Dear, George Heyman

My name is Brandon and I am in the 9th grade, I researched about Clear-Cutting forests and the Forests Service. Firstly I’ll talk to you about What Clear-Cutting is. Clear-Cutting is a logging technique that can severely damage the forest’s ecosystem. It involves in huge machinery which can damage the soils in the ground for more trees to grow. This can cause extinction of animals, extract all the moisture in the ground, dry out leaves which can lead to wildfires in the area. This is a huge issue for growth of trees and other living animals in the area because when they cut down the trees there is no shade in the area which only lets the sun to to hit the ground which can cause wildfires in the dried up grass. The Forest Service are trying to balance out on how many trees are cut per clear cut. In the Timber Industry they raged to President Bush for making the proposal that he created. The annual Timber Yield grew from 3.5 billion board feet of trees cut to 8.3 billion board-feet during the 1950s. And they then spiked to a over 12 billions board feet in the late 80s. Over the year this has gotton terribly worse by almost trippling the amount, they have cut down over 32 billion in 2022. As you can see this certainly is not the best way for a energy source. In conclusion, clearcutting has significant environmental consequences, including the loss of our ecosystem, animals and other living thing. The Forest Service faces challenges in finding a balance in Clear-Cutting, and the practice of Clear-Cutting has been linked to the destruction of habitats and wildlife, soil damage, and uncontrollable Timber Yields. While there are benefits, the disadvantages of clearcutting have more of a worse impact in this world. In the future I do not see clear cutting be even in exsistence and we will find a better way and a more eco friendly way to produce energy.

Essential Question

What does the future look like with Clear-Cutting Forests

1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?

What is Clear-Cutting?

What are some of the challenges that Forest service faces?

Will clear cutting destroy wildlife and other living things in forests?

How much trees are they cutting? Are they cutting too much?

What are the benefits of clear cutting forests?

What are the disadvantages of clear cutting forests?

How much does it cost to clear cut a forest?

2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

In the past in my English class I used Gale Power Search before so, it was a lot easier and quicker for me to use. When I was researching using Gale it was kind of tough for me because if I were to search it up on Google I would get my answer immeaditately, but with Gale I throughly had to read through the article to find the best information possible.

3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?

For the project I used Gale Power Search for 75% of it but the other 25% I used other resources to find information about my topic. I would verify the information by looking it up on a different website and see if the information on the Gale was the same as the other resource. Some of the articles that I looked at were not accurate and I was a bit shocked on the amount of the articles that were not accurate. So I was only able to find around 3-4 good resources from Gale.

4) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

Honestly the only thing that was the hardest part for me was reading the article because I don’t like to read. But after I looked through the article I think I found good point on clear cutting and have a better understanding on Clear-Cutting.

The 7 Questions

1. Both meiosis and mitosis are difficult to model since they involve complicated processes. But in at the end of it meiosis was harder for me to draw because it did not make sense to me unlike the mitosis was easier for me to draw.
2. The most challenging part on making the video was the editing part because I had to time it properly so the video flows and doesn’t look laggy. Another challenging thing was when we were drawing because it was a stop motion video every picture is bascially one frame of the video. So we had to draw and then erase and then draw again then take the picture again so that was the most challenging part for my partner and I.
3. There wasn’t really a easiest part in this project for my partner and I but the easiest i have to say was when I was drawing Meiosis II beacause there wasnt that much to draw unlike the other drawings where it was a bit more complicated. The picture taking was also the easiest part but we realized throughout the picture taking we have to perfectly align the whiteboard to the camera frame. Overall the drawings and the picture taking were the easiest in the project but still went through some struggles.
4. I feel like that we did not have enough drawing in the stop motion, so that some parts of the video the frame did not flow too well but I still think that my I did a good job on the frame word and the transitions.
5. Honestly I did like most of the work in the project but I really tried to get my partner to do some of the project, but my partner really didn’t want to engage in what we were doing. If I had to graph it I would say I did 100% of the work and my partner did nothing.
6. Mitosis is essential for various reasons. For starters, it is required for growth and repair in multicellular animals because it lets cells to split and make new cells to replace injured or worn-out ones. Mitosis also guarantees that each new cell obtains an exact copy of the genetic material from the parent cell, providing for genetic continuity and stability.
7. Meiosis is significant for a variety of reasons. For starters, it is required in many species for sexual reproduction because it creates gametes (eggs and sperm) with half the amount of chromosomes as the parent cell. Offspring can have genetic variety and variation as a result of this. Furthermore, by rearranging and recombining genetic material, meiosis helps to limit the accumulation of mutations across generations.

In this project my peers and I built a house with 2 rooms, and has both a parrell circuit and a series circuit inside the house. The whole house had to be lit up with a single 9 volt battery. My group went through many struggles on how to wire the light bulbs up because the wiring would keep on tangling with the other wires so, my group and I mainly focused on keeping the wires tidy and not tangled up.

Define

While my group and I were connecting wires around the home, we discovered that the wires frequently get tangled together, making it difficult to stay organised and on top of our house. This made it difficult for us to follow the wires to the light bulbs since we frequently got the wires tangled up with each other, preventing us from finishing this job efficiently and in an ordered manner. We collaborated to develop a wire holder using a 3D printer to tackle this problem.

Dream

My group and I wanted to create something simple, easy to print, and functional. We had a lot of issues with our light bulbs, cables, and circuits, so we did some brainstorming to find out what we needed to correct and how we could design it for the best results. I discovered that when we collaborated and used each other’s perspectives and ideas, we were able to come up with a solution that would be ideal for our project, so we began to develop it.

Deliver

After my group and I decided that the main problems on our house were the wiring and we designed a long rectangle with two long holes extending to top for the series circuit and three holes for the parrell circuit. The wires will thread through the holes to create more space and help us stay organized. Overall, I think the 3D printing experience for our design was pretty smooth, except that printing was a bit difficult at first and we ran into some technical issues. Once that was sorted, we managed to 3D print it and collect it later that day to hook it up to our wire and add it to our project.

Another thing that my group and I 3d printed was a battery holder. While doing the project our battery kept on falling over and not staying in place so I 3d printed a battery holder that we can hot glue onto the back of the house close with all the wiring. One problem we discovered was when there is a big gap in our print it need something that is called supports. A 3D print support bascially is a structure created within a 3D printed model to support an overhang or intricate part of a printed object. During the 3D printing process, the printer builds the model layer by layer. If your model has overhangs or gaps that are not supported by the layers below, this can cause the print to fail or be distorted.

To prevent this, support structures are added to the model in areas that require additional support. These supports act as scaffolding and hold the print in place until the print is complete. After you have finished printing, you can snap or cut the support and remove it. There are many types of support structures that can be added to your 3D print, including tree supports, lattice supports, and solid supports. The type of support used depends on the complexity of the model and the material used to print it.

Debrief

Overall, I had a wonderful experience working with my group on the tinkercad design and circuit project, which we successfully completed within our house. We worked effectively together and everyone contributed to the project. We were able to keep organised and fulfil our deadline thanks to our sensible decision to construct a 3D-printed wire holder. In retrospect, we may have improved by making more wire holders, as we had to manage more wires than expected. And making the battery holder to hold the battery in place. Despite the difficulties, I found the experience to be both pleasant and enlightening. In the future I would definitly want to do this project again and maybe even a more difficult task to solve.