A look at jellyfish in the Deep Blue Sea

This article is about jellyfish through an inside look. Jellyfish have lived in the ocean for millions of years even be for the dinosaurs lived on the earth. Jellyfish have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat them. There are many types of jellyfish in the ocean. They have no brain, heart, blood, or gills.

Some jellyfisht are 98% water. There are many types of jellyfish in the ocean. These jelly-like creatures pulse along on ocean currents. Inside their bell-shaped body is an opening that is their mouth. As jellyfish squirt water from their mouth they are propelled forward in the water.

By Jennifer and Nikita

Dance Pad for Mice

Today Jennifer and I, Anya, built a dance pad for mice. We built it on top of a box. Inside the box, is a restaurant for mice.

We started the dance pad by taping aluminum foil to the top of a box. Next we taped a battery onto the foil. Then we attached a buzzer to the battery. As soon as we attached the buzzer to the battery, it started buzzing. Next we tried to attach a lightbulb, it didn't work. Then we tried adding another battery, it still didn't. While Jennifer worked on the lightbulb, I puttied a disk to the inside of the box. The disk reflected light into the box lighting up the restaurant.

When we finally got the lightbulb to work we were super happy. If you want to make a dance pad go to Design Squad Nation.

Fail with the Rubber Band Car :(

Today Angela and I attempted to build a rubber band car. A rubber band car is made up of cardboard, rubber bands, mints, tacky tacky, C.D's, duct tape, and skewers. This is what we used in our project. The cardboard box's could be different. At first, we made an attempt to create a larger one but it didn't end up working. And then I, Jennifer tried to follow the instruction's and make a smaller one but that didn't work at all. I, Angela think the first one didn't succeed because we used to much tacky tacky and duct tape. If anyone wants to make one, many of these materials can be found at a hardware store.

By: Jennifer and Angela

A Big Thank You to Adam and Judy

   

Last Friday, The Hillwood Herald interviewed Adam and Judy. They talked about all the projects they did, such as the moon walk, the hidden alarm, and the newspaper table. All these challenges and more can be found at Sparkfun.org, as well as at PBS DESIGN SQUAD.

Sparkfun, a website that Adam and Judy recommend to us, is basically a website that has all sorts of  hands-on science experiments, from flying ghosts to lillypad class. For those of you who do not know what Lillypad class is, it is a class that is "Just in time for that Halloween costume, SparkFun is offering a LilyPad Basics Workshop!"

This class filled up quickly, but the website's staff decided to open a few more spots. The class takes place on October 21st at 6 PM and is designed with the beginner in mind. We'll explain how to build simple circuits into almost any fabric!"

The picture below is the frount page on the website.  

In the photo to the left, I am building a hidden alarm challenge.

Meet Adam, an Engineer and Designer

Adam is a mechanical engineer at the IDEO's Palo alto office. He has a passion for desiging what he calls "considered products and services" that responsibly address pressing human needs. He has  desingned a suite of groundbreaking spinal surgery instruments.

• Why did you get the idea of doing this?
• Is Judy your best friend?
• How did you meet her and get the idea of working on DESIGN SQUAD together with her?
• Do you like doing this a lot?
• What was the hardest design challenge for you?
• If a student wants to become an engineer, what should they study most?

Design Squad Hidden Buzzer Failed

Jennifer and I tried to make the DESIGN SQUAD Hidden Buzzer by getting a piece of cardboard, tin foil, double A battery, masking tape, scissors, buzzers.

We took the wires from the buzzer  and put the wires up against the sides of the battery. It didn't WORK! It vibrated, like you could feel the energy. But it didn't make any noise. Making noise is what it was supposed to do.

Jen is trying to see if the wires from the buzzer need to be more exposed. We learned that masking tape works better than duct tape.

I hope it will make noise next week — we'll try it again.

Enter a Poster Contest for Constitution Day

This is the link to the website for the Constitution poster contest. The contest ends october 1rst 2010.


If you would like to be a part of the competition, go to the link button and hopefully win.

This is the winner for the 8th grade poster contest.