Black Holes (5/14 - 5/18)

https://goo.gl/34zpQv

Summary:

     A black hole is a part of space that has gravity so immense that nothing, not even light can escape it. There are three main parts of a black hole: The Ergosphere, Event Horizon, and the Singularity Point. The Ergosphere is the outer region of the black hole and is a result of the fast spin of the singularity. It's difficult to stay still in the ergosphere, but possible to escape since you can utilize the speed of which it's going at to leave it. Past this region is the Event Horizon. This is the part of the black hole where nothing can escape. Because light cannot escape the Event Horizon, time seems to slow down outside of it. Finally, the center of a black hole is the Singularity Point. This is where spaghettification occurs. This process breaks objects apart atom for atom and turns them into lines of atoms, hence the 'spaghetti' part of the name.

SP8: Obtain, Evaluate and Communicate: 

     This week I obtained data on black holes in preparation to teach the class about this topic. The first thing that I did was research about them. Information that I looked up were what they were, how they formed, the different types of black holes, misconceptions about them (so I don't convey false information during presentation), the regions of a black hole and Hawking Radiation. To evaluate this information, I compared the data that I gathered with other sites that discussed the same topic. I tried to find similarities between the data to ensure that it was correct. Finally, I communicated the data by putting it all together into a lesson which contains a Do Now asking how black holes form followed up by a presentation that elaborates on the subject. 

Stress (5/7 - 5/11)

https://goo.gl/PqgHYF

Summary:

     Stress is a defense mechanism that a body has. It can be both beneficial or harmful. When the brain detects a threat, a chemical known as cortisol is released. This causes the person that is in dtress to be more alert and activates their fight or flight function. Cortisol is useful in order to get out of dangerous situations, but it can be harmful. High levels of it can impar certain parts of the brain such as motor skills, memory and thinking. If this isn’t stopped, then high levels of cortisol can lead to long term conditions such as depression, alzheimer’s, anxiety, anger and much more. To cope with stress, sleep and rest can remove the brain’s focus on the source of stress. Exercising can also help, as it does the same function while also being healthy.

SP8: Obtain, Evaluate, Communicate:

     This week I obtained data when designing an infographic to convey the effects of stress. First, I obtained information on the effects of stress by doing a Gooru assignments which taight me the basics of the impact of stress on the mind. To gather more information on this and evaluate on whether the information that I found was true or not, I went to other sites that discussed the same topic and observed if there was any common information. The common information that I found on the impacts of stress was then communicated in the infographic that my team and I designed.

Galaxies (4/23 - 4/27)

https://goo.gl/T7C84U

Summary:

     Galaxies are a collections of billions of stars, dust, gas and planets that are held by the force of gravity. There are four known types of galaxies: spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, peculiar galaxies and irregular galaxies. Spiral galaxies have arms that are curved in such a way that it makes a spiral shape. The Milky Way, the galaxy that we live in, is a spiral galaxy. Elliptical galaxies are more shaped like an ellipse or circle. These galaxies usually have a lack of gas and dust and contain older stars. Peculiar galaxies take the shape of the previous two galaxies but in a distorted form. This is due to galaxies colliding since they attracted each other with their gravity which influences the gravity of the now hybrid galaxy and therefore influences the way that the contents of the new galaxy are arranged. Finally, irregular galaxies are galaxies that have no identifiable shape. 

SP4 - Analyzing Data:

     This week I analyzed data when I studied about galaxies and their different forms. First, I studied the different types of galaxies. Once I accomplished that, I answered the question of which type of galaxy the Milky Way was. I stated that the Milky Way Galaxy was a spiral galaxy due to its spiral-like shape. Next, I drew a table to classify the different types of galaxy. To do this, I first searched up images of each galaxy. Then I pasted the images that I had gathered onto a table, each galaxy having their separate column. I proceeded to classify each galaxy and labeled them accordingly. The last step was to justify the labels that I put for each galaxy. This is how I analyzed data and applied them onto a table based on research that I did.  

Light (4/16 - 4/20)

https://goo.gl/BqBEHw

Summary:

     Light is an electromagnetic wave that comes in many forms. Visible light is a small portion of light that makes up color. There are other types of light, such as infrared light which creates light based on the heat of objects. Infrared light has longer wavelengths, therefore making it impossible to see by the naked eye. Light can be reflected, refracted, or transmitted. Reflection refers to when light bounces off an object without being completely absorbed. Refraction refers to when light goes through mediums of varying density, therefore changing direction (bending light). Finally, transmission refers to when light completely passes through an object, such as glass. 

