Jess's Webpage

Class Rules

Week One
Week one started out as mostly oreintation, to the class as well as the people in the class. The class was split in two and the half I was in, went with Mr. Miller into the shop. The other half stayed with Dr. Neat We got to know the machines and learned a little about the safety precuations that are to be taken with them. Wednesday is when things started, we learned about our first Wednesday Challenge, The Spaghetti Bridge. We split into groups and started to work. The bridge must be made only out of spaghetti and wood glue. My group started to brainstorm ideas and we settled on the power of triangles. We decided that we could all agree they were the strongest of shapes and though we had a few different designs traingles remained in all of them. The next day we started building for the test. We grabbed our first set of twenty spaghetti pieces and glue and started to bring to life "The Toblerone" so called for its prism shape that resembled the candy. It had to span about two feet so we decided to fill this prism with small triangles. It would end up being pretty small but we figured that might make it stronger. As the end of the week was upon us we started something new. We began work on our websites. We spent most of the class getting everyone onto a laptop and then struggled with the wifi. But we now knew about an exciting new project.

8/15/16
Today was the first official day working on the webpage. After some further computer problems we got to work and wrote a paragraph about the first week, this can be seen above. It's just a summary of the week. We learned a lot about how to use the program, notepad++, and now it comes pretty easily. Although it's still pretty rudamentary looking.

8/16/16
A fresh start is not always appreciated. Due to some computer mix up I had to start my webpage over on a new computer. Luckily I only lost the first week paragraph so even though it was a tad irritating all was fine. I recreated the paragraph and wrote the entry for yesterday. Although it wasn't appreciated, starting over was far less of a hassle than I expected.

8/17/16
It's Wednesday again and that means it's time to work on the Wednesday Challenge. We are still working on the spaghetti bridge and today we started building for our second test. Not going to lie we spend a good portion of the period waiting for glue to dry, however we also picked a design to start building for a test. The Toblerone was beginning to be made a reality. We built one side of it and left it outside for a good portion of the period hoping the sun would speed up the glue's drying. While we were working indivdually we were called over with Jacob who helped us get our websites to go "live". This means that our webpages are now accessable by the world. They are all off of Dr. Neat's website. We had to learn a new way of updating them but it's not that difficult just a few more steps. Worth the while too, now our entries are widly available.

8/18/16
Today was all about forms. We went to Dr. Neat's website and got the Wednesday challenge form. We then downloaded it as a powerpoint file. We have easy access to it from the desktop. These forms are used to record data and information about our Wednesday challenges. We filled out the problem statement, which Dr. Neat gave us because we are new to it but made it clear that in the future they would be our own words.
Spaghetti Bridge Wednesday Challenge
Bridge Challenge Results

8/19/16
Friday!!!!! Working on the Wednesday Challenge again. What we had built had broken which was a depressing discovery but we picked up the pace realizing now that we were very behind. We started building a second design and restarted our first. The second one we built didn't work so we stuck to the first. We built all the pieces we could and left them to dry. Becasue of the mishap Dr. Neat let us use the heat gun to try to speed up the glue drying process. This didn't really do much for us because it still wasn't dry by the end of the period. However we were much closer to having a completed design.

8/22/16
The main priority of today was learning to use Sketch Up, a program where you can create a model of something digitally. We looked at a model of a longboard press. Then to orientate ourselves with the program we played around with two of the tools. The Orbit tool allowed you to circle around the model and see it from different angles. The pan tool allowed you to move the model to different parts of the screen without it changing the angle in which you were seeing it.

8/23/16
It's Wednesday, as you know or at least should know by now, that means we're working on the Wednesday Challenge. The two sides of the triangle were now dry and we could start trying to glue them together. We spent quite a while looking for something to prop it up but eventually we settled on part of a wrench. We put the structure on its side so it would dry properly. We were on edge the entire period because we were afriad of breaking it. When we tried to get it off the wax paper in the beggining it didn't work. We ended up trying to cut it off with scissors and peel it in the most delicate way possible. Eventually we got the majority of the wax paper off.

8/24/16
We worked on the website again today, I added a background. The first background I wanted to go with was kinda nice but when I tried to put it in for some reason it showed up as the color teal and the picture didn't even have teal in it so I bailed on that. I tried it again with this nice hot air balloon one that I'll probably keep so it can probably be seen.

