Plastic bottle pots and planters by Sadie C

My project was to make pots out of old plastic bottles that also created more planting spaces for people who don’t have much space for gardening. My inspiration for the project stemmed from a planter I saw at the Wellington Botanical Garden that was made from old plastic milk jugs, and I wanted to do something like  that for the maker fair. One challenge for me was that I couldn’t find the right kind of hook to mount my project on the wall , so I ended up (My project was to make pots out of old plastic bottles that also created more planting spaces for people who don’t have much space for gardening. My inspiration for the project stemmed from a planter I saw at the Wellington Botanical Garden that was made from old plastic milk jugs, and I wanted to do something like  that for the maker fair. One challenge for me was that I couldn’t find the right kind of hook to mount my project on the wall , so I ended up ( (This is my maker fair booth being set up) just having the milk bottles as pots on the ground.                                                                                           

The original idea was to make an indoor wall mounted garden with a drainage system and some LED lights, but that proved to be too complicated to finish in like 7 hours, so I decided to do a few different examples of  outdoor planters from old bottles. Something I learned in the process is that no matter how much you plan, you might still screw something up, or discover some kind of design flaw that will force you to comepletly change your presentation or set up. If I had more time, I would’ve  found that hook and mounted my projects on the wall. The hook that I needed probably cost about 8 dollars, although you could probably use a normal hook. The cost of the plants varies depending on the plant, and the rest of the materials are free or very cheap.https://balconygardenweb.com/best-vegetables-to-grow-in-pots-most-productive-vegetables/ This is a link to a website for small space gardening

Turning Feed Bags into Clothing!

                                                  Turning Feed Bags Into Clothing!

Our project was turning feed bags from Ms. Hill’s farm into clothing! The inspiration for this project was fashion and raising awareness for trash on earth. The objective was to make people realize how much trash there is on beaches and other areas on earth, and how easy it is to reuse things. We wanted to make clothes and since the theme was sustainability, we decided to use already used bags instead of using new plastic bags. Overall the project was hard, the feed bags were pretty hard to sew because they were made out of tough material, but we managed to get everything done in time.

A challenge we faced as a group was figuring out the designs ( like how to take the right measurements) and how to sew the feed bags. We overcame the challenge of figuring out the designs by collaborating and working on them together. We got past the feed bag problem by having lots of help from each other. We had planned on making pants, a t-shirt, and a jacket and got all three of them done in time for Maker Fair. Another challenge we faced was how to make the material stick together and stay that way.

What we learned was that people aren’t aware enough of climate change, there is so much trash on earth, and feed bags are hard to sew. Also a another problem we faced, when you work together you can finish any hard project. If we had more time we would make more clothing and figure out how to make our measurements more accurate. If you would like to try this project, we recommend using a sewing pattern instead of free handing it with a tape measure and sharpie. Also, throughout the process, it’ll be hard, but you’ll make it!

The estimated amount of money we used on this project is around $15. We did end up buying elastic and not using it. Here is a link to the inspiration to the pants: https://www.bodenewyork.com/collections/pants/products/red-fox Here is the link to the inspiration for the shirt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWxZnAydLJ8 (It’s a dress but it still helped) This is the inspiration for the jacket: https://www.recyclart.org/2013/03/upcycled-pet-food-bags/

6B-4b Repurposing the Worm Bin

        For our project, we repurposed the worm bin in the school garden. We wanted to do this because it will help the school garden. In seventh grade, we plan to refill the worm bin with soil and worms. This is important because we can reuse our compostable scraps, and it will help the school garden by creating healthy fertilizer. We repainted and cleaned the worm bin. The fresh coat of paint makes it more approachable. One challenge was that we are both very afraid of spiders, and the worm bin had basically become a spider bin.

        Our first priority was to clean the worm bin out. It was filled with old hay and paper, which was the old bedding. After we cleaned out all the bedding, we got rid of all the critters and cleaned it. Then, we painted it green. We hope this will help the school by giving the garden fresh soil.