SP4 - Analyzing Data:

     This week I analyzed data when investigating how the moon and its phases were influenced by light. Upon investigating it, I was given an animation to view in order to understand why the moon changes throughout each month. Through that animation, I found out that the moon changed phases due to its position relative to the sun and earth. For example, the new moon phase displays a completely dark moon due to the fact that the moon is between the earth and the sun, meaning that no light hits the side of the moon that faces the earth, creating a dark moon. To display this information, I sketched out each phase of the moon along with the lunar days (the duration of the phase) 

One Man Instrument Project Blog (4/9 - 4/13)

Summary:

     Sound is the vibration of molecules through a medium. When sound is produced in a medium, say air, the source vibrates the air molecules in what is known as a sound wave. The more molecules that are compacted together in the medium, the faster and more efficiently sound can travel without losing energy. Sound cannot travel in space however, as space has little to no matter which means that the sound wave cannot travel. The sound wave's energy is determined by the amplitude, which is half of the height of the entire wave. To determine the pitch of sound, you can look at frequency. Frequency is how often a wave length (the distance between each wavelength) passes through a line in one second. Tension is the tightness of the wave, or the space that the wave takes up in its journey. The tighter the wave, the less space it will take and the more thinner the wave motion will be. 

Backwards-Looking: 

     What problems did you encounter while you were working on this piece? How did you solve them? Some of the problems that I encountered when creating my instrument was finding a way how to make wind, percussion and string all in one instrument and have multiple notes for each part. I solved this issue by searching up ways to create make-shift instruments and just building off of other people's ideas. For example, the string instrument was inspired from the fact that people cut holes in their boxes and had strings over them. When doing just that, I found a way to create a string instrument such that there could be several different notes (since you can pull and adjust the tone of 4 strings). The next problem that I encountered was with the wind and percussion instruments (the bottles). When in the process of making them, they kept spilling out water when in storage, often ruining the tone/pitch of the instrument. To fix this, I improvised a way to make a cap stay on the bottle and easily come off.

Inwards-Looking:

     How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work? I believe that this was an insightful and rather fun project on sound. It helped me understand more about sound, the wave anatomy and how it functioned. The part that I liked most from this project was the creation of the instrument and some of the labs on sound, such as the tuning fork lab and the bottle lab which actually gave me inspiration for my percussion/wind. There weren't really any parts that I particularly disliked. If there was one thing that I were to dislike, it would be the wave anatomy/sound wave properties worksheets. Although they were insightful and taught me information about sound that I didn't know before, I don't feel like much of it actually applied to the creation of my instrument.

Outwards-Looking:

     Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar? When beginning the creation of my instrument, I didn't really know what to do for any of the three instrument types we were supposed to incorporate into one instrument. That is until I saw other people's string instruments. Some people made their string instruments with a hole in a box with strings above it, so when the strings were struck, the hole in the box would amplify the sound. I decided to make my instrument this way, not knowing which direction that I would take it. When working on it, figured out that I could make the string instrument more versatile with the notes that it played by allowing the user of the instrument to stretch and adjust each of the four strings as much as possible. So in a way, I had a similar work process to my classmates, though I branched out midway. In addition to that, I noticed that a few groups used bottles to make their wind/percussion instruments.

Forwards-Looking:

     What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again? If I were to re-create my instrument, I would probably spend more time working on the overall appearance of it. I feel like some of the projects that I work on could have been better if I had spent more time working on the appearance rather on information/functionality that the piece contained. I would have also spent more time trying to figure out how to make the instrument easier to play. The percussion aspect of my instrument was hard to play since the bottles were crammed in together, making the amplification of sound and the vibrations of the waves minimal. In addition to that, you couldn't play the string part of the instrument at the same time. You could only use one of the four instruments at a time.

Sound Waves (3/19 - 3/23)

https://goo.gl/UBjJ8T

Summary: 

     Waves are moving curve-like motions created from vibrations. There are two types of waves: mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves. Mechanical waves require a medium of matter to travel in, such as air, water or gas. These types of waves cannot occur in space due to the fact that space is a vacuum and contains little to no matter. Electromagnetic waves, however bypass this limitation and do not require a medium to pass through. Light waves, for example, can travel through space, air and water. Besides the wave types that exist, there is also an anatomy to each type of wave. A wavelength is the distance between each crest or trough (top wave or bottom wave). Frequency is the amount of times that wavelengths travel through a certain point in one second and is measured in Hertz (Hz). Amplitude is half the height of an entire wave, or half the distance between a crest to trough. The higher the amplitude, the more energy that a wave stores. Dampness is the energy output from a wave. The damper the wave, the less energy is stored inside of it as it moves. Finally, tension is the tightness of the wave. The more tense it is, the tighter the wave and the less it can move vertically. 