8/25/16
Today we got a presentation from the veterans. They were explaining the JPL challenge. They explained that the challenge involved getting the contents of a cup, water and a plastic goldfish, into a recepticle some distance away. They explained all the ideas they had already come up with for the machine, they also made it clear that these were just the basics and that things would be fixed in design. We also got a visit from Mr. Wilton. He owns his own machine shop, there is more on that on their website which is below. He helps out a lot with the challenges because he is very knowledgable and very highly regarded.
Mr. Wilton's Website

9/6/16
Back from the four day weekend! Today we finished up the Wednesday challenge form and added the solution and lesson learned boxes. We entered the winners score in the solution box which was an astounding 13. Sadly my group didn't even come close to that but we tried hard and persoanlly I believe the fault was in production and not design.

9/7/16
Because we have completed the Spaghetti Bridge challenge today we started a new one. This one is fairly simpler because it's only a one day challenge. We split into new groups this time without the aid of veterans. We were given the questions, if we were to design a machine that could tell whether or not an animal was a dog or cat how would we do it? My group decided to have a box to put the animal in that has cameras hooked up tp a computer that would reverse google search the image and find similar ones. This would lead to it showing up with either cat pictures or dog pictures.
Dog/Cat Wednesday Challenge

9/8/16
Today we filled out the wednesday challenge form for the cat or dog machine that we came up with yesterday. We filled in the problem statement and approach but we are still incapable of completing it because we have yet to get the results back.

9/9/16
Today we got a presentation from the veterans. It was updates on the JPL challenge. They had narrowed it down to four concepts, it had originally been seven. We were again joined by Mr. Wilton who listened to what they had to say about their concepts. We also looked at the calendar that they had made up to chart their progress. They seemed to have mapped thier time out well and they should have picked a final design before the end of the month giving them hopefully enough time to build it. We saw the four designs they were left with for the most part in sketch up however one was hand drawn. They were definitely the nest of the original seven but some of them still bring up questions as to how to build and with what.

9/12/16
We worked with sketch up today. We are still getting aquainted with it and today we worked with rectangles. It was surprisingly entertainig to build a city even if the were jsut rectangles. We used the rectangles tool as well as the push/pull tool.

9/14/16
Wednesday Challenge #3 is all about measurement. We were split into groups, one veteran per group, and given the challenge. To take a small block of wood and make it exactly two inches in length. We first sanded down one side it was as flat as we could get it then we measured out where two inches was on the block. We used a carpenters square to help our accuracy when drawing the line. After that we put it in a clamp and the veteran in our group grabbed a hand saw and cut it, to the best of his ability, straight next to the line. We then sanded it down and brought it to Mr. Miller for measuring. The corners were pretty close however they were not exactly the same. Each corner was about 2.001 or 2.002.
Wood Block Wednesday Challenge

9/15/16
\ We worked on yesterdays challenge again today however this time without the help of a veteran. My group suffered without an experienced member. We were still working after every other group had finished. We started out with a piece of wood and followed the same steps we had the previous day however it took much longer. Another problem we encountered was the fact that a memeber of our group had chipped out piece of wood so when we eventually got to measuring two of the sides were terribly off. But the other two were very close to being exactly two inches.

9/16/16
Because it's Friday we get an update from the veterans about the JPL challenge. They had put their ideas into very rough 3D models. They had made a funnel which alll dsigns used to improve their accuracy. Some groups built their actual designs while others just followed Dr. Neat's prompt of not touching the cup to move the water into the recepticle. After they had all shared their ideas with us we went outside to give them a test run. Although it was hot and shade was not in abundance it was very entertaining to watch the tests. I think my favorite design was one that used a vacuum to suck the water up and carry it to the recepticle. Sadly none of the designs worked because they didn't transport the fish. However they were all headed in the right direction.

9/19/16
The majority of today was spent on sketch up. However we were briefly signing into the safety course we are doing to make sure we will be able to work in the shop safely. After that we opened up sketch up and began to replicate a structure we had made out of three jenga blocks. We worked on it for the rest of the period however due to the lack of time spent using sketch up I did not finish my structure.

9/21/16
Wednesday Challenge time!!!! Except not for me, and belive me I regret being ABSENT. I really do but I doubt that I would be happier if I had come and I'll spare you the details on that.
Wednesday Challenge of 9/21

9/26/16
It's Monday and today we talked a little about Dr. Neat's and Mr.Miller's grading system. It was reassuring especially since for the most part first quarter didn't go well for the rookies. We looked at our grades and I think most of us can say we were not pleased. But hopefully with our growing experience we will improve our grades. Dr. Neat also reassured us that if we did better in the second quarter he would disregard the first quarter grade.

