Dr.Neato's rules
August 8, 2016 - August 12, 2016
On the first day of the Physics of engineering, the class was spilt into
two groups. One group went with Mr. Miller into the shop and the other half stayed
with Dr. Neato. The people who stayed with Dr. Neato played a name game.
The objective of the game is to name everyone in order without missing anyone.
That was it on the first day of engineering class. On the second day of class,
The classes switched so I went into the shop with Mr. Miller and he told us about some
rules, what to where, and a few stories about some of the robots that were stored there.
He also gave us a tour of the shop like were we could drill holes for things and where
to weld stuff. In the middle of the tour I was called to get my computer assigned to me,
and I got number 29, day two was good. On Wednesday, we were introduced to the Wednesday
challenge which was to build a spaghetti bridge out of only spaghetti and wood glue.
You are only limited to using 20 sticks of spaghetti on each bridge. You are also allowed 5
practice tries with the spaghetti to decide what design works best. We did this on Wednesday
and on Thursday. On Friday of the first week, Dr. Neato taught us about how to create a website
using notepad ++ which is what i'm doing now. That was about all the things we did on the first
week of school.
August 22, 2016
We were introduced to notepad++ and we were taught how to start our website
August 23, 2016
Today we got access to the skateboard presser which gives the skateboard its curve.
Its made out of wood in a square shape with different sized pegs running along the length
of it.
August 26, 2016
We talked more about the JPL challenge and we had a man named Mr.Wilton come in and talk to us
about how he runs his business. He told us that he runs and place that makes the robotics parts for machines.
Mr. Wilton's Website
August 29, 2016 - August 1, 2016
Monday
-We were working on out Spaghetti bridge when I made an amazing discovery. last week,
I got bored so i peeled some glue off of my hands and rolled it into a ball that felt like putty. I made it into
a small pillar and put it on the bridge as a joke decoration and when we came back, it harden over the weekend
and it was so strong we had some diffuculty breaking it off the bridge. We decided to start making the "putty" in
large amounts to make an entire bridge out of it. We only got about 1/8th of the bridge done.
Tuesday
We almost finished our bridge, it looks very tough now even though its not done
Wednesday
-Good news, we finished the bridge, bad news it wont dry in time for the competition so we have to use back up bridge
for the final bridge competition.
Thursday
-The bridge wasn't dry, which was no suprise, but the bridge actually held up with the weight of the water. That's
farther than I thought it would go! We didn't win first, but we still got 100 for trying.
Form
Results
September 7, 2016
today was a Wednesday challenge about making a macjine that can determine if an animal is a dog or cat. The machines
can't use human interaction so Justin came up with the idea that dogs and cats drink differently. aog bends its tongue
backwards to use its tongue as a scoop while a cat catches the liquid in the grooves of its tongue. The animal would
drink from a bowl of water and depending if its tongue goes forwards or backwards, it would relay to a computer and
tell us if the animal was cat or dog. Our team is going to win this.
Form
September 9, 2016
Today the JPL invention team talked to us about what they have been doing. They said that they were eliminating
ideas for how to build the invention for the challenge. They eliminated ideas like the car driving the water because
it was just to complicated to build. That was it for today.
September 12, 2016
Today we opened up sketch up and made a small city by creating little squares and rectangles. We were practicing with
the push and pull tool.
September 19, 2016
We had to get three jenga blocks and stack them on top of eachother and use Sketchup to draw them out.
September 21, 2016
Todays Wednesday Challenge was all about teamwork. The class was split into two teams and each team had
to get a marble down through half-pipes that couldn't touch each other.
Marbles Formy Form
September 27, 2016
Today we watched a video on how a rocket called Falcon 9, built by space x exploded. Someone says that the the
rocket's fuel leaked into another liquid and the rocket blew up. Nobody was inside though.
September 28, 2016 - October 6, 2016
The new Wednesday challenge is to make another bridge. Rules: No adhesives, must only use one material to build,
and must have a keystone. Our team Decided to use foam for our materials brought in by Andrew. Each foam piece
was about 3 inches and the span is 22.5 inches which is a 7.2 score whish is pretty good. We ended up getting
second place in the challenge though
Our Bridge Power Point
The Bridge Results
September 30, 2016
JPL came in and talked about thier inventions again. They had improved thier designs and made better sketch up drawnings.
October 10, 2016
We learned how to make components and move them around with tools and such. I used mine to make a Stairway to Heaven.
October 11, 2016
We practiced more with Sketchup
October 12, 2016
The Wednesday challenge today was to make a card house.
Form
October 13, 2016
I made a card using Sketchup. The Dimensions are 3 1/2 by 2 1/2
October 14, 2016
The JPL people made progress and showed it to us.
October 17, 2016
We had to make a Pencil in Sketchup
October 18, 2016
I had to do the course site's safety test essay. It was pretty easy, it was just a video and a list of rules.
October 19 - 20th, 2016
The Wednesday challenge was to make three straws into a right triangle by any means.
The Form
October 24, 2016
We found out who won the Right triangle challenge. My team which was the Megaforce, lost and the first place winners
were the Dodgers.
The Results
October 25, 2016
Not much happened today because I finished my Wednesday challenge form for the right angle triangle.
I did get started on a sketch up on a lego piece.
October 26, 2016
Today the Wednesday challenge was to calculate the amount of candy corns that could fit on a paper standing up. My group was
absent so I went into a group with John and Nicolas. We divided the area of the candy corn by the area of the paper and got
499 candy corns. It was an estimate but it still seemed pretty accurate. We found out we were two canycorns off and the
winning team was one off because they took a picture of Dr. Neato's answer key.
