Egg Drop Report

     In my class as we were designing or egg drop cup we had to think about its center of gravity so the cup wouldn't fall over or bounce out. We decided to add some popsicle sticks on the bottom of the cup to weigh it down and if the egg didn't hit in the middle it wouldn't fall over. Being in a group of 3 we had to come up with at least two cups at the same time. To have the egg stop we decided to make a trampoline out of the rubber bands and put paper shreds on top of that so it would be cushioned and it wouldn't stop immediately. Over time we had to make a few changes so our eggs would be a little safer like shredding more paper to give it extra cushion on impact. On a later model of a cup we lowered our trampoline so when the egg landed it wouldn't be so top heavy and fall over and it made it harder for the egg to bounce out because it had more it needed to clear. We also added our 2 last popsicle sticks on the bottom with the other four to have extra stability when our group got all the way to a goal of 5.1 meters.

     Although our egg was injured on the 3.5 meter drop I think it was the best one because we did almost all of the other previous heights on the same day using Camille's through-the-meter stick method of when she would look through the triangular meter stick and drop the egg where her eye had been. So when we did drop from the a plus height she spent about half a minute aiming through the stick and slowly put the egg right above the stick pulled it away and let it drop. everyone had been watching us and it was dead silent, The cup had shifted a little and the egg had peeked out of the top and fell back in. Mr. Lammers went up and picked up the cup pulled the egg out carefully and found that there was a small crack in the side of it and decided that it was only injured which meant we had achieved the first A+ in the grade. I think My group and I didn't ever face that many difficulties because we rushed right through everything and got the best grade possible. We did face an ominous challenge when we were trying to get a world record and that was mainly with aiming which we could have improved by maybe using some string but otherwise I think we did just fine in the difficulties area. Once again I don't really know what we could have done to improve our drop performance maybe we could use some string to aim more accurately but otherwise that's it. I would have like to have been able to have any resource because before I realized that the cup was the main body I had had a great idea to build a contraption like a box with rubber bands to slow it down but the cup seemed to work out really well for most groups especially mine.

     When Camille was holding the egg in her hand the egg had approximately 0 velocity, then the egg would have been accelerating at a rate of 11.94 m/s squared to a average speed of 5.22 m/s with a momentum of 0.34 kg*m/s, it also had a force of 0.781 as it hit the cup.

Calculations

Speed=3.5m/0.67sec    5.22m/s
Accel.=8m/s/0.67sec    11.94m/s/s
Momentum=0.0654*5.22    0.34kg*m/s
Force=0.0654*11.94    0.781N

     Momentum was an important aspect in our egg drop because we needed to think about how much momentum the egg would hit the cup at so we could figure out how the egg needs to be stopped. That is why my group had to put so much shredded paper in our cup because we got so high that our egg had a lot of momentum by the time it hit the cup and it needed something really soft to stop the egg. As we got higher up the momentum got greater because the egg was given a chance to get to its full velocity so having a safe egg on the lowers heights was a lot greater than my groups final destination.

     The egg was first in Camille's hand and it had nothing going on with it except for a little motion a she was moving it into launching position. When she let go speed, momentum, and force were all rising up as it accelerated wile it was falling. Everything was as high as it ever was going to get in the drop just before it landed into the cup. everything stopped when it hit the cups bottom and then maybe had a small increase as it bounced up and then falling back down assuming that the egg hadn't exploded.

The force that made the fall possible in this project was gravity and it was what we had to pay attention to because that was what determined wether our egg would fall and crack or bounce. Its force of gravity is what was determining the fact that it might crack because of its connection of gravity to the earth. The fluid friction in the air is what slowed the egg down and kept it from speeding up to the point where it would have been impossible to save it with our resources. Its air resistance slowed it down in the air and is what made it fall straight down instead of sideways because when it was straight it was as aerodynamic as possible.

egg drop meta

Our best drop has been from the 3.5 mark and we are trying to drop it from 5.1 meters to get a world record. Camille has developed a helpful system of using a meter stick to aim and we rarely miss. when our egg fell it was injured and out of the game. it stopped quickly when it landed right in the middle of the cup but we could all tell that it had to have some injury at least. I feel like I have given an 8.5 out of 10 on this project because I made a cup because we have a group of three and need two cups at once all the time but I never participated on the dropping and I just handed stuff up and helped position the cup. All our cups have been successful but the one that has pushed us the farthest is our original cup. It had a lot of nice fluffy paper and that is what saved the egg while it was supported by popsicle sticks and that is what kept the egg from tipping the cup over. We had a cone of extra paper and that was just to help Camille aim because it was to let her know where the egg catcher was.

