Team Logo and Tshirt Design

Cadence and Daisy went to meet with a graphic designer who helped them design the team t-shirts.  This is their design.

SHOW ME POSTER February 24

The team worked on their Show Me poster.  They each wrote their personal description and pieced together some of the poster.

Team Meeting February 17

We studied the renewable energy add on it.  We tested the solar panel and found that it was generating watts from the sun.  We tested the hand crank radio and converted mechanical energy into electrical energy. 

Ammar and Anush built the hand crank and generator into the flashlight that had built last week. 

 

 

Cadie, Emma, Maya and Daisy worked on building the solar panel into their Super Spider.

 

Cadie, Emma, Maya and Daisy then worked on programming the Mindstorms NXT brick.

 

Team Meeting February 10

Ammar and Anush built a hand crank radio.

Cadie and Maya built a volcano for the model.

Daisy and Emma worked on the Super Spider

MEET THE TEAM

TEAM LAVA WAVES TEAM MEMBERS: 

ANUSH 8 YEARS OLD AND IN 3RD GRADE AT SPRINGVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  THIS IS HIS SECOND YEAR IN jrFLL. 

AMMAR 8 YEARS OLD AND IN 2ND GRADE AT MONTESSORI SCHOOL OF BEAVERTON.  THIS IS HIS THIRD YEAR IN jrFLL.

EMMA IS 8 YEARS OLD AND IN 2ND GRADE AT SPRINGVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  THIS IS HER THIRD YEAR IN jrFLL.

CADENCE IS 7 YEARS OLD AND IN 2ND GRADE AT VALLEY CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  THIS IS HER THIRD YEAR IN jrFLL.

MAYA IS 7 YEARS OLD AND IN 2ND GRADE AT SPRINGVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  THIS IS MAYA'S SECOND YEAR IN jrFLL.

DAISY IS 7 YEARS OLD AND IN 2ND GRADE AT SPRINGVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.  THIS IS DAISY'S FIRST YEAR IN jrFLL.

February 3 Research Mt. St. Helens - CHOOSING A MODEL

 

THE R3PTAR WAS A BIG HIT!

RESEARCH

How much damage did Mt. St. Helens cause in its 1980 eruption?

$1.1 billion. Fifty-seven people were killed and 200 homes, 27 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways and 185 miles (300 km) of highway were destroyed.

 

The eruption killed 57 people, in the lateral blast, ashfall, and lahars. The causes to death included asphyxiation, thermal injuries, and trauma. Four indirect death were caused by a cropduster hitting powerlines during the ashfall, a traffic accident during poor visibilty, and two heart attacks from shoveling ash.

The Cost of Volcanic Eruptions details the economic impacts of the eruption.

The Toutle River was flooded by melting snow and ice from the mountain. About 12 million board feet of stockpiled lumber were sweep in the river. Eight bridges were destroyed. 200 homes were destroyed or damaged. Debris dams were added to help control sediment in the rivers.

Thirty logging trucks, 22 transport vehicles, and 39 railcars were damaged or destroyed along with 4.7 billion board feet of timber.

Shipping was stopped on the Columbia River and some vessels were stranded. In eastern Washington, falling ash stranded 5,000 motorist. Ash had to be cleared from runways and highways.

For a limited time, some people living near the eruption suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome: depression, troubled sleep, irritability, ans a sense of powerlessness.

From 1980-1990, 74 research projects were funded by the National Science Foundation at a total cost of just less than $5 million. The Mount St. Helens Visitors Center at Castle Rock cost $5.5 million to construct. Trails, roads in the park, and interpretive centers cost another $42.3 million. New highway and bridges from the Toutle River to Johnston Ridge cost $145 million. facilities along this road will cost another $25 million.

Sources of Information

Carson, R., 1990, Mount St. Helens: The Eruption and Recovery of a Volcano: Sasquatch Books, Seattle Washington, 160 p.

Simkin, T., and Siebert, L., 1994, Volcanoes of the World: Geoscience Press, Tucson, Arizona, 349 p.

 WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED SINCE THE ERUPTION OF MT. ST. HELENS IN 1980 AND IN 2004-2008?