SP3 - Carrying out Investigations:

     This week I carried out investigations in order to understand the anatomy and parts of the wave and how they all come together to make distinct waves. During the lab, my team and I had a rope which resembled a wave. The first part of the lab was understanding how frequency works. In order to make the rope more 'frequent' when we made a wave with it, we figured that we had to make faster hand movements. From that, we concluded that frequency can be controlled based on the movement/vibration speed of the wave. The next part was amplitude. We saw that it wasn't necessarily based on the speed of the hand movement, but was based on the length of the hand movement,, so we we concluded that amplitude was based on the energy carried by the wave. Along with the process that helped us understand the material that we were given, we created annotated diagrams to further elaborate and explain our thinking of how each function of a wave worked. 

Vibrations (3/12 - 3/16)

https://goo.gl/xmRVgi

Summary: 

    A vibration is when an object moves back and forth in a fast and short manner. Vibrations are the source of sound that we hear. When an object vibrates, it moves the molecules in the medium that it is in, usually gas, water or solid. Those molecules push each other, causing a sort of domino effect, causing the medium to vibrate for a brief moment. For example, if you took a tuning fork and struck it, it would vibrate. Upon putting it next to your ear, you would hear a lingering sound from the vibration, due to the fact that the vibration is causing the air molecules around it to push each other, carrying sound which is eventually processed by your ear. Taking the same tuning fork, if you were to strike it again and place it in a cup of water, the water would vibrate, causing some droplets to spew out of the cup. Finally, if you were to put the vibrating tuning fork next to a solid, the solid would vibrate, but only for a short moment as the tuning fork would slow its vibration to a halt once contact is made between the two objects. 

SP3 - Carrying Out Investigations:

     This week I participated in an investigation with the people at my table to answer how sound worked. In order to accomplish this, we were given two tuning forks of different pitch, a cup, a ping pong ball and two pencils. Our first task was to hit the tuning fork with the pencil and observe the sound that it made. We noticed that the harder the hit, the louder the sound, though the pitch remained the same for each tuning fork. Then, we hit the tuning fork once more and placed it next to a ping pong ball that was attached to string. When the ball made contact with the fork, it swung backwards as a pendulum would. From that, we could conclude that vibrations affected its surroundings. To support that idea, we filled the cup that we were given with water, struck the tuning fork, and put it inside the cup of water. We saw that the water spewed out of the cup and elaborated on our conclusion, saying how when an object vibrates, the objects around the object move and push each other, creating sound. Furthermore, the harder the strike, the faster the vibration, which translated into louder and longer lasting sound.

Intro to Sound (3/5 - 3/9)

https://goo.gl/fXUokg

Summary:

     Sound is the vibration of air around a certain medium such as gas, liquid, solid, etc. When a sound is produced, it pushes the air forwards, creating something similar to the domino effect. Besides air, sound can also move in other mediums such as liquids or solids. It can actually move faster in these environments due to the fact that liquids and gases are more dense and can easily be pushed by sound. Think about it, which set of dominoes would be easier to knock over? Ones that are spread apart or ones that are more tightly compacted together? Sound can be observed through the ears of many organisms. Sound waves go through ears and are then compressed due to the tight space. The vibrations then hit the ear drum, where the sound is then processed by the brain. Hearing sound is important due to the fact that it allows for communication and awareness of surroundings.

SP2: Developing and Using Models:

     This week I started modeling instruments in order to understand how sound works. For the project, we were to build an instrument that had percussion, string and wind. During the week, we mainly focused on how wind works. In order to do so, we did a sound lab that focused on how sound differed based on the volume in a glass bottle and the different inputs of sound. My group and I discovered that higher pitches were produced by blowing into a full bottle while the opposite was shown to occur from hitting it. Subsequently, we learned that this was the case since when blowing into a bottle, the water allowed for less travel for the sound waves, making a higher pitch and the more water in a bottle, the slower the vibration upon hitting it. I applied this knowledge onto how wind works by changing the method of making the wind. To make the wind instrument component, I considered using a different type of material and perhaps varying volumes of liquids within. 

