H.A.T.S. Hyland Innovation Showdown 1st Place
Dodecahedron of Antigone’s story
Fun with non-newtonian fluids (Oobleck)
Drone building
Bluetooth Speaker (first year)
AP GOV assignment
Personal speakers
Lamp of mat board and wood
Category: Lead
Eagle Scout Project
I am in Boy Scouts, and I when going for my Eagle Scout I planted trees in Bain Park.
I had 5 native trees planted by the pavilion in Bain Park. A Bur Oak, Bald Cypress, Pecan Hickory, Eastern Red Bud, Summer Sensation Maple, all of which can be found in this area. I planted these trees because through some investigating I found the trees in that area where planted by the CCC back in the 1930s to combat the Great Depression. I decided I wanted to replant the trees to help restore the dead part that can be seen in the picture above.
Eagle Scout candidates are required to lead the project in all parts of it. This means I led the scouts and adults in the tree planting on May 13th. Through collaboration and communication I got the trees to the work site, the city to donate gator bags, and the scouts to show up at the right time and do the work I needed the to do. Before all this could be done I had to research where to plant trees, how to plant trees, when to plant trees, and many other important questions. I found these answers through investigating by talking to tree experts, and computer research.
Tech Team Q1
This english poster is on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and is completely laser cut. The project had to be broken into 9 layers, one for each individual photo and then groups of quotes. The entire process took almost 3 hours to complete. This took a lot of problem solving, and investigating the problems I encountered.
Willie brought in the shell of a lighter to have a picture engraved onto it. He decided on a dragon, so I designed the cut job to print on the bottom part of the lighter. The same image is mirrored on the other side so both dragons face the same direction. This took communication, creativity, and small problem solving as the lighter had a hinge on the one side.
I did research on how to cast molds using a CNC machine and found an article that explained that if you cut MDF wood you can pour molten metal into the mold. Mrs. Houser provided the Hot Pot to melt the metal, and the amount of tin I needed. However, she required that I find the volume of the mold, then find the amount of mass I needed to fill the mold before I could melt anything. This small project took creativity, communication, investigation, and problem solving.
Last, but not least, my speaker for this year thus far. I took two old computer speakers and designed a casing around them with bendable wood in the shape of an oval. The first picture shows the wrapping thats around the speaker. It was a test to see if my design actually bent or broke. The second photo is all the pieces together before it is all assembled. There are the speakers, circuit board, top and bottom plates, rings, and the bendable wood wrap. Sadly, I didn’t have a bluetooth setup this time, so the speaker has to be plugged into the wall, and use an AUX cord to work.
The almost finished project shows the inside of the speaker before completely assembled as it plays music. This project took months of planning, designing, and assembly. The pins had to be the right size and the holes had to be slightly bigger. The bendable wood had to fit into the rings. Everything came together in the end.
Democracy in Action #4
Zack VZ
Ms. Keener
AP Government
26 May 2017
Democracy in Action
While not directly government, the Rotary Club is a group of very influential members of a community that give back to the community. I attended their meeting one Tuesday afternoon at noon because Dr. Wagner invited me to speak. They started with a hello to all and had everyone introduce themselves. Besides my grandmother and I, Mrs. Babel, the woman who donated the funds to create the innovation center, and others were there. They talked about old business, the discussed some of the plans for Summerfest and small marathons in Fairview Park to raise money. Afterwards, Dr. Wagner spoke about his personal experience running marathons, warrior runs, and doing bike trips. His plan is to run 100 marathons before he turns 52 years old; at the moment he is around his 70th marathon, both 26.2 miles and 13.2, along with 400 mile bike races. I got to speak at the very end of the meeting and after for funding for my Eagle Project to plant trees in Bain Park. (Which went well on May 13th, if you’re wondering.)
There were a couple people from city hall there as they are also members of the Rotary Club. Dr. Wagner is the district’s superintendent in charge of the schools. Mr. Russo, who is a council member of city hall was there. Beyond that, not many government people were there. This event was a local affair for the general community around Fairview Park, Rocky River, North Olmsted, and others. I did not know that my superintendent ran marathons so frequently for the shiny medals they give. This event shows that people outside of government can also affect the surrounding community.
