Hi welcome to or back to my blog! In this post I will be talking about my most recent project in Scimatics. In this project we were assigned to build a laser display to test both the  pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection. 

We started this project with a mind map of questions we had. We also could look at other peoples questions to see other things that make people wonder about light. I have never learned about light so it was pretty easy to think of questions.

Then we worked on work books to learn more about the law of reflection. I found lots of it interesting, such as: how people figured out the parts of a wave. Here are the parts of the wave that I know.

Crust: The crust is where the wave’s highest point is. For more information click here.

Trough: The trough is where the waves lowest point is. For more information click here.

Amplitude: The amplitude is the distance from the centre line to the trough to crust. Click here for more information.

Wavelength: The wavelength is the distance between one crust (or trough) to the next crust (or trough). For more information click here.

Here is a diagram of what it looks like:

The next assignment we needed to do was an experiment called “Law of Reflection Lab” doing this experiment we did it in groups. With our group we needed to find out if the law of reflection was true for all angles. Here is my write up I did, it also tells you in the write up what I did to set it up.

The next assignment we did was called “Laser Triangle Design,” during this assignment we needed to make a triangle in a simulation making it with a laser, barriers, and mirrors. We tried to test the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection doing this assignment. Here is my write up, it also tells you how I did it.

We then spent a few other classes by making a real life laser display. My group and I worked well, we decided to paint it black and then outline the triangle in a white paint marker. We also wrote down the measurements and angles in a white paint marker too. We then used a hot glue gun to glue up the walls and make sure the base was connected to the walls fully. Here is a photo of what the end result looked like with the lasers. After that we had a mini exhibition and we could look at everyone else’s.

Let’s get on to Core Competencies! 

~CORE COMPETENCIES~

Questioning and predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.

I have shown this core competency by getting really engaged in the work books and making sure its the best I can do. I am very proud of how much effort I put into them because I liked the concept, I just hope that in the future I will remind myself that if text book text is too hard I will look up a YouTube video.

Communicating and Representing: Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms.

I have sown this core competency by helping people with the Pythagorean theorem and making sure they understand. I also helped with setting up the measurements, maybe in the future I could do more on the hands on part and help with writing on the actual project. I helped with the measurements by looking up Pythagorean triplets and making sure they would fit on the cardboard.

Applying and innovating: Co-operatively design projects.

I have shown this core competency by making sure everyone is apart of the project and chips in. I also helped when a problem would happen, I would try to help get a solution to solve it. I did this when we needed to get the triangle to show up on the black paint, I went over to other groups and eventually found a white paint marker, it worked perfectly and the end result looked great.

Overall I am happy with how this project went. Light isn’t my strong suit because I have never learned about it before so I am very happy that I have gotten this far. Hopefully I can remember to use youtube videos to help me in the future. Anyways, have a great day or night!