Is Listening to Music While Studying Beneficial? - WAC

     If you are reading this, you most likely listen to music while you study. If so, might I ask you, if you will, why you do so? Is it to drown out noise and focus only on the music that you choose, or is it the fact that it can incite certain moods that motivate you to work further?  Today, listening to music while doing work in general is common among students today. But there has been a long lasting debate on whether it is actually beneficial or not.  Students who listen to music themselves enjoy doing so due to the fact that it can drown out the far worse and distracting background noises of their classroom environment while studies shown by the University of Wales prove that listening to music can impair short term memory. So is listening to music while studying harmful? The short answer is, it depends. Instrumental music can improve mood, awareness and memory while lyrical music can be quite the distraction and impair short term memory.

     A study that shows that instrumental music can be beneficial is one conducted by the University of Dayton. According to the study abstract, researchers aimed to "assess the effects of fast-tempo music on cognitive performance." To do so, they observed 56 male and female students and studied their performance on linguistics and spacial processing tasks. With that, the students were accompanied with Mozart music in the background as they worked. According to the study abstract, "Background music increased the speed of spatial processing and the accuracy of linguistic processing. The findings suggest that background music can have predictable effects on cognitive performance." This means that instrumental music displays possible benefits to those who listen to it while they study. However, despite instrumental music in the background proving to be useful when studying, the same cannot be said for lyrical music, or music with vocals.

     Music with vocals, or any acoustical variation have been proven to be a major distraction when studying. The University of Wales conducted a research that showed that listening to vocal music impairs short term memory. To prove this, they gathered participants and gave them a set of letters to memorize. They then tested them under a few noise conditions: quiet, music that they enjoyed, music that they disliked, a voice repeating the number three, and a voice saying random single digit numbers. The study found that the participants' mood and impression towards the music that they listened to was an irrelevant factor towards their performance. If there was sound that had vocals, say the music or the voice saying random single digit numbers, the participants would fail to memorize the order of the letters they were given. Lead researcher Nick Perham concluded in the study's press release that "The poorer performance of music and changing-state sounds are due to the acoustical variation within those environments within those environment." This proves that listening to any music with vocal or acoustic variation can actually be a distraction rather than a benefit.

     An argument brought up by the article Why You Shouldn't Listen to Music While Studying by Sara Briggs uses the study conducted by the University of Wales to further show why listening to music while studying is harmful. The article cites a study conducted by Stanford University which observed people listening to 18th century music. From the study, researchers were able to conclude that "music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions, and updating the event in memory." While that is true, the use of the fact to support the article's core argument is invalid. Because instrumental music focuses the brain onto the music, it can drown out a far worse distraction- that being the classroom environment. Classrooms are normally noisy and talkative, and as proven by the University of Wales, can be a distraction and impair short term memory. What instrumental music can do is make the brain's focus on something else rather than the classroom noise. This is perhaps associated to the reason why students listen to music while studying in the first place. In the article Music in the Classroom: Distraction or Study Tool? by Shelby Archuleta, one student stated that, "Music definitely has an effect on the way you think and act... But I think it does help me concentrate because then I can drown out the other [students]" This proves that instrumental music can be beneficial in removing vocal noises.

    So does listening to music enhance cognitive performance? In summary, it depends on the type of music that you listen to. In search to find the answer to this question, the University of Dayton found that listening to instrumental music from the 18th century improves both the speed and accuracy of linguistics and spacial processing, which may imply a potential benefit for music. On the other hand, the University of Wales concluded that listening to music could actually be quite harmful, but only tested for vocal and acoustic variation, which may imply that there may be different effects in regards to listening to instrumentals and listening to vocals. Listening to music while studying is a common thing to do among students. Many say that it's fun to do so, while others say that it can mute the distraction of the environment that they work in. Either way, listening to instrumental music can drown out such noise and make you focus on the work that must be accomplished. But in the end, it depends on whether you are distracted easily or not.  

Roller Coaster Physics - Project Blog

Summary:

     Physics is the science of matter and motion and how it interacts with other bodies of matter. There are many factors that dictate how an object would normally behave. Some of the basics include: Velocity, Acceleration, Force, Energy and Newton's three laws of motion. Velocity is a vector quantity that measures the speed that an object moving at relative to a reference point given the direction. For example, 50 m/s North is a velocity since it gives both speed and direction. Acceleration is how much velocity is gained relative to time. An example of acceleration is 5 m/s^2, which means that the object is moving 5 m/s faster every second. Energy is required for an object to be in motion or behave at all. There are two forms of energy; potential and kinetic energy. Potential energy is the energy that an object stores while kinetic energy is the energy of an object whilst in motion. Force is any action that will change the motion of an object. Finally Newton's three laws dictate motion which are: The law of inertia, Force = Mass x Acceleration and Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. 