COG Recap

To me your center of gravity is what affects your balance and where it is will determine if you fall or stand up. So basically it means that it is much more possible to stand up straight than to be at a 32 degree angle towards the floor. This aspect of science is one applied in every day life and the more to get to physically know it the better you will be at doing strange things like what we did in class today when we tried to grab  cup with our backs against the wall.

I found all of the challenges today to be very difficult but I was able to accomplish a few and it was to get us more familiar with the upcoming science we will be working on. In the  tests I found 1, 2, and 5 to be hardest but 3 and 4 to be a little bit more simple and the last one seemed like it was just a lesson to sum it all up as to what Mr. Lammers was getting at.

On the first two problems I just fell over when I attempted to complete them because I off balance when I was facing the wall. On 3 and 4 it was a lot easier to pick the objects up especially the chair because you could be at different angles like when you had to face against the wall and stand up. On 5 like the name of the problem I made plenty face plants when I tried to knock the blocks over with my nose because I couldn't reach the blocks without tipping on my knees which made it impossible to lean back up once I had knocked the blocks over. the last one wasn't really impossible it was just to make a point about how your center of gravity works and how to make yourself stronger by how you are standing.

I think these activities best relate to yoga and ballet because you are making slow smooth movement while balancing in odd positions with a bad center of gravity and that is why it can be challenging for some people because they aren't good at finding the right spot. Comparing to 6 foot ball is important because you need to be strong and unstoppable to rush all the way to the in-zone without falling down.

Metas for trimester 2

This trimester I'm going to try harder on big projects because that is when I need my grammer to be at its best for those projects. I feel good on homework but in class work I find to be a little harder like when we are talking to one another because I often stumble and I lose points on projects. So I think I just need to focus a little harder in class when Sr. Heskamp is teaching. I need to focus more on prewriting also because my mechanics have gotten very bad and I have lost a lot of points. So my main two focuses will be speaking grammar and little annoying mechanics.

Science Test Reflection

On my test I got most of the questions right but I made careless mistakes on some of them like not giving enough detail in the long answer questions.  On the multiple answer and equation questions my mistakes were very simple and I think it was because I just didn't study enough or I wasn't focused. I messed up a lot on the 2 graphing questions because I didn't pay attention to the instructions and it made a big difference. I think I messed up most in the written answer section just because I didm't pay attention to detail so that Mr. lammers would understand exactly what I was talking about. To do better on the next test I am going to study more and eat a better breakfast so I am more prepared and more focused for the longer questions because they have always been my weak point in tests. At school I will also listen more to get all the information I can to prepare for the upcoming tests on the given information.

When comparing this test with the marshmallow challenge it shows that I work much better hands on instead of paper and with a partner to help me work. My group was the one that got the highest on the marshmallow challenge so I think it shows that I like hands on projects much better than boring tests. I find it very stress relieving when working in groups or pairs because they can support you in your work or vise versa. When I am working on a project like the MC my thinking flows much easier because I'm not staring at a piece of paper trying to figure out wether the answer is A,B,C or D.

Middle East Essential Questions Relfection

1.How has physical geography shaped the region?  

It has shaped the region to live near the shore of the ocean or the rivers because it is a very dry place. It has also made many countries greedy for that resource so there has always been an edge of tension in the Middle East to come out on top by having the most resources. Having these few but precious amounts of water it has made the middle east a large farming area instead of hunting which is also due to that there isn't much to hunt in the desert. Oil has made them a very desirable place and that too has caused many feuds in the Middle East from outside of their own territory but it has also given them many allies like America because we want their oil. Between the oil and the water the Middle East has become a very dangerous place due to recent disputes.

Why is the region important both historically and currently? 

