trebuchet 1

In term 4, we will be working on producing trebuchet. However, as I am going on exchange, I will be getting a modified assignment for this task. Mr Ward showed us 3 different ways to build the joint. 

1. Butt joint: This is the joint that will not modify very well compare to other methods. PDF glue was spread on the sides of the two sticks and nailed from the horizontal line. This method is not recommended as it assures only small amount of modification

2. rebate joint: There is more space that glues together therefore assure more strong joint. It  was nailed from the side. 

3. reinforced joint: The triangle will be glued and nailed on the side and it will manifest the join very well. This is the recommended method when making trebuchet. 

T3-7

I have constructed a new vehicle because the first one that I made was very slow. The time was around 3.9 seconds. However, the new one was 3.1 seconds which isn't really fast. Mr Ward showed us the draw last week and I was versing with Alina from the first round. I have given up from making a faster car, Alina's car is the fastest vehicle, that's got a new 'world record' (class record). Instead, I earned lots of time I guess. Anyway, I believe I can still make my car go faster by using energizer batteries and putting a elastic band around the wheels. The problem with my vehicle I assume, was that the front part is too light. Because when I roll my car, the front wheel doesn't touch the ground. So even if it's attached to the fishing line, the front will be lifted up, and it can't run to it's fastest speed. 

t3-6: progress on monday the 12th

Kimi wasn't at the lesson because she had math competition and asked me to take a photo of her vehicle. In the lesson, Mr Ward showed us how to sold. Though I learnt it when I was in year 8 and this year, I still couldn't do it. I learnt it again from other girl and now I can do the solding, but still not very confident with it. I have put the switch on the vehicle, not under the body because I don't think it will make much of different. I have cut the wires, and I failed so many times, and I had to get new battery case(?) and the switch. But I then the new switch did not have the wire attached to it, so I had to sold the wires.

Below is the comparison shot of Kimi and my vehicle. The sizes are similar. (we tried to make it same, but really, it can happen) Most of other circumstances are same for our vehicles except the material used for the body and the gear used. I'm assuming that Kimi's car will go faster as she used the lighter material, 

t3-5: different gear used

Mr Ward told us that we should use bigger gear to make our car go faster. I already knew that by observing his past prototypes. However, he did not told us which small ones we should use, he told us to figure out. Kimi have lost her small gear so we have decided to share our gears. So I will use the small one while she do the trial with big one. Then after that, we would swap the gear and see when our vehicles go faster. The reason we are doing this was to see if the big gear would work better on one and not on the other one. I mean small gear could work better on mine and not on Kimi. But still, I predict that small gear is faster than the big gear. Because when I have had a look at Mr Ward and fast girls' cars, no one used big one, but only the small or middle one. I may try on the middle-sized gear too after. The smallest gear have 8 teeth and big one, I think have about 12 teeth. Below is the photo of the gear we used for our vehicles.

The left is photo of my vehicle with small gear and right is Kim's with big gear. We both put the big one on for the wheel. because it was definite that big one is faster than small gear. 

T3-4

Kimi and I have stuck the wheels on to the body. Mr Ward showed our class how to best glue the wheels by sticking a pop stick first, and sand them down, then glue the actual thing on the side of the popstick. This will help glue the wheels parallel, and enhance adhesion so the wheels wouldn't shake very much.

This is the photo of Kimi's car. She put the double-sided to lessen the shaking. 

There are the bottom view of our cars. I did not use the method that Mr Ward showed us on the day because I used MDF board. 

T3-3

This is the second post I put up in this term. Kimi and I has been working together from the start of this project. we have decided to use MDF board and cider..., some new other material that is very light. Because we don't know which will go faster than the other, I will use the MDF board as the body for my car and the other one for Kimi's car. My prediction is that the car with that new material will go faster than mine with MDF board as it will weight lighter. We have decided to use the smallest gear. We were going to experiment them all but we have found out that Mr Ward was using the smallest gear, then we assumed that the smallest gear is the fastest. So with our first cars, our aim is to work out which materials make car go faster than the other. If say, the MDF board one goes faster than the cinder one, Kimi will make the other one with small pieces of cinder attached to the bottom and the top of a pop stick. While she makes a new one, I guess I will change other circumstances of the first cinder one. Like changing the position of the gear or the type of gear, and all the other sorts of stuff that will make the car go faster. When Kimi finishes making her new one, then we will compete that one and the MDF board car that won the last round, compete. Then depending on the results, we may develop our cars from there.

