers, I was really surprised that I actually made it. Doing this module helped me to try things before making assumptions. If I hadn’t actually tried it, I would have never learned how to do things like this, and I’m really glad that I did.

In our class PLTW (Project Lead The Way) we build and create many different projects that consist of very different things. For example, we have done modules on different medicines, different types of  robotics, and just using different types of tools. Something that all of those modules had in common is that they all teach you a skill that you can use in the future, whether it’s how not to procrastinate or how to plan out ideas and organize your time. But in the end, we bring all of those skills together into one project called our “Maker Project”.

The “Maker Project” that I’m working on is called “The Big Spin Art Machine” which is exactly what it sounds like. You know those Spin Art Machines you see at Walmart? Well, we are building one of those but in  bigger scale. Now you might be asking who “we” is, and the answer to that would be that “we” is the team that I’m working with. There is a total of 3 of us and we all work very efficiently together. I’m not saying that because it’s the team I’m with, I’m saying it because it’s the truth. We have many steps planned out ahead of time so that we won’t get behind schedule.

Just like in the real word, we have a deadline or due date. There’s this fair called The Austin Maker Faire, which is a fair that displays many different projects across Austin. This is the first year that our school has ever participated in this faire, which means it is a big deal. This means that we have to stay on task and get everything done to our best ability. To achieve this goal, we have set up dates to where we must check what we have done, with what we should have done. If by any chance we are a little behind, we have to step up our game and work faster. Just because we are working faster doesn’t give us an excuse to slack off in our work.

Although we don’t slack off on our work, we do get off task sometimes. But something that has helped us stay on task would be our teacher. She consistently reminds the whole class of deadlines and due dates, which for me is a great motivation to keep working. Overall, this whole project has been going great because of the amount of effort, commitment, and motivation we put into this machine. We have a great start on this Spin Art Machine and I know that we will be able to end it the exact same way.

By: Karla Ru.

By: Yoselin R.

What Is It?

• Well, a spin art machine is a machine that contains a surface in which you could apply paint or any other substance to any fabric or paper and can create a design.
• While you are creating your design, the top layer of the machine will spin around creating a circular motion.

 Here in this picture (to the left), we can see a manufactured spin art machine. The link below can take you directly to the picture. 

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You might be wondering why I am speaking to all of you about a manufactured spin art machine. Well, a group of three individuals, (better known as K.A.Y) have started a project in which we all have a mission of creating a HUGE SPIN ART MACHINE that spins automatically and will be safe for all ages.

For our project we are using an old box from another project to create the base of the machine. Our plan is to create a hole through the middle of the box to insert the motor. After we have inserted the motor we will be attaching a top layer in which will help spin the canvas or other materials in order to create your design.

In this image to the left you can see a clear visual of how this machine will function. The wooden stick through the middle of the cardboard is the motor. The bottom section (with all the tape), is also representing a special part of the motor. The cardboard helps represent the canvas (or other material), where the design will be created.

So far, this project has made me think a lot. It can be very challenging and frustrating when it comes to figuring out how to attach one thing to another. Even though this project is challenging and complex at times, it also has it’s fun to it.

This past week, my group and I where able to work with an Intel volunteer. During our time with Nathan, we where able to solve our never ending problems. We had the opportunity to discover the perfect motor for our machine along with, how to attach it to the spinning surface.

Throughout my past months in this class I have learned to not be afraid of grabbing those “manly” tools. To be capable of accepting failure and also being open to creativity. My thoughts about this class have changed 100%. At the beginning of the year I would be scared to work with a saw or make a mistake. Now, I am able of grabbing a saw, making a mistake and continue to move forward.

“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.”

-Ruth Gordon 

To start off I’m going to be honest and say that pltw can either be the funnest class or the most stressful, theres really no in between. With all the deadlines and learning new material and having to use your limited time doing learning new things is just.. fustrating. But when you’re learning the new things you get to discover some things that you’re good at and you enjoy doing. What makes the class fun is when you know your strengths and you get to use them and make things. Doing that and seeing your end product is the best thing ever because even if it may not be the best YOU did it and in your eyes its the best thing ever.

 

This was how things were for me doing the topographic map. Well, the illustrator part of it. Originally the person who worked on illustrator wasn’t my job but in the ends all jobs got somewhat switched. (for my group) I worked on illustrator and created most layers as different members worked on it as well. At first I was thinking “ oh yeah this can’t be too hard” If only I knew haha. The first two classes were completely wasted because the person who was originally supposed to be the tracer, didn’t know how to do the job and wasn’t interested in learning how to either. So it became my job, we were already low on time but I figured we had a few days left and that we would be fine. Well thats not exactly how it turned out

 

Around the last few days we had to work on it the map we were tracing, well it got messed up and a days worth of work was wasted. We had lost yet another day of work and none of us were sure if we could actually finish it in time. The next class I worked as hard as I could to finish and time ran out. Now putting your own time into projects is a great way to guarantee a better grade than just idly sitting and not caring. Putting your own effort into things is also a good way to get a good grade. I stayed after school and finished tracing and we were all set to print the next class period. Then a person who was the assembler glued a piece where it wasn’t supposed to be. The map was basically ruined as it was a piece that we could not afford to lose and would mess up the map by taking it off. Time was up when that happened.  So all we really had was this (below) traced map a map/model with some parts glued, missing, but incomplete.

