Category: Scimatics

Have you ever heard of a rue Goldberg machine?                                                    These machines or marble runs can get pretty complicated but they are really cool. We had to make a rue Goldberg machine in order to answer the driving question of this project, “What factors affect the performance of an electric circuit?”, While adding in the scientific method: observation, question, hypothesis, experiment, analysis and conclusion in to our machine.                      In our group we started by building a rough plan of what we wanted to add and how we could  add in the electric circuit that could turn on.                              This was our final draft for our machine:

We all contributed our ideas and worked on having a version that we were all happy with. As we moved on to building our machine we got a big piece of wood to be our base and started to build on to that to make our machine. While adding the circuits it took some time to make sure that it would work and I’m glad it finally did. We added a parallel circuit and a series circuit that would turn on the lights in the process of the machine running. A series circuit comprises a path along which the whole current flows through each component. A parallel circuit comprises branches so that the current divides and only part of it flows through the branch’s.

This is our final video of our machine:

See you next time

Hello and welcome back to another blog post!

For this project we made an animation about ionic and covalent bonding.   before you see my animation that let me explain what the different types off bonds are. An ionic bond as a type of linkage formed from the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions in a chemical compound. Such a bond forms when the valence (outermost) electrons of one atom are given permanently to another atom. A covalent bond, the interatomic linkage that results from the sharing of an electron pair between two atoms. A covalent bond forms when the bonded atoms have a lower total energy than that of widely separated atoms.

This is my animation. I hope you enjoy it!

See you next time.

Hello and welcome back to another blog post. This blog post was about the correlations and causations from data that we collect. I was in a group with Teva and i’ll put a link to her blog on this project at the bottom of this post.

So for this project we had to gather our own data by making a surveying for people fill out and then we can use that to find causations and correlations in. Our survey questions was based off of things that might effect or improve your sleep. We came up with a lot of questions, and made sure that some of the questions might have causations or correlations between them. 

Our audience for our survey was all PLP students. Only 20 people answered our survey questions, so the data that we put in the charts to find correlations and causations is very weak. I think if more people would have answered we might have gotten a better response and been able to find a stronger causation or correlations.

As I said only 20 people responded but we did get answers from about every grade. Even though they were weak, we did find some weak correlations and causations. One correlation that we found was that how many pillows you have on your bed effects how many nights you get a poor sleep. We thought that  the more pillows you had the less poor sleeps you get in a week, but we found out that was not the case.

From the answers we got, we only had one causation, which was between the questions ‘How would you rate your quality of sleep per week’ and ‘how would you rate the leval of sleepiness during the day’. This clearly has a causation because the worst sleep you get more you would feel tired during the day because of that. It was really fun making the survey and it was interesting to see the answers we got for our questions even if they weren’t what we were expecting.

See you next time.

 

Check out Tevas blog post!

 

Hi! And welcome to my first blog post of this year. 

This projects driving question was “How does math make games more complex, interesting, and re-playable?”. So as you might have guessed from the driving question I made a game. In partners we had to make a game with exponents laws. My partner and i quickly came up with a game called ExPoNEnTs1!!!!!!!, and here is how you play it. 

ExPoNEnTs!!!11!!!1!!

Players:

(2-5) at a time.

Contents:

• Two (colour) base and exponent dice
• Two (colour) base and exponent dice
• Equation cards 
• Point sheet 
• Writing utensils 
• Scrap paper

Game set up:

Every player gets a point sheet, pencil, scrap paper, and a calculator. Shuffle the equation cards and place both the dice and the cards in the middle. Everyone rolls one dice. The player with the highest number goes first, each player take turns clock-wise from there on.

Your turn: 

Start your turn by rolling four dice. Two dice are the exponents and two are the base. Match the dice by colour, the D10 is the exponent and the D100 is the base (ie. if you rolled a 80 [D100] and a 6 [D10], this will be equal to 8^6)

After you’ve rolled, Pick up one of the equation cards. These cards provide a template for you to use your rolled numbers as an equation. The only event in which you do not have to pick up an equation card is if you roll 4 dice of the same number. In this case, you can apply these numbers to the “standard form” category on the point sheet. 

If you wish to re-roll your dice after picking up an equation card, you may. However, you can ONLY re-roll a singular D10 and D100. 

Put your base (D100) with its exponent (D10) anywhere on the equation. The colours on the equation card correlates to which categories the card is applicable to on the points sheet. 

At this point, your equation should look something like this: 8^3 • 8^2. This particular equation applies to the product rule, and therefore can be simplified to 8^5. 

Simplify your equation in a similar way, and decide where it applies on the point sheet. Then, write down the simplified exponential form where applicable. In the event that your equation is not applicable to any category on the point sheet, you are to cross out a category. 

