Tinkering

Week 1

This week in design, we were introduced to another activity called Makey Makey.

Makey Makey includes a group of challenges that we had to solve like typing and making a piano out of little tile shaped blocks.

First, we got out the motherboard and experimented on it. We connect alligator clips and put a dark line for grey led on the page then connected the clips and started spelling some letters. We found out the grey led can conduct electricity.

Today we did spheros. In spheros we were set some challenges. But we first got to play around with the sphero. We did driving the sphero first so it would come up with a little home screen then you would press driving then there is a screen with. You can change the colour whatever colour you want and you can make it dark or light.  There is a little circle that you can make it go straight left or right or backwards. Then we were set the challenge to make a 2D shape it was hard not because I can not program it is because spheros is a whole different thing to me. So first we tried to make a 2D shape we tried it and it did not work. It was because it was facing the same way the whole time.

So we tried the that we know that 4 equal part it would be 90 so we change the program again. We do not know if it works because  we did not get  any other testing time so we will  know if it works next time if we do spheros  next time.

Today we did Spheros. In Spheros we had a challenge that was our Sphero had to go around a shape that we made with special tape. We made a rectangle here’s what it looks like.

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It took a few tests but finely we got it and we made a rectangle. The tricky bits were when we got the first bit but then it cut a bit of the rectangle so it did not do the full shape. But we did find what was wrong and what the mistake was so then we fixed it. Here is a video of our Sphero doing the rectangle.

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Then we were set the challenge. It was to make a maze with the special tape  and all so with barrier. So the challenge was to get around the maze that you made from start to finish with out touching the sides or the barriers.

It was hard at the start because the sphero kept on touching the sides. But we finally got it and we made it around half way.

Robotics

Today we did robotic. We had a task to do the task was to make the robot follow a black outline circle. We had to make it do a zig- zag pattern which was see the black line turn 50 degree see just white turn 50 degrees and it would keep on going because it had a forever loop around it. It was hard at first but then I found a solution for it here is a screen of one.

Problem was the  robot would not follow the circle. Because what happened is the robot could not find the black circle it just kept doing circles and didn’t stop. So I new there was a problem with the program. By the way that screen snip was after I had fixed the problem. I looked at the green bricks on the program and that was the problem it was because it was on speed 35 but I needed it to be on speed 50 so I changed that then I tested it. It worked so now I fixed the problem it works quiet well. What we are doing next is we are going to do robotic in a few week. So for the mean time we are going to be doing scratch and sowing.

Today we did robotics in robotics we did spheros. First we went on to the sphero Edu app. Then pressed on the button that said driving. It went to a page that had a circle and you had to put it on 180. So  when you moved the little circle it would move straight ahead. Other wise it would move all different directions.

Scratch

Today we did scratch here in this video it shows what  I learnt about scratch.

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Dance Studio

Today in scratch we did a dance studio. I was surprised that my sprite can change colours in my dance studio. I added music a background and some sprites. The hardest bit with the music was see which music match you scratch program it was easy doing the animal sounds. There were no hard bits with choosing the background just seeing which one you wanted. Then the sprites it was hard choosing them because you had to see if they had two or more costumes other wise you couldn’t make your sprite dance. Here is a video of my dance studio working.

Ten block challenge

Today we did a ten block challenge. We were given a sheet to help us then we were sent off. The hardest bit of the challenge was that you only had 10 blocks but you could keep on using them. But you had to use all of the blocks. I found it hard at the start because I like to use lots of the blocks not ten. So then I got so help from Abby. She helped me by giving me so ideas on how to connected them together so they work. Once I got most of the blocks together. I just put random blocks together. I finally got my program to work. Here is a video of it working.

Then we went off and looked in categories like art, games, stories and music. I didn’t really like the stories or the music. So I looked into games and art I found two games and one art. The games that I found were slimy, snakes and lasers and the challenge. I liked snakes and lasers because there was a laser and the snake could not touch it because otherwise it would die. I liked slimy because you had to complete around 7 levels and them you would make it home. I liked the challenge because you had to keep on doing levels until you made it past all of them.

Build a Band

Today we made a band. So one of my instruments was a cello. It would change about every few seconds. First it would just be a cello then it would change into. Two cellos that were the colour blue. Then it would keep on going on forever until you would press the stop button. So then when the green flag is clicked the saxophone will play a little tune. It will say something to. The other sprite will say something. If  you press the sprite is will play a song.

Its Alive

What we had to do is make our sprite come alive and keep on doing that over. The hard bit was for me that when it touched the edge it had to do it again but it had to be at the start. Before it could do the thing again . Here is a video of it.

Debug It

We did Debug it today. Here is what I had to do for 1.3 for debug it. So what I had to do was the sprite would not do a flip. So what I did is I put a repeat block and I put four wait blocks and it did work. Here is what it looked liked now and at the start.

