Tag: Phase III

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pneumatics??

Hello everyone!  welcome to a whole new challenge of Pneumatic!  First thing first, what actually is that?  It is a machine that containing or operated by air or gas under pressure.  This week, we test out some different way to use pneumatics.  Use it to read pressure in kpa as one of the units to measure it.  This week is not like last few weeks.  This is more concept related.  Student just need to understand it and it has really little calculations in it.  We will keep exploring pneumatics in the following weeks and more fun to come.

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why won’t the car move!!!

Hello class, welcome to another day of LEGO challenge.  Today, we introduce how to use those renewable energy in real life.  We connect a solar panel to a motor which we put on a car.  Then we shine the light on the panel to transform solar energy into kinetic energy.  As a result, the car should move, but sadly it does not happen in our class.  Lucas’s car were moving but after a few tests, it completely stops, no movement at all.  We try to see which side cause the problem, is it the panel break or the motor is down.  It turned out neither.  It was probably the light.  After the heartbreaking news, we go back to do some calculations which these formulas: s=d/t, d=st, t=d/s.   

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Is that heavy?

Hello, it is I.  Welcom to another class of physics.  This time we used battery to power up the energy display, then use the Joules to pull a heavy block off the ground.  There are few formulas that need to remeber. F=ma=mg, W=FD(D=distance), Effiency=W/energy used*100%.  These will help the kids to do their hoemwork but I also told them in class.  It was fairly an easy project to build but needed some critical thinking to finished the expriments.  Hope they have learned somthing and had fun with it.

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Is that a car moving by itself?

Nice to meet old friends and new people.  Today we learn what is conservation of energy.  They build hand generators to power up the car using energy generated by their hands.  The whole process is to change kinetic Energy into electric Energy and change it back to kinetic again.  It was a fun class and the learning environment is fantastic.  Jeff loves to help and chat his neighbors, Jeffery and Micheal are such good problem solver, and last but not least, Lucas has shown great improvement compare to last semester.  I am looking forward to have a great season with these guys.

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PBP Phase 3 Week 5: Pneumatics Basics

Today we learned about pneumatics using the pneumatics basic models. The students learned about the relationship between volume and pressure. The kids played around and experimented with their models quite a bit. The topic for next week is the scissor lift. Please have the students organize their kits. 

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PBP Phase 3 Week 6: Scissor lift

Today we built the scissor lift to explore the applications of pneumatics. Additionally we saw how levers can be used for mechanical advantage. 

The topic for next week is the robot hand. Please tell the students to be wary of dropped pieces and not to simply dump everything out onto the table. 

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PBP Phase 3 Week 4: Wind Turbine

Today we built the Wind Turbine and learned a bit about wind energy and power. The kids loved it and some of them found a way to spin their wind turbines a little too fast. The topic for next week is an introduction to Pneumatics. Please ask the kids to clean up better as dropped parts were found today. 

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PBP Phase 3 Week 3: Boat Pulley

Today we built the Boat Pulley, and learned a bit about power. The kids loved it and had fun. in particular they had fun trying to figure out how to extract more power from it. The topic for Friday is the Wind Turbine, and will be our last use of electrics for a time. Starting Week 5 we will be moving onto Pneumatics. Parents if you could please tell Selena and Derek to stop constantly shouting it would be much appreciated. 

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PBP Phase 3 Week 2: Solar vehicle

Today we built the solar car, however due to technical difficulties we couldn’t get it to work. The students still loved it as they got to experiment with different setups and go crazy building their own vehicles. The topic for next week is the Powered Winch, the kids were all good cleaning up this week so no problems there. 

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PBP Phase 3 Week 1: Generator

Today we built the hand generator and learned a little bit about electricity, including, Volts, Amps, and Ohms. The kids looked like they were having fun with their projects. The topic for next week is a solar powered vehicle, the kids are all good at cleaning up by now however I ask that the students pay attention to their cleanup s they don’t break any parts. 

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