Today, we discussed what our research project is about. We concluded to search about Saturn's moon, Titan. Since it has a very hazy atmosphere, we are eager to look deeper into its atmosphere and Titan's surface. We also came up with the creative name Infinity for our rover.We came up with our catchy slogan, Discovering Infinity One Moon at a Time, and researched more information about Titan, in order for us to have background information. Our logo is the Infinity symbol accompanied by stars appearing as if they are in the sky, and we chose our song to be the theme song in Space Odyssey. Clever, right?
Day Two (March 5th):
On this fine day, we began this exciting blog! We also began our mission statement which includes what our rover's purpose is, information about Titan, and three instruments that are part of our rover's structure. In addition, we assigned each person individual roles. Leah and Carly are mainly doing the research of instruments in depth. Ariel is assigned at the moment to work on the mission statement, and Koby is assigned to do most of the technological material, which includes this blog!
Day Three (March 6th):
Currently, we have made sure everyone knows what each is assigned to do. We arranged to meet on Google Docs at promptly 8 p.m to discuss which are the main instruments we are including in our mission statement. Leah has found valuable information about Titan and Ariel has worked on the mission statement. As of now, we have all of our notes typed on a document. We have made our final conclusion that we are searching Titan's surface. In order to do so, we will need to research about its atmosphere as well as if life could exist on this moon.
Day Four (March 7th)
Today in class, we began our structure for the rover. We all contributed by putting our ideas together for different aspects that are important to our rover, for example, the wheels. After receiving the cardboard box that our rover is made out of, we measured all of the dimensions. Koby was able to go on his computer and draw a scale of the measurements online. Leah, Ariel, and Carly continued to brainstorm ideas. Certain questions were difficult to answer, such as where will the engine go, what our wheels will be made out of, and how the wheels will be attached to the main object, or rover.
Day Five (March 8th)
In class we split up and tried to find the best possible materials for our rover. Koby worked on the computerized (to scale!) diagram of our rover while Ariel, Carly, and Leah measured the box and the wheels of the rover. For the Pancam, we are thinking of sticking little skewers onto the top of the box and attaching a tennis ball to it as a camera. We also discussed possible ideas for the Kindergarten project. We are trying to think of something educational that 5 year-old kids would find entertaining. By Monday, we hope that we can get you some pictures of our progress!
Day Six (March 15th)
A lot of progress has been done as of now! Today, we all contributed with ideas that would be very useful on our rover. We discovered very effective objects to use as wheels, yet it didn't get Mr. Sneideman's approval. Therefore we concluded to stick tennis balls through wooden sticks and attach it to the box, or rover. Ariel, Leah, and Carly did all of the measurements of the new instruments, while Koby continued to work on the design of our rover online. On Monday of next week, our whole class will be meeting with a Kindergarten class. In order for the kids to be interested in our project, we needed to create an activity for them. Leah's creative mind came up with the idea of having cutouts of people for them. Then, they will each draw themselves on each cutout. Once we receive all the drawings, we will stick it on Infinity along the outsides to make it look as if they are holding hands, similar to the Hershey's chocolate commercial.
Day Seven (March 18th)
Tomorrow we see the Kindergartners! While they color, we will give them some facts about where we are going. Since we don't know anything about Titan, there is a possibility that there is life on the moon! There could be aliens! We are decorating the rover with their drawings so that the aliens can know what humans look like! We will make sure that the Kindergartners know that some basic facts about Saturn (it has rings, it's a planet, it is the second largest planet after Jupiter). We will also give them new information about Titan (it is the second largest moon in our whole solar system and it is a mystery). We may or may not discuss what infinity means. Although we have made progress on our design, we still haven't finished it. Now that we know the dimensions of our wheels, it should be no trouble sticking them on the rover online. However, making everything to scale online has proven a little bit tricky. Our logo and slogan is finally up on our blog! It looks FABULOUS!!! We are all so proud of it!
Day Eight (March 19th)
Today we went to the Kindergarten to explain to two students in particular about our project. Carly Leah found a book in the classroom about space, and we decided to read to our kindergartners, Benny and Sophie, this appealing novel. We had them draw spacesuits that would wear when going to Titan. Benny added a lightning bolt to the center of his suit. This inspired Carly, Leah, and Ariel to draw the symbol of an atom in the center of our suits. Koby drew an awesome man in a tuxedo which could undergo situations like those in space. Pretty cool, huh? Mr. Sneideman came by to ask the kindergartners what our mission is and where it is going to be held. Benny and Sophie knew the answers right away! Aren't they such great learners? As we left the classroom, Benny and Sophie gave an adorable hug to Leah. Our Kindergarten Project was a major success. After school today, we met up to begin our designs (which unfortunately are due tomorrow). Somehow, we managed to get about no work done. (It was rather difficult to make designs on the computer.) We hope that there will be a miracle or an outrageous epiphany that is of great assistance to us.