Backward-Looking:

     What process did you go through to produce this piece? The first step in making a roller coaster was prototyping via sketches. All of the members of our team drew their own sketch and ideas and we came to a consensus of which roller coaster looked the best. The second step was to gather all the materials such as insulation tubing, dowels and tape and buying them with the coins that we got based on the points that we received on physics sheets. The third step was seeing if the prototype actually worked. My team and I held the roller coaster identical to the prototype (with slight changes) and tested if the marble completed the track. Once it did, we proceeded onto the next step. The fourth step was construction. Gluing down the dowels and taping the insulation tubing together. The final step was to label the physics along the track (acceleration, velocity, force, energy, Newton's 3 laws, etc.) and reflect upon how the roller coaster worked. 

Inward-Looking:

     How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work? I feel that was both a really engaging project and an insightful one. This unit in general helped me understand how each concept in physics come together to make things move and behave. The main part that I liked was the construction stage, where we were building the roller coaster. During that stage, we prototyped and saw what worked and didn't, and came up with new ideas along the way. I wouldn't say that there was anything that I disliked about the project. If anything, it would be my team and I not taking it seriously the first day of the project, though we were coordinated and worked together in the following days of the project.

Outwards Looking: 

      Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar? Upon observing other people, I saw that all teams' rollercoasters had different layouts, except for a selected few components such as the decoration (using cups/tapes as tunnels and construction paper as decoration. A distinguishable factor in our roller coaster was the labeling. We labeled the areas of physics with construction paper triangles in blue or yellow, attached them to toothpicks/tape and placed them in where the marble would demonstrate that area of physics. A similarity between all teams is that they used dowels, hot glue and tape to bind the insulation tubing together, although I did see some teams using cardboard. 

Forward Looking:

     What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again? Honestly, the only thing that I would have changed were the decorations. Most of the color on our roller coaster came from the labels that were yellow and blue. Our decorations lacked color and were mainly tunnels made of either tape or cups. I would have spent less time constructing and spending a bit more time adding more decorations and color. Overall however, I think our roller coaster turned out great with the track and the physics labels. 

Roller Coaster Physics (2/5 - 2/9)

https://goo.gl/UhrJeb

Summary:

     Roller coasters are a form of amusement that send people in a cart through several twists, turns and inversions which are built with light rails. Roller coasters utilize several properties of physics in order to work. Motion is what makes the cart move. Kinetic energy determines the energy while the cart is in motion and potential energy determines the energy that the object stores. Acceleration makes the cart gain velocity so it can gain enough speed to go over loops. Force determines what stops the cart (gravity, friction, air resistance, etc.) or makes it accelerate. Finally, Newton's three laws help determine the forces that would stop the cart from being in inertia, the force of the cart, and where and how the cart's equal and opposite reaction would be exerted.

SP2 - Developing and Using Models:

     This week I developed and tested a model to see how the roller coaster that we made a prototype of with a drawing would function. The materials that we made the roller coaster with was a 4x6 wooden board, 2 dowels, 10 ft (3.05 m), masking tape, hot glue and a marble as the cart. Our roller coaster consisted of a 4 ft. drop which would transition into a loop. That loop would then transition into a corkscrew which was a 360° turn sideways and would then go in a straight line for 3 ft. before stopping. By creating this roller coaster, we created a model of a roller coaster which helped us measure vector and scalar quantities in a realistic point of view (modeling a roller coaster). After successfully testing out the roller coaster, we were able to find it's average velocity, acceleration, kinetic energy and potential energy.    

Newton's Three Laws of Motion (1/30 - 2/2)

https://goo.gl/yBtm5D

Summary:

     Newton's three laws of motion dictate how matter interacts with other matter. The first law of motion is the law of inertia. It states that any object in motion or at rest will stay the way they are unless a force acts upon it. For example, a pencil at rest will remain at rest unless a force acts upon it, such as a hand pulling it up. The second law of motion states that acceleration is proportional to the net force of an object. In other words, force is the equivalent to mass times acceleration (f = m x a). If an object has more mass, the more force is needed for more acceleration. Throwing a paper wad and having it accelerate is rather easy since it has very little mass. Throwing a bowling ball, however, is much more difficult as it requires more force for it to accelerate at the same magnitude as the paper wad. Finally, the third law of motion states that every action has equal and opposite reaction. For example, if you throw a ball at a wall, the ball will make contact will the wall with a forward force. In return, the wall will create an opposite yet equal force that will make the ball bounce back.

