Projectile Projects
Reflective Questions:
Question:
Which location and time period did you choose to represent in your trebuchet design? How does your trebuchet represent this location and time period?
We chose 250 B.C. We tried to make it look like oak wood because they also used oak back then. The twisted ropes (which were rubber bands in this case) was also used in 250 B.C. torsional force was an effective way to launch projectiles or even fire balls. (yes they did use actual fire balls.)
Question:
The 21st century skills involved in this project were creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Which of these skills do you feel was your strongest soft skill during this project? Which do you feel was your greatest area of growth? Reflect on and describe why you selected these skills, and support your response with direct evidence from the project.
I believe my greatest soft skill in this project was communication, during our first steps of our project we communicated to each other the type of trebuchets we were going to have. It was necessary for us to communicate how it would be built and how we would build it together.
My greatest area of improvement with these soft skills would be critical thinking. This project did not challenge me and I did not dig deep into the time period or more about the origins of the trebuchet.
Which location and time period did you choose to represent in your trebuchet design? How does your trebuchet represent this location and time period?
We chose 250 B.C. We tried to make it look like oak wood because they also used oak back then. The twisted ropes (which were rubber bands in this case) was also used in 250 B.C. torsional force was an effective way to launch projectiles or even fire balls. (yes they did use actual fire balls.)
Question:
The 21st century skills involved in this project were creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Which of these skills do you feel was your strongest soft skill during this project? Which do you feel was your greatest area of growth? Reflect on and describe why you selected these skills, and support your response with direct evidence from the project.
I believe my greatest soft skill in this project was communication, during our first steps of our project we communicated to each other the type of trebuchets we were going to have. It was necessary for us to communicate how it would be built and how we would build it together.
My greatest area of improvement with these soft skills would be critical thinking. This project did not challenge me and I did not dig deep into the time period or more about the origins of the trebuchet.
Rube Goldberg Project
Project Reflection
In our first semester of ninth grade we had a rube goldberg project. In this project we have to make a machine using simple smaller machines. Examples of simple machines would be: pulleys, levers, wheel and axle, wedge, inclined plane and/or screw. On my step of the rube i used a pulley system. This pulley system pulled Indiana Jones across a board to push a ball to the next step. The first step on the rube had an inclined place so a car could roll down it through a paper moon. An example of a lever would be the switch to light up the sign. A marble hit one side of the button switch and turned on the sign. When the ball rolls down to inclined plane physical principles are happening in this case it would be momentum. The second step was like a level as well, it was a rectangular piece of wood that had a screw in the middle and the wood moved around it. A small ball hit one side of it and the other side hit another ball pushing the ball down an inclined plane. This is an example of kinetic energy.
Potential Energy:
PE(joules)=mgh. M=mass(kg) G=Gravity(m/s^2) H=height. (m)
The mass of the steel ball that was dropped was 7.0 grams. It is dropped 50 centimeter(height) into a pulley system.
The 7 grams needs to be converted into kilograms. 7 grams is now 0.007kg. Gravity is pulling it down at 9.81 m/s^2. The height in in centimeters and needs to be converted to meters. 50 cm is now 0.5m.
PE=(0.007kg)x(9.81m/s^2)x(o.5m)
PE= 0.0343(joules)
Kinetic Energy:
KE(joules)=1/2mv^2 m=mass(kg) v=velocity(m/s)
The steel ball lands in a tiny bucket, it has a velocity of 45cm/s.
Mass= 7g -> 0.007(kg) Velocity= 45cm -> 0.45 m/s
KE=(½)x(0.007 kg)x(o.45m/s^2)
KE=0.00070875 joules)
Overall this was a great project, it started out with a small rube and then we went on to make a next larger sized one. The first small test rube was a three step or more rube. It was done in a group of about five people. After we got our first taste of a rube we were put into two larger groups. From there we assigned each person to a common theme and then the next day we got a large white board and drew from there. This whiteboard would then become our blueprints from then on. In the beginning we had to get two large pieces of plywood. We painted one and then added steps. We repeated this with the other piece of plywood as well. Attached the two boards together to make one large rube.
My greatest 21ts century skill from this project was collaboration, our entire group had to collaborate to make this rube come together and work as one machine. We had to collaborate from the very beginning even with the small rube all the way to the final rube. Most of the collaborating was done when the whiteboard/ blueprints were drawn. We had to incorporate on how all of our steps would work without changing each person's original idea.
My weakest 21st century skill from this project was effective communication. Throughout this project I didn’t hang out in the back round but I wasn’t up in the front either. Even though our group collaborated a lot we didn’t communicate enough towards the end how urgent it was to get our rube done.
Potential Energy:
PE(joules)=mgh. M=mass(kg) G=Gravity(m/s^2) H=height. (m)
The mass of the steel ball that was dropped was 7.0 grams. It is dropped 50 centimeter(height) into a pulley system.
The 7 grams needs to be converted into kilograms. 7 grams is now 0.007kg. Gravity is pulling it down at 9.81 m/s^2. The height in in centimeters and needs to be converted to meters. 50 cm is now 0.5m.
PE=(0.007kg)x(9.81m/s^2)x(o.5m)
PE= 0.0343(joules)
Kinetic Energy:
KE(joules)=1/2mv^2 m=mass(kg) v=velocity(m/s)
The steel ball lands in a tiny bucket, it has a velocity of 45cm/s.
Mass= 7g -> 0.007(kg) Velocity= 45cm -> 0.45 m/s
KE=(½)x(0.007 kg)x(o.45m/s^2)
KE=0.00070875 joules)
Overall this was a great project, it started out with a small rube and then we went on to make a next larger sized one. The first small test rube was a three step or more rube. It was done in a group of about five people. After we got our first taste of a rube we were put into two larger groups. From there we assigned each person to a common theme and then the next day we got a large white board and drew from there. This whiteboard would then become our blueprints from then on. In the beginning we had to get two large pieces of plywood. We painted one and then added steps. We repeated this with the other piece of plywood as well. Attached the two boards together to make one large rube.
My greatest 21ts century skill from this project was collaboration, our entire group had to collaborate to make this rube come together and work as one machine. We had to collaborate from the very beginning even with the small rube all the way to the final rube. Most of the collaborating was done when the whiteboard/ blueprints were drawn. We had to incorporate on how all of our steps would work without changing each person's original idea.
My weakest 21st century skill from this project was effective communication. Throughout this project I didn’t hang out in the back round but I wasn’t up in the front either. Even though our group collaborated a lot we didn’t communicate enough towards the end how urgent it was to get our rube done.