The point is during this project I learnt that I was good at using illustrator and i enjoyed it, but while that was fun per say the project itself became very stressful.

Videography.

A skill that allows you to create stories, understand what was once not understood, and to express yourself in a way that you are proud of.

When I first got into this module, I only knew that I had to film a video with a couple of other girls, and create a film that captured the ARS mission statement. The project seemed pretty easy, but once I got into it, I realized it was much more complicated than it seemed. I wanted to do my school justice and make my video great: just like my school. Even after doing this module, I do not think I did my school justice, but I tried my best, and that is what I am proud of.

I think the best part of doing this module was being able to express myself. In the beginning, I didn’t think I had much to work with and that because I was being told what to do, I wouldn’t be able to put my own creative ideas in my film. I was wrong. I chose to make a video about what the mission statement meant to me, not anybody else. After completing my module, I reviewed some other films created before that revolved around the ARS mission statement, and I realized, all of ours were different. I was excited about that. It was a joyful experience learning that even though we were all told the same instructions, we all interpreted them differently.

Isn’t it wonderful that we can all capture the moment differently?

Elyssa J. Castillo
7th period
Bio Medical

The Prosthetic leg was one of the modules that we did in Bio med. I’m writing about this module because I want to be in the medical world. I want to major in bio med. But the module that I did was to build a prosthetic leg, we were trying to build a leg that is comfortable for a person to use.

I think being in the medical field would be really cool. And my mom is a nurse so I would kind of fall into her footsteps. And doctors tend to make a good amount of money. Plus my family wants me to be a doctor. But in bio medical we get to deal with medicine, like we kind of just kind of figure out what can be out into medicine and what it helps.

To be honest I really find an interest in bio medical. It just seems so interesting, and you get to learn about the human body and how it works etc. People think it can be gross but I like it and find an interest in it. If you really think about it…it sounds pretty cool. You might think not but still it’s pretty cool.

I hope to become a doctor one day and save a person’s life. I know I will get there one day if I just believe in myself. It will be hard, and I know that there will be obstacles on my way there, but who doesn’t have obstacles? I will get there, and I know I can.

Over this past semester I have learned many important, interesting, and useful things in PLTW. I have learned how to use all different types of saws and how to lazer cut a piece of wood, but one of the most important things I have learned is how to work well with other people.

I am sure you have heard plenty of times in your life that there are always going to be times when you have to work with in a group. This is true. I used to be incredibly shy when I was younger (believe it or not). Whenever I had the option to work independently, I would take it in a heartbeat. Now that I am older I am the exact opposite. I love working with people because I love being around people, and this can actually become a problem.

Three of my favorite things to do are talk, laugh, and make other people laugh. Many people, including myself would see this as a good quality. The thing is you have to have self-control. I often find myself distracting people from their work because I’m telling them a funny story or reading them their celebrity horoscope and in that moment not only am I keeping them from getting their work done, but keeping me from it to.

As earlier mentioned, you are going to have to work with people many times with in your lifetime. I’m not trying to tell you that it’s better to work independently or not have fun while working with a group, I’m here to tell you that there is a right and a wrong way to do group work. When you are working in a group you should be helping the members in your group not making it harder for them. There are times appropriate to talk and times where you should be quiet and do your work. Always make sure to get your work done on time. When you don’t you are hurting both your group members and yourself.

I have made many friends in PLTW through all of the group work we have done. Off of the top of my head I can think of at least three people who I have become good friends with in the class. So always remember that when you are in a group project it is ok to talk and have fun with your group members, but you still have to do the work.

The module that my group and I(Catalina, Prisila, Xochitl, and me)decided to do for these 4th 6 weeks is the Construction and Fabrication Basics module located under the Engineering modules tab on Haiku. What we had to do for challenge one in this module was to cut two pieces of wood out using a saw, then we had to sand the edges until it was smooth. We had to put the two pieces of wood together and clamp them together, and then hammer in only one nail. Afterwards, we had to leave the wood clamped together and drill one countersink screw and one roundhead screw using an impact drill/driver and phillips head bit, then drill a hole into the two pieces of the wood and put one washer on a hex bolt and insert it into the hole, but there were not any of those materials so we didn’t use those things(and we had to do other things with them too, but there weren’t any washers.) We had to label the nails and screws and everything else with a Sharpie, then we had to take a picture of the “sandwich” and turn it into Haiku. For extra credit, we could have someone take a picture of ourselves using a tool on our “sandwich” and then turn it in too.

For challenge two, we had to design a birdhouse. We wanted to make a two story birdhouse but sadly we could not so we had to make a normal birdhouse. We designed our birdhouse to be a vertical rectangle with a hole in the middle big enough for a cardinal(this was designed to be for a cardinal.) We made a little side thing for the birdhouse, but in order to do this, first we had to choose what we had to use for the birdhouse. We used wood, and we chose measurements and then measured the wood to be 9 inches by 6 inches. The side thing would be 4 inches to the side, 4 inches tall, and the 2 inches to each side.

After that, we had to glue them together, and what we did was glue the birdhouse together and then we clamped the birdhouse to the sides together so overnight it could dry for the next day. Sadly, we did not have enough time to be able to paint the birdhouse but me and my partners were still happy that we finished and we were glad with the results of the birdhouse. It came out really good, but if we had enough time to paint it, then it could have been better. This module was really fun and I had a great and fun time in this module.

-Lucero Puente