Helping the Citizens of City X
I created a device for a citizen of City X using the design process to solve the problem that they had. City X is a city on a different planet that has nothing but a 3D with them. Milo, the citizen I was helping, had a problem where the sun was too hot and their sunscreen wasn’t working. First, I had to empathize, so I put myself in Milo’s shoes to see what 
I would do if I were in his situation. Next, I had to define his problem. Milo’s problem was that the sun was too hot and his sunscreen wasn’t working.
Then, I had to brainstorm or ideate to come up with some new inventions that will help Milo to not get burned by the sun. The idea I eventually decided on was a hat with an umbrella on it, that when you press a button a sun-resistant bubble forms around you. After I brainstormed, I had to draw a sketch of 3 different revisions of my idea. On the first sketch, my umbrella was too small and the hat was too big, so on the second sketch I fixed the unevenness. On my third sketch I added the bubble.
Once my sketches were done, I made clay models of the design and then started working on my Tinkercad. While I was working on my Tinkercad, I tested the prototype by asking my friends what I should change. In conclusion, I used the design process to create a new invention for a person of City X who had a problem.
The Truth About Fast Food
Did you know that there are 836 calories in an average fast food meal? That’s almost half the calories needed for a 2,000 calorie diet! By producing and consuming fast food we are harming the environment and our health. Fast food harms cows, increases our chances for coronary heart disease, causes depression, and produces just under half the litter in the U.S.
By consuming and supplying fast food, we are harming the environment. With the demand for more fast food, cattle have been given steroids in order to be slaughtered at a young age. According to Eric Schlosser, to make cows gain weight and be profitable to be slaughtered at a young age, growth hormones have been administered to 80% of the U.S.A feedlot cattle. To explain, fast food has a higher demand, which means that many more cows are being administered growth hormones, to be slaughtered at a younger age. One Green Planet says, fast food creates an abundance of litter from the packaging it uses. Many people throw the packaging from fast food on the ground after they are done eating. Packaging from fast food counts for more than 40% of all litter with the most common being styrofoam, which takes 900 years to biodegrade. In other words, when people throw out the packaging from their fast food, they are causing an abundance of litter. In conclusion, fast food packaging is 40% of all litter, and to get meat for fast food, cows are given growth hormones to be slaughtered at a young age.
Fast food is unhealthy and has a negative effect on our body. By eating fast food, we are increasing our risk of dying from coronary heart disease. According to John Lundy, people who eat fast food once a week increase the risk of dying from coronary heart disease by 20%. The risk of dying from coronary heart disease is increased by 50% for people who eat fast food 2 to 3 times a week and by 80% for those who eat 4 or more times a week. In other words, People who eat fast food have an increased chance of dying from coronary heart disease. Junk food is also directly linked to depression. One Green Planet says, results show that consumers of fast food are 51 % more likely to develop depression or another form of mental illness. This has affected an estimated 121 million people worldwide. To explain, people who eat fast food have an increased chance of developing depression. In conclusion, fast food increases your chances of dying from coronary heart disease, and can cause depression which has affected 121 million people worldwide.
While it tastes delicious, fast food has negative effects on the environment and our health. When we consume fast food we produce an abundance of litter, can increase our chances of getting depression, and increase our chances for coronary heart disease. Fast food also distributes growth hormones to cows to kill at a younger age. Even though fast food is unhealthy, you don’t have to get rid of fast food completely. You can eat in moderation to not get all the unhealthy effects of fast food. Would you giving up fast food completely after reading its effects?
Works Cited
Geer, Abigail. “10 Ways Fast Food Is Destroying the World.” One Green Planet. N.p., 07 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
Lundy, John. “Health Notes: Study Examines Health Effects of Eating Fast Food.” Duluth News-Tribune 05 July 2012: n. pag. Newspaper Source. Web. 8 Feb. 2017.
Schlosser, Eric. “Cheap Food Nation.” Nov.-Dec. 2006: n. pag. Middle Search Plus. Web. 8 Feb. 2017.
Coastal Barrier Project
In 2011, a massive tsunami with over 10 meter waves crashed down on Japan and destroyed almost all the cities along the shoreline. All the cities that were destroyed had seawalls that were less than ten meters high, except for the city of Fudai who had built their seawall 15.5 meters tall after their mayor, Kotoko Wamura, had barely survived a tsunami in 1993 and vowed to protect their city from other dangerous tsunamis. When the tsunami struck Japan in March of 2011, Fudai was the only city left standing after the tsunami had destroyed and taken all the other cities along with it. Our design challenge was to design a prototype of a coastal barrier device that will protect the shoreline from a tsunami.
The criteria for our coastal barrier include, the device should stop the water from going over the wall and it must be able to deflect any water away from the shoreline. It must also be sturdy and durable enough to withstand the waves. The device must be made out of materials offered in class and must use 3D-printed parts. Lastly, the wall must be able to withstand up to two gallons of water, the maximum that will be used in the testing area. A constraint of the design is that it has to built with 3D- printed components and materials offered in the classroom. The 2011 Japanese tsunami was caused by the Pacific and the Okhotsk plates. The Pacific and Okhotsk plates started to push against each other until eventually the Okhotsk plate snagged under the Pacific Plate. The Okhotsk plate started to bend until it eventually snapped, forcing the water to move upward causing a tsunami. To start the process of designing our wall we made a sketch of what we wanted our wall to look like from the top, side, and front views. We also included measurements in our sketch. After our sketch was approved, we started building our walls on Tinkercad. First, I put a box on my tinkercad platform and contorted it to the size I wanted my wall to be. Then, I made the curve of my seawall by using a cylinder cut-out and added an extra curve by putting an upside down ramp at the top.