9/27/16
Today we watched a very detailed video on the explosion concerning a SpaceX rocket. The explosion itself was pretty big and as terrible as it is to say I enjoyed watching it. But the speaker in the video analyzed it in order to try and determine the cause of the explosion. He eventually determined that it was probably due to a fuel mishap. However the video wasn't the most interesting part of class for me. I more enjoyed the discussion that followed, we had a sort of mini debate about whther or not private companies building thier own spacecrafts was a good idea or if we should leave it to NASA like we used to, specifically SpaceX. This was interesting and people had many different view points, personally I think while private companies so far seem a little recklass they are giving us the opportunity for more minds to try and make discoveries.

9/28/16
This week we have a little different arrangement, instead of the usual Wednesday Challenge this week we got our groups for the quarter final. The challenge is to build an arch bridge. But we have to use all one unit pieces to build it and no adhesives. My group didn't manage to come up with an idea but we discussed possible materials and tried to really understand what it means to be an arch bridge.
Arch Bridge Rules

9/29/16
Because this challenge is a final and a much harder challenge we get a week to do it, so we're working on it again today. We have until next Wednesday and then we get graded on it on Thursday. We came up with an idea but with further inspection realized that our design didn't qualify as an arch bridge. We are starting to get a little frustrated and have yet to settle on a material.

9/30/16
Last day of September!!!! Because it's Friday we got a visit from Mr. Wilton and a presentation on the progress from the veterans referring to the JPL challenge. They showed us their most current sketch ups and explained them. Their ideas are now pretty thought through however thanks to Mr. Wilton they are aware of some of the problems necessary to fix.

10/3/16
We have until Wednesday to complete the arch bridge challenge however we still have nothing. We decided today on Lego bricks as our material. They are light as well as have flat sides so they seem like they'll will be cooperative. They are also small so that will help our score.

10/4/16
We brought in the legos today and kind of just fooled around with them trying to get the pieces to not fall. We relaized that we couldn't get the design we drew to become a reality with them. Now i'm worried because we don't have a product.This challenge has proven very frustrating and very difficult.

10/5/16
Our frustration continues although now it's laced with anxiousness because today we have to build our bridge and get it scored. We couldn't get it to hold our keystone and therefore any length was irrelevant we were getting DQ'd. We stacked them in pretty much any way we could but none previaled. We still completed the power point and if we were to do it again I think we could get farther.
Arch Bridge Power Point

10/7/16
Because it's Friday we got an update from the veterans on the JPL challenge. One group had built a model of their design and had tested it. Not all the designs had built a model but most were either getting ready with drawn designs or some had parts built.

10/10/16
When we came in today Dr. Neat showed us a really cool video with us. It was called cymatics and it was a music video of sorts. Although unlike most music videos this one showed us the sound waves of the music being made. It also played with fire and electricity. It was truly amazing to watch. After that we went into sketch up and started to get ourselves accustom to the move tool. We made a stairway to heaven.

10/11/16
We were working on sketch up again today. Just practicing using the move tool. We made stairs again today but less of a stairway and more of just using the stairs again. We also learned how to make rounded edges and made a jenga block in sketch up.

10/12/16
Wednesday challenge!!!! I have a theory that Dr. Neat just finds the most frustrating things ever and makes them Wednesday challenges. It was still a fun challenge though. We were instructed to make card towers. Following the usual trend we were not allowed to use adhesives. We got a score of 7 inches. Which landed us in 4th place.
Card Tower Challenge
Card House Results

10/13/16
Today we worked with sketch up again, further practicing making round edges. Due to yesterday's challenge we made a playing card.

10/14/16
Becuase it's Friday we got an update from the veterans on the JPL challenge. Each group came up and spoke about the progress they have made this week. For most of the groups it wasn't super drastic improvement but they all are getting closer to their final product. We went in to the lab to watch Sam and Cole demonstrate their device they lost a lot of water but it still worked as they expected it to and is fine relative to the point in the game they are in. We also saw part of Kevin's design but it wasn't quite as far along as Sam and Cole's only because it was a production step or two behind.

10/17/16
We continued to work on sketch up today. We could either finish the stairway, the playing card, or start new with a pencil. Because I had finished both the stairway and the playing card I started on the pencil. It was not as impossible as it had seemed at first however it did require more work than I was used to. However I think it turned out well.

10/18/16
Today is the last day to work on websites in class before they are graded so we are just making sure everything is live and catching up on what we need to. I've been fairly on top of everything lately so it took me about 10 mins to finish what I needed to. So today was a little boring although nice, relaxing I would say.

10/19/16
It's JOHN'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Ma dude is finally 14! I hope it's amazing and the best one he's ever had. If you read this, you deserve a birthday and year as awesome as you are. Ok but in class news, because it is Wednesday it's time for a wednesday challenge due to the odd schedule this week it's a two day challenge. Today we got the challenge and split into groups. Only this time we got to choose our own groups. The challenge was to make a right triangle out of straws. The team that comes closest wins the challenge.

