Terrible Losses

By Shae

Recently, we got snails to eat the algae in our class fish tank. They were excellent at keeping the tank nice and clean. Their names were: Bob,Sunny, Tiger, and Shnaily. Their jobs were to clean; they were the power cleaners. One beautiful morning in the tank,  the fish caretaker spotted an uneasy sight. Bob was upside down. He was brought out to be inspected. He smelled awful and didn’t move. So he was brought outside and buried. The loss seemed to affect the others. Shnaily couldn’t take it. He never ate from his sadness, and sadly died a week later. The others were torn, but stayed strong longer than Shnaily had. About two weeks later, Sunny passed. Leaving Tiger to fend for himself.

ELECTRICITY SEVEN! Solar Cell Edition!!

by The Electricians: Declan, and Arin

with guest speakers: Cedar and Alex

Quote by Cedar!

We’re back after a long absence to give you the longest and most edge-of-your-seat electricity blog yet! Did Queen Scarlet eat us again? I hope not.

We were making flashlights last time, and now we have moved on to solar experiments with motors, buzzers, LED’s, and of course, amazingly awesome solar cells. See pictures below for the full scoop on what happened. And also read the rest, because believe me, you won’t understand a thing if you don’t.

WITH:

Alex — Researcher at the Shutesbury Academy for Experienced Electricians (solar group)

Cedar — Wise scientist from the Gradefour School of Solar Powered People

Alex says in his lengthened explanation about what happened today, “Today we used solar panels to power different things like the buzzer, the fan/motor, the LED, and multimeter that told how much volts we’re creating.”

Arin says, looking back on past blog excitements and comparing them with this one, “I’ve really never seen any mode of energy compared with this one in what it can do for the environment and electricity.”

Let’s look at some of the other kinds of sources of electricity that the Electricians would never agree with.

Nuclear, coal, oil, and other fossil fuels are things that can really harm the environment and us. “It was really fun to power things with clean energy that produces no emissions,” says Declan, who is like, the person who you should go to when you want a good persuasive essay on why those are “REALLY, VERY BAD” fuels.

Today we looked at a fountain that was powered by a large solar cell. The little spout that returned the water and put it out again was connected by wires to, technically, the sun.

Now let’s look at all of the kinds of sources of electricity that the Electricians do agree with.

Wind, biomass (a little), hydro, ocean, and SOLAR!!!!!!!!

Next week we will talk about the town that we are making, powered by solar and wind.

“Solar panels can produce a LOT of energy,”

--Cedar, electrician of the week

Mindfulness of Scent

Today during MindUp we practiced being mindful of our sense of smell and learned how this sense is connected to emotions and memories. We had 8 mystery smell canisters that students silently sniffed and then wrote reflections about. They tried to figure out the source of each smell, and also noted what feelings or memories a smell brought up. As you might imagine, there were some crowd-favorite smells (pine, citrus peel, coffee grinds, mint toothpaste) and some that almost cleared the room (raw garlic, wasabi). It was a scent-sational experience!

“I learned that smell brings back memories. If you smell something like, for example your grandma’s perfume, it reminds you of your grandma.” 
—Gianna

Electricity 6!

special flashlight edition!!!

by Josh, Declan and Arin

Electrician of the week is JOSH!!

We haven’t written in soooo long! Did Queen Scarlet melt us or something??? I thought she was dead… okay, getting off topic here, time for electricity…

Last week, Ms. Scott gave us some exciting news, we were making our own flashlights! We made the switches using instructions from Ms. Scott and a book! This week, we expanded. We actually made the flashlights. There were a variety of materials that people used for their flashlight outside, including legos, UNICEF boxes, cardboard and construction paper.

For this, we’ll focus on two flashlights, the I.C.LIGHT and the ReadingPro. The I.C.LIGHT was made by Declan and Arin, the ReadingPro was made by Josh and Levi! The I.C.LIGHT model is one UNICEF box and tinfoil and clear plastic covering the front. It uses two D batteries and one bulb.

The ReadingPro model uses two UNICEF boxes with clear plastic reflecting off the front. This model uses two D batteries and one bulb. Both the I.C.LIGHT and the ReadingPro can be used to read in a dark area.

Putting together all of our studies to make this amazing thing was an exciting thing to do!!!

Another model we will share is the QuadrupleAA.PLUS. This model was made by Taikoda, and is a very strong and unique one. It uses 4 Double-A batteries and one bulb. The bulb is covered in tinfoil. Tai’s case was made of LEGOS and had the strongest (and craziest) glare of all.

And now… the quote…

“Electricity’s always fun, but it’s not always simple!!!”

-Josh

ReadingPro

I.C.LIGHT (in action)

Mind Up!

by Annabel

In 4th grade every friday we do an activity called MindUP. Mind Up is a time that we calm our amygdalas down with mindfulness. The amygdala is part of your brain. Its job is to protect you from danger and from doing not right things. It's like your security guard. But it also stresses you out. For example, if you are walking on a trail and you see a rattle snake that you weren't expecting, your amygdala would have a freak out. 

It's just like a snow globe. When you shake a snow globe you can't see anything clearly. But when you put the snow globe down you can see inside. The snow globe is like your amygdala. When you see a rattle snake, it's like the snow globe got shaken up. When that happens, your job is to calm it down until you can see the picture inside.

Punctuation Humor 1

Electricity 5!

by Arin, Declan and Josh

Electrician of the week is ARIN!!

“So on Monday, we built a filament out of silver nichrome wire!” says Declan, remembering this cool day. “We awesome cause we make filament,” says Josh (geez, stop being funny!) In case you don’t know what a filament is, it’s that little wire inside of an incandescent bulb! And in case you don’t know what an incandescent bulb is, it’s: 

Below, there is a diagram of the circuit we made to use the filament with. Red clay held the wires together to stand up as we wound silver nichrome wire around the two standing-up-like wires. Then, we connected the last bit. The silver nichrome wire glowed! We all felt like we were actually creating a lightbulb!

And then, today, we looked at two different kinds of circuits. Series and parallel. Two batteries and one bulb. We predicted which one would be brighter, and why? Turns out, against most of our guesses, the series circuit was the brightest!

Now, after months of talking talking nonstop talking, it’s time for… MORE TALKING! No, the quote…

“In a parallel circuit, electricity has two paths, one from each battery. Therefore, it will have the brightness of one battery, and a longer life span”

-Arin

Next week, we’re starting to make switches and flashlights. Stay tuned…