T3-2

I have done some research few days ago, and I have found out that we can make the car go faster by wearing the elastic band on the wheels. (only the back wheels maybe. And Kimi asked about this idea to Mr Ward and he had confirmed with the idea that the elastic band would increase the friction between the wheel and the track so the speed will as well increase. Here are some other keys to make a car go faster:

• Lighter car goes faster/ use the lightest material. 
• Increase the friction between the rear wheels and track
• More mass over the back wheel, the less the rear wheels spin.
• Wheel goes faster without rubber.
• Use double sided tape to stick bearing under the chassis
• Lubrication / oil and grease
• Friction free for all the part touching
• Balance the wheels – sand down the wheels. 

T3-1

We have started the new unit now and assignment was introduced. On today's lesson, Mr Ward told us how to calculate the velocity and did some example questions together. The formula for velocity is V= displacement/time. The units have to be minute and second. So if the times are in minutes or hours, we have to transform them in to seconds and killometres or centimeters into meters always. Mr Ward also told us the difference between velocity and speed, distance and displacement. They are similar to each other, except that velocity and displacement have the direction.

Simplified definition of Velocity and speed:
speed: distance travelled in a second
Velocity: distance travelled in a given direction in a second.

Simple definition of distance and displacement:

Speed = distance travelled in a second
Velocity = distance traveled in a given direction in a second

Definition of distance and displacement:

1. Displacement is the directed line segment between initial and final position of a moving body.
2.Distance is the total length of path traversed by the moving body irrespective of direction.


http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_distance_and_displacement

PDT 8

I missed some parts out of this blogging.

Mr Ward showed us how to put the buttons on the torch by extrude the draw from lateral plane. I'm not sure if I would remember that by the time I design my torch.

You need to have the barrel first, then we have to draw the button on the lateral plane then extrude it. Because we can't draw on the round suface of the barrel.

Mr Ward also showed us the model that is created by the new machine that builts up the things other than cutting off from the whole piece of the material like the old one did. He made iphone, chain, bolt(?screw?) and bangle and showed them to us.

PDT 7: reflection

toy block: I guess it was the simplest on among them all. All the measurement was noted not many new skills were required from what we learned.

Toy block extension: I had some difficulties on decision making with the measurement of this toy bleck. It was not mentioned in the textbook and my model looks bit different as the model in textbook.

Simple calculator Design: It was fine. Was not very hard and really satisfied with the ne duplication skill learnt from this project. I also liked the design of it some how it ressembles chocoloate.

Clock face project: All measurement were noted but still looked different even though I followed all the instruction correctly, twice and realized that it always looks different from the model on the textboo, they are thinner and smaller compare to what came out of my work.

Students accurately draw their own mobile phone: It would be much better if I had iphone because I have a galaxy note, I had to do the curves on the side which requires much more complicated skills, not just rounding the edges. I did all the details even the 20 dots on the speaker at the top of the screen. Only thing I couldn't do was the touch pen because I couldn't make the deciosin about the measurement.I did my phone 3 times because of that round edges and learnt to save for every successful steps.

Energy Drink bottle: the measurements in textbook was wrong but I could figure out the exact measurement as I go along.Because we did the waaterbottle last year it didn't find it hard very much. But I forgot how to revolve so it was great to learn it from this project.

Aluminum motorcycle wheel: We didn't have to do this project. But I reckoned that it will help me from get  better mark, I did this. Fortunately, I got enough time to finish everything that's listed on the task sheet. There was bit on difficult doing it because textbook didn't tell the measurements and skipped some steps. I learned mirror skill from the internet because it didn't really tell what to do to get the mirror command so I searched up in the internet and the result was well successful. I have different pattern on my wheel as the model from the textbook because it didn't say anything about drawing the wheel pattern.

Ball point pen: I borrowed the laptop and did some parts when I went to the basketball game when other grades were playing. I finished it during the weekend. Because I was stuck up with designing my phone, I did it before mobile phone and aluminum motor cycle wheel project.

PDT 6

On today's lesson I finally finished up everything just by the time and printed off them all. I accidentally printed them vertically that only takes up half of a paper. Some are printed in colour and some are not. At first, I printed pen assembly in colour but then it was hard to tell the division between the barrel and pen top so I printed off in colour for second time, horizontally. I gone trough the list just to make sure if I missed anything. I did the sony camera and motor cycle wheel that are optional. I might start the torch assignment from now on. Firstly do some research. 