10/20/16
Today we finished up the wednesday challenge from yesterday. We all got our straws and we used Maddie's stylish caution tape to stick them together. We came pretty close to winning the challenge but came in second to "The Dodgers". Yes, the dodgers one, extremely ironic due to the results of last night's game. Right Triangle Challenge

10/24/16
Today we got the results from last week's wednesday challenge. We also went over the lessons that we learned from this challenge. Most of the lessons people learned were related to groups and how it was working with people you picked. Most people had a bad experience considering most people were in the same group. I however had a good experience.

10/25/16
Today we finished up the wednesday challenge from the right triangle challenge. It was a very necessary catch up day, for me at least. I caught up on a few missing enties as well as finished the wednesday challenge form. Once you finished the form you could update your website to make sure it was live. If you successfully did this and showed Dr. Neat you were given the latest sketch up challenge. The most difficult yet, you had to model a lego brick. I didn't finish in time to start it but I can already tell it will be quite a challenge.

10/26/16
Today's Wednesday challenge was halloween themed. We were working with a sweet treat, candy corn. Our challenge was to find out how many candy corn it takes to fill an 8 by 10 piece of paper. Candy Corn Challenge

10/27/16
Today we had another pretty chill day. We worked on the Wednesday challenge from yesterday. I again caught up on missing entries, luckily there weren't that many but it still took me the majority of the period. We also worked on the lego block sketch up. I completed the lego sketch up and while it's not perfect I'm pretty happy with it.

10/28/16
Mr. Wilton joined us in class today because it's Friday. We got to listen to the progress that the jpl challenge groups have made this week. We got to see two group's put their idea into physical form. This first one got close but most of the water from the cup ended up on a board that was over the funnel for that very reason. Apperently in previous tests in had flung the water all the way across the shop. We also got to see Cole and Sam's set up but the water fell short of the funnel. However even though they ddin't work they are getting much closer.

10/31/16
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! the holiday, though still my favorite, is slightly lessened this year due to the fact that it is on a Monday and we have school tomorrow. None the less I'm sure it will still be fun. Today we listened to Dr. Neat give a presentation on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It is a bridge that connects Seattle to Gig Harbor. The point of this presentation was to inform us on how to do a bridge presentation that we will all be doing in a couple days. We were also given a list of bridges we could do our presentation on. We will be working in pairs and I am working with Sona.

11/1/16
Today we worked on our lego brick sketch up. I spent most of the period struggling to do the bottom of the lego brick. I had already completed the top which I found significantly less difficult. By the end of the period I had tried a few things but all of them failed and I ended the period with nothing to show for it. However I do have an idea for how I would do it in the future.

11/2/16
Wednesday means it's time for a new Wednesday challenge. We were split into groups of three and given the challenge of designing and fabricating an E out of cardboard. However we wouldn't be making an E from our own sketch up but rather another group's. The most interesting part was that we didn't know which group's E we got. Whichever E won meant that both the team that designed it and the team that built it won. However today we only worked on the sketch up half and tomorrow we will be getting the sketch up be are to build.

11/3/16
We finished up the Wednesday challenge today. We got the E sketch up that we are building from and were relieved to see that it looked like a fairly simple E. We measured the sketch up and got a piece of cardboard. Once we had drawn lines on were to cut we took the box cutter and got to work, painstaking and long, work

E challenge

11/4/16
Because today is Friday we were joined by Mr. Wilton. By now we have strayed away from the more presentation style that the JPL groups had in the beginning. We went strait over to the shop and got to watch each group test their device. Two of the devices we saw worked much better than they had last week and with improvements to the funnel the Kevin Arm should work almost perfectly. Sam and Cole's device also worked pretty well and dropped significantly less water.

11/7/16
We were split into the groups we had for the E challenge as well as paired with the group who's sketch up we got. We discussed which E to sumbit and eventually chose our's. We also got to see our grades from the last website grading. Dr. Neat showed us some websites that deserevd honorable mention. Mine got mentioned for having a pleasant aesthetic or as he said less seizure enducing than other websites.

11/8/16
Today we finished up on the E Wednessday challenge apart from the very end considering we still don't know who won. We just used today to catch up on unfinished business and in my case write up some of the missing entries. We also took a picture of our E to put on our website except I have no service in this room so I couldn't get it on the website. I couldn't manage to send it to myself.

