Taking Down Simple Machines On Thursday 12th May

Hello to everyone!

Thursday was a very busy day for all of the seventh graders in science class! We immediately began working. Ms.D had already written on the white board what we had to do during that class, we had to begin by giving in our notes that we should have done for homework, if someone wasn't there, they are due tomorrow, and you are supposed to read pages 6-13 in your Cells science book, and take as many notes as possible. We did not have time to review all the information, so instead we immediately continued working on our compound machines! They were supposed to be due last time, but since the teams had not been able to complete everything, we were given 15 minutes to finish our compound machines and get the working and set! So each team got to work:
The Cookie Monsters (Karin, Jakub, Me, Courtney, Maria Chiara, and David), had to work a bit more on getting the chain that brings the balls on top working and to not let it get stuck.
The Evil Elves (Davide, Ghazaleh, Emilija, Tamara, Ben, and Nathan) instead had to finish building the compound machine itself!
These are the two groups at work!
First, the cookie monsters trying to get the chain to work!

Second, the Evil Elves testing if their ramp works, and fixing it!

When the 15 minutes were done, both teams were pretty satisfied with their work and the team effort that had gone into building these machines! So the both teams backed away from their work, and each team picked ONE team member to turn the chain during the test, the Evil Elves picked Davide, while the Cookie Monsters picked Karin!

Here are the Evil Elves at their final test!

Here are the Cookie Monsters at their final test!

So the results were...... EVIL ELVES...... 3 out of 4 ramps complete!!!! (APPLAUD)!

and the COOKIE MONSTERS...... 4 out of 4 ramps complete!!!! (APPLAUD)!

After the very exiting hour, Ms.D gave us a five minute break to rest and relax...because after that, one of the most exiting parts of the compound machine came....to take it DOWN!!!

The whole class got busy to work, and each team had a different method, the Evil Elves took down everything and then sorted everything into bags, while the Cookie Monsters sorted the things while taking them down. The class worked hard for the rest of the block, and the compound machines were almost over by the time the class was over, so we stayed in at break for a little longer just to be able to finish the compound machine and be able to close the whole chapter. The cookie monsters soon after finished, and they packed up and left. The Evil Elves stayed in a bit more, and little after also finished, concluding this year's...SIMPLE MACHINES!

We were also given a short homework: you have to high-lilght all the important facts that you think are relevant on the sheet that Ms.D gave us, called Building Blocks Of Life- The Parts Of A Cell, and put a * next to any word or phrase we did not understand or would like Ms.D to explain!

Here are two websites in case you want to learn something more about cells and their structure!

Cells!
Cells!

The next scriber is......ERIC!!!

Chiara's Scribe Post 4th Quoter

Tuesday 10th Science class

Hello everybody, Tuesday class was our last class to build the compound machine, I am writing  for the team of the Cookie monster!! The compound machine it's a big machine made of simple machine. There are seven simple machine.

Those are:

Incline plane

Screw

wheel and axle

pulleys

wedges

Levers

Gears

In this big machine there ere all of the simple machines or almost all of them, because there are no wedges. Wedges break things a part, and this machine there is no kind of thing happening. As you can see the roller is a inclined plane. The little wheels on the top of the inclined plane is a wheel and axle. At the top of the machine 

there one screws build. In this machine there are also third class lever. But any thing is wouldn't work with out a pulley, infact the main thing wouldn't move, because the 

pulley brings the ball up and it make it do every think again. In the middle of the class parents 

came to see our machine. After in class came the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade to see our machine. 

When they came the room was really loud and every body was yelling: cool!!! 

At some point Ms.D. told as to clean up all the pieces were left  on the floor,  and she ask as to test our machine before we would leave the room The Cookie Monster  machine worked well, because all four track worked; however, the Evil Elf machine 

only two track of four worked well. 

DO NOT FORGET to go and look at other post, ther is also interesting facts about simple machines!!!!

Here some links that can help:

Wheeal and axel

Pulley

Lever

Inclined plane

Moodle

 The home work is to email Ms.D and to take notes. Make your blog comment, Which is due Friday the 20th, but that day we are in Swizerland.

Real life example: The  roller coster, refer to the ramp of the machine

Next scribe is..........Vale!!!!!

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday Science class

Science Class

(This is the Cookie munster and the Evil Elves)

Hello everyone! I am going to talk about Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday science class. The Evil Elves were a little bit behind the Cookie Monsters, but me and Davide came at lunch and also after school, and now we (The Evil Elves) are at the same position as the Cookie Monsters, because of me and Davide’s extra work. The Evil Elves are doing an awesome job on our compound machine!!! By the way, it is as tall as Davide(sorry Davide)!! And I think everyone in our group is doing a very good job and they are working as hard as they can.