PROD 5

Our class exercise is due this friday. I almost finished them and just need to work some more on the motor cycle wheel. I had some trouble with accurately designing my galaxy because of its curve on the sides and the buttons would disappear if I round the edges too much. Mr Ward showed how to do solve that problem, but it looked a lot more complicated. He recommended me to keep them simple and because its due friday, I just decided to leave as it was. Then I moved on to my motor cycle wheel which never gets to be a valid profile and not allowing me to revolve it. So I just drew a new plane and fortunately, it worked. For the next lesson, I just need to revolve and do the rest of other stuffs, print off and all done! I think I may borrow laptop tomorrow afternoon to print off and do some more other words. 

ProDesktop 4

For the last lesson we had yesterday, Mr Ward gave us our assignment which we have to design a torch by the ProDesktop program and elaborate it. He showed us some A+ assignment for we to look at and when I had a look at them, I really did think that they both deserved A+. Especially when I was reading Hannah's, I really felt dizzy and couldn't even finish reading them. Frankly, when Mr Ward showed us Natalie McNamara's assignment, I thought I could do that as well, but when I had a look at Hannah's, I didn't think that I could possibly do that. (I'm not sure how to spell her name correctly, I hope I spelt it right.) Anyway, I will do my best for this assignment. As Mr Ward said in the class, he is really generous of time. The torch one is due week 2 next term and the first one is due by week 7 which is 2 weeks away, but I think I can do that in 2 weeks. Until now, I've done toy block, toy block extension and simple calculator design. I haven't done much but I have some plan so I wouldn't be worrying about it. I finished the calculator easily by one lesson and I will start on clock face project and car wheel and will work on Mobile phone during the weekend. Then I only have 3 more things to do for 2 weeks. I wasted about 2 or 3 lessons making that sony camera... :( 

ProDesktop3

In today's lesson, I finished off my camera that I was working on and now I started with my phone. The techniques I need yo use are easy and I know how to do them. However, because I did them in a wrong order, I had to start it again for three times :( and at the end of the lesson, all I got was just a rectangular prism... I think I need to arrange the order before I start and that way, it will finish more earlier, I assume. When I'm finished with the phone, I will have a look what's on the sheet and will make some decisions then :)

ProDesktop 2

For the last DT lessons I had since then, I've been making 2 toy boxes and recently designing a sony camera. I found the program bit hard to control because it's already been about a year since we last used the program. The same thing is that I still don't know how to undo the things and delete sketches... I assume that the program would be so smart but I cannot use it effectively. This unit of work is not really hard but not really interesting or fun except when the machine actually gets to manufacture our things from the program. I really do wish to get one this year and I will because I am not going to some complicated star shape this year because I realised last year that it's above my ability on this. Anyhow, I may take the screenshot of what I made out of the ProDesktop if I can do that with DELL laptops in DT room. But I'm not quite certain about that. I am looking forward to start on other products apart from the sony camera I'm working on because it's always fun starting new things :)!

SDT 13: photos

Finally, today I got the photo from my phone! I haven't fix the email problem on my phone but I send the photos to my sister's phone by a messenger and Christina sent to me again to email and it worked out very well. I don't know why mine's doesn't work :/ I've been to IT this morning for this prob and they weren't there. I may try it on the other day, could be tomorrow morning tea or so. Anyway, here are the photos of our great resort, the SUN

ProDesktop 1

We are going to start working with ProDesktop from next lesson on next week. Honestly, I didn't really liked the session last year because I wasn't much of a computer person. But it was still interesting. For the last lesson, he showed us a new machine which he doesn't really know how to use. Also he repeated those two elements and what they stands for. I hope to get something in this term and I will make them simple. Because last year, I was struggle making a star shape and it couldn't manufactured because it was to late and I didn't even get up to finish it anyway. But this time, I will keep them simple so I can have something at the end of this session! :) I recently send the photo of our resort from my phone where I took a photos but email haven't arrived yet.

CAD: Computer assisted design
CAM: Computer assisted milling machine 

SDT 12

Yesterday, we finally finished our task 4 which was the oral presentation. Doris did all the speaking and I just showed our resort in front of the class. I found that bit weird because every one spoke. I have listened to every others, and it made me tensed because their presentation seemed really good. Much better than what I wrote for us. They talked about the grey water and FSC wood which I didn't included parts about inside and wall because I thought I can't say something that is invisible. Because when Mr Ward showed us example with the harry porter resort, he told us about things that you can actually observe. (You can't see what the walls are made of or what systems are inside) That was the reason why I only wrote about the window and designs. I really did watch all the videos in the blackboard, but I didn't used it. Everyone had their own smart ideas of designs and sustainability of the building. I especially liked the grey water and Lauren and Silvana's solar panel that treks sun. I took a photos of our finished resort, but somehow my email doesn't work and the battery is flat bu I promise to post that someday this week. 