SP3 - Planning and Carrying Out Investigations: 

     This week, rather than trying to find out how Newton's three laws of motion works, I was, along with another partner trying to prove that it works. The first part of the lab was proving that the third law of motion worked. To do this, I sat on a swivel chair and jumped off of it, making the swivel chair and I go in opposite directions. My partner then recorded the data of how far the chair and I were from our original positions. The more force applied to the jump, the farther the chair and I traveled. We concluded that the third law of motion was correct. The second part was proving that the law of inertia was correct. To do this, we placed an index card on a cup and a penny on the index card. My partner and I flicked the index card and observed as the penny stood still and fell into the cup. The penny followed the law of inertia, as it stood still until gravity was applied onto it from the absence of the index card. The final part of the lab was proving the second law of motion. My partner and I set up a race track with one elevated side and placed a large marble at the bottom. At the top we dropped a small marble at the bottom and it pushed the large marble to the end of the track (which was 120 cm) in 4 seconds. We reversed the positions of the marbles and saw that the larger marble pushed the smaller marble to the end of the track in only half the time. From that, we concluded that the acceleration of the small marble was greater than the large one since the marbles pushing each one differed in force. 

Energy (1/22 - 1/26)

https://goo.gl/iyD3GQ

Summary: 
     Energy is a scalar quantity and is measured based on the movement of an object. There are two types of energy that can be measured: potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy is the potential magnitude of an object based on its vertical and horizontal position. An example of potential energy is a biker on a hill. At the top of the hill, he has potential energy due to the fact that he is in close proximity of going down the slope and gaining speed/energy. Kinetic energy is the energy in an object while it is in motion. Using the biker on the hill once more, once he bikes down the hill, his potential energy turns into kinetic energy. As he gains speed, his kinetic energy increases along with his speed.

SP5 - Using Mathematics:

     This week I used mathematics to find the potential and kinetic energy of an object. This was used in a worksheet given to us with the intent to understand both types of energies. While we were working on it, we found that the formula for potential energy was PE = m x g x v. In other words, the formula for potential energy is mass times gravity times height. To apply this formula we were given scenarios such as finding the potential energy of a 3 kg brick loaded onto a seat-top 0.45 meters high. We plugged in the numbers into their respective variables and plugged in 9.8 for the gravity since that is the gravity on earth. My group and I eventually found the formula for kinetic energy which was KE =1/2mv^2 which is half the mass times velocity squared. Similar to potential energy, we were given problems to show that we fully understood it and could apply it to real life situations. Our example was to find the KE of a 625 kg roller coaster going at 18.3 m/s. Once more, we plugged in the numbers to their respective variables, squared the velocity and halved the product of the mass times the squared velocity. 

Acceleration Part 2 (1/17 - 1/19)

https://goo.gl/sKJ2Hb

Summary:

      Acceleration is the change in the velocity of an object over time. There are a few ways to make an object accelerate. You can roll off an object from an inclined surface and due to gravity, it will move down the inclined slope and accelerate. The other way is to input energy into it. An example of this the combustion of gas in order to power the pistons which increase the speed of a car. The formula of acceleration is: (V2 - V1) - (T2 - T1). The equation means to divide the change in velocity and divide it by the change in time. The quotient is measured in length/time^2. To write acceleration on a position/time graph, change the slope of the line over time and to write acceleration on a velocity/time graph, change the y-axis direction of the line.

SP4 - Analyzing and Interpreting Data:

     This week I completed the acceleration lab activity. The goal of this experiment was to learn how to measure acceleration and further understand how it works. I achieved that by analyzing and interpreting the data recorded. In the experiment, I worked with two other people in order to track the acceleration of a toy car. We put it on an inclined surface. When that happened, I called out the intervals of time and for each second, the two other people that I worked with pointed to where the car was for each second. We repeated the process two more times, inclined the inclined surface and repeated the process again. By the end of the experiment, there was a total of 3 trials. From those trials, we were asked questions to reflect upon acceleration such as how to calculate and measure acceleration and were asked to graph it on.

Acceleration (1/8 - 1/12)

https://goo.gl/dWS2mq

Summary:

     Acceleration is a vector quantity that measures the rate of change in the velocity of an object over time. Acceleration is measured on an acceleration graph where velocity is on the y-axis and time is on the x-axis. The steeper the line is, the bigger the change in velocity is over a short amount of time. If the line is completely horizontal, that means that the object isn't accelerating and thus remains a constant speed. If the line is horizontal and at the x-axis, the object is at rest, meaning that it isn't moving. The formula to find acceleration is the change in velocity divided by the change in time. The unit for the quotient then becomes length/time^2. 

