So, we’ve been learning about DNA. In order to learn about this, we’ve done two things: a lab experiment, and a model.

For the lab experiment, we extracted strawberry DNA using salt, alcohol and soap. We crushed the strawberries in order to break down the cell walls, and let the DNA be released. We then mixed the strawberries with the other substances in test tubes. The DNA came out in rather slimy strings. It looked a little bit gross, but it was very interesting to see the DNA once it was extracted.

For the model, we each created a “DNA strand” with a partner. The DNA strands were madeout of pipe cleaners, beads, Pom-poms, and macaroni. We used different supplies to show different kinds of base pairs, five pairs in all. I used pom-poms to represent C-G pairs, and beads and macaroni to represent A-T pairs.

Toodles!

As you may have guessed from the title, this is another post about math.

But this time, there’s monsters.

*cue Bobby Pickett*

So, we’ve been learning about calculating the volume and surface area of composite solids. As part of this unit, we’ve each built a “monster” Out of basic shapes, which we then have to calculate the volume and surface area of.

For instance, my monster, Mr. Marshmallows, has a volume of 2.35525 inches(5.982335 centimetres) cubed, and a surface area of 17.7575 inches (45.10405 centimetres) squared.

Now, creating a monster for the sole purpose of calculating its volume and surface area may seem like a strange project (not to mention one that I would design). There’s a good reason for that– it’s actually part of a bigger crosscurricular project that will include biomes/ecology (science), character development and story writing (English), sewing (humanities? impromptu textiles? Is sewing just a part of PLP?), videomaking (humanities/maker time), and, more likely than not, a lot of rejected storyboards (I direct you once again to the quilt project).

You can expect a follow up post to this one sometime soon detailing the adventures of Mr. Marshmallows (versus some as yet unknown “hero”).

Until then–

Toodles!

So, as I mentioned before we’ve been doing chemistry in science.

The other day, we did a science experiment that involved reacting copper dichloride with aluminum. This was what happened when they came into contact:

IMG_8111-2dp652s

While this was a cool reaction on its own, the rest of the experiment actually involved taking the pieces of metal from the original reaction, rinsing them out several times, and burning them. This made a green flame appear as well as the natural orange flame.

Toodles.

So, this blog post is going to be a little different.

This blog post is about math.

Specifically, about a math project I just did creating a blueprint for my “dream house”. This was actually a group project, so it wasn’t really my dream house (especially considering it doesn’t include enough bedrooms, so I just get a closet), but it was really fun to design.

Before we got to design the actual dream house, we did some work involving figuring out the square footage of some houses from existing blueprints, and pricing houses in different areas. We also were given a list of rules to follow about designing a kitchen, which are as follows:

1. Any entry door should not interfere with the safe use of appliances
2. Appliance doors should not interfere with each other
3. The range, sink, and refrigerator form a “Work Station Triangle”. The sum of the distances between these stations should not exceed 26ft. There must be at least four feet between each work center.
4. The width of the walkway must be at least three feet.
5. There must be 18in counter space on each side of the sink.
6. There must be at least one counter space that is three feet long.
7.There must be at least on counter space next to the oven.
8.The dishwasher must be within three feet of the sink.
9. The refrigerator, range and sink should not be immediately next to one another.
10. There must be a minimum length of thirteen feet of counter space.

I’m not actually sure that we followed all of these rules, as we made a small mistake and ended up with our house only being around 756 square feet, and had to quickly make it bigger. It ended up being 2,068.09 feet, and about $123,000 in the fictional neighbourhood we priced it in, which is still pretty cheap.

Before I explain any more about the design, here is a blueprint of the dream house and a list of rooms with square footage:

So, to run you through the rooms:

– the music room kind of turned into a guest/entertainment room with a pool table, fooseball table, tv, and snazzy rug in addition to the singular musical instrument (a piano).
– the dining room is very minimalistic and includes only a table and a rack of wine bottles.
– the kitchen might not follow the rules, I’m not even sure at this point.
– the garage doesn’t have much space, as it has to hold Ruby’s bus, a car, my convertible and motorcycle, and a bike, which was unclaimed but could be Lucas’s/ .
– the bathroom is an ensuite off the bedroom, and doesn’t include anything we deemed unnessecary. For instance, a mirror.
– the bedroom has a lot of bookcases, and is one of the only rooms with a lamp. This is important, as there are no windows.
– the laundry room really isn’t exciting.
– the hall almost has enough house plants.
– the study is kind of small, but the cozy chair and wood burning fireplace make it probably one of the best rooms in the house.
– the playroom is basically a games room, with a laptop, phone, hammock, tv, and a rug that reminds me of Agar.io.

