Earth Science 6-Period 3
Hailey Phan
Earthquakes PBL
In the "Earthquakes PBL Project," my team and I had to build a house for Tony Stark, making sure that it lasts a strong earthquake. The driving question was, how can we, as structural engineers, build a two story house that can withstand seismic activity. We could only use string, clay, straws, toothpicks, and popsicle sticks. The building had a strong base, which was clay stuck to the plate, and popsicle sticks in the clay, which was also ties with string to keep it strong. We used straw as the walls, and filled it with toothpicks, so the straws are not flimsy. My team crossed the straws as an "X," a tied it with string to also keep it sturdy. The string tied around the walls, acted as the divider for the first, and second floor. The ceiling was basically the same thing as the base, with popsicle sticks, clay, and loads of string tied together. To keep our building strong, we used clay, and a lot of string. From completing this project, I learned that in order for a building to survive in a treacherous earthquake, you need to make it a seismic-safe building. You can do this by giving it some features such as, base isolators, shear walls, tension ties, and cross braces. My team used those features listed in our building, making it survive the shake test.
30 Hands Project
As I completed this project, I learned a lot about how humans affect the Earth. For instance, humans burn fossil fuels for cars or energy, which release carbon dioxide. This gets trapped in the atmosphere, causing Global Climate Change. This increase of temperature can impact everyone and everything. People will get sick, crops will be hard to grow, and animals' environments will begin to change. Part of the project is to create a Pic Collage, then use these to record in the 30 Hands App. My favorite part would be making the Pic Collage, because it's fun to decorate it with emoji's and stickers.
Invention Convention
My invention with Kaitlyn and Iris is called the KHI Energy System, which solves the problem of waste disposal. This invention, is a trash can that has two storage spaces, one for the waste, the other for water. It solves this problem by turning this waste into something useful, like electricity to run the microwave, fridge, light bulb, and more. My invention does this, by burning the waste. This will make reclaimed water turn into steam, which goes through a tube. This tube connects to the turbine, then running the energy generator. Finally, the energy is spread out to use appliances around it. For instance, if you install the trash can in your kitchen, it can run the oven, the stove, the heat warmer, and other things like that.
Extra Credit
My favorite unit was Unit 5, which is about the Atmosphere. I liked this unit, because I find the atmosphere really interesting about how it keeps us alive, and how we are ruining it. My favorite lab experiments was the candle experiment, when we lit a candle and put a jar on it, plus the balloon experiment, when we measured the amount of weight of air with and without mass. These experiments are super fun, because I was always full of laughs, and it contained cool elements that made the experiments interesting.