Right now religion in the Middle East is very important because it is what has led many terrorist attacks to kill lots of people. The Middle East has always been very strong in defending its religion by using its people as a tool to kill thousands of people. A long time ago it was still important because new religions were being made and it was causing disputes and many countries were made when groups of people would break off and start there own cultures by expanding on old ways. This expansion process has is still happening and it is affecting people all over the world on how they look at things today. Some groups aren't even leaving and starting in a new place the syrian rebels are trying to take back their country from the suppressive dictator to start their own government and culture. The Middle East has always been a changing country but it seems like it is dawning on a more peaceful time as soon as all the smoke clears out and they see what they have done.

How can I research reliable facts about the Mideast?

I think the best way to find facts is to use the student resources on the upper school library because all of the sites are very reliable and I feel like they are very organized so it is easy to collect information and then compile it in a slightly improved format. I think I could improve on my compiling process so I can filter out the less important stuff and get the really good facts that explain a lot. I think I just need better focus to get the best out of these websites and my time.

saber conocer presentation reflection

I think the presentation has helped me learn how to use real life situations to tell others about people and things we know how to do. It also helps us write with it better and when we present it it will help us know how to speak better spanish. I have gotten a lot of help on this project because it was confusing at first but now I understand it much better. Another thing I like about this]s project is that it lets me tell others instead if just writing down on a paper so it like you could be talking to some in a spanish speaking country. I like presentations better than tests but I think it should be a little bit more like a conversation so we will know how to respond while we can ask and talk.

I was Impressed with Win's presentation because he is knew and I easily understood what he was talking about and he had good comprehension and acted like he had been taking the language for quite a while. Win didn't seem like he was just focusing on a part of new york but all of it that he had ever been to and I thought the pictures were really good at relating with what the slides were about. I think Sam R. also had a good presentation because he had a lot of text in it but he needed to work a little on his annunciation.

LA/SS interim reflection

In my interim report for the first half of the trimester (first sixth) we had already gone through a lot of work and our teachers based us on a developing to proficient on our skills. I never expected any of the X's to be very close to proficient but about half way in most of the skills. But some of them I feel that I am exceptional at and for the most part my teachers agreed with me never straying far from my decisions. I feel like my best skills are in turning things in and managing time so I can get at least most of my work done on time. I think the fact that I can do that is because I start with simple little homework and gradually move on to bigger homework. I also thought that I was good at using a larger vocabulary when needed and I easily understood new vocabulary. To be able to do this I had to use another skill of creating my own ideas and using them to solve problems. Together I used these skills to complete work efficiently and clearly.

While I have good aspects of working alone I don't always collaborate and cooperate the best in groups. I feel like I let the others do the work while I keep their grade and I tend to stray off of what the rubric says I need to be doing lowering the grade for the whole group. Generally I don't work so well at revising work and planning effectively before my work. These weaknesses I feel are just careless and could easily be improved. These issues may be small and easy but I think they are what have been lowering my grade.

Like I said earlier all may mistakes are simple and I just need to pay more attention to what I am doing and stop to figure out what to do. I will need to work hard and persevere to get through group projects and collaborate with others to solve problems hat I can't myself. Really all of my problems are in my head and they can be fixed with a little patience and speaking my thoughts.

Interim Science Reflection

In my interim report it was very clear Mr. Lammers and I had very similar opinions for what I had done. I like what he has rated me which gives me space to improve on my science skills but I don't have to start at rock bottom and work my way up. I feel I may have given myself a little to much credit for my perseverance and problem solving though because usually I let my peers do the main job while I  watch them do the work. I agree with my assigned work because I haven't always been on top of things when it comes to late work because for me when it is late it is always very late. I think my collaboration should have been a little higher though because I have been trying to collaborate more with my peers to have a greater outcome of everyones work instead f one person leading the whole group. I don't think the writing and presentation should have been as high because I think that my invisible speed project presentation wasn't very good and my Jet Car Report wasn't very informative. I have improved defiantly since the beginning of the year but there is more to go through and I feel like I have gotten off on a good start.

roller coaster reflection

The roller coaster project was really fun but it was always hard to make them work with pure consistency because the marble never liked to stay on the track. We redesigned multiple times  always making the coaster bigger and better after our failures. We all had to collaborate with one another to fix things like when the marble would almost always come off the track. While we were just building the roller coaster we were learning about the power of motion, acceleration, and force. Our failure always seemed to be the little things that got us and they weren't always fixable which made us have to redesign our whole coaster to fit the small needs of the mistake. When we were collaborating it always made us think about how the forces of gravity and other aspects of motion were affecting the marble. Overall it was a good group project where we could have fun and learn at the same time.

