Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Touchdown in CA
We are officially in California!!!! I'm really excited as one could guess. While up in the air I took a video when we flew over the grand canyon. It was great- a photographsr's dream, even though it didn't exactly look like the grand canyon from 10,000+feet. Now we are goin' down the highway from San Diego to Encintias where my grandma lives.
Oh and in case Ms. Westnestki ever reads this: I've stayed true to my word of speaking Spanish over break- just a few minutes ago I wished our bus driver a good day (formally in Spanish) and he got very enthusiastic about having a Spanish speaking passenger. I have to admit two things though:
1) it took a lot of courage to talk to him fir fear of saying something wrong
and
2) once I started talking to him in Spanish quite a few other customers meekly thanked him in Spanish as well.
I'm pretty sure I made his day. :)
Oh and in case Ms. Westnestki ever reads this: I've stayed true to my word of speaking Spanish over break- just a few minutes ago I wished our bus driver a good day (formally in Spanish) and he got very enthusiastic about having a Spanish speaking passenger. I have to admit two things though:
1) it took a lot of courage to talk to him fir fear of saying something wrong
and
2) once I started talking to him in Spanish quite a few other customers meekly thanked him in Spanish as well.
I'm pretty sure I made his day. :)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Meet the Elements
To quote Mr. Harrelson, "Bla bla bla."
Here is Meet the Elements:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zION8xjbM
Heres is my edited version:
Here is Meet the Elements:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zION8xjbM
Heres is my edited version:
Meet The Elements.egg on Aviary.
Frequencies (for the original):
98.00=G
65.41=C
103.83=Am
73.42=D
82.41=Em (technically E)
Frequencies (for the original):
98.00=G
65.41=C
103.83=Am
73.42=D
82.41=Em (technically E)
G C Am
Come on come on and meet the elements
G C Am
May I introduce you to our friends, the elements?
D Em Am C D
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
G C D G
They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are
Neon's a gas that lights up the sign for a pizza place
The coins that you pay with are copper, nickel, and zinc
Silicon and oxygen make concrete bricks and glass
Now add some gold and silver for some pizza place classWavelengths:13.890m/s=G20.812m/s=Caprox. 12.374=Am18.540=D
16.518=Em (technically E)Monday, March 7, 2011
Success from Failure...
Ok so maybe the balloon launch last Friday was a complete failure on the weather-balloon-making-company's part.
I blame them.
But then again, we should have foreseen something like this happening- right?
NO, not right. Honestly science is about learning from your mistakes, that's basically what science is centered around--- just look at the scientific method! The scientific method itself is based on testing, failing, improving-as-needed, and then testing again.
Take my team's balloon car for example- it failed miserably, and yet we learned from our experience. We (a mere group of 8th graders), like all of the great scientists before us, have learned how to fail and learn form those failures.
That in itself is an accomplishment!
The fact that we have learned how to accept failure and learned how to learn from failure as mere 8th graders is a HUGE accomplishment. There are people out there in the world who have yet to learn how to accept defeat and move on from it. Imagine that! We have learned something in our 8th grade science class that many 40-year-olds have yet to discover (hence the term mid-life- crisis) in their lives: failure can benefit its victims more than success sometimes.
I believe that I have learned more from the failure on Friday than I would have learned had we succeeded perfectly in our attempt to send the CAN-tainer into space.
All thanks be to the failure of a weather-balloon-making-company somewhere out there. Next time we'll know better than to use your thin weather-balloons, and next time we'll be ready with a thicker/more durable one.
I blame them.
But then again, we should have foreseen something like this happening- right?
NO, not right. Honestly science is about learning from your mistakes, that's basically what science is centered around--- just look at the scientific method! The scientific method itself is based on testing, failing, improving-as-needed, and then testing again.
Take my team's balloon car for example- it failed miserably, and yet we learned from our experience. We (a mere group of 8th graders), like all of the great scientists before us, have learned how to fail and learn form those failures.
That in itself is an accomplishment!
The fact that we have learned how to accept failure and learned how to learn from failure as mere 8th graders is a HUGE accomplishment. There are people out there in the world who have yet to learn how to accept defeat and move on from it. Imagine that! We have learned something in our 8th grade science class that many 40-year-olds have yet to discover (hence the term mid-life- crisis) in their lives: failure can benefit its victims more than success sometimes.
