Feel the Heat: SOLAR OVEN (Carly & Alma's Lit Maker Fair Project):

Our Maker Fair project was all together agonizing and had an incredibly helpful affect on our visions on everyday life and in the lab; agonizing in only a few ways, and helpful in millions of others. We decided to make a homemade solar oven using food items from home and materials provided by the school and our supportive teachers. We learned to flex our perseverance muscles in moments where time was the enemy and groove into each others way of collaboration. We observed many ways of building solar ovens, and we adapted many designs to cope with the materials we had present, and we ended making a heat absorption based oven for our the fair. As a team, we used a cardboard box as a vessel and used our knowledge of albedo to make it absorb the most heat, and used multiple reflectors built within the oven. Our inspiration was the fact that burning gas to heat food, emits it into our atmosphere; so we decided to go solar. For other students hoping to construct a solar oven on their own, we would advise testing different reflectors and insulation just in case the structure of your oven differs from other designs; adapt and build. If we had more time as a partnership, we would have tried our oven with more of a variety of foods. This definitely would have helped us gain a more clear insight on how strong, efficient, and amount of resiliency our oven possessed, allowing us to make appropriate edits to our design. 

The instructions that we were following directed us to use saran wrap to hold the heat inside, but instead we tested using different containers and plexiglass to be more sustainable. First, we tried using a plastic square container, but it didn’t heat up fast enough; after 10 minutes it was only at 88℉. Then we used a glass circular container, and our results were about the same as the square one. Next, after doing a lot of research, we decided to try using a sheet of plexiglass from the art room. The temperature got up to 190℉ after 10 minutes. This was the perfect substitute for saran wrap. We then tried melting 1 chocolate chip on a metal tray, and 1 on a sheet of tin foil, and determined that the tin foil reflects heat the best. We learned that to make the best final product, you need to test it using many different materials, and keep improving and updating.

For someone building one at home, our project would most likely cost around $15-$20 for food items and around $30 for cardboard boxes, tin foil, saran wrap, and black paper as an absorber, as well as some kind of plate for holding food.

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMwsxjlr4gg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmy-AeIzp0&t=2s

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

A Less Wasteful Basketball Hoop

A Less Wasteful Basketball Hoop

By, Arson O. & Remi M. 6C


For our project, we made a basketball hoop using less plastic than a normal hoop. Our inspiration for this project was the fact that basketball hoops use a lot of plastic, the rim, stem, and backboard are either made of or coated in plastic, and we both like basketball so it all worked out.

   The biggest challenge for us was the height of the hoop. We wanted to make the hoop actual size but then we ran into the problem that the hoop would be too top heavy. We were pretty disappointed that we couldn’t make the hoop real size but it still worked out. We also ran into the challenge that we couldn’t find a tire for the rim of our hoop. Our original idea was to have a tire for the rim and a base made of plywood with a tire around the stem, then drill screws into the stem and put weights in the tire, but we realized two screws was not enough to hold up at least 30 pounds of wood and weights, also a flat base wouldn’t keep the stem sturdy and once a ball hit the backboard the stem would snap off.

Some of our goals during this project was to not use any money throughout this entire project, all the wood we used was provided by the school, so was the paint, and the bucket was found here at school as well. Our other goal was to raise awareness that you can make basketball hoops without plastic, even though ours wasn’t the right height it’s still possible to make a real sized hoop, we just couldn’t do it because of the time that was given. Our last goal was to please kids and show them you can make fun things out of junk or trash, and it helps the environment.

We learned how to make a sturdy base and how weight in different places can really affect the outcome
If we had more time to work on our project, we would have made a custom basketball, for example, we could have made it out of plastic bags, tape, rubber, and other materials. We would also make a sturdier base and make it real sized everything, real sized rim, and real sized height. If you plan to make your homemade basketball hoop then here are some tips:

• Triple check your cuts for your wood
• Do test shots
• Double screw everything
• Make pilot holes
• If its not sturdy enough then put sand bags down
• HAVE FUN!!

If you want to add additional things to your hoop try this link

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.

A Recreation of a Tiny Home

Milana, Quinn, and Ysabel

5/28/19

6C

A Recreation of a Tiny Home

Our project was to make a recreated model version of a tiny house built specifically to minimize space in the house and cost of the house. We were inspired by the Blender Bike, a previous Maker Faire project. We know that house prices have gone up drastically and it’s often hard to find a place to live, on top of that, homeless people are often kicked out of their only living spaces by the police and government. Sometimes they don’t like to live in homeless shelters because they feel that it can take away some of their freedom and independence. We also wanted it to be easy for them to move and sometimes it can be dangerous to drive, so we wanted to do the recreation of the tiny house on a bike instead of a car.

One of the challenges we faced was how to make a tiny house the appropriate size, while still keeping the pricing an affordable amount. We solved this problem by calculating the pricing with reused wood which lowered the pricing down by quite a bit. Another challenge was that when making the fold out bed, it could not unfold properly because of the installation on the walls. We solved this (with a little help from Eli) by cutting the armchairs of the fold out bed to be more curved.

If we had more time, we would have made the actual trailer, managing the costs and material problems along the way. With our model, all our materials were from school, and we only had one basic material. Cardboard. It was all mapped out, with a to do list, and we didn’t actually know what it would be like if we put it out on the road. Would it crush under the weight? Would the wheels be big enough? Would it tip over? Could someone ACTUALLY get a good night's sleep in our trailer? All these questions would be answered if we made the real trailer, not just the model.

