Skip to main content

Dragonfly I


        This civic term at GCE has opened up new and interesting opportunities in learning for me. We explored all things space in our class titled Rocket Science. We explored the ins and outs, the math, the history, and the people who made this scientific field what it is. We first explored parabolas and how to calculate the different data that goes into graphing a parabola. Then, we wrote up biographies for people prolific in the realm of rocket science. We would even learn about Binary/ASCII code and how it was used on the Golden Record, which was shot into space for some alien lifeform to hopefully find. Next, we got to experiment firsthand with how the design aspect of a rocket comes into play. We created our match rockets from match heads, aluminum foil, and wood skewers. We messed with our designs, firing them over, and over. Until one would finally get off the launch pad. Lastly, we took trips to places like the Museum of Science and Industry and The Planetarium to see the space exhibits. At the end of our class, we put all we learned together and created a stomp rocket to launch and calculate the flight path for. We used everything we learned about the Golden Record, binary code, and some historical figures of rocket science to present you with a cohesive step-by-step guide on what went into making our rockets and what it resulted in.


Hope you enjoy it!





    Honestly, I had low expectations coming into this class because I initially felt that the options weren't quite as interesting, fun, or robust as last year's civic term courses, but I would say I chose the most interesting course out of the lot. The project for this term was super interesting and was the most unique thing I've done at school. Even in GCE standards, Rocket Science was something special. It mixed two very complicated and technical topics and spun them into something more personal, fun, and creative. In this project, I got to express my learning through complicated calculations, personal art, and through the lens of a person who inspires me. This course taught me so much that I didn't think I’d learn in my Sophomore year, and if given the choice I would take it again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Papaya Pete

Papaya Pete Welcome to our first unit of Food For thought! A class where we talk about the Anthropological and historical ideas that food takes us including where it came from and how that in turn informs us about ourselves. Did you know that corn has domesticated us? It turns out that what was once a grain has evolved and grown along side us to be more useful to us, because it turns out that being useful to humans has become the greatest evolutionary advantage ever! To add insult to injury corn is in just about any food you could think of now. Don't believe me? check the ingredients on the back of your Cheetos. Its in just one form or another.  During this class we traced back our roots as far as we could go to see what the different foods could teach us about where and who we came from.  We put all this info together in a colorful family tree. We also put together a map with the center of origin for almost every food crop with trade routes and the ancient civilizations that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bleachy battery building

 This most recent unit was a very short unit for fuel. It lasted no more then a single week.  We learned all about how batteries, electricity, and motors work.  We get to watch our teacher, Will, smash an electric pencil sharpener with a hammer to retrieve the electric motor from inside. With the electric motor we identified each components - stator commutator and rotor. Seeing these components firsthand really helped solidify my understanding. Then using a multimeter we were shown that electricity can flow both ways ways by placing the prongs to the bottom where the battery goes and spinning what is usually the drill piece, we got minimal results with around .2 volts being put out.  Lastly we learned of our action project. To build our very own battery with the electrode and electrolyte of our choice.  I chose bleach and rice wine vinegar for mine and used pennies and some really heavy screws as my electrodes.  Please enjoy my lab report as well as a few p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jared the Chatbot

Today we finished our last AP for our coding class, This time we learned how to use more reactionary statements that allow the computer to detect whether a condition is met or not and then execute a particular sequence of code or not.  To do this we use If - Then or elif statements. Our AP this time was to create a psudo-chatbot to talk and respond to you.   Afterword: This project was so much fun.  By this point in the course we learned enough that we could do a lot more creatively since we finally had the tools to pull it off; because of that this project became more of a passion project.  On the other hand though I learned that no matter how much coding you know you will always struggle with bugs.  I spent a lot of time especially because of the increased number of lines it took to make this.  It was confusing to decipher what was what even with the comments (The hashtag looking lines) which I used to make notes for myself.
Post a Comment
Read more