SCAVID Reflection

     SCRAVID is the system my class uses when we read a book. It is an anagram for summarize, connect, reread, ask, visualize, infer, and decide. When I was reading the book Enders game I used most of these strategies but the ones I most constantly used where asking, inferring, and deciding about what characters had been doing. It helped me to record my questions a lot so I could talk abut them in class the next day when we would discuss the chapter we had read. I wouldn't always ask questions but I never did lots of variation. What we would have to do to remember the question etc. we would write it down on a sticky note which would later be brought out in class. I tended to read the whole chapter first then go back over the pages and find out what hadn't already been said ahead so I wouldn't be wasting my notes.

     Asking, inferring, and deciding were my three most used reading skills because they always helped clarify things that didn't always make sense. Like in inferring and deciding I would right down what I thought was true and then share it in class to see if it was correct or if there was anything I had missed. In enders game I often asked what Bonzo's motive was because it was a little unclear. I don’t think there was ever even a single chapter without a question in it and usually they were good questions that some of my peers couldn’t answer. Most of my questions were about the militaries use of Ender and how they would make him do it. One that I think everybody automatically uses is rereading and I use it a lot but I never really could write it down or talk about it but that was what I would do before I thought about writing my thought down as a question. Really all these skills I used were mainly based around the questioning skill but they all helped me through the process of reading this book.

     I hope to use these skills in the future to not only get the answer to my question but also to understand it from a different point of view. I think these skills will help not only with literature but also in life and business. They will be most important in my high school years ahead and this year in language arts and social studies to improve my vocabulary.

Gregorio reflection

At first in class when we read the short story Gregorio I didn't quite get everything because I hadn't studied the vocabulary very much yet but I understood the basic outline of the story through what I already knew. I soon better understood it as we talked about it in class and through homework which made me look over the story again to see what was being said. Through the homework and the presentations it helped me learn some new vocab and when to use it too. To study for the final retelling each night I would pull out my flashcards every half hour or so and present out loud to the wall and when I began my other homework I would simultaneously criticize myself. I was ok with the new vocab that was given to us but I would have liked some more mind preparing work but I also don't think I studied it enough. But in the end I felt ok with my work but it wasn't near as good as it could have been and I would have liked to have just focused more in class and been more involved

spirit doors

The spirit doors were dominated by the congo advisory. My door was willy the wild pumkinhead and it won us the most original award. It brought my advisory out of the pits and into glory while controlling the other doors spirit with fear.

exploratory

Mr. Peisners exploratory is the bets ever. we always work as a team which has continued on what I learned at the camp retreat. We are always limited to a few touches per turn and it always turns out to be a lot of fun.

Vocabulary Reflection What Worked/What Didn't

In class after the quiz we had on some recent vocabulary we have been studying. After Ms. Pyeatt handed out our graded paper she asked us all to get out a piece of paper and list things that worked and things that didn't work. When everyone was done personally reflecting she asked us all to discuss the several main topics, mostly what worked. Later on I realized this process was to help us all see what could potentially help us if we already didn't do that. I found that flashcards were very helpful but also the process of righting them down too. Whenever I am studying I try to write things down or at least type them. Next time I would like to practice my flashcards both ways though that is alway helpful too. I never really had any trouble learning these words or taking the quiz but the one thing I did not master was a long term memory of these words which will make it difficult throughout the year since we will rarely come back up on some older words.

Red Bull Stratos

Lately on class we have been studying the affect of velocity, mass, and momentum on objects to help us understand how real motion works. Our teacher, Mr. Lammers found an interesting article on a man who plans to jump out of a helium balloon about 23 miles above New Mexico's surface all the way up in the Stratosphere hence the name "Red Bull Stratos".  Sadly the launch that was supposed to be today was postponed until a later date due to high winds making it unsafe for a correct launch off. Still I was quite shocked by the fact of a man jumping out of a balloon that high up. Lots of questions came to mind so I went to the website all about it and discovered that he would be jumping out in something kind of like a space suit but it is designed to protect a human body from extreme velocity. In fact the whole question is to figure out if the human body can survive it and what reaction it will have to all those extremes. This was just a way to let us see a big picture of how velocity works instead of Mr. Lammers just relying on us to understand all of this by walking away and towards a velocity/motion detector to automatically calculate all these things. This is something that is real and really cool and I think everyone should look into it before and afterwards too. Tomorrow they will be showing the launch live and hopefully the touchdown too.

