Hey Y’all, Max here.
the project we just finished was called Meiosis Models. In this project, we made a video showing how meiosis and mitosis work, using 3D models that were made on the program Tinkercad.
I’ve used Tinkercad before on a PLP 8 scimatics project. I think that Tinkercad is a good tool for 3D designing, especially since there aren’t a lot of 3D design sites that are free to use. If I had any complaints with the site, it would be that it’s not easy to use on iPad, but even then that’s a stretch.
This project began about a month and a half ago in April. The project began the way most scimatics projects begin; the first third or half of the project is dedicated to research, and refining our knowledge of whatever it is we are studying for the project ( in this case, it would be meiosis ). We did all the standard things we usually do at the beginning of a project: QFT’s, Mind Maps, and a crash course video on the topic we are studying.
One of the first assignments we did this project was to make models of the meiosis and mitosis cycle. This included meiosis 1 and 2, and the stages that happen during both phases of meiosis. I feel this milestone showed a demonstration of the competency questioning and predicting, as making the models in Tinkercad was interesting to me, both the actual science and the medium we were creating the models through ( Tinkercad ).
The experiment we did this project involved planting garlic cloves, nurturing them, then dissecting them to show their DNA through a microscope. Unfortunately, I was not there on the day we planted the garlic roots, so I wasn’t even aware we were doing an experiment until it was time to dissect them. Dissecting them came later in the project, but it wasn’t easy. I did it with Cole , but we may have followed the instructions wrong, because none of our root tips showed up on the microscope. Luckily we were able to do it again the following class, and they turned out better. The experiment is a good example of the proficiency Planning and Conducting, because the experiment had to be executed properly, for the best possible results.
The competency Scientific Communication is demonstrated through the Tinkercad models, and the presentation that showed all my scientific knowledge.
The final product I was making was a screen-recorded video of my Tinkercad models with a voice-over detailing each stage of meiosis. The video also had to include a comparison between meiosis and mitosis, as well as microscope images of the garlic root-tips. This video was pretty easy to make because I already made 3D models earlier in the project, and all I needed to do was add a voice-over and do some editing. My final video didn’t have nearly as much detail as some of the other ones I saw, but I think it at least met the criteria for this project.
Overall, I did like this project, even though it wasn’t nearly as extravagant as the previous project. ( Metaphor Machines ). I would give this project a 5.5/10.