Solution Fluency – First Aid Helper

Define :  The problem that we are looking to fix, is helping someone who can’t depend on another person to help them when they are in need.  This machine would help people who are sick, elderly or possibly just live alone.  It would take away the need to be taken care of by someone else.  The First Aid Helper would be there for assistance, and even to call 911 in case of an emergency.

Discover : Our problem has been designed to decrease the need for a stay at home nurse since it would be impossible for them to be working all the time.  We hope that in times of trouble, the First Aid Helper will be something to depend on when needed.

Dream :  Our product has been inspired by many other devices.  The first, however, was a fictional character.  We were first inspired to make a robot similar to Baymax in the Disney movie “Big Hero 6”.  Since this would be a very difficult task to achieve, we decided to think somewhat realistic.  We now like to describe our product as a Roomba with features similar to Siri.  We want our product to be capable of a lot.  For example, whenever there is a sign of danger, the device is able to contact 911.  We want to make this possible by setting various trigger words like “help”.  We are also thinking of adding a Bluetooth feature for it.  This would help for if the First Aid Helper is not close enough to read your words.  There would also be a deactivate button in case of accidental button pressing. Overall, our dream is to be a source of security of whoever may need it.

Deliver : As previously mentioned, our main inspiration for the design of our device would be the Roomba.  We are planning to take the basic design but we’d take out the cleaning equitment and replace it with the necessities of our device.  Such as the first aid kit and the ability to speak and listen.

pbworks.com
Roomba circuit diagram

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-roomba-works.html

In conclusion, we hope to take our innovation seriously as we do think that it can result in something helpful.

Static Electricity – What I Learnt

To begin our electricity unit, we explored the effects of static electricity.  Doing so, I can say that I have a better understanding of it.  To demonstrate, here are three different things that I’ve learnt.

  1. During this chapter, I learnt more about atoms and what finds itself inside of each atom. More specifically, protons, electrons and neutrons.  What I learnt about each of these is their charges and their locations.  Also, their reactions to certain things.
  2. One of the most important things, in my opinion was learning about the laws of static electricity.  Learning this has thought me why certain materials will react differently with each other.  And here is why; Like charges repel, opposite charges, as well as neutral ones, attract and each other.
  3. The difference between an insulator and a conductor. Basically the two do have quite a few differences, but being categorized as one of the two can mean one thing, how the electrons choose to move through them.  For example, an insulator is a material that does not let electrons move so freely through them.  Some insulators would be materials like fur, paper and cotton.  And as for the conductors, they’re pretty much the opposite.  They let electrons move freely through them.  Some examples for conductors would be materials like metal, aluminum and copper.

During this chapter I learnt that static electricity has been the foundation for modern electricity.  And one of my favorite experiments that helped me realize that was the Static Discovery Lab.  In my opinion, this was the perfect introduction to static electricity.  It gave us the opportunity to experiment with different materials and their static reaction.  It was really helpful in that sense.  I felt like I was starting to understand why the different materials were having their different effects.  Before hand, I hadn’t really understood the concept of static electricity.  Now I can say that I can.

“We’ll Rise” – Pop Art Painting

For my pop art painting, I really wanted to incorporate politics into it since it has definitely become a huge part of pop culture.  My piece was inspired by the response to the US presidential election, more specifically, The Women’s March.  In this painting I wanted to concentrate on minorities.  There are four different portraits of women.  One Black, one Muslim, one Native American and the last Latina. I wanted to have my art portray women as strong and powerful since I remember hearing that most often, pop art portrayed women as sex objects.  I wanted to give more of a modern take on how women should be viewed today.

 

Bard on the Beach Workshop

 

Image result for comedy tragedy
Source: reddit.com

Last week we had two people from a theater group called Bard on the Beach come in and teach us about the Shakespearian play, “The Taming of the Shrew.  What I really enjoyed about this was that Shakespeare was not taught in a boring matter.  This was defiantly not seen as a boring lesson. The entire time the class was on their toes to see what would happen next.  Even if the some people hadn’t really had a interest for Shakespeare before, everyone seemed very entertained. Bard on the Beach gave learning Shakespeare a twist.  I thought that learning Shakespeare would be reading in the class as no one participated.  It was the opposite.  Instead we learnt some acting tips as we talked about the origins of Shakespeare’s plays.  It really did add a twist to what we all expected.

Growing Up – English COL project

For English class I was told to read the novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”.  After reading I went over the different themes it explored.  One of the themes that stood out to me was “Growing Up”.  This theme stood up to me since it’s something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  I decided to make this video to share the message that finds itself behind the idea of growing up.

Enjoy!

Isabella