Hello world, I’ve started a new scimatics project called ‘Metaphor Machines’. Throughout this project I was tasked to make a Rube Goldberg Machine that displayed the scientific method and and electric circuits. This project also had two driving questions which were “How can we represent the scientific method?” and “What factors affect the function and efficiency of electric circuits?”. Within this project I learned about different concepts that helped me create a detailed metaphor machine. I was also able to build enough knowledge to correctly answer the two driving questions. I most importantly, was able to identify and understand the curricular competencies.

Firstly, I started this project by briefly recognizing the factors of a Rube Goldberg machine and well… we created one! This creation was the first stepping stone of the project “Junkyard Wars”. I think creating a rough machine definitely helped me understand how to make the final Machine. Overall, this short stepping stone helped me understand the final goal of the project better and what I would need to improve on. 

The first milestone I came in contact with was “Project Start Mind Map”. To complete this milestone everyone around the room was given QFT boards and wrote down informative questions on them. We then all discussed our most important questions, which I think helped my curiosity of this project. Throughout my Mind Map I asked questions about different factors that I was wondering about, such as the content or process of this project. I feel I asked formative questions that made me curious about what will happen throughout the project and made them connect to different ideas. I then added facts that I now know into the Mind Map to show my learning.

I think this milestone showed my best use of the curricular competency “Questioning and predicting”. I used this competency throughout this milestone because I demonstrated a sustained curiously about a scientific topic. This was done by my detail questions that were based off previous scientific aspects I’ve already learnt. I could have improved my use of this curricular competency by taking other’s knowledge and building off them to create my own different insightful questions.

The next stepping stone I worked on were the classic, helpful, workbooks (specifically “workbook 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4”). The first workbook 3.2, was about how electrical charges behave. The next workbook, 3.3, was about how charges flow through the comports of a circuit. The last workbook, 3.4, was about how circuits are used in practical applications. I think all of these workbooks helped me build enough knowledge to understand the possible outcomes of the answer to the driving question (which I will answer later in this post).

After reading these workbooks I worked on studying circuits more in-dept through completing experiments. In total I created three experiments with a few group members, but I individually created a conclusion. Throughout these experiments I learnt how resistance affects currents in parallel and series circuits. I was also able to learn how to calculate ohms and voltage with a voltmeter and a power source. I think these were very important topics to learn because I was able to understand the context of circuits better for the final creation of the Metaphor Machine.

I then expanded my knowledge with another milestone “Khan academy scales diagrams quiz”. Within this milestone I learnt about how to create an accurate scale diagram. I found that the techniques to calculate the scale of object with an unknown sum uses some algebra, which I found very interesting. This quiz definitely helped me with the creation of the next few milestones (especially the blueprints).

After the quiz I moved onto the creation of my next milestone, “individual blueprint”. This milestone was all about creating an individual metaphor machine that represented the scientific method. It also had to be to scale, so I created and measured the actual wall/board that I would be making the scale of. Once I created my scale I tried to think of different ways to represent the scientific method and I recorded them in a drawing form on the scale diagram. 

This milestone represented my use of the curricular competency “Reasoning and Analyzing”. The way I showed this competency was by estimating reasonable measurements in a scale. I specifically is this by creating a grid scale with measurements labeled with high detail and accuracy. The way I could have improved on this milestone is by showing more distinguishable graphics to help convey each aspect better. Overall I approached this competency with a sophisticated mindset.

Once I finished my individual blueprint it was tie to move into groups and work on the next milestone “Final Blueprint”. This milestone was about using all our group’s ideas to make a final Metaphor machine that showed the all factors of the scientific method. We looked over everyone’s individual blueprints and tried to use a least one analogy from them throughout the final Metaphor Machine. We also created two circuit diagrams (one series and one parallel) Once we all collectively put input into the final blueprint we were excited to start building. 

The curricular competency “Planning and Conducting” was present throughout this milestone. The way I incorporated this competency into my learning was by using digital technologies to systematically collect and interpret data. I did this by creating a series and parallel circuit with efficiency as well as using proper symbolic references to materials. I could have improved on this by contributing better to create the measurements of current, voltage and resistance. So I would say that I did well on this competency, but there were still areas that could improve.

After the completion of the final blueprint my group and I were able to start buying all of the components of the final Metaphor Machine. I think our product looked amazing and detailed, especially with the addition of both circuits. Once we finished building the Metaphor Machine we recorded a video of it in normal speed. We then slowed it down to slo-motion to have a longer time gap to present the additional voice over. 

In addition, this milestone best represented my use of the curricular competency “Scientific Communication”. The way I showed this competency was by formulating physical and mental models to describe a phenomenon. I specifically showed this by recording a complete operation of the machine with voice overs explain the scientific method’s sequence. The way I could have improved on this milestone is by adding a more in sync explanation to match with the visual representation. I do think me and my team collective were able to understand this competency to it’s full extent. 

To conclude this project I learnt a lot about how the electric current is the flow of an electric charge. I think I also demonstrated a sufficient understanding of the many curricular competencies associated with this project. This then leads me to answer the driving questions, “How can we represent the scientific method?” and “What factors affect the function and efficiency of electric circuits?”. The scientific method can be represented by analogy that symbolically display the meaning of each part of the scientific method. For example an eye can represent an observation, because they both revolve around seeing/looking. For the next question’s answer: The factors that affect the function of the efficiency of electric circuit are the current flow and resistance. Without these factors and the correct, measurement applied to them,  a proper electric circuit won’t function correctly. Hence, the reason the current flow can be determined based on the resistance applied to it. The overall functionally of a circuit is determined by this factor.

 

Thank you for reading this blog post! What type of circuit are you most familiar with?

Alicia 😀

 

Credits:

Thanks to my group for being corporative: Nolan, Julian, and Patrick