11th Grade Projects
The Final Project For the final project a friend and me decided it would be fun to design and make a motorized skateboard. I brought in a small drill motor and began designing a mounting bracket to attach the motor to the board. While doing that my friend designed the gears that would be attached to the motor and wheel. The two gears would be connected with a bike change. After printing and attaching the mounting bracket, gears, and chain I began to work on the circuitry for the motor. For the main board we used a Tetrix Prizm. My initial idea was to keep all controls physical that way I didn't have do much coding. Everything would be controlled by switches, but then it was brought to my attention that the board would keep going if the rider fell off. So I began to construct a way to attach button to the board. we didn't have a button built for the Tetrix Prizm so I had to make one that would work with the board. I ended up using a button from a Vex Robotics kit and attaching it to a connector that came with the Prizm. After some testing we discovered that we needed to set up a different kind of button so that we would have a different voltage going through the signal pin so it would better read a change in voltage. I have always had a problem setting up buttons so my teacher had to help me with this part(he helped us with a lot. I am far from a smart person or good student so I appreciate what he does). After the button was connected and coded in things began to come together. I trimmed a bit off the mounting bracket so the chain would stop hitting it and then it finally turned the wheel without weight on it. Now this is the first prototype so there was a lot of problems and things to change. For example the button was not very good so it would switch the motor on and off randomly whether or not you were pressing the button. Second, the gears weren't aligned so the chain had a hard time staying on the teeth. Third, the motor didn't provide enough torque so the board wouldn't move with a person on top. There were many other problems and things to fix but all in all it kinda worked. As my first attempt to make a motorized "vehicle", it didn't go too terribly. To everyone who helped, Thank you.
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The Greenhouse ProjectThe project that I am currently working on a project that will allow me to leave my greenhouse for long periods without worrying about watering plants or managing the environment. This system will water plants and manage the greenhouse's temperature and humidity. By creating a way for my arduino to take in data from various points in a greenhouse it will be able to better manage the environment. For example the arduino will be equipped with humidity, temperature, and soil moisture sensors on both sides of the greenhouse to allow the system to manipulate external devices like fans and misters to accommodate for differential temperature variants. For now I am working on a smaller version for seed starters and small growing environments. This system will be able to manage basic things like soil moisture and light exposure. This system will be able to show a person current data about the growing environment. These measurements include temperature, humidity, and soil moisture.
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10th Grade Projects
The Second Bridge Project
My engineering teacher gave my group and I a challenge a few weeks ago. Normally the first year student build popsicle stick bridges using 200 popsicle stick. This is my second year in engineering and he wanted us to build a bridge using 100 popsicle sticks. So we did and after a few days of planning and simulations we decided to make a arc bridge. Then we began building the bridge. After we finished building the bridge we tested it. The bridge held 210 pounds before breaking.
Ferris Wheel
Over the coarse of this quarter my team and I have been working on making a fully functioning ferris wheel. Our original idea was to turn it into a rotating candy dispenser. This idea lead us to make many changes to our original design. For example, we had to extend the axle to allow a motor to be connected to it vea a rubber band. Another problem we had was that the candy would have a hard time getting into the carts because of the axles suspending the cars. So we decided to cut the majority of the axles off. After quite a bit of testing we decided that Lemon Heads was the candy that would be dispenser onto the ferris wheel. Till recently we decided to just make it spin. Instead of finishing this project we are going to build a bridge capable of holding three hundred pounds because we were not making fast enough progress on the ferris wheel.
The Stool
For the beginning of the second year of engineering, Engineering Concepts, we needed to build a few chairs for the classroom. So during the first week of school we planned a design for a small stool. After my group and I made our designs we needed to decide who´s design to use. After a bit of thought we decided to use my stool design. The next step was to modify my stool design to make it easier to build. after that and a little bit of math to make sure the angle of the legs was reasonable we began the construction of the stool. It took us a few days to gather materials and cut the wood but the construction only two days, including all the times we goofed off instead of doing the project. In my original sketch I had the supports going from leg to leg, but after talking with the group we decided it would be easier to make the supports go in between the legs like shown in the picture below. After a bit of sanding and some sitting it was done and In the end it is a sturdy and nice looking stool. What is even better is that we all took turn sitting on it and none of us made the chair break. The only thing that would make this chair better is a back and a small cushion.
9th Grade Projects
The Bridge
For the past few weeks my class as separated into ten groups of three. Each group gets a bottle of carpenters glue and two hundred Popsicle sticks. With these materials we had to build a bridge that can hold at least twenty pounds. My group built a simple truss bridge. Surprisingly our bridge was the first to hold 210 pounds without breaking. If I could make this bridge better, I would have multiple layers of popsicle sticks in between all the trusses. Since we used all two hundred popsicle sticks I would take the popsicle sticks from the road because the road was just an aesthetic we added.
The Face Tile
For the past few weeks in ceramics class we have been working on face tiles. The design I chose is a modded dragon priest mask from Skyrim. Surprisingly it turned out pretty well. It's not exactly like the picture but it's pretty close.
The Case
For the past two weeks I have been working on making a 3DS case in Onshape. In this project we could ether make a phone case or a toy car in Onshape. After that we would ether 3D print the phone case or make the car out of wood. My idea is to make a slide on 3DS case and on the bottom piece have a stand for it. I am still trying to find a purpose for the stand. It was a place holder because we have to add some sort of extra feature to the case. I was also planning to add handles under the case, but desisted not to because it was a little out of my skill range. The Pictur on the left is of the bottom part of the case. The picture on the right is the top part of the case. I have not made the kick stand for the bottom part of the case, but it will be made soon.
The Obstacle Course
For the past few week I have been working with a small robot called sphero. This robot is a small water resistant ball. For about two weeks we messed around with the block and text program in lightning lab( the program that runs the sphero). After that we began the construction of the beautiful obstacle course below this. For another two weeks we wrote a program to navigate the course. When competition day came around we were not ready. me and my group still needed to test one section of the course and we need to fix another section's program. So we didn't do very well. It took us 176 seconds to get through the entire course. The reason it took so long was because my program for part five didn't work and my other group member's part six didn't work.
The Siren
For our final project in engineering we had to make some sort of contraption. My group and I decided to make a earth quake siren. For two weeks we worked on designing the siren. after that we made our prototype witch was the siren but at 60% the original size. Using a RC car motor we tested the siren. It worked pretty well but it still needed some sanding before it truly worked. After a day of sanding it worked perfectly. So we decided to step it up a notch. We printed out the siren at full size, used a bigger motor, and a 12 volt battery. Now it is perfect, It makes a deep roar when spinning to full speed. Its not super loud, but it works. Pictures will be up soon.