Jet Car Report

Balloon Jet Car Report

Baylis Mitchell

    The balloon jet car project overall was a success throughout the class and helped everyone figure out how motion works by seeing what is needed to make something go. It was nice to be able to use other peers work as a reference point to maybe help the design progress. The ability retry and redesign gave the ability to prototype multiple to rethink failure which would eventually lead to success.

Farthest Distance

5.03

    I got a B on this project because my car would only go so far and this was the grade I got for the distance since it is what Mr. Lammers set. I got about an average distance in the grading line but I feel that I could have had mastery in the distance if I had taken a little more time working on each individual car. Actually, although I should have spent more time working on them the final design did work the best but the car would have gone farther if it had been improved. I think I got a B because there were times when I was goofing off and could have been working and everything would have been better if I had thought harder.

  A perfect Jet Car in a certain opinion is one with perfect axles which would send the car  speeding straight across the room. The car would have incredible acceleration for a speed challenge and would make it launch into the air over a jump. But, it would need to be able to carry a lot and still go far to complete the weight challenge. This way it would be able to create an unbeatable record in all the challenges and it would ace them all completely. The final key element to make it a perfect would require it to have the ability to eternally repeat this process without any struggle at all.

    Speed and distance were the top 2 components of this projects, speed was required because a good push to get the axles moving so it would roll several feet without the power of the balloon and distance was needed for a good grade. To get good speed new balloons were constantly required to get that final push and very smooth axles and together half the distance would just be rolling with an empty balloon. But if the empty balloon landed on a wheel that would instantly stop it so placement of the balloon was also an important factor.

    On my best run my car started out strong and the balloon did most of the pushing and it worked out well but once the balloon ran out of air the axles got caught in the roll of tape  and that stopped it. One of my main focuses had been to get really smooth axles but I could never quite get it to work. When I got my best run I resorted to one of my original plans which was to have two air exhausts and other people had already been doing that and it seemed to make it go much farther than one exhaust. I think this made it go  farther because it was blowing air against the floor in a larger area and more all at once which resulted in an overall increase in speed and distance.

    Two problems faced in the prototyping process were having the balloon deflate and jam up in the wheels and the second was getting the car to go straight. To fix the balloon problem I tried to create barriers between the wheels and balloon but that didn’t work so I put the balloon as far away from the wheels as I could so that completely eliminated the problem. Getting the car to go straight was really just trial and error but to make sure that they wouldn’t wobble and turn was to make sure they were as straight as possible while they were on there tightly.

    A reality that I may have faced as a real life car designer would have been getting good mileage. The air in the balloon relates to the gas in the tank but the engine and the straws are what get the mileage. It depended on the design of how many miles per gallon the car will get and how much push the air provides to propel the car.

                                        Jet Car Effort Chart

    After completing this project it taught me about perseverance because I had to prototype
over and over again until I made the right one and I had to persevere through failure. It taught me a new way to persevere instead of persevering through one object I would move on past the failed object and make a new one which was a form of perseverance I wasn’t too familiar with. Something that gave a good motive to persevere was to not just get a good grade but to succeed at something which I had not yet done that.

    I plan to work harder, set higher goals, and perform better overall on the upcoming projects this year and hope to raise my grades a little higher hopefully up into the A range. I’m going to strive to focus harder in class by not talking as much or wondering off onto something totally random. I might do more after school work if i’m struggling in class and will reach out to others for help if I am struggling after that. More finesse might help because I felt like I was rushing through prototyping a little too much. I never gave myself time to step and take a look at what is going on and what should I do to improve my work. I think the next project will go fantastically if I follow everything I just said.