Democracy in Action 3rd Quarter
Zack VZ
Ms. Keener
AP Government
3 April 2017
Democracy in Action 3rd Quarter
I went to a Fairview City Council Meeting this quarter. They started with role call and then started there regular question and answer. During this event the council decided to allow dogs to be on a leash in the city parks. After they finished, they opened the floor to the public. That is when I stood up, and gave my presentation for my Eagle Scout Project. I talked about my plan to plant five trees around the Bain Park Pavilion to restore the forest. Once I was finished talking about my project they opened the floor to others. A person from the Shade Tree Committee reminded the council that they were going to have a booth up at the State of the Community. Once they closed the meeting, I was congratulated on my presentation by the mayor and a majority of the council members. I got the signature I needed for approval from the city, gave a reporter some information, and left.
The mayor, head of the treasury, head of the service department, and all the council members were important to our government. This event was for local government as only policy for the city was discussed. I learned that dogs were not allowed in the parks prior to the new legislation. I learned that there was a decision to allow dogs into the parks with leases. I also learned how far our government will go to help a project come to completion. The event showed me how our democracy is willing to go as far as donate money to help buy trees. They were also willing to donate a truck to move the trees to Bain Park.
Tech Team Reflection Q3
I made this sign for the academic challenge team. We hang the sign on our table when we are doing the
challenges. It took some problem solving to figure out how to focus the laser cutter because the wood was not flat. I decided that if I focused it on the middle height, thinking that it would be only a little too unfocused instead of focused and really unfocused. The gradient-like effect was caused by the unfocused laser. I also had to communicate with Mrs. Kim on the size of the sign.
This was a poster for AP Government that I made with the help of Damion Zody. I had to work with him on how the poster should look. No one had printed on or cut paper until then so I had to use mat board settings and change them to what I thought would not catch the paper on fire. I got it just right so I did not cut through the paper, yet made it dark enough that it could be seen. It took two class periods to make and print.
This is a little hex bug robot. The two motors have a semicircle of wood attached to the spinning rod. When the rod spins, it will vibrate from the unequal forces of the imbalanced piece. The second motor is the same way, but I plan for it to be slightly ahead of the other motor to create more vibrations. These vibrations make the robot move by shaking its little feet. At the moment I am having a hard time making or getting a battery to run both motors. I created the box that is the bug’s body using interlocking pieces of wood. The pieces fit together and are locked down with hot glue.
This is my test piece of bendable plywood. I researched patterns that could allow the wood to bend and being a little lazy, went with an easy one. The wood was a test trial to see if I could make a speaker case out of plywood. It proved a success and work began on the casing.
This is the completed speaker I made. I took some innovation, and problem solving to get it all to work. THe speaker is accessed via bluetooth, with a 50 foot connectivity, and simply needs a USB power source. The original idea was to have the speaker have a battery pack to provide power anywhere, however a problem while soldering caused that to not be possible. It took some problem solving to find how to adjust to the new design I had to go with. In the end, the speaker plays everything but heavy bass as the speaker cone hits the wood casing.
This video is simply me cutting a magnet and it throwing sparks everywhere. I believe the sparks are simply from the coating on the magnet that sparks easily.
Standardized Testing Debate
During the debate heard the pros and cons of standardized testing. I learned that standardized tests are meant to compare students to others nationwide. These tests allow different racial groups to be compared. The test also allows teachers and schools to be held responsible for the students’ scores. Schools can be judged on how the students do overall, and the teachers can be judged on how their students did on the test. The better the school, the better the community. It was pointed out that when a school does not do well on the testing, they lose federal funding. This leads to more failures, and thus, less funding. Supposedly, the flaws in the system will be worked out in the future. The point was never raised, but I learned some of the extents standardized tests have on the health of children. These include stress, enough that Standford-9 exam sends out packets on how to clean up throw up because enough kids threw up on the test it was needed. What I did not hear was if it would take a year, a decade, a generation, two? I also did not learn why students have to be compared to students, beyond to see who does better. Although standardized testing is nationwide, I believe it is not the right was to judge progress, because it can hurt students, hurt schools, and hurt communities.
