Astronomy Projects

For standard 2.0 and 3.0, we're going to use models of planets and a flashlight to demonstrate night and day, the seasons, eclipses, etc. For 4.o, our research project, we're going to compare the preparation of the first astronauts being sent to space, and the preparation required of the citizen astronauts paying for a trip.

group members:

Monica McClung

Danielle Hayden

Rose Montes

Water Wheel Generator: Last day

Today we're working on the final adjustments to the water wheel. We're getting our bolt that connects the wheel to the generator fixed in place, and taking video and pictures of the final product.

Here is our Diagram of Motion:

Example of Forces:

Harwood:

making observations:

We were searching on the internet for ideas for our project, and we found a perpetual motion water wheel. We decided to play with that idea, and see what we could do

defining the problem

In researching how to make the water wheel stay in motion perpetually, we discovered that there really wasn't an easy way to accomplish this. We also wanted our wheel to accomplish a task. So, we scratched the perpetual motion idea, and decided to figure out how to harness the power created from the spinning water wheel.

forming the question

Can we use the power from the water wheel to light a small LED light bulb?

investigating the known

We did a lot of brainstorming about how we would harness the power from the wheel and transfer it to the light bulb. We found a website about how to make a simple generator out of cardboard, magnets, a long nail, and some copper wire.

articulating the expectation

Our hypothesis: We can use the spinning of the water wheel to spin the magnets inside the generator and light the light bulb.

carrying out the study

We built the generator, and the water wheel. Our initial water wheel used dixie cups to catch the water, but we decided that it wasn't the most efficient way to get the wheel spinning, and it wasn't very sturdy either. We changed out the dixie cups for metal L-bars screwed into the bike wheel. We also had an issue getting the wheel to stay connected to the generator. We fixed this by getting two nuts, and super gluing them together, and screwed in the nail from the generator, and the axel of the wheel.

examining the results

So far, we've gotten the generator to work, and the wheel to work, but we haven't yet managed to get the two to work together. (They are apparently super opposed to group work) The axel of the bike wheel stops spinning with the wheel when the wheel gets up to a faster speed. This causes the magnet to stop spinning, so the light bulb won't light.

SUCCESS!!!!!

We got it to work! (for like a second, but it works!) We stuck some super glue into the axel of the bike wheel, to get it to keep spinning the magnets as the wheel spins. So, when the water wheel is spun by hand we can get our LED to light for just about a second. WOOOHOO!

Pictures of the final Wheel Generator:

Water wheel generator project Day 2

Today, the materials were brought in, and we got off to a great start building our water wheel. We're using a children's bike wheel for the wheel. We attached dixie cups with duct tape, and set up the wheel in a tupperware tub. Using water from the faucet, we tested our wheel. It got spinning fairly quickly, and on the first try too! How often does that happen? Here is a video of our current water wheel in action.

We briefly started working on our generator as well. We gathered the materials, and started to brainstorm how we were going to make it function efficiently. Our goal is to harness the power from the our water wheel, through the generator to light a small LED light bulb. Similar to this selection from The Simpsons. (just for laughs) :)

http://youtu.be/Xy0UBpagsu8

Bean Projection System Project

IMAGE 1: The planning..

Image 2: Placement of the beads on the index card. The card is taped to the table on one side, and

a piece of string is taped to the card on the other side.

Image 3: This image depicts how

the launchpad system works. The user places the beans on the specified point on the card. The user then pulls up quickly on the string, and the beans project forward 1 meter into the backstop.

Image 4: This image depicts the backstop that is placed exactly 1 meter in front of the launchpad system. It is comprised of 3 index cards folded approximately 1 centimeter in the edge. There are two pieces of tape holding the cards together, and the cards to the table. The backstop serves to stop the bea

ns from overshooting the 1 meter goal.

So, here is a video of our bean projection system in action. :)