11/9/16
Today's Wednesday challenge is about weight. It had multiple parts to it, first we were given a bag filled with nuts and bolts and then a kilogram weight. We had to decide whether or not they weighed the same. We found that they did not but the next part of the challenge was then to find what the ratio of the trwo weights was, we decided it was about 1/4 but for this part we couldn't use a scale. The next part of the challenge was to use the scale and find a way to explain how to use the scale. We were given two minutes to weigh what we had to and get out.

11/10/16
We finished up yesterday's wednesday challenge today and it ame down to who was willing to state their knowledge on how to use the scale. Becuase only one group got up to talk the challenge went to them and we all learned a valuable lesson, always speak up. After that we talked a little more about the how the scale worked and Dr. Neat compared it to a piece of playground equipment. Kilogram Challenge

11/14/16
Today we finished up the E wednesday challenge and added the winner but it was still a really easy day with nothing too deamnding in store. I comfortably finished the wednesday challenge and finished up some entires just trying to get all ready for the next website grading period. I also added a link to the safety course for the shop.
Safety Course

11/15/16
We were given a bridge report a couple weeks ago and today was the first of our 5 days to work on it. Sona and I decided to pick the Tower Bridge in London, England. We finished a few slides and we are comfortable with our progress so far.

11/16/16
This weeks Wednesday challenge was centered around sheer force. It was defnitely an interesting one although I'm not entirely convinced it qualifies as a challenge considering no one's tabs ripped apart. We all managed to keep our tabs together although we used different adhesives. My group chose duct tape and only ended up using a little bit. Sheer Force Challenge

11/17/16
Today we finished up yesterdays Wednesday's Wednesday challenge and completed the wednesday challenge form. It was a pretty chill day. Just finishing the things we had to get done. Catching up and relieving a little stress.

11/18/16
Today is the last day before Thanksgiving break! It's also the last Friday before the JPL challenge groups go to the competition. We had a little competition of our own to see which three of the four teams will go to the competition. It didn't go great, Sam and Cole as well as Kevin had pretty good turn outs but Jacob and Conner's devices suffered a little however in the end Jacob pulled through and took his down to the high school.

11/28/16
Back from break! I have to say I'm pretty tired, not used to actually having to get up. Today we worked on our sketch up skills, Kevin, a sketch up master, came in to show us how to use the rotate tool. once we all felt pretty comfortable with it Dr. Neat gave us an assignment. We were to make a sketch up of the arch bridge we made for our quarter final. I didn't end up using the rotate tool to complete my sketch up but it did take some time due to the fact that my group used legos.

11/29/16
We got a presentation from the JPL groups today on what went down at the competition. None of the groups made it past on to the next competition but Kevin got pretty close. They all showed valiant effort, Jacob's machine didn't manage to get any water into the recepticle but they almost got the fish to go up the pipe. Sam and Cole ran into technicle difficulties and their bungy got stuck.

11/30/16
Today's Wednesday challenge invloved three foods. Graham crackers, pretzil sticks, and marshmallows. We were seperated into groups and instructed to make a sketch up of a tower. The goal is to make the tallest tower. But it is quite the challenge considering you wouldn't be building off of your own sketch up.

12/1/16
We worked on the second half of the wednesday challenge today. We got our CAD and found that it was extremely simple to build. It was just 29 graham crackers stacked on top of each other. Unfortunately they miscalculated how tall it would be and thought it would measure 3 feet however it only measured to 7 inches. Graham/Marsh/Preztel Tower

12/2/16
Today we had a sub so we just used this time to catch up on what we needed to. The sub also put on mythbusters episodes. It was a nice stress free day and I was glad to have the time. In all honesty I was pretty behind on entries and I pretty much got caught up. I was only half paying attention to what I was writing though because I guess I was more interested in knowing if yawns were contagious or not.

12/5/16
We got the problem for the final today and were split into our groups. My group is Maddie, Evan, Monte, and myself. The final is a Wednesday challenge in which we must make a device that solves the JPL challenge problem but to half scale. We didn't make too much progress today but we do have an idea that may work.

12/6/16
We are working on the final challenge for the next couple of days. Today we made a better drawing and started the sketch up. We decided to use a sort of deer scare type of device. It's made with PVC and two connecting parts. Because we aren't using human power as a motor we are allowed to have it span only a meter rather than two.

12/7/16
Working on the final again today. We are continueing to work on the skecth up and further our idea but little actual progress was made. We do however have a very clear idea of what we want for our device and how it will work.

12/8/16
We are making a cardboard model of our device to help us see what problems we may run into. We also attempted to make the sketch up more accurate and to scale. It turned out to be a challenging task and I have yet to achieve it.