My main lament about this project was honestly just that we couldn’t design the house in more detail, such as adding colour, different floors, or better decor. While it was a fun and interesting project, I don’t think I would actually want to live in the house we designed.

Toodles!

Hi

So. Scimatics. If you don’t already know, it’s the combination mathematics/science class we take when we get hungry. (Everybody eats lunch in Scimatics. Even at 8:30 in the morning.)

And for Scimatics, we had to do a project about light, and geometry, and myths, and art, and a bunch of other specific things that I won’t list now. They were all pretty relevant to what we were learning.

The basis of this project was that we had to create a non-digital representation of the story of Raven bringing the light, while showcasing the properties of light such as reflection, refraction, etc., but also using geometrical features like symmetry and a cylinder.

We actually had to write up descriptions for this project so, being lazy, I’m going to put mine here.

“Now, this was an interesting project to do, because although it focussed on science, it brought in some other subjects like a bit of art and math, and I think this says something about how integral science is to everything we do, even if we don’t think about it. I’m not great at art, so my representation of Raven bringing the light may not have looked amazing, but I think the ideas worked out. I used a transparent marble to refract the light ray and make it bigger, to represent the sun, and although when I designed this project I only had one light ray (from my phone), and I later replaced it with a flashlight, which has about six, I think it still works. I did find that I needed to have the light quite close to the marble to make it work, though, which could be a reflection on just how well the marble worked, or possibly how bright the light was. After being refracted by the marble, the light hits the stars, and the moon (represented by tinfoil vaguely-star-shaped-things and a tinfoil cylinder.). The tinfoil is a semi-reflective material, so it does reflect the light a little bit– enough to see, but not enough to cast light on anything else. I put all the stars and the moon behind Raven, as he had already dropped them all by the time he was dropping the sun, and I also made Eagle, who was chasing him, quite a bit smaller to show the perspective, so my project for the most part was asymmetrical. However, I did make the actual model of Raven symmetrical, using bilateral symmetry, as well as the moon and the stars; they just weren’t placed symmetrically. To make the ocean for this project, and to add some colour to contrast the large amounts of black and silver I had already used, I used blue construction paper, and covered it with some wax paper, which is translucent, so the colour of the opaque paper (and the light) still came through, just slightly diluted. The colour actually doesn’t draw that much attention, despite being one of the only bright colours in the project, because the light is aiming away from it, and, according to research by Ibn Al Haytham, light travels in straight lines. Additionally, colour is formed by a surface absorbing some types of light rays and reflecting others, which means that it would need light to be intensely coloured, the exception being that black, which absorbs all light rays, doesn’t technically need any to show up (which is why most of my project is painted black). That about sums it up. I hope I’ve been able to cast some light on the subject for you.”

And here’s a slightly dark picture for reference:

Toodles.

Ok, so as part of our unit on worldview, we’ve been looking at Renaissance worldview and it’s influences on today’s Western worldview.

So we got an assignment to make a triple Venn diagram comparing three teenage mutant ninja turtles.

Ok, so maybe we were actually looking at Renaissance scientists, artists and philosophers. Maybe.

Anyway, my Venn diagram looked something like this:

So, probably not the most helpful thing when I found out the assignment was to draw a picture representing the influence of Renaissance worldview on, you guessed it, today’s Western worldview.

So, I drew this:

What I wanted to represent here was a fairly straightforward concept: the Renaissance was when people, or at least when Europe, began to show more interest in thinking, study, art, and science, all things that are still important to us today.

So, we went through the typical critique process of anonymously sticking post-it notes to each other’s work, or in this case near each other’s work, as we just sort of stuck them to the desks. What we were told to write on the post it note was what we thought the picture we were critiquing was representing, so you could tell if your own picture was conveying what it was supposed to.

This was the post it note I found by my drawing:

Now, I did think the interpretation of what my drawing was showing was pretty accurate. However, I was a little confused by the “needs more birds” comment until I realized it had been written by my science teacher, who had earlier commented on a drawing I was doing in science class depicting the story of Raven stealing the light, as an outline for a science project we’re currently working on.

(I do have this drawing, but it’s covered in notes, so I apologize. Here it is if you want to see it:

)

I wasn’t really sure how I could add birds into my drawing, but I ended up adding a feather quill into the pen jar on the art book. Because that was definitely the important part of that critique and not the joke…

Other than that, I wasn’t sure how to improve my drawing, so I touched up the picture a little bit, and added a thought bubble showing a shared thought between the Renaisscance and Western worldviews.

Here is my finished product:

Toodles!