SDT11

Today we started to work on designing our buildings. I will try to upload the photo on the next post but today I have no photos. For the oral, I'll do the write up and Doris's going to do the presentation. I don't know whether she will make the powerpoint or not. I recommended her to do that way. Because if we mix each others speech I guess, will massed up. And because I got better mark for task 2, I just decided to write the whole thing by myself and let Doris do the speaking because sometimes people don't understand my pronunciation. I wrote it during the weekend and Doris will make the powerpoint. I think I would be finished if I worked by myself because there were some conflicts in our ideas. I know this is the hard thing about the group work. Anyway, because I thought we don't have much time to waste, I just thought of the name, 'The Sun' (resort) because the main thing of our resort is that big arc shaped solar panel (Although it seemed bit random and ugly...) We wanted to colour our resort in green, but because we couldn't find any green papers or buy them during the weekend, (I tried but I couldn't buy anything) I related the colour of the building to its name so I decided to do it in a red, orange and yellow papers. What I think is that the colour is not the main thing in our work.

T2 SDT 10

This is my first post of the term. I had 2 lessons before it and we have another lesson today. I haven't take any photos this term. We made some changes recently that was not on our plan. We found a great material to construct the forest but we used sand to do our background. I didn't quite get the idea why Doris wants to it with the sand and the benefits but so many people wanted to use it, Mr Ward said sand will be better and Doris want to use the sand, so I just go with it. It looked okay, and I'm happy with it. But I'm guessing we won't be having wind turbines. But I think it is okay still without the wind turbines. But I wonder what's the benefit to have the cemented ground for our resort. But I think this will be okay for there are still a lot more to talk about uniqueness of our building. We are planing to buy some figures of fountain and people. we might do some shopping during the weekend. 

SDT 1-9

I assume that this is the first post in this week. I have finally took photos last lesson and is now able to post them in to my blog. Unfortunately, many progresses are missed... Until now, Doris and I finished the garden, as mentioned. Last lesson, I worked on our building (big one). Our building is a curved form so it is more aesthetically pleasing, and give some differences out of the original building. The sides are finished, and I now have to build the top. Doris painted our triangular car park with grey paint and now we have to draw black lines and some colourful little cars maybe? we have our last lesson for term one on friday and I will sort out the building, than move on to paint the lines of the car park and colour in some cars inside them perhaps. I am enjoying this work but I am not sure if we can finish this in 2 weeks, in 6 hours of lesson :/ I will try though. hope we can get a great result out of our resort at the end of this :) Also about the photos, I think I will take some of our car park on next DT lesson.

SDT 1-8

Today, we have done our cute little garden and I put the flowers on whilst Doris was working on the sculpture between the garden and the building. Because I didn't brought my phone in to the class, I couldn't manage to take a photo. Tomorrow, Mr Ward and about 7 or 8 girls are leaving for an excursion to QUT. I really wanted to go to that excursion but unfortunately missed it. I just admitted the fact that I missed the chance, and no i'm hoping for next chance to come up. Wish if mr ward can manage our next excursion at the end of the year... So in the next lesson on friday, Mr Ward and girls who are going on the excursion will be in the class tomorrow. So I think I can take the photo tomorrow and also prepare for my oral in term 2.

SDT 1-7

It's been a long time since last posted. Now Doris and I are carrying our project very well. I think the hard thing about the group working is to corroborate mutual idea because, in majority of cases, they are different. But we are giving up some to accept others. This helps progress in our work. I am quite satisfied with what we have done until now. Doris has done the water (or pool) in a very nice colour and the big square building that meant to be on our resort. But we changed our plan to make a curved building so that can be fit into a circular solar panel that is located above the building. Also this can give some differences from the original building in China. Until now, we have our water fountain, outdoor pool, green base for the garden. we haven't done much yet that's the reason for we to be hurry... This lesson we worked on the garden but we didn't get enough time to finish it. I hope we get to finish that by tomorrow's lesson. That is actually the most fun part since this process. After we finish the garden, I think I have to build the rest part of the curved building and Doris may be keeps working on the car part under the solar panel, on both side of the resort. I find hard during this project but also interesting. I think I have a good chance to learn many things about sustainable design and technology while I'm doing the task 2 for the assignment. Next time, I might try to put up some photos on my blog.