Today we did origami pinwheels I learnt that 2/8 eights is the same is 4/16 sixteens and other fractions as well. We had to fold them ourselves. I liked this because I like fractions it was really fun and I learnt some more things about fractions.

Today  we did Microworlds I made a trapezium there was hard bits like did the bottom bit reach the other side  did it look like a trapezium were the side even were they congruent sides.  Here are some of the commands that I used Fd, Rt and Lt. Here is a picture of my trapezium.

Kites

Here is a video of what we did.

Today we did Lego

We had to get all different little things when we were building here is a video of all the steps we did building the se saw.

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Connects

Today we did connects we made a well it was very hard to build but we got through all of the hard steps. First we built the frame  then we built the bit for the  string to  hang on to then we built the lever for it to go up and down then we  built the bit were you can put things in. That was my first time building a proper connect structure.

Pulleys

We made pulleys today first we got a cotton rill, wire, yoghurt cup and string. we put the wire through the cotton rill and tied it p with wire then put little holes in the yoghurt cup and put wire through that. Put the string around it and there was out easy pulley we made two other one they were harder to make. I learnt haw to make easy and hard pulleys with one cotton rill two cotton rills and four cotton rills. The one  with the four cotton rills did not work because the string got tangled around the rills so that one did not work but the others did. I want to know how many cotton rills you could make one pulley have. I liked doing pulleys.

Putting them all together

Went we out them all together we had to make another pulley but when we tried to have the pulley to drop a marble into the Lego funnel it did not work because  the marble did not land in the right place. So then we tired to put string around the windmill that Ashleigh’s group made but that didn’t work either.

What is a Robot

A robot is a complicated machine that can do hard or simple tasks without anything like food or water to survive it is just like a human but we need food and water.

What is needed for a robot to work

A robot needs  skill knowledge because robots don’t have a brain and creativity.

What is a program.

A program is a thing that programs a robot to do things.

Why do you think people invented robots.

To help people that cant do things that other people can do.

Session 1

Today we did a rube Goldberg thing for our rube Goldberg project this term. Our aim was to put a piece of paper in the bin. We were told to bring in thing like balls and tracks to build it. First we got into little groups of three then we did a plan our first idea was that we could take a  photo on a computer. We tried that but it did not work coze the object that you have to hit it didn’t get hit hard enough so it did not take a pitcher. Then we tried to have a se saw thing where one ball goes in and on the other side a ball would come out but when we tied it and the ball on the other side did no come out. So then we did this someone nocks the ball on to a box then it falls of on to the key board and types so letters then falls down a tube  that has a piece of paper on the end that falls into the bin.

Session 2

Today we did our rube Goldberg projects first we went into our groups then we started getting our ideas for what we could do for it we thought of ringing a bell. First on our deigns the ball went down the incline plane up then down on the see-saw then the ball would fall on to the lever and knocks another ball that goes down the lever knock some dominoes then a ball falls into the pulley ringing the bell. Here is a picture of my deign.

First we had to make the ramp then we put the see-saw at the other end but that didn’t get enough speed to get to the other side. So then we put the see-saw first and then the ramp and that worked. So then we added in some levers the first time it worked because the marble went down the see-saw up the ramp and pushed the lever and the marble went down. But the next time it didn’t work. Here are some pictures.

Session  3

Today we did our rube Goldberg projects. First we had to see if everything still work then we had to make a new paper ramp because the other one was broken so first we tried to make the ramp with normal paper. But that was to thin so then we used a thicker paper that worked. Here is a photo were is was broken.

We also made a structure so it can hold the pulley that we made. We also got a pipe so the marble goes into the pulley straight away with out missing. The structure made the pipes more balanced. The pulley bit has not worked yet so when we get a chance to we will probably  work on this the most. Here are two pictures of the structure and the pipes.

What’s Next

We are going to work on the end where the pulley is and the pipes because that bit is the only bit that does not work on out Rube Goldberg machine.

Reflection

This is my rube Goldberg  reflection. I liked doing our deigns because we got to experiment on what we could do in our deigns. We chose to ring a bell because it was a easy task to do and not to complicated to do. What we need it to go to ring the bell. First we put the incline plane to make it have some momentum at the start then  another incline plane to get up. We put the lever there so it goes down into the tube. We put the pulley there so it could hit the bell straight away and so we had another simple machine. The two things on our Rube Goldberg machine that did not work were the lever bit was because it some times did not get pushed enough so the other marble did not go down the tube. The other bit were it did not work is where the marble falls out into the pulley. Some times it did not work because the tube and the funnel bit were not inline with the pulley. The other times it does not work is because the marbles are not heavy enough so you had to put three to five marbles in. So in the end sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t work. I learnt that you have to keep working hard at it and sometimes it doesn’t all way work.