The PDF
October 27, 2016
Today I worked on a Sketchup for a lego piece. The dimensions of it are 2.5 inches by 1.25 inches.
October 30, 2016
This Saturday I volenteered at the Halloween Carnival at my old Elementary school, Mountain Avenue, which is where my sister now goes.
I was running the cotton candy machine for 6 hours.
October 31, 2016
BOO! It's halloween and today in Engineering, we were told the do a project on a bridge. Dr. Neato showed us an example of what
it should look like
Dr. Neato's Rockin' Bridge Project
November 1, 2016
Today we were given the entire day to Sketch a lego using Sketchup, but I have already finished doing that so I didn't do much today.
Last night I went trick or treating as a priest with my friend dressed as chewbacca. I got too mant Snickers Bars.
November 2, 2016
Today Dr.Neato announced a new Wednesday challenge. For this one, we had to make a Capital E using Sketchup. I had Mason on my team
again and we had a small E about 2 inches by 3 inches. After this, it was put on a flash drive and tomarrow I will get another groups
E and make it
November 3, 2016
Mason was at Disney Land today so I was on my own making the E. It Turned out ok, but not the way that I wanted it to. The
measurements were off, but in all fairness, I was alone. Hopefully THe people who got our E were more successful than I was
making the E.
WC Form
The E Results
November 4, 2016
JPL came into today and talked about their progress in making a the invetions. They had made so much progress in improving their designs
and there are only 2 weeks until the challenge. Good Luck Team. Freshmen will also be BEATING Arcadia tonight at Moyse feild.
November 6, 2016
Me and my family wnet to Woodranch at EagleRock Mall for my birthday which is on the 9th. I'm turning fifteen in 3 days, one more year until
I can drive.
November 7, 2016
Today we discussed who's E would be presented to the judges. I found out that my E was very far from perfect so We decided to pick the smallest, most accurate
E that the other team 10 made. I thought that their E was the best because we measured it and the measurements were more accurate then the otherteam's E.
Novenber 8, 2016
Not a lot happened today, Dr. Neato was making sure that we had the requirements for the Wednesday challenge last week which was for the E. I already did the
Wednesday Challenge Form for the E, but I had trouble sending the picture I took to my self over E-mail because I had no wifi in the class, but I came after
school and put the E-mail on my website and now everything is up to date.
November 9, 2016
Today is the day for a Wedndesday Challenge. The Wednseday Challenge today was to use the scale to figure out the weight of a one kilo keg and a "1 Kilo"" bag of screws
because the bag is not 1 kilogram. We found that the keg weighed 1.01 kilogram and we said that the bag of screws weighed 1/3 of that weight
Kilogram Form
November 10, 2016
Today is the day before Veterens Day and Mr. Wilton came to see how the JPL invention challenge team was doing.
November 14, 2016
I was flying back to L.A. from Seattle for a funeral so nothing really happend for me today.
November 15, 2016
We worked on the bridge report today. Magdeburg Water Bridge is the bridge we chose. It is located in Germany and is a water brigde meaning that its a bridge over
water that transports boats over it.
November 16, 2016
Today Mr. Miller gave us two metal squares with hole in one end. We had to use an adhesive from tape to glue to make these two stick together. The point
of this was to teach us about shear force and what it is. Shearing forces are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one direction, and another
part of the body in the opposite direction according to wikipedia. to dumb it down, the sliding force of an object pulling away from another.
Shear Form
November 17, 2016
Today we looked at other people's websites and saw how their progressing and updating them. We also learned that Alex can skate very good, or should I say
SK8 HARD.
November 28, 2016
I was supposed to do something in class, but instead, I was called back to go with Mr. Miller along with Andrew, John, and Mason. He told us that we had to
come up with a little building project that required us to cut and weld. An example he gave us is that a team was doing a FaZe clan logo and our group decided
to do a house with a little roof.
November 29, 2016
Today the JPL invetion team came in and told us about the competition and how it went. None of the machines won, but the vaccum won a prize for being the only vaccum
there. I also found out that yesterday, we were supposed to be practicing with the rotation tool and make the arch bridge that we made using sketch up. This is how
mine turned out.
November 30, 2016
Today my group designed a Sketchup for the Wednesday challenge. The challenge today was to make a Sketchup of a structure and the only things that we could use were
pretzels, gramcrackers, and marshmallows. The whole class will switch Sketchups and people will get other peoples. This was our groups Skecthup.
December 1, 2016
The design we got had no instructions and was rushed, but the group that owned it told us how to do it and it turned out ok comared to the horrible drawing.
The Wednseday Challenge Form
December 2, 2016
We got second place in the Wednesday challenge for this week. We were only a few inches off compared to their Skecthup.
December 5, 2016
Today teh new Wednesday challenge (which is also out final) was introduced. It is basically the JPL challenge but instead of the cup goig 2 meters to its target
,it goes 1 meter. The people in my group are Carlos, Zachary, and Tyler.
December 6, 2016
Our plan is to have to grab the cup with a PVC pipe mounted on another pvc pipe with a rope, swivel it around and drop the cup into a funnel and hope that it catches all the water
December 7, 2016
Today we were just brainstorming on how to power it and realized that it could be man-powered as long as we don't walk with the cup. We also worked on the Skecthup for this
device. The was pretty much it today.
December 8, 2016
Today we looked for a peice of wood we could use for the base of the invention and found one that was a little to big. So today we were given permission to use the table saw.
Only problem being, I never used it. Mr Miller told me that since I passed the safety test i was able to use the macine, but he still helped us with the cutting. Now
I know how to use the saw so... YaY.