The goal:

The goal of the game is for all players to complete their point sheet, though players may decide to end the game sooner by limiting the number of categories they’re aiming for. At the end of the game, add up your base numbers, then add up your exponent numbers. DO NOT EVALUATE THEM. The player with the most amount of total points wins.

Point Sheet Guide:

We made clear instructions on how to play our game and we used logic and reasoning in our explanation, though the game is a bit complicated I feel with practice it is a fun game to play.

See you next time.

Check out my partners blog!

Game of Exponent Laws!

Welcome to my last post for this year! it seems like this year went by in a flash but i remember when i felt like it would never end. I hopefully can look back on this year of blogs and see how much I’ve learned and grown.

this projects driving question was “How do cells and diseases interact?” And you had to answer this question by making a comic. 

To start off this project I made a mind map like we usually do, This includes questions and things I already knew about cells and diseases.

To make the comic I did a lot of research on cell functions and different types of cells to put into my story. My idea of how to make my comic came from a movie that my teacher showed the class at the start of the project called Osmosis Jones, if you don’t know what movie that is, here is more about it, i really suggest watching it bento only is it informational it is enjoyable and very funny.

And on to the final product of all this, my comic book! I’m not the best at drawing and I’m not the best at writing but i hope you like it!

The White Blood Cell Explains All

See you next time!

Hello! Welcome to another reflection blog post of a project. This projects driving question was, how can the behaviour of matters be explained by the kinetic molecular theory? To answer this question we had to make a game or simulation to show this but first we started by making a MindNode about what we know, what questions we have, and what we wanted in the product of this project. 

To actually make the game/simulator we learned how to use Scratch, which is website that uses block based visual programming as an educational tool for coding. I chose to make a simulator, so that means that what I made had to be interactive for the player, it had to show how the particles move in different environments like the particles being cold, hot or in different states of matter, and these all had to be explainable by the kinetic molecular theory. In my simulation I added three different elements, water molecules, helium molecules and chlorine atoms. 

  

There were some problems with sharing my simulation so I can’t give a link to it but a can show you photos of the front of the simulation and all the coding behind it.

See you next time.

Think to yourself about how you think reflection works. It might be simpler than you think. The law of reflection is based on on angles which you can use a protractor. Say a laser beam hit a mirror on a 105 degree angle. As you can see in the photo below there is a perpendicular line from the point where the beam hit the mirror. There are the same amount of degrees from either beam to the perpendicular line. Which in turn proves the law of reflection.

That is one part of this project. The other is the Pythagorean theorem. The length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other sides. It is mathematically stated as c2 = a2 + b2, where c is the length of the hypotenuse and a and b the lengths of the other two sides.

My mind map for the end of the project

This project was about how we can test the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection and we tested it by using Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection to make a right angle triangle with a one beam of light, mirrors, a protractor to measure the degree of the reflection, and a ruler to figure out the hypotenuse 

Then we used real lasers an mirrors to create a shape. After we made our model we used a smoke machine to show the path of the lasers which was really cool!  

Here is our laser display with the smoke!:

See you next time. 

                                  

                                                             The tectonic plate project 

Did you know that sense the inner core of the earth is so hot the scientists can’t dig deep enough to examine whats down there so they guess on evidence that can only be explained by how the world has changed Instead. A part of the evidence is that they found fossils in two different places on earth and judging by the bones the animal could not move across water as far as the two places the bones were found, so they deduce that that all the contents must have been all together at one point and they called the land Pangea. This project was mostly about tectonic plates, the layers of the earth and what the movement of tectonic plates can do to the earths crust. After we learn about that way got to make a game about tectonic plates in a group of two. this was the game that we made.

It might not look the best but it was fun to make. In this picture you can see the “board” with the volcano in the middle,The cards, the tokens and the little volcano pieces that you moved around the board. The tiny volcanos were a submarine volcano, lava dome volcano, shield volcano and cinder cone volcano (my favourite part of the project was making these!). This game was variation of http ://www.blog44.ca/danap/ and http://www.blog44.ca/coled/ Game turned into a board game. These are the game rules and how to play!

The No Name Volcano Game

Goal of the Game 

The goal of the game is to gain the most degree points . You start on the start corner with 5 cards in your hand and you can play those cards anytime on your turn. You roll the die to move on the board after your turn is done you must draw a card from the card pile, making sure that you always have 5 cards in your hand. You also have to draw a degree token at the end of your turn, this token can either make you loose degrees, or make you gain degrees. You must only have 5 cards in your hand if your caught with more then you have to subtract 2 of your degrees points. The game ends when the eruption card is drawn. The person who draws this card can either win the whole game, or lose and are out of the game. If you have 50 degrees or more when you draw this card, you win because the card takes away 50 of your degree points. The game can also end if everyone but one player has negative or no points.   