There were a couple skilled that were needed for this assignment. Being able to read an article or essay and understand which way they lean on the subject was needed, which I believe I mastered being I am able to tell nine out of ten times. Another skill was public speaking, which I am still working on a bit because sometimes I feel my voice shake and sometimes I lose the words and thoughts. Being persuasive is necessary, otherwise, your argument is pointless. I hope I have mastered that skill, in my opinion, being the opposed sometimes have no comment to block my comment. This course connects to the outcomes of this course, partially because the outcome of this course is decided by a standardized test, but also because being able to use information and history to back up and make your case is a needed skill.
These skills can be used through the future. For a job interview, you have to make an argument as to why you should be hired and not the five hundred other people applying for the job. When buying a car or comparing insurance companies, being able to find facts and compare them is important, and arguing for a better deal is nice too. Being able to speak in public is a necessary skill for a multitude of jobs. Wanting to be an engineer, this is a needed skill, as I will have to give presentations to colleagues or at large conferences. One way to improve on this assignment would be to have a larger pool of data and numbers to pull from when confronted with a topic the other side gives. I like to learn the other sides facts first si that I can structure my argument around then and tear each fact down into nothing.
E. Coli Results
This petri dish is our LB- dish which contains no ampicillin and no bacteria that are immune to ampicillin. This dish had growth because the bacteria had no antibiotic fighting them and so they flourished, with or without resistance.
This petri dish contains ampicillin and bacteria without the resistance to ampicillin. No bacteria grew on this dish because the ampicillin inhibits bacterial growth and without resistance the bacteria died.
This petri dish contained ampicillin and bacteria with the resistant gene to ampicillin. There was small bacterial growth because some of the bacteria took up the ampicillin resistance gene and grew immune to ampicillin, while others did not and then died.
This petri dish contains no ampicillin but ampicillin resistant bacteria. This dish had unhampered growth from no antibiotics. The resistant gene that some held was not used as their was no ampicillin.
Democracy in Action 2nd Quarter
Zack VZ
Ms. Keener
AP Government
23 January 2017
Democracy in Action 2nd Quarter
Over the quarter, I went to a Shade Tree Committee meeting. The meeting was for a discussion on the city’s tree plans. I was there to give a presentation for my Eagle Scout project. My project is to plant trees around the Bain Park pavilion for a reforestation project. The committee listened to my project and gave their opinions and recommendations for tree species and where to plant the trees. After my presentation they discussed the plan from 1995 to plant 3000 trees down a multitude of roads in Fairview park. Then they discussed the christmas tree ideas for Bain Park gazebo. After that the meeting was concluded with a quote from Thomas Jefferson on trees.
This committee meeting holds small value to the booming government but still has its importance. Mike Varga, the Assistant Service Supervisor of Fairview, third powerful of the service department, was a member of the committee. This event was clearly for local government as it was tree planting in the city of Fairview. I learned that Fairview made a plan to plant 3000 trees throughout the city, yet has not finished that promise at this time. This event tells me that the government is broken into many different pieces, each with varying amounts of value.
Tech Team Reflection 2
At the beginning of the quarter we were working on this computer. After collaborating on who was going to undo the computer screws, and put the computer back together, we started the deconstruction. We then investigated what each part’s job was, and I then put all the parts back together. We had a problem in connecting all the parts to the correct places, and then could not find a plug to the wall. When turning the computer on, we wanted to check that the speakers work so we played Mozart’s Juptier. Here is a video of the computer playing Mozart.
The fans are running behind the computer because we were worried the computer would overheat without it’s cooling fans attached.
I was showing my math teacher, Mr. Morrison, how the laser cutter works, as he loves to work with wood and engraving. Being that he was a math teacher I decided that the Pi symbol on a circle 3.14 inches in diameter would be best. I walked him through the steps on how to laser cut different materials.
This device took a lot of research on how electromagnets work. The idea behind it was an alternating current creates a changing magnetic field. This magnetic field would then levitate a steel marble. This only works with alternating current as direct current only creates a magnetic field in one short burst. Sadly, when the device was plugged in there was a small explosion as the wire melted. The device no longer works, and I have stopped trying for safety reasons.
This project has taken a longer time then anticipated with all the modifications. Hopefully, this modification is the last. The rubber band launcher now has two motors that will turn one spool of string. The string then pulls the plastic wheel, which releases the rubber bands in rapid progression. This occurs because as the string is pulled off the wheel, the rubber band strung over it is released. The mounting of the motors, and battery pack, along with the gear belt, were made and installed by myself, the idea came from Ben.