       Before                                  After

Food Storage Done Another Way: Replicating Plastic Clamshells Using Recycled Paper By Miles Reichmann and Julia Fromson-Mayhew 6B-13

While searching for ideas for a Maker project, we started to think about the food industry, specifically what we saw in grocery stores. We noticed how many things are kept in plastic clamshell containers, even things that don’t need to be, like cucumbers. We asked our parents about why they thought things were packaged this way and they said they thought it was because of how easy they are: they are stackable and protective. We knew that these containers were plastic, but they didn’t need to be. We wanted to create a new way to package these foods, without losing the convenience of the clamshell.  We thought about alternatives to plastic, and paper immediately came to mind. We decided to replicate the clamshell containers we saw in the stores, but with recycled paper.

Our Maker Faire Booth

The first step in our design process was figuring out our problem, which was how much plastic is used in the food industry. We then had to identify our criteria and constraints.  Our project had to be under $25, so we decided to use common household items like egg carton containers and paper from the school recycling. Like all the other groups, we had a limited amount of class periods allotted to working on our project.

We composed two different prototypes for this project. The first was made of shredded egg cartons mixed with wheat paste, and the second, paper blended with warm water.  We did not get a chance to revise these very much: the model with the wheat paste dried and worked properly, while the other did not. (See “challenge” below.)

Putting it on the screen

One challenge that we encountered in our process was that the paper wouldn’t dry.  One of our models was made of paper pulp applied to the inside of a plastic clamshell container, brought in from home.  The problem was that the water would drain out of the paper and get stuck in the bottom of the container. Since it was plastic, there was no drainage, and the water was re-absorbed by the paper pulp.  We called this “The Plastic Effect.” There was another group who was also making paper, and theirs was drying on cardboard. When we tried putting scraps of paper into the clamshell as a liner, it only made the problem worse.  Our solution to this problem was to use different materials. Instead of using water in the paper pulp, we shredded egg cartons and mixed it them with wheat paste. This was able to dry better because the wheat paste was less liquidy and left behind more of a substance when it dried.

Our project was completely free, because we only used things that were already available to us. We brought clamshells and egg cartons in from home, and raided the school recyclings for the paper scraps. The only thing that might be an issue if you try this at home is the paper screen: we already had one at school. You can easily make one by stretching wire mesh across a picture frame or even just using an old window screen. A few links that helped us were Making Your Own Paper and Egg Carton Paper-Making.

First Prototype

We learned a lot in this process. We learned about different ways to keep paper together and different forms of recycling. We also figured out a few things about what makes plastic effective. For example, in “The Plastic Effect,” the plastic is meant to be trapping liquid, which is what makes it effective for things like milk cartons and water bottles. By figuring this out, we were able to find ways to make paper more effective, even if we weren’t able to execute them in the time given. If we had more time, we would have liked to try to mass-produce our model and make it more widely available to stores. We also would have liked to try to create models of some of the things that would have made it more effective.

6B-4a Easy Gardening? Let's Get Cracking: Egg Shell seed starters. August and Charley

          We wanted to do something that involved gardening using everyday stuff. Some people buy plastic trays to start their seeds and then just throw the plastic away so we wanted to find a way to make compostable or reusable seed starters. At first we wanted to turn egg cartons into seed starters, but we realized it wouldn’t work. We did some research and decided to make seed starters out of eggshells instead. Using eggshells as seed starters is a good idea, because once the plants are ready to be re-planted, you can plant the eggshell with the plant. The eggshells decompose in the soil, releasing nutrients that the plant can use to grow faster. The project costed us nothing.

        Over the weekend, we ate a lot of eggs so we could have shells to work with on Monday. When we got back to school, we washed the shells, and poked holes in the bottom for drainage. Then we picked out our seeds, which were parsley and thyme, and planted them. We had 11 shells to use. We put the carton on a windowsill and waited for them to grow. But we came across a problem: the lid of the carton kept on falling down over the eggs. So we took two popsicle sticks and taped them to the bottom and top of each of the sides of the carton to keep the lid up. The solution worked perfectly.

