Overview:
We tend to have a driving question that pushes our explorations throughout these units. This project was no different. Our driving questions were: How can we design a home that is comfortable in all conditions without the use of electricity? And, What is the most efficient way to heat and cool a home? This project was very different, because it was so long, we completed a series of mini-projects, and then one longer project towards the end. For these projects, my partners in crime so to speak were Sally Jung, Eric Cheng, and Ryan Tavenner.
The Projects:
As I previously stated, this was not one project over a few weeks. Instead, we had several smaller projects with one larger project at the end. Here is what they were:
1. Atomic Structure: In this exploration, we looked at the most basic part of the universe, right? It's the smallest, it makes up everything, and it has three parts, right? What else is there to know? Well, even though it is immeasurably small, it is just as immeasurably complex. We started with the basics; protons (positive) and neutrons make a positively charged core, or nucleus. This is then surrounded by negatively charged electrons making up the basic structure of an atom. Note the word "basic". This then got into completely complex quantum and particle physics, that I don't even think the author of the passage fully understood it. This being said, that passage was a great way to look into how complex things have gotten, and showed us how much more there is to learn.
2. Design a Hot Water Heater: Essentially, we were tasked with creating a device that would use the sun to heat up water. The basic design of our heater was this: a parabolic reflector, four feet across, one foot in depth which would capture the sunlight and focus it on one point, where we would have a box filled with water. It worked amazingly well. We got 90000 Joules of energy to heat up our water by 30 degrees Celsius.
3. Solar Angles and how it changes during seasons: During this small exploration, we looked at how the change of the seasons affects the angle at which the light from the sun hits our location on the Earth. AS the tilt of the Earth causes certain hemispheres to tilt towards the sun, they will get the most direct sunlight. For us in the north hemisphere, this is summer. For the south hemisphere, this is winter.
4. Daylighting Design Activity: In this project, we looked at different daylighting techniques and then used them to build a cardboard house. These techniques included solar tubes, skylights, clerestory windows, and light shelves.
Solar tube: Skylight:
2. Design a Hot Water Heater: Essentially, we were tasked with creating a device that would use the sun to heat up water. The basic design of our heater was this: a parabolic reflector, four feet across, one foot in depth which would capture the sunlight and focus it on one point, where we would have a box filled with water. It worked amazingly well. We got 90000 Joules of energy to heat up our water by 30 degrees Celsius.
3. Solar Angles and how it changes during seasons: During this small exploration, we looked at how the change of the seasons affects the angle at which the light from the sun hits our location on the Earth. AS the tilt of the Earth causes certain hemispheres to tilt towards the sun, they will get the most direct sunlight. For us in the north hemisphere, this is summer. For the south hemisphere, this is winter.
4. Daylighting Design Activity: In this project, we looked at different daylighting techniques and then used them to build a cardboard house. These techniques included solar tubes, skylights, clerestory windows, and light shelves.
Solar tube: Skylight:
Clerestory Window: Light Shelf:
Here is our cardboard house design. It used all of these daylighting techniques.
5. Site Selection: For this section we did a site selection, quite obviously. We chose three sites around campus that had potential for putting a building and rated them numerically by ranking each one on a scale of one to five for ten different criteria. To the right you will see our sites and their rankings.
6. Materials Testing: This was a experiment in which we put a variety of materials under a light bulb for twenty minutes the turned the bulb off for another twenty. During this time, we measured temperature increase. We did this to see which materials held in heat the best to know what to use for our cold frame. Below is a picture of our class's data. |
7. Building Design: This was the bulk of this unit. We had to design two different items. One was a cold frame. This is essentially a mini greenhouse for seedlings. This would be put into the San Marin garden. The second project was a reflector. As last year's STEM class constructed a solar studio, the north window did nothing. Yes it was great aesthetically, but it captured no light as it was facing away from the sun. Our task was to create a scale model, blueprints, a materials list, a budget, and a presentation for each. Our cold frame was: large to hold many seeds, not overly expensive considering size, extremely sturdy, used plexi-glass, and was weather resistant. Our reflector was: a great teaching tool, sturdy, large to reflect great amounts of sunlight, and was easily adjustable, as well as easy to build. I made scale models of both of these of a CAD (computer-aided design) program. Below you will see pictures from the CAD program as well as our presentation.
|
Cold Frame: Reflector Front View: Reflector Side View: Reflector Side View (zoomed):
8. Justification: In this small portion of our project, we looked at pros and cons of a variety of different energy sources. We did this as a group document, which was a very cool experience. It was thirty-two people working on one document at the same time. It was crazy, but fun. If you would like to see our work, click here.
9. Generation of Electricity: This was the last thing we did in this unit. For this we constructed small wind turbines. One had to be a VAWT (rotates around a vertical axis), and the other had to be a HAWT (your standard, horizontal axis turbine). We then hooked these turbines up to a device that showed us the amount of energy they produced.
9. Generation of Electricity: This was the last thing we did in this unit. For this we constructed small wind turbines. One had to be a VAWT (rotates around a vertical axis), and the other had to be a HAWT (your standard, horizontal axis turbine). We then hooked these turbines up to a device that showed us the amount of energy they produced.
Concepts:
Heat: Heat (cal, J) is a measure of how fast the atoms are moving in an object or area
Specific Heat: (cal, J) The amount of heat to raise the temperature of a gram of a substance by one degree.
Radiation: Transfer of heat through waves/particles
Conduction: Transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: Transfer of heat through a fluid
Insulation: Bad at conducting heat
0th Law of Thermodynamics: If two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in equilibrium with each other
1st Law of Thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: entropy increases
3rd Law of Thermodynamics: Temperature can never reach absolute zero, as heat always exists
Specific Heat: (cal, J) The amount of heat to raise the temperature of a gram of a substance by one degree.
Radiation: Transfer of heat through waves/particles
Conduction: Transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: Transfer of heat through a fluid
Insulation: Bad at conducting heat
0th Law of Thermodynamics: If two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in equilibrium with each other
1st Law of Thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: entropy increases
3rd Law of Thermodynamics: Temperature can never reach absolute zero, as heat always exists
reflection:
This project started out excellently, but as time went on, things slowly declined. For the first part of the project (solar water heater, etc.) we all worked very hard and were quite into the project. However as time went on, I started losing interest. It was very long term, and the final products (cold frame, reflector) had to be completed in a long time scale. They were due in about six weeks from when we started them. Because of this, for these two projects, myself and Sally did a majority of the work in this project. One peak was time management. We did spread out the work load over a long period of time which lead to never having to rush at the end. Another peak was learning to use the 123D desgin CAD program from Autodesk. I made both of our scale models on this program, and I consider myself to be good at using this now.
We did have many pits. One was staying on task. As these were such long projects, we found ourselves losing interest sometimes and getting offtask. Another pit I fad was team cooperation. As I previously said, for the the cold frame and reflector, Sally and I did most of the work for them, so this led to very little cooperation. For this project, I felt like it was definitely more of a learning experience than anything else for me.
We did have many pits. One was staying on task. As these were such long projects, we found ourselves losing interest sometimes and getting offtask. Another pit I fad was team cooperation. As I previously said, for the the cold frame and reflector, Sally and I did most of the work for them, so this led to very little cooperation. For this project, I felt like it was definitely more of a learning experience than anything else for me.