May 22nd, 2020

This week I focused on finishing the top part of my bridge, but I ran out of hot glue and couldn’t add as much support as I would’ve hoped. I did however manage to spread out the toothpicks enough to be able to to glue them and to have enough glue to build, while also adding enough support. I wasn’t able to get more pictures of it because I’m currently not home, we traveled up to Kissimmee to see family. Overall it was an enjoyable project, it reminded me lots of my freshman year and how much fun I had creating my rollercoaster. It was definitely a good way to finish the year!

May 15th, 2020

This week I worked on building the base for my toothpick bridge. I followed the same concept we used for building our roller coasters freshman year. I used the toothpicks and hot glue I had left over from that time. The plan is to finish adding the toothpicks to form a pathway in the middle and then I will add the support material on top. This should be done by the time our next blog is due, or even before then. In order to build the cubes I glued together 4 toothpicks and then intertwined them with 3 other bundles of 4 in order to form a square, I then made 4 bundles which I intertwined going up, and lastly made another square to seal off the top of the cube. For the support bar that is going across the axels of the cube I had to use 2 toothpicks glued together as one on its own wasn’t long enough.

May 7th, 2020

For my project, I decided that I was going to do a toothpick bridge. Our freshman year we made a toothpick roller coaster and I thought it would be a good idea to remake something out of toothpicks. We had also tested our a program in which we built a bridge to withstand certain weight without collapsing, while maintaining the budget given to us. I think this should be equally as challenging as building the rollercoaster was. I still have toothpicks and hot glue left over from the roller coaster which I can use.

May 1st, 2020

I was looking into purchasing the peltier plate today but realized that it wouldn’t arrive until a month of even two from now due to the pandemic situation. I think I may choose a different project, something I can actually do while I’m at home because by the time the most important part of the project arrives, we won’t even be in school anymore. 

Now, I just have to research a new project to do at home with materials I can get before June. I want to do something which I can ask my dad to help me gather materials for, I just don't know what it is yet. I'll probably end up doing something for mother's day for my mom, something meaningful that she can use... I was thinking something along the lines of a jewelry box, so I will probably make her one with the help of my dad.

April 23rd, 2020

Today I focused on looking into how much a Peltier plate would cost me. According to interestingengineering.com, if I bought an electric cooler off Amazon for $20, I could get the Peltier plate. However, after researching online, I found this on eBay for only $3.94. It certainly is way less than $20 so I think I’ll definitely give it a try. I’d also need to get a can of cooking fuel because according to the website, a candle like any other would not hold enough power to charge a phone. I’ll try to order this online as well so it won’t be necessary for me to leave my home. I will be updating on the process of gathering the supplies as the packages come to my house.

April 17th, 2020

For my quarantine senior project I decided that I wanted to make a way to charge my phone with a candle. After further research I realized that I would need to purchase a Peltier device along with some other materials, equaling to about $55 according to this video. I decided that I’d like to look into this, maybe I can build one for much cheaper. I decided to go with this project because we live in Florida, known as hurricane central. I’ve been through a few hurricanes in my life and know how absolutely necessary power is in order to inform family and loved ones that you’re okay. It has happened one too many times that my house didn’t have power for a day or two and we weren’t really able to use anything and we had to be careful about not over using our phones and draining the power. I think this will be a useful project and I look forward to finding out how it’ll work.

March 5th, 2020

I worked on gluing my box, the only part missing is the bottom part of it which I need to purchase in order to measure it. I also need to work on the coordinates for the top of the box in order for it to fit properly, as of now I have the paint ready at home. I should be finishing the box sometime next week or by the end of the quarter.