        Throughout the process we learned a lot about gardening and improved on our egg cracking skills. If somebody else was doing the process we’d definitely recommend being really careful when you crack the eggs. If you crack them to high, they’re hard to put soil into and their hard to water, and if you crack them too low, soil falls out and you can’t use them. We wish we could’ve planted more kinds of plants, but we didn’t have the seeds and shells to do so.
Here is a link that helped us out a lot with our project: https://www.southernliving.com/garden/flowers/how-to-start-seeds-in-eggshells-video

Simple Accessible Water Filter: DIY

Simple Accessible Water Filter

      I wanted to solve a problem that would both benefit humans and the environment, so I addressed the issue of polluted and unsafe drinking water. I know that many people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water or a good water filter. My goal was to design an easy, inexpensive, functional product that can turn dirty water into safe drinking water so that it could be remade and reused on a global scale. But first, as you always have to do, I started small.

      I started by researching what makes a good water filter. What I found was surprising to me. I didn’t realize how easy and inexpensive this would be. Most of the resources that I used to build this, I didn’t even need to buy, (it only cost about $10-15, but I had extras of all the materials, so it could be made three or four times for the same price) and it is all contained in a small plastic water bottle. Here’s how the initial design was supposed to work. Firstly, it goes through gravel, which takes out larger things, such as leaves or insects. Then the sand gets rid of smaller particles, like dirt or algae. The activated charcoal gets rid of very fine particles and chemicals through chemical absorption. Finally, the cotton balls at the bottom strain out the residue left by the other things. So I started with that design.

   
      There were more than a few problems with my first design. First of all, it didn’t work. Dirty water going in only got dirtier as it came out. Also, the top had been cut off to put the stuff in, but if it tipped over, everything would easily spill out. And lastly, the water going in started to flood it and move things around. So I went back to the drawing board. I decided it was probably the charcoal that got the water dirtier, so I added more cotton balls at the end, but they started falling out. To fix that problem, I put the cap back onto the water bottle with a tiny hole so the water could drip out. Then, I put a coffee filter at the top, just for a bit of extra straining. Finally, to address the issue of things falling out, and the issue of flooding, I poked a small hole in a yogurt cup and attached it to the top. That meant there was something to block things from falling out, and it had a constant, slower inflow into the filter so it wouldn’t get overwhelmed.

      I tested it again by mixing dirt with water and pouring it into the filter, and it surprised me. After about 20 seconds of waiting, a constant drip of clean water came out of the bottom. It looked clean enough, so I decided to have a sip. It tasted a bit earthy, but pretty fresh and good. I think if it keeps being revised and getting better, it can be made to make water clean enough to drink safely. If you do this, keep experimenting, and try to get this project to completely work!

Project MagLevation: A Magnetic Levitating Train. By Kate, Oliver Hu, And Ohad.

Brought to you by Oliver Hu, Ohad, and Kate

            Our project was creating a magnetic levitating train. We were inspired by the MagLev, a company that builds magnetic levitating trains, one in Shanghai and one in Japan. We wanted to build this because if this technology is advanced it could reduce greenhouse gases from cars, trains, and other transportation that heavily leans on gas. It’s a good deal if we start to use magnetic levitating technology, because, first; it helps keep the Earth clean and healthy; second, since the Earth’s supply of natural gasoline is dwindling, this will be a good, clean alternative. But it is also has a bad side because it costs $60 million to make a mile of track. Most high speed train tracks cost $7.7 billion for 3,150 miles of track. Our objective was to make a fully functional train that could float, move, and hold things on its own. We realized that this was going to be hard after a week, so we changed our goal to make it float, move, and hold, but with help.

            Over the course of the creation of our magnetic levitating train, we faced many challenges. One of them was that we couldn’t get our train to move. After a lot of trying, and failing, we made our train levitate. But still, it wouldn’t move! We tried placing magnets on the walls to force the train into the middle of the track where there would be less friction and the train would be able to move easier. However, the magnets on the bottom of our train were attracted to the sides of the magnets on the walls, so it just flipped over. Then, we had the idea to use wind power. We made two sails, one out of cloth and one out of plastic and attached it to the train, then put a fan behind the track and turned it on. But that didn’t work either; the train was too heavy and the sail just flapped while the train stayed in place. So then we tried to attach a magnet to the back of the train and push it with another magnet from behind. But that just pushed it off of the track. At that moment, when all hope was lost, when we were considering just not having it move at all, it hit us. Instead of push, we could use pull! We moved the magnet to the front of the train and then pulled it with a magnet. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