Setup:  If you are dealt the eruption card (which will be explained later) during setup, just put it back in the deck and shuffle well

Taking a turn: On your turn, roll the die to see how far you move, do what the square you landed on tells you what to do and then  you play one of the cards in your hand (as shown in the setup, you have 5 cards in your hand to start with). After you play your card, you pick up a token to either add or subtract degrees points to your already existing 10 points that you started with. Also, after you play your card, you pick up a card from the draw pile, making sure you have 5 cards in your hand at all times. Below are the different cards and what they do:

1. Eruption card – if you draw this card, your volcano erupts and unless you have more then 50 degrees (because this card takes away 50 degrees), you lose.
2. Tsunami card – If you draw this card you lose 2 heat.
3. Earthquake card- if you draw an earthquake card, you take 2 degrees and give a tsunami to a different player and have them lose 5 degrees.
4. Different types of volcanoes (your playing piece) – Lava dome Volcano, submarine volcanos, cinder cone volcano, shield volcano.
5. Degrees tokens – players gains degrees on every turn by drawing a degree token and adding it to their existing 5 degrees that they started with in the beginning of the game. When you get a token, add or subtract it says from your points. You are able to have a negative number of degrees.
6. Slab pull card – if you draw this card, your volcano is pulled apart and you go back to 20 degrees, you can’t do anything until you draw the ridge push card. You can also play a slab pull card with the ridge push card together and then you collect degree.
7. Ridge push card – if your volcano has been pulled apart, this card with push it back together, you gain 5 degrees and you can continue to play.
8. Tectonic plate card – If you draw this card you give it another player and then that player has to roll the dice. If the number is 1, 3 or 5 then they loose that number of degrees. If its lands on 2, 4 or 6 then you loose that number of degrees.
9. Convection current card – if you draw this card, the tectonic plate that your on shifts and your volcano erupts, gaining you 5 degrees.
10. Hot spots card – if you draw this card, a hot spot develops under your volcano and your volcano erupts, lose 2 degrees.

11. Safe card— this safe card is used to just basically make you safe for a round.

Board meaning

1. Slab pull. if you land on this your volcano gets pulled apart and you can’t play anything or move until you get and play a ridge push
2. Pick up 3. When you land on this square you pick up three cards from the deck pick one that you want  and shuffle the other 2 cards it to the deck 
3. Tectonic plate. If you land on this then you pick one other player and they roll the dice. If the number is 1, 3 or 5 then they loose that number of degrees. If its lands on 2, 4 or 6 then you loose that number of degrees
4. Bonuses. If you land on this you roll the dice and what ever number it lands on you get that many degree points

Keeping score: For this game, one of the players will have to keep track of how many degree points each player gains and loses. They will do this by starting off each player with 20 degree points. From here, the score keeper adds and subtracts however many degree points each player gains or loses during their turn

How to win (or lose): If you draw the eruption card, you must play it immediately (if you are dealt it in your beginning hand, put it back in the deck and draw another card). This card takes away 50 degree points. If have 50 degree points or more then you win! BUT if you don’t have 50, then you lose and are out of the game (put your cards and the eruption card back in the deck and shuffle well).

We also included the probabilities of drawing specific cards or rolling a specific number on the dice.

Probability’s: 

Drawing a tectonic plate card and rolling a 5 = 8.333% chance (4/48=1/12 )

How likely you are to get a +degree token = 50% chance (20/40 = 1/2)

Drawing a safe card = 5.56% chance of pulling this card (2/42 = 1/21) 

 We started to work on the game rules before we were supposed to so we had a lot of time to write and make changes to our first draft. When we were done the project and we got to go around and see what every one made it was really cool. One group made a trivia game and another used only dice. It was interesting to see how incorporated how how an eruption from a volcano can cause an earthquake and different parts of the earths layers. This was a long project but it was fun.

see you next time.

How much time do you usually spend on your phone or computer. For some people it might be a lot or for other people not that much. In this project we kept track of how much time every day for a week we  spent on our phones,iPads,TVs and any device that we have. We separated the time we got a day in to category’s of entertainment and productivity. You could also add any categories that you want.

As you can see we put the time we collected in to decimals. in categories under phone i put social as well as entertainment and productivity because i wanted to see how long i talked/called family or friends. I also added art to keep track of during the week but i did not do much art. I mostly spend time on my phone watching shows while doing doing some thing else. That’s why there’s so much time shown on the graph.

Overall I’m surprised to see that I don’t spend as much time on screens as i thought i did. We did a small presentation on the day of completion the chart. I usually don’t check my screen time but i think its a good thing to do every day and set times to do your hobby or play with a pet and its never to late to enjoy something new.

See you next time.