On Tuesday's class we started to talk about the blog and comments, since some people did more than they had to on their comment, and Ms.D was also said who should do the scribe post for Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday - and it was me (Ghazaleh) and David Mamic. The Evil Elves (me, Tamara, Emilija, Ben, Eric, Nathan and Davide) were still Working on the gears, but that was just for a little bit of the class and then we started to work on the compound machine, but the Cookie Monsters started to work on their compound machine from the beggining of the class, so they had more time than we did...

On Thursday's class we started to talk about: when are we going to finish our compound machine and also talking about an email that we are spoussed to do when we are going to finish our compound machine. Ms.D also talked about the comments that we were spoussed to do to 8th or 7th grade. After we finished talking about the comments and the email and when we are supossed to finish our compound machine, then we started to build our compound machine. I made some mistake that was not good for our group, but Emilija came and helped me to correct my mistake. We were also missing a person of our group which was Tamara.
On Friday's class we started to talk about the comments and because some people did more than they had to on comment, so Ms.d asked them which one of the comments they wanted her to grade. After that she reminded me and David to do our Scribe Post for Tuesday May.10th.2011. After that Ms.D talked about the blog stuff then we again started to work on our compound machine.

This are all the things that we did last week science class. I hope you enjoyed while you were reading.

This are some links that you can learn more a bout the compound machine:

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210120/Compound%20machine.html%20http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188%20http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/machines.htm%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUvr377oYk%20

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ToASuh97uew

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ToASuh97uewhttp://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210120/Compound%20machine.html%20http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188%20http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/machines.htm%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUvr377oYk%20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToASuh97uew

http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/machines.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUvr377oYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUvr377oYk

Last Week for Simple Machines

This week was the last week that we got to work on our simple machines before we had to start working on the large compound machine. The Cookie Monsters are ahead of the Evil Elves for now but who knows what might happen. The Cookie Monsters now have enough credits but have to finish the whole gears section before they can start the compound machine.

These are some of the simple machines we got to build so far:

This week, as you see, we had the last chance to finish our small simple machines and collect enough credits to move on to the compound machine. The Evil Elves were working on levers but now went on to gears, and The Cookie monsters are currently working on gears.

Ms. D also told us that once we are done with our blog post that we can write our reflection post right away. Here are some things that you should include in your reflection post:

*How do you feel you have improved as a blogger over the past year or two?

*How do you feel blogs contribute to learning for a class in school?
*What else do you think a blog could be used for?
*How has blogging helped your overall writing?
*How has blogging helped your commenting to others about their writing?
*What is the most important thing you have learned from blogging?
**** Don't forget to label your post with your name, Reflection Post, 4th Quarter!****

For our other homework assignments i put a link to moodle at the bottom of my post.. I also found a bunch of videos from eureka. There is a video for the screw and the wheel, the inclined plane, the lever, the pulley.

The Inclined Plane -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG_kT565-XQ&feature=BFa&list=PL356D58984641EDC6&index=1

The Lever -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1pYkTtsxg&feature=BFa&list=PL356D58984641EDC6&index=2

The Screw and Wheel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-UXry7OiXM&feature=BFa&list=PL356D58984641EDC6&index=4

The Pulley -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlPWy7qW7oM&feature=BFa&list=PL356D58984641EDC6&index=5

These videos will explain all types of simple machines. There are actually seven types of simple machines, they are the screw, pulley, inclined plane, wheel and axle, lever, gear, and wedges.

Although this week we did not do much in class except for build with knex, we got to have a lot of fun with it. And even though they are called simple machines they can become very complex. like this model of a ferris wheel built from knex:

Even though this ferris wheel looks very complicated it is actually made of two or more simple machines. From just looking at the picture i can already spot one... a wheel and axle that go through the middle of the ferris wheel. So now you know that no matter how complicated a machine may look, it is always made of one or more of the seven simple machines.

The next scribe is... Drum roll... David!!!!

Moodle -

http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday's science class

Tuesday's class

We began Tuesday's science class with a nice discussion about the blog, but we were first introduced to a new student in our class Eric. After this, we talked about the blog, in particular, about when the comments and blog posts are due. Ms. D gave us a rubric on the comments and post, so that we can write the comments based on the rubric. This was a very quick discussion, so we very quickly started building with K’nex. The rest of the class we built, and finished the rest of other K’nex projects, the one’s that we didn’t get to finish last class. We all had a great time! 5 minutes before we were let out Ms. D told us to clean up, and she told us “feet up”, in case there were some K’nex pieces on the ground.* If any team left any pieces on the ground then they could lose a point.

TEAMS

~There were two teams of six people, but because we have a new student in our class, Eric, we now have one team of six and one team of seven.

Team of six

~Courtney (me) ~Valentina ~Karin ~Chiara ~David ~Jakub

Team of seven

~Tamara ~Emilija ~Ghazaleh ~Davide ~Ben ~Nathan ~Eric

POINTS

~Since I didn’t mention this before, each team needs to have 35 points to be able to build the compound machine, which is a machine that contains all of the simple machines that we learned about= lever, screws, wheel and axle, wedge, pulley, inclined plane.

