When I checked my grade on Engrade, I saw that you had already graded the Electromagnet Lab. Regardless, I decided to do a reflective written blog post, just in case.

The Electromagnet Lab was interesting to see and do. At first, Gavin and I started out just using a nail with wire coiled around it and picking up paperclips with that. We got a good twenty-something amount of them using the nail, but we could get more with other materials. We tried a magnet, and magnetizing it even more with the wire coils. Once we tried using a golf club. We had wound the wire around the whole club and attempted to use it, to only remember at the last minute that golf clubs are made from aluminum. One of the main things you had to worry about was that the battery, once you took it off of the electric plug-in charges, would start to weaken after a while, and paperclips would start falling off of your magnet after a period of time. The voltage didn't really affect the magnetic pull when we used it, from what I can gather from my memory. We ended up getting the most paperclips using the nail, the first time we had tried to magnetize something.

BALLOON LAUCH INTO SPACE:

For about two months, I believe, we began to dream up our Balloon into Space project as a class. When we had split up into several smaller sections and groups to work on specified targeted objects, such as Parachute Development, Communication, and the A-Team, Ashley, Lauren, and I began our own group for Container Development. We had to work on creating a safe and suitable holder for the point-and-shoot camera, the iPhone, the Flip, and possibly an extra global positioning system device, that would protect it and keep it stabilized throughout its journey in the air, space, and back down to Earth.

We were first unsure of how to create the design of the container. I remember considering using Styrofoam because Mr. H had said that it's a good choice, and maybe lining the exterior with a bendable plastic, and the inner side could be lined with some sort of cardboard, possibly. We trashed that idea, and thought about maybe just taking a box and positioning the objects in their own containers. Our main priority and concern was that the camera and iPhone should remain stable and secure, and most importantly, safe. Plastic and cardboard sounded a bit dangerous and not cushiony enough to protect them, and it would probably break or shatter upon impact in landing.

Eventually we decided that Koozies were made of the perfect material; they are durable and keep drinks cold or warm, and are soft enough to cushion the cameras' fall. The design consisted of a dumbell type design, I suppose, and provided a somewhat three-dimensional view because there were three locations that cameras could be placed in. We covered the container in a good two or three layers of duct tape to ensure its waterproof-ness and to make it look more professional. Although we weren't chosen to be the winning container, I was still proud of our design and strength in the container, as it was able to keep the cameras and iPhone in place and protected, but wouldn't destroy anything it landed on, like a car window or so.

BALLOON RACERS:

Jack and I worked on our balloon race car around January to February. We had several designs at first, but we never quite came through with any of them. The ones I remember the most involved tin foil and sharp objects. Actually, almost every design had sharp objects or explosives (not my idea). It was extremely helpful when Mr. H let us use his car he had been building in class one day. We used a pen barrel to concentrate the air leaking out of the balloon, which did significantly make the car faster, but wasn't enough to get it very far. We decided to use a funnel, and I borrowed my Mom's metal one from her kitchen drawer. This reduced our time by a lot, and was very helpful also. We tried having a balloon within a balloon, but it didn't make any changes. Actually, it slowed it down instead. We didn't win a big prize or make a big achievement, but I liked the design we had made.

We have wrapped the whole container in duct tape yesterday so that it looks cooler and more professional, and to strengthen it. We tested it outside again yesterday. We tied it to the parachute (not Gray, EO, and Maybry's, though), and its still very durable and strong. It got tangled up in a tree when we threw it one time, and another time it almost landed on us, but it didn't hurt. Our container is both strong, like if it fell on a rock. But it won't be able to destroy anything if it falls on anything, like someone's car. We have basically finished the container. Today we are going to test it again. We will attach balloons to the container to see approximately how much helium it will need to lift up and keep going into space. We will go outside, probably near the bleachers or on the field. We have room for three cameras total. We will most likely use two flips and a point-and-shoot camera taking pictures with five second intervals. This will be useful because we can have three different perspectives of images all together, so we can put together a better picture of what it looked like up there.

Today, in class, we took the container to see how well it works if we throw it from the bleachers. However, we attached our container to Maybry, Gray, and Elizabeth O.'s group's parachute. When we threw it, it the parachute worked properly, and slowed down the falling of the container, and the Koozies cushioned the fall. We will probably join groups together and work in one large group so that we can make adjustments and changes based on the parachute and the container so that when we test them we can put them together. Our container works very well in terms of safety, stability, and security, but we still need to make another for the digital camera and the phone. Hopefully ours will be the one to go into space.