Hello there, and welcome 2021!

It hasn’t been too long since my last reflection, but now, I’m ready to present to you the latest of what we’ve been working on in Scimatics. This is the final project of this quarter, and I’ll admit that it’s been quite a journey learning my way through the mysterious world of lasers.

Sure, we weren’t blowing up Alderaan, nor fighting the Empire with a couple of blasters… but I’ve learned quite a lot from this experience. So, prepare yourself for a full on reflection on Laser Laws… and a few cheesy Star Wars references along the way!

The objective of this project was to create a Laser Triangle display (using a laser and some mirrors that were provided to us) that was fully built, operational, and labeled. The display had to be an accurate right angle triangle with the correct measurements, or else it wouldn’t function correctly.

To do this, we would have needed to know how to utilize both the Pythagorean Theorem and the Law of Reflection in right angled triangles.

Also, this was a group project, so we had to work in teams of 4. My group mates were Hannah, Sara, and Makenna, and I believe we did quite a good job working our ideas together into one final project.

However, to get to this point, we did many things to increase our knowledge and understanding on these laser related topics.

One thing I can say about this project is that there is a whole lot more to lasers than what the movies have told us.

We began this project with an entry event where the class was separated into two groups, and we tried to shoot each other’s targets from across the classroom using a singular laser and a mirror. (One team was the Empire, and the other was the Rebel Alliance, and I just had to mention that.)

This gave us a beginning sense of how the lasers work, and how to roughly aim them in the right direction using a mirror to bend the light.

Sure, this wasn’t the most important thing to share. However, I had a lot of fun with this and I believe that it really did spark my curiosity even more towards lasers (if Star Wars didn’t do that already.)

Like in my last post about “Tectonic Chances”, this one also had a project start mind map. However, unlike before, this was used as the first milestone in our project. Although, we first brainstormed our ideas with our future group mates for inspiration.

Later on, we added on to the project start mind map with the ideas we learned from Building Knowledge.

Here’s what my project start mind map looks like:

…And here’s what we brainstormed as a group:

In building knowledge, covered over a few things, such as how both the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection works. We completed some Math workbook pages and science workbook pages, and even also took a quick Khan Academy quiz.

One thing that I believe was knowledge that was needed to create our final project was the Milestone 3: Law of Reflection experiment.

Basically, while using the scientific method, we created our own experiment surrounding around the idea of testing the law of reflection. We completed this within our groups, and I believe that we did pretty well.

You can read our write up here: the-law-of-reflection-experiement.pdf

Another thing that we learned (that wasn’t included within the final project, but I believe that it ‘s still important anyway), was that light travels in particle waves. We learned this mostly through an interactive website which allowed us to visually see this in action.

Finally, the most important evidence of my learning would probably be the two projects that dictated the most of my grade; Milestone 4: Laser triangle design (which was an independent assessment) and Milestone 5: Laser Triangle Display (which was our final product that we made as a group.)

Read my Milestone 4 here: milestone-4-laser-triangle-design.pdf

Read our Milestone 5 procedure here: milestone-5-laser-triangle-display.pdf

Here’s some photos/videos of our final project:

http://www.blog44.ca/avar/files/2021/01/img_1912.mov http://www.blog44.ca/avar/files/2021/01/img_1942.mov

Unfortunately, when we were actually using the lasers in the dark with a fog machine… IT WAS THAT MOMENT WHEN OUR LASER DECIDED TO BECOME DIM AND NOT VISIBLE! So, basically our laser didn’t get to look as cool 😞

QUESTIONING AND PREDICTING:

I believe that I spent my class time efficiently for learning and project work without distractions. I typically spend all my time focused on my own work, and I don’t really get “distracted” that often. I also try to use my time efficiently, and work hard on the task at hand until I get the results I want.

Sometimes, when I actually do feel distracted or unmotivated, I find my own ways to get myself back on track. Most of the time, I play music through my earphones, because I find that I’m more productive with it and it blocks out distracting noises. Even now as I’m writing this, I’m using this method and being productive while also listening to some of my favourite tunes.

(The cantina band music from Star Wars is very motivating.)

Also the other part of this competency is how well I work with my peers around me. I believe I really improved with working with my peers during this project, since I was required to work with a team of 4. Through this project, I got to know more about my classmates, and *hopefully* got to form/grow some new friendships.

My group mates were really kind, and I think that we work very well together. I felt that I was able to contribute some of my ideas without being too nervous or anxious to do it.