I believe that I have learned more from the failure on Friday than I would have learned had we succeeded perfectly in our attempt to send the CAN-tainer into space.
All thanks be to the failure of a weather-balloon-making-company somewhere out there. Next time we'll know better than to use your thin weather-balloons, and next time we'll be ready with a thicker/more durable one.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
ISS Camera Location
I just had some free time and wanted to get out there the fact that there was reasoning behind our decision to place the lens on the bottom of our container:
Our model would have had a camera placed like one of the main cameras on the International Space Station. Personally I think that a camera on the bottom as opposed to one horizontally is cooler, that way it captures images like that of a plane's during take-off. But that's just one person's opinion, to be fair it would be better to ask a professional's opinion. Either way our video would have captured us as we watched its launch, the void of space, and the curvature of the Earth, minus popped balloon fabric.
We Accept Our Failure...
Thanks to Mr. Harrelson for being so supportive. :) I'm just disappointed that he didn't let me know that he wanted a horizontal view. That could have been easily added! Even today in class...
But it's okay, I remember once asking in class if we should cut a hole on the side so we could have a horizontal view as well, but I guess I didn't voice that loud enough. Either way it was a fantastic experience and so I would like to thank everyone for all of the hard work you have put into this project. Next time I guess we'll just have to place cameras all around the edges so as not to disappoint anyone. It's ok though, I'm sure my teammates stand beside we when I say that we will graciously accept our defeat and that next time we will just have to try harder. I wish to congratulate Anders, Collin, David, Christian, "and others who have helped them along the way (all of 2nd Period)," I solute you and your efforts to do the impossible and send a sturdy CAN-tainer into space.
So tomorrow when that CAN-tainer launches into the crystal-clear sky above I may cry, but only tears of joy for the fact that we- a simple bunch of 8th graders, their piers, and one amazing science teacher, with the support of Spartanburg Day School at our backs- have done something not many people can say they have done. We will have launched a container into the realm of space, the black void above our heads, that encircles our lives.
Not if, but when that container lands we will no doubt be among one of the first schools in the history of the world to launch a homemade container and parachute into space!
And so let me announce that I am proud of our failures, our setbacks, our accomplishments, and our discoveries; together we have learned more about ourselves, the world around us, and the space beyond our bubble-of-atmosphere than we could have ever learned divided.
It may not be my place to say this, (because it was not my container chosen) but know this: when that CAN-tainer goes up tomorrow it will be an accomplishment for all of us in the 8th grade at Spartanburg Day School- or really an accomplishment for everyone at the Day School. This is because without their support, guidance, and duck-tape we would not be standing on that field tomorrow sending our hard work and determination-to-succeed embodied in our duck-tape wrapped package into the dark void-of-space beyond the world.
But it's okay, I remember once asking in class if we should cut a hole on the side so we could have a horizontal view as well, but I guess I didn't voice that loud enough. Either way it was a fantastic experience and so I would like to thank everyone for all of the hard work you have put into this project. Next time I guess we'll just have to place cameras all around the edges so as not to disappoint anyone. It's ok though, I'm sure my teammates stand beside we when I say that we will graciously accept our defeat and that next time we will just have to try harder. I wish to congratulate Anders, Collin, David, Christian, "and others who have helped them along the way (all of 2nd Period)," I solute you and your efforts to do the impossible and send a sturdy CAN-tainer into space.
So tomorrow when that CAN-tainer launches into the crystal-clear sky above I may cry, but only tears of joy for the fact that we- a simple bunch of 8th graders, their piers, and one amazing science teacher, with the support of Spartanburg Day School at our backs- have done something not many people can say they have done. We will have launched a container into the realm of space, the black void above our heads, that encircles our lives.
Not if, but when that container lands we will no doubt be among one of the first schools in the history of the world to launch a homemade container and parachute into space!
And so let me announce that I am proud of our failures, our setbacks, our accomplishments, and our discoveries; together we have learned more about ourselves, the world around us, and the space beyond our bubble-of-atmosphere than we could have ever learned divided.
It may not be my place to say this, (because it was not my container chosen) but know this: when that CAN-tainer goes up tomorrow it will be an accomplishment for all of us in the 8th grade at Spartanburg Day School- or really an accomplishment for everyone at the Day School. This is because without their support, guidance, and duck-tape we would not be standing on that field tomorrow sending our hard work and determination-to-succeed embodied in our duck-tape wrapped package into the dark void-of-space beyond the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)