A principal objective has been to adopt new technologies that integrate many instruments into a single package to lower power requirements, reduce instrument footprint on sensitive landscapes, be portable for rapid deployment into remote areas, and transmit data effectively back to the CVO. These requirements were met during the 2004-2008 eruption of Mount St. Helens when CVO engineers developed the Spider monitoring unit. The Spider houses several instruments in one container to detect earthquakes, ground swelling and contractions, as well as changes in gas chemistry from emitted volcanic fumes. The instrument spider can be deployed by helicopter, and reduces dangers to scientists who previously were required to spend long periods of time in hazardous volcanic areas. When volcano conditions are stable, scientists deploy permanent stations that use similar instrument packages for long-term volcano monitoring.

 

BRAINSTORMING. 

The team discussed models to build.  Daisy suggested a crank radio.  Cadence suggested building a Super Spider.  The team was split.  The team decided to build both.  Ammar and Anush will work on building a crank radio.  The girls will build the Super Spider. 

BUILDING

Anush and Ammar created a prototype of a crank radio.  They told me what they thought they might need (order Lego bricks) to build the radio. 

 
OMSI PRESENTATION

Daisy and Cadence came up with ideas for team t-shirts and presented them to the team.



MAYA AND EMMA disassembled the R3PTAR to prepare to build a spider.


 

January 27 Research Mt. St. Helens

The team watched a video on YouTube about the Mt. St. Helens eruption:

http://youtu.be/xP2dreOI8gI

Building

Continued to build the Mindstorms NXT R3PTAR and worked on programming different gears using WeDo software.  The team also built an emergency kit out of Legos.

 

 

 

 

 

January 20 Planning the Project

Cadence and Maya sat down and worked backwards from the March 8 deadline creating a timeline for the team's project. 

1/20 Planning
1/27 Research
2/3  Research
2/10 Building Model
2/17 Finish Model
2/24 Show me Poster and Tshirt design
3/3 Show Me Poster Finalize and Presentation Practice

 

BUILDING

Ammar Continued to work on the R3PTAR with Ashley from Team Storm Smashers.  Emma and Daisy continued to build gears and program using the WeDo Educational Software.

January 13 - Natual Disaster Focus VOLCANOES

After studying all the possible Natural Disasters at ready.gov the team chose Volcanoes and their Natural Disaster.  Anush and Ammar worked on building a R3PTAR snake from the Mindstorms NXT kit www.mindstorms.com.  Team continued to work on WeDo software building worm, crown and cam gears. 

 

BUILDING SKILLS

 

 

The R3PTAR is a tall long powerful robot that moves like a real snake and can strike with its fearsome fangs when it detects something.

 

 

Ammar and Anush starting to build the R3PTAR.

 

 

 Emma programming gears on WeDo.

January 6 New Years Get Together

The team met at Ashley and Daisy's house for a New Years Get Together.  Anush is in India for two weeks.  The team set out at Arbor Oaks to raise money for the Red Cross.  They sold candy bars for $2.00 each.  The team raised $34.00.  Thank you to our Arbor Oaks neighbors for supporting our team and our cause.  This money will be donated to the Red Cross efforts in Philippines. 

Eunji and Maya made presentations about Natural Disasters. 

Ammar worked with Team Storm Smashers Ashley and built the birds using WeDo Software and programmed them.   

December 16 Christmas Break Celebration

Maya on team Lava Waves informed her team of 2 natural disasters Thunderstorms - Lightning and Tornadoes. Lava Waves team presented a skit showing what to do before during and after these two kinds of storms. Emma presented the science experiment where she took a rectangular clear container filled with room temperature water and put 2 blue ice cubes in one end and 2 drops of red food coloring in the opposite end. The colors were swirling and forming similar effects to a thunderstorm and tornado.

Each Natural Disaster we are studying has a How to Prepare, What to do during and What to do after. (ready.gov)  How to prepare always begins with Emergency Kit and Communication Plan. That is why it was very special to have the Red Cross come and talk about what goes into an emergency kit and why it's important to have a communication plan. The Red Cross also has iPhone smartphone apps that you can load that will provide information to you that is helpful before during or after a natural disaster.

Team project managers Cadie and Ashley met separately to come up with fundraising ideas. They have a box of candy and they will sell it to raise money.

The teams got together for a celebration. 

They played games like Pin the Nose on the Snowman and enjoyed delicious snacks and good conversation.