We had a lot of fun creating our end project, and even ended up trying to make a mini Death Star model (even though it didn’t exactly go as planned and ended up getting scrapped.) However, one of the greatest achievements was that we created Carl (who was originally a Death Star cannon, but got saved and transformed into whatever it was we created when we scrapped that idea.)

Here’s a picture of Carl for inside joke purposes… (we don’t talk about what happened to Carl…)

From the beginning of this scimatics quarter, I went from not wanting to talk to anybody new, to begin able to form friendships with my peers.

I feel that I’ve really grown from these experiences, especially in this competency. I’m now comfortable to share my opinions and ideas with others, which was something I was extremely nervous about before this Scimatics quarter.

COMMUNICATING AND REPRESENTING:

This competency requires us to create a scientific experimental procedure that included all the steps in the scientific method. Also, you need to have a conclusion about the law of reflection and the Pythagorean theorem that is supported by correct measurements and calculations.

I think that this competency was mostly evaluated in our individual laser triangle designs in which we included all the evidence required in this competency. I believe that I did quite well in this competency as well, and that I used the scientific method to explain my ideas and procedure while completing my own experiment.

First off, I tried to follow all the guidelines included in this competency. I also attempted to be as precise and clear as I could when measuring the required data for my triangle design to potentially be used successfully in a laser triangle display. I also tried to extend my conclusion by adding lots of detail that explained by processes to discover and analyze my data.

(I just wanted to add an Ahsoka gif here, don’t question it.)

To further extend this competency, besides trying to add as much precise detail as possible, I used the Pythagorean theorem to double check my data. In this process, I tried to find the length of one of the legs of the right angle triangle while using the measurements from hypotenuse and the other leg.

The Pythagorean theorem dictates that adding the area of each leg length would equal to the hypotenuse, so technically speaking, if you were to subtract one leg length’s area from the hypotenuse, you would find the other leg length’s area.

My hypothesis was correct, and it is possible to find one leg length from subtracting the other’s area from the hypotenuse.

In conclusion, I believe I did quite well in this competency. I’ve improved through this project by learning how to properly utilize the scientific method in my own experiment.

APPLYING AND INNOVATING:

This last competency requires that our laser triangle display is accurately built according to our precise measurements, and that all our data is neatly labeled on the project. Also, everyone must contribute equally, and that the work is distributed equally between all 4 people.

I believe that we completed this competency to an extended point, and that we did very well trying to fit the requirements for this portion of the project.

To begin, our project definitely was accurately labeled and our data was as precise as we could make it. Our laser triangle display was accurately built, and the mirrors reflected the laser to create a clean, accurate triangle.

Most of all, we all divided the work load evenly, and I believe that everyone completed an equal amount of the project. We really had a great time working together, and sharing our ideas, no matter how ridiculous and creative they may be. (I’m particularly pointing fingers at our original “Death Star trench idea”)

Our group was extremely friendly, accepting, and on task for a majority of the time. Even if we were generally off task, we were really focused on trying to present our ideas and display in a creative, fun way (Carl was one of those times.)

To extend our project, we did try to present our ideas in a generally cool way. I managed to bring both a Millennium Falcon and a Tie Fighter model, and we tried to make our project as crisp and clean as possible so that our details would not distract from our data.

To conclude this competency, I believe that we created a really good display (even though the laser did not show up in the dark), and that it showed our understanding of these topics.

Through this project, I learned a many great things, such as the Pythagorean theorem, which is an important mathematical concept. Also, the law of reflection is just a generally good piece of knowledge to know, and it further extends our knowledge of the things we take for granted on a daily basis. With these two concepts under our belt, we can become more aware of the things around us, and their processes.

This project’s driving question is “how can we test the pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection.” Through this project, we learned to utilize these two important concepts to create a laser triangle design, which tested our knowledge of both.

The pythagorean theorem allows us to create the foundation of the triangle design. It lets us find the accurate measurements of the hypotenuse and the legs, and therefore have the correct data for a right angled triangle.

The law of reflection allows us to predict the angle where the laser will reflect according to the normal. This was extremely helpful in recreating our design with actual materials, and let the laser form an accurate triangle through utilizing the mirrors in the proper angles.

In the end, these two concepts generally work well together, and can be tested through the processes within this project (creating a laser triangle design.)

Overall, this was a great experience and I learned a great many things. I’m super excited to see what new things we’ll learn in the next scimatics quarter!

Thank you so much for reading this blog post (it was a little longer than I expected lol), and see you in the next quarter!

My gifs are from the following sources: 

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: A New Hope

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

The Mandalorian