SDT 1-6

Today, Mr Ward showed us how to build the mountain using chicken fence(?), newspapers, plasters, water. He stapled chicken fence on the MDF board and put the news paper underneath it and created the feature of the mountain, than he sealed it with the stapler again. Then he cover them with the plaster and water mix until we couldn't see the fence under it and using the clothes to smooth the shape of it. For the rest of the lesson, Doris and I have discussed about our design again and finally we made our decision! As we determined to think about the design and draw some of our ideas last lesson, I have draw some designs myself and brought them in to the lesson but Doris couldn't do the ideation because of the assignments we given in recent days. I understand it because it is her first year in St Hilda's and year 10 work could been harsh for her as it is to me, but in some way, I was bit disappointed about that because we are bit behind compared to everyone else. Anyway, the one we searched on the google approached to us the best. So we have decided to go with it. Related to the building design above, we will have the round thing on the top as a solar panels, and will have some wind turbine in the woods on the back. Also 2 water in the middle will be made to a pool (maybe heated? from the power generated by the solar thermal) and buildings on the side will used as a parking lots. the big building on the back will be the resort and the smaller one in the front is a leisure building. Where it has entertaining faculties inside such as sports complex, sauna or whatsoever.

The photo above is my personal best design... the resort is located in front of the beach where it has the boats docks and also some parts are also can be used for people. The ocean will be wavy and there will be wave power facilities under the ocean which are called 'bioWave'. This generates energy from the wave. On the top of the building it will have the solar power and wind turbines at the back in the woods. This seemed to be quite sustainable because it uses 3 different environmental energy sources but because it is group work, so Doris didn't think that we need the ocean and the beach. Moreover, we prefer to make an architectural building than creating whole lot of environmental stuffs with the small buildings.  

They are the image of the big wave the one I chosen to use for the wave power. More information and informative video http://www.biopowersystems.com

image of solar thermal

SDT 1-5

Today our group has to start the ideation from the beginning because we can never find the middle ground of our discussion about design. Therefore I asked Doris to start the ideation and let us just draw any concepts of sustainable design by next lesson. I believe then we can mediate our ideas and opinions. Anyway, today Mr Ward showed us how to create the lake, pond or whatever the water form in our resort. He mixed PVA glue (Poly Vinyl Acetates) with some blue paint and pour into the hole that bored with the new machine he showed us the other day. Then he told us that the colour will get darker when it is dry. I am very worried about these assessment but I believe, and hope we get through this difficulties soon! Additionally, Mr Ward said he can take 4 more students for QUT excursion. I wish to take apart in that excursion because I haven't decided my path yet. Whether I am going to do the engineering next year or not, I would like to have this opportunity!

SDT 1-4

Mr Ward was absent today so I worked on task 2. The architect I chose is Luis Barragan. I found difficult on this assignment than last year's.

sustainable designing and technology 1-3

Today Mr Ward showed us a machine that can be used to hollow the surface of the MDF board to fit them for the lake or a pond. It was a dusty experience as we needed even a mask to prevent from inhaling in the extreme dust. After he showed us the operation of that machine. We have got in to our ideation. Our group's resort is village styled. We are going to have gables, lake stream, mountains, windmill with the botanical garden in front, farm and maybe a water mill. We could not finish our ideation we were lack of the time but I think we can finish that up next lesson and after that I am looking forward to working on task 2 as well as the practical task. 

Task 1. a computer generated time management plan

*click photo to magnify

Project 1-2

Today, Doris and I have finished with the base and started to planning about our architecture. Before we started our work, he saw us some video of a women architect telling about smart designing and etc. I am going watch some of other video clips to get some ideas about our resort designing and will may write a review of the video afterwards. Anyway, Doris and I have decided to put a wind mill, water mill, gables, lakes and some entertainments for our customers. Mills are there to generate power that we uses on our resorts and which puts our resort more close to our topic;sustainable designing. 

Design Technology 1-1

This is third DT lesson we have in this year. For the last two lessons, we have gone through about our assessment and team arrangement. I am paired up with Doris and we already have finished the task 1. On today's lesson, Mr Ward showed us how to built up a base for our resort. Me and Doris haven't discussed about how our resort going to be but I had an idea related to a particular korean traditional architectures with a wind mill or a water wheel next to it. However, because this is a group project, I think this will be unfair to Doris so we will discuss about our resort someday, very soon. By the way, the wood product we use as the base of our resort is called MDF which stands for Medium Density Fibre board. I am very excited about it as well worried about how to carry on with this.