We have been working really hard in science lately, just last week we finished our latest project based on the concept of capturing energy from nature. I was put in a group with Adlih Britton and Maggie Witmore. Some of our requirements for this project was to create a machine that captured energy from nature, have video evidence of it capturing energy from nature, and a video presentation accompanied by graphs to show how much energy you would save compared to not using the machine.
The first thing our group did was draw up a draft of what we thought our project would look like. After going through multiple drafts we landed on one specific blueprint. We then headed into the construction phase, and then into the testing phase, where we tested our product at the creek near cove cliff to see if our machine was good to go for our video. After a few tweaks we went into the video creation stage, and then into the presentation stage!
We used the questioning and predicting curricular competency by basing our project on sustainable energy, which isn’t only a large problem here in seycove, but the whole world! Our group had a prior interest in this topic way before this project was even announced. In the early stages of this project, we also developed multiple drafts (hypothesis) of what our generator would look like, we then filtered them to arrive at the machine we had now.
Another curricular competency that we did really well at was planning and conducting. During our project we had multiple testing phases, where we would build a prototype, text it in real world conditions, and then build and improve on the prototype to help us construct our final product, we also used our iPad’s and voltage meters to record our data electronically. Another things that we did was identify the environmental risks we might run into (damaging generator in water, destroying environmental habitat, losing or damaging part of the generator to and from the testing site).
The second last curricular competency that I think I really improved on was processing and analyzing data and information, mostly because of the fact that we experienced and tested on the local environment (the cove creek). One specific thing within this curricular competency that I think we did really well at was constructing, analyzing, and interpreting graphs. This is evident through the graph that we created that demonstrated the amount of energy you saved by using our generator.
The last curricular competency that not only my group but the whole class improved on was Applying and innovating, mostly because of the topic the project covered in general. In our project we created a generator that would generate electricity by itself using the power of nature, also while tackling a huge world issue through the creation and curation of our project. It is pretty evident as to why this curricular competency applies to our project just basing off the fact that our project was based on renewable energy which is a huge topic in todays world.