Hello and welcome back to another scimatics blog post. This project was call Metaphor Machines, the metaphor part was symbols to represent the scientific method. The machine part was a Rube Goldberg Contraption, in which we had to turn on a light switch. This project also focused on lightbulbs, switches, wires, volts, and ohms law. The driving questions for this project (yes there are two driving questions) were: How can we represent the scientific method? What factors affect the function and efficiency of electrical circuits? These questions will be answered at the end. 

Ok onto the project itself here our blueprint for the machine: 

As always with a scimatics project we started with a Project Start Mind Map which I will show now along with the Project End Mind Map. 

Now onto the Circular Competencies 

#1 Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest  

For this competency we used most of our class time effectively but were still distracted by things around us. This caused us to not have a better machine, as I believe if we had used more class time it could have been way better. For next time we/I will try not get distracted with things in out environment. 

#2 Reasoning and Analyzing: Estimate reasonably

This competency was for our final blueprint. The one I made met the criteria fairly well it definitely could have been added to to make it and extending. In the future I will try to take more time with my drawing and adding more accurate depictions. I also think that if I had spent a little more time on this it could have been a lot better. 

#3 Planning and conducting: Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data. 

For this competency my group mate Noah did most of the actual circuits and making sure they worked. I added the circuits and such to the blueprint. and I definitely could have made the circuits a more accurate representation of the actual thing. I also did not use the right symbols. On the diagram. Next time I will use correct symbols and make sure that I am doing everything to the best of my ability. 

#4 Scientific Communication: Formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon 

Our video that we made was good. We had voiceovers and everything we needed though we could have gone more in depth with our metaphor and gotten a extending. In the future we will make sure to go more in-depth with what we are saying and use better examples. 

Now here is the video: IMG_2787 

Now the answer to the Driving Questions which were: How can we represent the scientific method? What factors affect the function and efficiency of electrical circuits? To answer the first one. We can represent the scientific method through symbols that display the process. For example we had a graph chart analysis for the analyze stage of the machine. For the second one I think the answer is certain factors effect the function for example the amount of resistance in a lightbulb will effect how bright it is. The amount of volts you have coming from your battery will effect the overall effectiveness of your circuits. 

Now once again here is our video: IMG_2787. My group mates were Noah, Ewan, and Luca links 👈

We worked hard on this project and came up with some pretty ingenious solutions. Anyways thanks for reading have a good day 

Cartier=Blooooog