We learned that most cities have a 72 hour time limit for parking. In the early stages of researching, we thought that the parking permits would be hard to research, and that we would have to contact the government, or read through hundreds of documents. Really, it was pretty simple.

If you were to re-do our project, make sure you get your measurements correct. We learned that if even one piece that was a little bit off, it had to either be re-done, or the space filled in with hot glue. Also, remember to have it all planned out. Before the project started, we made a long to-do list. We would each do one job, and then re-group to discuss what we had learned. It was really helpful, because then everyone always had a job to do, and we always knew what we still needed to do. Just remember to never skip any steps. They’re all equally important to making a good project.

Our project consisted of all materials that were already in school, so our overall cost for the model project was $0.






All Links to Research / Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBhjpB0FfsA&t=272s

https://www.tinyhomebuilders.com/help/tiny-house-parking-guide

https://ladot.lacity.org/what-we-do/parking/can-i-park-there

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/ra/policy.htm

https://www.spotangels.com/blog/complete-guide-to-la-street-parking-rules-and-tickets/

http://latchcollective.com/tinyhousesasadus

https://www.sandiego.gov/parking/enforcement

https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/tiny-house-building-zoning-legalities/

http://www.doyourpark.com/rv-parking-in-los-angeles/

https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/drive-park/how-avoid-parking-tickets

https://www.insuramatch.com/blog/2015/07/what%E2%80%99s-difference-between-rv-motorhome-and-camper

https://healthfully.com/335542-how-much-weight-can-a-bike-hold.html

https://www.quora.com/How-much-weight-can-be-towed-using-a-bicycle


Our Main Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o7PCH0QqyyU00fla-iZ7W_OV9VkLSZ5qdFHibsn8jjc/edit

aquaponic prototype project

Aquaponic project

For our project we decided to make a prototype of an aquaponic system. Our aquaponic was made out of reusable materials, with the exception of an air pump. We used an old tank for the fish tank, plastic cups to hold the plants, and used clay pebbles. We did not have any fish, because we didn’t have enough time to make a stable environment for them. In our fish tank we grew basil, mint, and rosemary. Our goal for the Aquaponic project was to show that there are sustainable substitutes for fertilizer, and non eco-friendly farming. Our inspiration came from Ms. Hill. At the beginning of our project, we were stuck without an idea, but we knew we wanted to make something with plants and animals. Ms. Hill looked up different projects and we chose to do an aquaponic in the end.

Our biggest challenges were time, money, and overall planning. We didn’t have enough time to make sure that fish could live in the environment, and to make sure the plants would grow. We also had financial problems getting the fish and the plants (it would cost around 30$). Also, at the beginning of our project, we didn’t have an idea at all of what we were going to do. Thankfully, we got ourselves together in time. On the 3rd day, we eventually got to work. There was no more time to waste.

We learned the science in the system: In an aquaponic system the fish waste creates two main things nitrates and ammonia. Nitrates are necessary for plant and are a great fertilizer. Ammonia on the other hand is toxic to plants and will affect their growth. A good and stable aquaponic should have lots of healthy bacteria, including nitrifying bacteria. Nitrifying bacteria will transmute the ammonia into nitrates creating a healthy ecosystem for the plants, and fish. There are some factors you need to watch out for when making an aquaponic like ph levels. Plants and fish need different ph levels so you need to have a ph level close to 7; You need to make sure there is enough oxygen in the water; and you need to check to see if the things you put on the plants affect the fish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PVdQ3-7UIs

Zero Waste Chocolate Cake

For our maker fair project, we decided to make a zero waste cake. We made a zero waste cake because we wanted to raise awareness about how much waste we make while baking/cooking/living.

Our inspiration for this project is that so many people waste food and packaging every day, so if we created something that tasted and looked good with little money and zero waste people will be more aware that this is possible.

Our obstacle was milk. We didn't want to waste a whole carton of milk, so we bought rice in bulk and made our own rice milk. We did not have a nut strainer nor a t-shirt to strain the milk (when you blend it after soaking it in hot water, it has a weird consistency, so you need to strain it.) We pretty much just went with it and put it in the cake anyway. On the morning of the maker faire, we were making our cake batter, there was another group who was using milk, and by accident, they used our milk. We had to improvise and use all the milk we had (to the very last drop) and a little bit of their milk.

During the process of making the cake, we learned a lot. For instance, we learned how to make our own rice milk. When you buy in bulk, you need to weigh the glass jars before you put the ingredients into the jar and the employees put a sticker on the jar. We also learned that buying in bulk saves A LOT of money! We recommend it.

If we had more time, we could have made decorations for the cake, made a double layer cake, and make it look more presentable then how we presented it. Our advice to others doing this project is to buy enough ingredients. We found ourselves running out of ingredients, so we suggest to buy more than you need, just in case (if you have any leftover ingredients, you can bring them home.)

We estimate that the project (it made two cakes) cost about $15. Before we went to the grocery store to buy ingredients, we did a lot of research on zero-waste baking. We found a video by tasty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJB5JWizc4U&t=306s and we took inspiration from it. If you are doing this project, we recommend that you watch it. The cake we made was one bowl because we didn't want to haul around a bunch of metal bowls, here is the recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17981/one-bowl-chocolate-cake-iii/

We used the chocolate ganache recipe from the video, but there is a recipe for it (it is a cake recipe but we only made the ganache: http://www.matchboxkitchen.com/journal/zero-waste-chocolate-cake