Thursday's class

First we talked about simple machines, including the

compound machine. If we finished all of the simple machines, we would be able to start the compound machine this Thursday (April, 21, 2011). This was a very short discussion which didn't last long because we wanted to work on building the simple machines. Before we started building, Ms. D gave us a few tips about blogging, and the Reflection post, and then we started building!!

A few teammates testing out their machine

Friday's short block...

On Friday we were very busy, since

we didn't have much time to build.

Ms. D. gave us a few instructions

about the blog and the compound

machine, and then we all started

building.

This picture is the 'Cookie Monster

team', the other team's picture is the

first picture on this blog.

This picture is of Karin and I

(Courtney) waiting in line to

answer questions for Ms. D.

Here is a link to moodle so that you may see what all Ms.D has posted for upcoming events...

~ http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188

*Make sure to check the most recent one, those who are in seventh grade, for information about homework, K'nex, the blog...

Simple Machines and Japan!

Hello to everybody!

I am going to talk about Friday's and Tuesday's Science classes! On Tuesday our main topic was based on Simple Machines, we were each working in partners to do a presentation on one of the following simple machines;

• Pulley-
• Wheel and Axel-
• Lever-
• Inclined Plane-
• Screw-
• Wedge-

So as I was saying before, we each picked one of these simple machines, and the groups were the following, in case you forgot;

• Pulley- Ben and Valentina
• Wheel and Axel- Nathan and Jakub
• Lever- Karin and Ghazaleh
• Plane- Emilija and Chiara
• Screw- Tamara and Courtney
• Wedge- David and Ben

We read the direction sheet, which you can find on moodle here. We then went to the computer lab to find more information on each of our topics. Karin and Gahzaleh have to remember that they have to do 3 levers because they have to be sure to explain each one, as do Ben and Valentina, being there 3 types of Pulleys. We than had to make a visual presentation which could be; Power Point, Poster or Prezi. You can find the link to prezi's login page here. Ms.D also told us to be sure to REMEBER to include in our presentations the mechanical advantage of each simple machine. If some of the groups have not yet been able to find a good resource accept for the book, here are some website links;

• Pulley
• Wheel and Axel
• Lever
• Plane- and some exercises
• Screw
• Wedge
• All the Simple Machines and Work

The class then ended and we went to our next class.

Tuesday's class was a bit different our class was based around to the events that happened in Japan. Ms.D had had a lot of visits coming in throughout the days, and had decided to discuss about it. We spoke about the Atomic power plants that where in the water and the effects of the tsunami and earthquake on them.

We learned that the three water containers that kept one of the atomic power plants steady all broke down and stopped functioning because they were shut down or the power stopped making them work. The scientist found a way to keep on adding water to the atomic plant by using the sea as the water source, because if the temperature there isn't about 250 degrees Celsius they containers of the atomic steam would explode. If all the atomic capsules break, and the container cracks, there would be a consequence as if an atomic bomb had hit Japan. Unfortunately, the water level and temperature are for now not enough to sustain the atomic fuel rods, and one exploded at the start. Ms.D then showed an elaborate diagram of the inside situation, and explained that the second fuel rod had been opened the tiniest bit to let some radiation out, but giving some power also. The third fuel rod was luckily still in place, but it would be trouble if something else happened.

We then went to the computer lab to begin finishing the simple machinse presentations and other tried playing with audacity to see what to do in the real commercial. Audacity is the program that we will use to make our anti- smoking commercials.

When we were finished we all packed up and went to the science room, were a sad surprise was awaiting us. The third fuel rod had exploded, letting out a lot of radiation into the atomic power plant, and the power plant might have had a crack. Ms.D then explained to us that if the power plant had a crack, the radiation might go into the soil underneath and the earth, and all the soil would be contaminated and would cause a lot of deaths due to the water and soil pollution that the humans or animals would then eat, killing them. The atomic power plant might also give out to the water some radiation, which would then evaporate into the sea, were fish and other sea creatures would eat it, as well as on top of all the cities the wind brought the atomic clouds to. Japan is in serious trouble, and the worst is, that unless the fuel rods finish and no more radiation can be given, this fight against the atomic radiation will continue, and Japan does not want to give up Atomic power plants, therefore, this occasion might occur again and again, until they decide that they will stop atomic radiation, and therefore the fuel rods' use will be the last. Unfortunately, the fuel rods are known to last over a hundred years each, and by the time the Japanese will have decided to give up, the fuel rods might need to last a lot longer than the Japanese will.

Here is a website to know more about the earthquake in Japan.

The class was then dismissed and proceeded in continuing the daily activity.

I hope you enjoyed my blog post, and the next scribe is........ Courtney!!!