            We learned that magnetic push isn’t always stronger than magnetic pull. We pulled our train with a magnet using magnetic pull instead of pushing it with repelling magnet. We also learned about new ways to move objects without using fossil fuels. We were brainstorming ideas of how to move our train. We thought of wind power, solar power, magnetic power, and gravity. First we brainstormed, thinking of what to do and how it would work. We eventually decided to move it through the power of magnets. Then we started gathering materials and making a rough draft. When the rough draft was done, we started creating the track and the train. Then we noticed all the problems and found some answers. First we found out that our train was too heavy to keep on the track. Our solution was to make a train out of cardboard instead of making it out of wood. We rebuilt our train and then we were done after a few more tests. Our future steps would be making an engine for the train and making a good way to keep the train on the track. We would want to keep on improving the track to make one of the first hyperloops. A hyperloop is going to be the fastest train going at speeds of around 700 mph. The hyperloop runs on a magnetic levitating track but also is in a vacuum. This makes even less friction and making higher speeds possible. For others doing the same project we would recommend making the lightest train possible because not all magnets can hold too much weight. Also ask others around for magnets because it can save lots of money. We got all of our magnets from Ms.Lockwood and made our project completely cost free. Remember to always get back up after every fail. You will never get anywhere if you stay in the same place.



            Everybody hates traffic. We empathize with our users by finding a problem that people would love a solution to as well a problem for the climate. Our objective was to reduce the amount of cars on the street on a daily basis. We thought that public transportation was a good solution to that, but that too released carbon dioxide. We thought that if we could make a method of public transportation that did not release carbon dioxide, then the problem could potentially be solved. And thus came the idea of the magnetic levitating train. There are two magnetic levitating trains that exist, one in Japan and one in Shanghai, and they are among the fastest trains in the world. Our prototype did not work, when we tested it we realized that we needed walls to hold it in place. So we added walls, and found another thing wrong with it, and then we fixed that, and on and on until we had our final product.



            Our project costed a total of zero dollars. This is because the lower school had done a similar project in the past, so Ms. Lockwood was happy to let us borrow the magnets and other necessary components that we needed. We used a couple of resources in the creation / brainstorming for our Maker Faire project. Here they are:

https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-maglev-works

https://hyperloop-one.com/hyperloop-explained

Rose and Lenka's Maker Fair Project - Recycling: Taught by Gummies

                          

For our project, we made gummies shaped like recycling symbols. We realized people don't know a lot about how trash gets sorted, especially the kids in the lower school. So, we tried to think up a way to reach the little kids. We thought about what would've gotten us interested when we were that young; food! But our food couldn't just be regular old food, we needed to make it relating to our trash sorting problem. We were going to make them shaped like recycling symbols using a molding putty we found on amazon. We quickly realized that we needed something to push in to the molding putty, so we made our own TinkerCAD design. At first we thought about making them out of chocolate, but chocolate was too expensive. We then did research about making hard candies, but for that we would need around 10 cups of corn syrup, so that was not going to happen. Then we came across a recipe gummy bears using jello, it was cheap and easy to make, it was perfect. The estimated cost for our project was around $45 which was a little under our money constraint. During the science fair if kids wanted a candy they would have to answer a question about trash sorting, for example, a question might be, "Where would you put this empty soda can: In the landfill, recycling, or compost?"

One challenge we had was with our TinkerCAD design; we needed to press it into the molding putty. We had tested our 3D printed design two times, finally working the second time, and then we realized we couldn’t print it because Ms. Mytko, Ms. Hill, and Mx. Mason were all at the San Mateo Maker Faire with the seventh graders. The big printer was also at the Maker Faire. So, we used a computer from the FAD to email Rose’s uncle to ask if he could print it for us since he has a 3D printer at his house. He printed our eleven hour print and delivered it to us in time for class on Monday!

We learned a lot in the process of making the gummies. For example,
to make candy you have to be really specific with your recipe and know exactly how much of each ingredient you need, because if you mess one thing up your whole batch could be ruined. You also have to give yourself realistic time checks, because most candies take a long time to set and you will need time to get your ingredients together and check your recipe. If we had had more time, I think we would’ve tried to make some of our candies out of chocolate and candies instead of just doing gummies out of Jello. Our advice to others attempting something similar to this would be to plan out the whole project ahead of time, find a doable recipe, and make sure you have enough time to finish your project.