Momentum Lab Reflection

Yesterday we did an experiment and were an experiment of leadership. First we wrote out our hypothesis and read the packet we were handed but after that for about ten minutes we began to wonder what was going on and eventually we figured out that it was our to to teach ourselves and start  the experiment without instruction. There was about 3 minutes or so of recovering from the time of doing nothing and in that time we got all that we needed and headed outside. Outside we all took turns being leaders alone or together setting up and testing our hypothesis. Although in the beginning we were told to have three leaders we ended up combining everyones skills and sort of made one big group leadership. When we finished testing we went inside and actually had a few minutes left to start thinking about the next few steps. We did fail in the beginning but that failure lead to a very good and strong success. The leadership we had really helped us improve our knowledge and larger group work.

focus pic

Reflection on Stuck on Kahn

9-17-12
Stuck on Khan? Checklist
You have many resources at your disposal to help you overcome a question or difficulty.  If you have a math question that arises during Khan work time, follow the steps below:

o Click on the button “Show acceptable answer formats”.  Review the acceptable answer formats to ensure you have entered the answer in the required format. no

o Ensure that you have reduced your answer to simplest form.  (For example, if you entered 2/70, you would need to simplify it to 1/35). yes

o Write down all your work on paper. Showing your work may help you identify a mistake yourself, and it can help your teacher or fellow students figure out where you got confused. yes

o Draw a picture, if applicable.  For example, if you are solving for the area of a living room, draw a picture of the room and label any information that is given. Sometimes seeing the problem as a picture can help you figure out how to solve it. no

o Watch a video.  Appropriate videos are recommended in the “Need Help?” section of each exercise module.  This will not reset your streak. sometimes

o Get a hint.  Use the “hints” feature in Khan to see a step-by-step solution of the problem.  This will reset your streak. yes

o Try a new question in the same exercise module.  Repeat the above steps. sometimes

o Ask another student who is already proficient in that exercise to help you figure out where you got stuck or to explain the concept to you. Make sure he or she helps you understand the concept and doesn’t just give you the answer. yes

o Ask your teacher for help if he or she is available. yes

o If your teacher is unavailable and none of these other methods work, move on to another exercise and return to that exercise later. yes

Algebra test reflection

preparation
1. Yes, I try to consistently focus in class but I find it hard to do sometimes because I get tired of sitting and begin to talk
2. No, I try to figure it out myself two or three times before I go to other resources
3. Not always, I try several times if I have not mastered it but after that I will just move on
4. if I have to, it is sometimes only understandable by me but most of the time people can get it
5. No i do not look further than the classroom if I am having trouble.
6. I should repeatedly study for tests
7. There is nothing I can think of, maybe watch some Kahn videos
test taking
1. yes I always try to read them multiple times actually
2. yes I do everything but check my answers
Test Errors
1. Generally my mistakes are just simple and careless mistakes, but when I make big mistakes its because I did not study it
2. think more

camp reflection

I really liked the camping trip and I thought it taught us a lot about leadership and world hunger. The world hunger let me see a larger view of starving people instead of the people in the Americas but how almost everyone in the rest of the world is hungry. throughout the simulation I noticed certain benefits we had even though I was one of the richer countries. But I thought some of the supplies were unfairly distributed which may have made it less realistic than proposed. As one of the people who did quite a bit of the work it made me feel though as I had spent a fraction of some ones life in India. 

The leadership portion of the camp made me realize how much younger kids follow the older kids and how we should set an example for them or maybe just be a warning. All the activities we did that had to do with leadership showed that we should listen to others and strive to work together.

Jet Car

Jet Car Reflection

Baylis Mitchell

     This experiment has been a great experience and has shown the importance of prototyping failure which then eventually will lead to success. With the multiple options to choose from there was a much larger variety of cars that could be made to try to accomplish different things. Also being able to observe piers work and to see what was working helped a lot in the building process. One Of the major problems was having to replace a balloon on the car when it ran out of or when repairs or modifications were necessary to the car. The limited resources made it much harder if more had been optional it would have been nice to have extra body parts like straws and kabob sticks. I have struggled with getting my  car to move or having it stay together, the biggest struggle was the thought process of trying to figure out how to build the next model and what it should be. This has been an interesting project and I am looking forward to the oncoming projects  

goals for the year

This year I would like to work on studying at home and keeping up with projects instead of having to stay up late and work on it all night. Another thing would be to able practice and work harder on sports and team games. My last one would be to have the skill to be able to help people when they are confused with programs on computers and to know how to do a lot more things by myself on the computer.