Hello,

Today I will be reflecting on one of my last school projects this year. This project was for a class that I have called Scimatics that is a mix between math and science. The project was based on Star Wars since our Winter Exhibition this year had a Star Wars theme.

For this project we had to study lasers and the pythagorean theorem, which is a math equation that is used for finding the side length of a triangle. These are some of the equations that you could use (a2=b2=c2 or b2-c2=a2 or a2-c2=b2). We explored different things with light, like the angle that light comes into a mirror, and then the angle that it comes out.

Here is my mind map from this unit.

We then had to apply these principles to our Exhibition project.  For this project, our task was that we were going to have to make a vehicle from Star Wars and we had to incorporate a right angle triangle into the design using lasers. We were then put into a group of 3 people, and my group was Erin and Indira and myself.  For our vehicle we chose to do an AT-AT  which is an Imperial walker. You can see the walker in Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, in the Battle of Hoth.

And here is our AT AT during the building stage:

We painted it grey and had dry ice making a vapour cloud around the base so you could see the lasers. Unfortunately in all of the busyness of setting up the Exhibition, I forgot to take a picture of it that night.

In completing our project, there were several core curricular competencies that we had to meet. Here’s how I met them:

Big Idea: I was able to present my learning of the pythagorean theorem and show off what our team built on the Exhibition day, even though we had some hiccups with stabilizing our AT-AT. We were able to overcome this and present something that we were proud of in the end.
Communicating and Representing: I was able to make a right angle triangle with 2 mirrors and a laser. I was able to calculate the length of the third side from the first two sides made by the laser by using the pythagorean theorem.
Applying and Innovating: My team and I were able to make the At At Walker and make a right angle triangle around it. We were all able to contribute our work equally and effectively in setting up our room with bringing decorations and helping others to fix and set things up.
Questioning and Predicting: I was able to work on my project effectively even with some issues stabilizing the legs, and some distractions from my iPad and my friends.

I was very happy with how our project turned out. One thing I want to improve on is my ability to focus on my work and avoid distractions so I can more effectively use my class time to make my project to the best of my abilities.