SP3 - Planning Investigations: 

     This week I investigated on how acceleration works. To do this, I worked with two other people and gathered tracks, a book, a yardstick and a toy car. The first step was to assemble a track and a yardstick together. Then, we stacked books under one end so that end was inclined. The next step was to put the car on the ramp and let go of it. One person was to call out the intervals of time since the release of the car and the other two people were to mark where the car was in those intervals of time. We had to repeat this 2 more times and find the average position in each interval of time from those 3 trials. After repeating the trials 3 times, our group was supposed to stack another book with the intent of making the ramp more steeper thus increasing the acceleration of the toy car. From this experiment, I further understood how to find the acceleration of an object. 

Charity Fair (Project Blog 12/11 - 12/15)

Summary:

     The Clean Clothes Campaign in the largest global charity dedicated to stopping sweatshops in the garment and sportswear industry. They improve working conditions in sweatshops by pressuring both the manufacturer and retailer to raise worker wages rather than boycotting them and potentially leaving hundreds of workers unemployed. In addition to that, they support struggling workers in sweatshops by creating networks with them alongside Labor Unions and Non Governmental Organizations. A couple of events that demonstrate the Clean Clothes Campaign's their participation in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza Collapse and the burning of an H&M sweatshop, both of which happened in 2013. During both of these events, the CCC supported the victims of these two events and constantly pressured the owners of the sweatshops to improve working conditions. Looking at this charity and what is has done so far, my partner and I decided to choose this charity since it solves what we feel strongly about and works effectively to stop the issue at hand.

Backwards Looking: 

     What process did you go through to produce this piece? To produce a tri-fold that both advertises me and my partner's charity and product, we first had to research what the Clean Clothes Campaign was, what it did and how it did it, which is explained in the summary. The next step was to figure out what we were going to make that relates to our charity. We decided to make Kanzashi Christmas trees in order to support the Clean Clothes Campaign. What followed next was another series of research in where we were trying to find the cost and profit of making our item and how much our charity made in a year and how it distributed the money. Delving more into our product, we made a step-by-step tutorial in order to show the process of how a Kanzashi Christmas Tree was made. The final step was to compress all that information into a tri-fold. 

Inwards Looking:

How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work? I felt that this year's charity fair could have been far more better than it was. However, it isn't due to any of the components assigned by teachers that made this charity fair unsatisfactory. The part that made this year unsatisfactory was the product. My partner and I planned to make 5 Kanzashi Christmas Trees each so that we would make a total of 10 which was the minimum requirement for quantity of items. However, during the night of the charity fair, I brought the 5 that I was supposed to make while my partner only brought in one Kanzashi Christmas tree which made me feel a bit disappointed due to the fact that we could have done more to support our charity. Despite that, I feel like all of the other components that we worked on far surpassed my expectations and of what I did in my previous years due to how insightful all the information was on what the charity was and our product.

Outwards Looking:

In what ways did your work meet the standards for this assignment? In what ways did it not meet those standards? I believe our work in this year's charity met most of the standards for this assignment. As I have stated before, our main resource was our charity's website which provided many information about themselves and was proven to be a main asset in this project. The charity research, statistics and presentations all elaborated on the Clean Clothes Campaign as a whole and even goes into depth on why sweatshops exist in the first place and how this charity is effectively improving worker wages. I think that the product that we made this year was also met the standards in regards to quality, as it took a long time to make and had a pleasant appearance once it was done in the making. I think that my partner and I's final product met all of the standards except for the quantity of products, since we made only a total of 6 out of 10.

Forward Looking:

As you look at this piece, what's one thing that you would like to try to improve upon? Looking back at how I did overall, I feel like I could have managed my time more wisely. I feel like the week making the instructables was a waste. It only took one and a half class periods to finish it, yet I spent most of the rest of the week doing nothing due to the fact that I didn't have the printouts for the project yet. I also felt like the product that I made could have been better as well, although this may be slightly nitpicky. I did five of the Kanzashi Christmas tree over the break but two of them had some gaps in between the leaves. I could have filled them in but I spent the break doing other things and I ended up fixing them before the day of Charity Fair. Overall, I think the weakest point in this project was my management with time.

Distance and Displacement (12/4 - 12/8)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/FRDNWA

Summary:

     In physics, two out of the many important measurements are distance and displacement. These two factors measure how far an object moved from its starting point to its end point. Distance is a scalar quantity, which measures magnitude. It measures the original path that an object took in its time of motion. Displacement is a vector quantity which measures both the magnitude and direction. Displacement measures how far out an object is from its original starting point. In other words, displacement is the shortest possible distance from point A to point B. 