There were many parts in this project that were easy, but there were some that were also challenging. For example, I found it difficult to come up with creative ideas that would differ from everybody else, but I found it surprisingly easy to learn how to use tinkercad. While it was easy to learn, tinkercad also had some difficulties. For example, it was difficult for me to maneuver the objects so that they faced the right way, lined up with each other, or were the size I wanted them to be. Despite the difficulties, once I had the base of my wall sized and built correctly, it was very easy to add extra features, like the ramp on the top that my wall more of a curve. If I could do this project again, I would change many things. I would change the height of my wall and make it taller so that it is a few centimeters shorter that the box. I would also try to find a way to make my wall more of a curve so that the wave flows back to the water.
How My Family Has Impacted Me
In this project I had to research of my family to make a family tree , and since then I have learned many new things about my family . For example, I learned that my grandfather used to be a chemist engineer and that my grandmother was a factory manager. I also learned that my mom has a degree in mechanical engineering but actually worked as a physics teacher and that my dad was an engineer. My family has impacted in many different ways. My mom has always been someone who can listen to me rant about something and will just say and listen, whereas my dad has always been someone to help me on my homework. My grandpa and grandma has been people who do everything they can to make me happy and I really appreciate it. I have learned a lot about my family and it has impacted me in many ways.
Learning, Career, and Interests
I made a survey for my family asking them about their strengths, interests, passions, and goals and related them to my personal path. In my family my mom, sister, and brother-in-law answered the survey and they all had differing responses. They all answered visual as their learning style. When I asked them what their passions were my sister answered with dancing and shopping, my mom answered with reading and helping others, and my brother-in-law answered with playing soccer. My sister’s interests were family and career, my mom answered with nursing and science, and my brother-in-law is interested in soccer and science. They felt that their greatest strengths were flexibility, perseverance, determination, and being detail-oriented. Their goals were to become successful and to work as a nurse. When I asked them what jobs they would consider a career in. my mom answered with nursing, my sister replied with health administration, and my brother-in-law with civil engineering.
When I took the Vark Questionnaire my results came back showing that I learn best by reading and writing while the family who took my survey learn best visually. While my family answered that reading, soccer, and dancing were some of their interests, my interests are math and playing the clarinet. Both me and my family feel that flexibility is one of our strengths but I also feel that memory, resilience, compassion, and academic are some of my other strengths. I want to be a math teacher when I grow up which differs my family. Engineering involves difficult math which I believe has led me to a path involving mathematics. I also believe that because my mom has to deal with many different people, it will help me get along with others as I am following my path. In conclusion, my family has differing interests, passions, and goals. Many are to similar to mine and many are different.
Click here to visit my google survey.
The Cyberbully
“ You’re a nobody,” read the comment sent to Sasha. 18 year old Sasha was doing her normal evening routine, sipping a mocha latte in her small New York apartment surrounded by sirens and noisy construction work outside the window. A notification came her phone from instagram saying that someone had left a comment so, she read it. A comment calling her fat and ugly was left by Nancy. Nancy is a 19 year old who had been brainwashed by a social post intended to turn people into bullies. Nancy finds photos leaves comments calling people fat or ugly but is not aware she is doing it.
The next morning, Sasha went to school ready to bawl her eyes out. Nancy had posted a video online calling her the ugliest women the world. Sasha being the naive girl she is decided to fire back and wrote a comment of her own towards Nancy. Nobody ever told her that you can’t fight fire with fire. Nancy got so mad that she started sending messages like machine gun. Sasha was reading messages left and right, messages that broke her heart. “Your a nobody” read the comment to Sasha. “ Nobody likes you, everybody hates you” read another one. The sad thing is that cyberbullying will be the cause of death for many people in the future. She ditched school that day and went crying under her covers.
Sasha decided that she wanted to do something about so she went to go find Nancy. She looked up Nancy online and found her address. It was a small, dingy hut by the water. She opened the door. Suddenly she was on the floor with Nancy standing on top of her, punching and kicking Sasha finally rose up on her feet. She located a baseball bat and threatened Nancy.
“ You take another step and I’ll hit you,” said Sasha.
Once she finally got Nancy to settle down, she told her story. She talked about coming home from school because of the mean comments, she talked about sobbing while watching the video and hiding out in her covers for hours.
Nancy realized what a huge mistake she had made and apologized greatly to Sasha. They decided to start a youtube channel together to help encourage young girls who had been victims of bullying. Their youtube channel blew up because their first video where they talked about their story went viral. They were invited onto a talk where they talked about their story together. When they saw how many young women and men had been victims of cyberbullying, they decided to make a change.
Nancy and Sasha became motivational speakers for women who were too afraid to speak themselves. They started touring around the U.S.A talking about their story and how other girls can stand up to their bullies. Nancy and Sasha also talked about other people’s stories who unfortunately ended their own lives before they could tell their stories themselves. Hoping to have encouraged young women they started doing talk show appearances to help motivate even more women. Nancy has learned that cyberbullying affects many lives and can be very hurtful to people because Sasha’s help in trying to get her to realize the error of her ways. Nancy and Sasha are now best friends, motivational speakers, and are trying to encourage young women to stand up to bullies.
Flower Dissection
In this lab my partners and I dissected a flower and labeled the different parts of the flower. First, we gently peeled of the sepals of the flower. Then, we peeled of the petals and the stamen. Next, we peeled off the leaf and Mrs. Conner came and cut of the stem, ovary, style, and stigma. Lastly, we labeled all the parts of the flower on a piece of paper.
Sexual reproduction in flowers takes place by the stamen making pollen. Then pollinators come and take the pollen and drop in the pistil of another flower. Fertilization occurs and the ovules grow into seeds.