Day Nine (March 20th)
As everyone probably knows, our designs for our rover Infinity were due today. Yesterday, we had some difficulties actually creating them on the computer, as mentioned before, so we took the alternative and drew the designs by hand. Overnight, Leah amazed Carly, Koby, and Ariel, by drawing a whopping FIVE designs in one night. Ariel made another design. Leah also created a whole new system for wheels. Today in class we found that they might even work better than the tennis balls on sticks. On the subject, we completed the two oblique views of the designs in class. These proved to be difficult, for it is hard to put the exact measurements on paper since some of the lines are slanted in order to make the view oblique. Two-thirds of Sam Dolan's group was missing during class this morning. Koby was really kind to give Sam a hand in his designs! He took some great pictures of Leah, Carly, and Ariel while we were working. He even took a shot of Sam. During study block we met and journeyed to the library in order to scan our eight designs and upload them onto this spectacular blog. They are currently in the "HOME" section of this blog. Tomorrow we begin working on actually building the rover! We can't wait!!!
Day Ten (March 21)
We finally covered the boring and plain cardboard box! Today in class, we all went outside to cover our rover with spray paint. Ariel brought five colors: silver, pink, green, yellow, and white. In order to not receive the toxic chemicals in spray paint, Leah and Carly went to Nurse Henia, where she generously gave us 4 masks. Once we took all of the materials out of our rover, we placed it on flat cardboard on the grass so that the paint only goes on our box. In the beginning, most of us weren't very familiar with spray paint. It took multiple tries before we took the risk of placing it on our rover. First, we covered the entire box with silver spray paint. We kept on alternating turns so each of us would do a different side. Then, we added green on the edges in a certain way that it drips down the sides. After admiring our work, we decided the rover needed more colors, it was a bit dull. We concluded to add the pink and yellow directly under the green. So now, all of the colors were dripping down the sides in a way that makes the rover appear to be very quick once it's rolling. While working, Koby took a picture of Leah, Carly, and Ariel posing while each of us held a spray paint. Our rover will also include the Infinity sign on the top of the box, but we are still looking for the perfect color. Today was very exciting while designing our rover! The wheels will be up soon and the final product is yet to come!
Day Eleven (March 26th)
It's almost finished! Today in class, we thought about the best way to have our Lego wheels stick to our rover. Koby concluded to use a knife and cut two lines through the bottom of our rover. Inside of these, he will place four pieces of duct tape, tightly wrapped around the four sets wheels. We agree that this is probably the best way to attach our wheels to the rover. We only completed one set of wheels in class, so Koby gladly decided to bring Infinity home and finish the other three sets of wheels. Together, we also punched new and better holes in the box so that our instruments will fit more tightly and will not fidget while in motion. We still have to add the egg cartons to the back and front of our box. Also, our the tennis ball used for the Pancam is too simple, so we need to decorate it with camera-like colors. That will be fun! Furthermore, the cutouts of the two kindergartners and us need to be placed alongside the left and right sides of the rover. Tomorrow is surely going to be a fun day! Until then... good night!
Day Twelve (March 27th)
Today was a busy day. With the deadline only a few days away, it was time to be the most serious we could be. Carly had a great idea for the Pancam: cover the tennis ball with foil, paint and fill in a black circle on it, and place another piece of tin foil on it. It looks amazing! We think of it as the "eye" of the rover because it really looks like one. Our wheels are finished, too. Mr. Sneideman was a BIG help to us today. He gave us oil for our wheels. Now, we REALLY needed this because so much friction is created between the block and the actual wheels. The oil helps by reducing the friction, allowing the rover to move both faster and longer. However, after testing them on a nearby ramp, we realize that the blocks of wheels were tilted to the left a bit. Thus, we needed something to prevent this tilt. Koby thought of having four dowels to keep the wheels in place. We all thought that this would be a good idea. Leah and Ariel worked efficiently in cutting out the cut-outs of both our kindergartners and ourselves. Unfortunately, we realized that the cover of Infinity would block the cut-outs' heads. The solution to this is cutting part of the lid off. Leah also painted our egg cartons in a variety of colors. These will be placed in the front of the rover. We expect to finish the rover either by tomorrow or by the day after tomorrow, Thursday.
Day Thirteen (March 28th)
Mr. Sneideman only allowed us to work for twenty minutes in class. It's a good thing that we can work efficiently. We started today by making out Pancam sturdier. Before, the Pancam moved crazily when the rover was accelerating. To solve this, we taped a funnel (don't worry Mr. Sneideman, this tape is easily removable!) to the interior of Infinity. With this, the Pancam will be able to move up and down, but not side to side. Therefore, it solved our dilemma. Our CRIS (the three ping-pong balls) also wasn't stable. For this, we added duct tape inside the box. Unfortunately, CRIS will not be able to turn, but that is definitely okay. Next, we cut part of the lid of Infinity. With this, we were able to attach the cut-outs of the members of our group. The two kindergarten cut-outs are placed atop the rover and beside the instruments. Furthermore, Carly made a cool song for our project. It goes to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb." It should be posted and soon on the "Home" page of our blog. After spring break, we will make a video of us singing this beautiful song. Before class ended, Mr. Sneideman wanted every group to try their rover on a ramp with a very small degree of elevation. All the rovers moved wonderfully, even ours. We did, though, think that our rover wouldn't work for a few reasons, including the tilt of the wheels. After school, we got our logo printed out with Mrs. Cooper's excellent color printer. Within the next few days, we should have this pasted to the back of our spectacular rover Infinity.