SP3 - Launching Investigations:

     This week I began in investigation when studying distance and displacement. With my partner, we were to investigate if and how displacement and distance affect each other. To do this, we found a specific location to test our hypothesis on, which was that the distance affects displacement of an object by increasing it. Our first step was to place down a piece of tape on the location we decided on. Next, we were to follow the directions on taking steps. The final step was to measure and record both the displacement and distance of our travel. We did these three steps three times and noticed that the displacement was always greater than the displacement unless the path is a straight line because displacement shows the shortest possible route from the starting point and end point. 

Carbon Footprint (11/27 - 12/1)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/TnEmkJ

Summary:

     Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere after an event, activity or movement. All the emissions sent into the atmosphere is combined and calculated as an equivalent to a quantity of Carbon Dioxide, given the name carbon footprint. It is important to plan out an event keeping carbon footprint in mind and tracking how much has been emitted from that activity since if kept neglected, more emissions would be sent into the atmosphere which would take a toll on the environment. Carbon footprint is usually tracked when importing and exporting products and goods because the modes of transportation most commonly use gas which emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

SP8 - Obtain, Evaluate, Communicate:

     This week my partner and I calculated and displayed the carbon footprint produced when making our product, the Kanzashi Christmas Tree. The first step was to obtain the basic data in order to find out how much carbon footprint was used to make one. To do that, we had to find out the distance between the retailer and the manufacturer. We had to multiply the distance in miles by 0.8g if the product was sent via plane, 0.17g if sent via truck, 0.1g if sent via train and by 0.41g if sent via car. Our products were either sent overseas or by the same state from manufacturer to retailer and the last part of the carbon footprint was calculating the distance between the retailer to AdVENTURE STEM. Calculating all of this, we had a total of 22045.206g of CO2 used to make our products.

Biological Classification (10/6 - 10/9)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/dxAVVq

Summary: 

     Earth is full of life. The life on earth come in different categories, known as species, which is a group of organisms that share very similar traits and appearances to each other. Today, there are approximately 8.7 million species living on earth, according to the New York Times. That is a lot of species to account for. Because of this, there has been a way to classify these organisms. It is known as biological classification, first done by Linnaeus. Biologists classify organisms in a diagram known as a cladogram to show which species have similar traits and which ones do not. The higher the cladogram goes, the less traits species have in common. 

SP6 - Constructing Explanations: 

     This week I constructed explanations through my work in understanding biological classification. In order to understand it, I looked at how species had diversified over the years through the cladogram. All organisms began with DNA. Eventually, some organisms began to have complex cells with organelles inside of them. These organisms were known as eukaryotes while the organisms that didn't have complex cells were either prokaryotic or archae, single cell organisms. Eventually, animals had vertebrae then evolving into tetrapods while some didn't like the shark which only remained having a vertebrae. Soon, some animals begun being bilateral and symmetrical, while some begun to have diapsids. Through the worksheet and the website I was supposed to investigate, I explained how animals diversified through the years. 

Tree of Life (10/30 - 11/3)

Image Source: https://goo.gl/6iKSjS

Summary: 

     All organisms that are alive and currently extinct all have a common ancestor. Although we don't know who or what the specific species is, there is sufficient evidence to make that claim. The first form of evidence is comparing fossils and bones together to see which ones are similar. Humans, bats, cats, lizards, whales and birds have a humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, metacarpals and phalanges. Although these parts vary depending on the species, this proves that species once had a common ancestor that eventually diversified through the process of evolution. Another form of evidence is by comparing the traits between species. Using a cladogram, we can tell where a species split into two sections. Looking at a caiman, bird and T-Rex from a cladogram, it shows that they all have common traits such as having vertebrae, a bony skeleton and four limbs which proves that they have a common ancestor. 

SP4 - Analyzing and Interpreting Data: 

     This week I analyzed and Interpreted data when trying to investigate how all organisms have a common ancestor. The first piece of evidence that I analyzed were homologous structures. Many species (mammals in particular) have the same forearm skeletal structure, having a humerus, radius, ulna, carpals, metacarpals and phalanges. This proves that there ha been a common ancestor and has diversified and evolved into these organisms. The second piece of evidence is embryology images of animals in their embryo state. From the images alone, we can see that many of the organism's in their embryonic state are similar, which shows once again that organisms once had a common ancestor.