Biology
Microscopes
Microscope Design
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For choosing a design for our microscopes, the teacher gave us three options to choose from: a full scientific microscope, a cell phone adapter with lens attached, or an adapter to a professionally made microscope. Of the three options, we could use 3D printing, laser cutting or any other way of making it. My partner and I chose to make a 3D printed full microscope, we chose this because we liked the idea of a full microscope, and we chose 3D printing because we were interested in leaning how it works and learning the basics to it. After choosing the design we were gonna use, we went online to find the files for the microscope we wanted to use. We got really lucky and found the perfect design online with absolutely no flaws in it. The flaws came when it came down to the actual printing of the pieces. The printer sometimes would jam out and not extrude plastic but still be "printing", meaning it would follow the code of the coordinates but would actually print anything out. I had to learn from the engineering teacher how the basics of maintenance and functions of the printers worked, but he wasn't always around, so I had to self teach myself to "fix" little glitches.
Photographs
After we had completed out microscopes and attached our lenses, we had to actually use them to take a picture of anything of our choosing. We had to find something that to the naked eye wasn't the most appealing, but when magnified it changes, thus following the project prompt of perspective. We chose a piece of wood we found out in the courtyard of our school, and when magnified you can more closely see the grooves in the wood.
General Biology
Health
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About every other Friday, we would have Health Fridays, this was a time where our teacher would read off anonymous question people have asked his website about anything that has to with sex, diet, medications, or drugs. This was a good time for people and me to ask ask question we would otherwise be embarrassed to ask. My first takeaway was when Planned Parenthood came in and give lessons on safe sex and STD awareness. Of course I have prior knowledge of all of the subjects they touched on, although they gave all the actual facts and correct information. The second was the fact that if you schedule an appointment with Planned Parenthood and you didn't want your parents or guardians to know, you can schedule it during school and you could be excused for it.
The Biology Final
The final lab wasn't as hard as it was nerve racking. The way to get the right answers is answer every question exactly as the directions say to, ans as easy as it sounds, we always end up getting penalized for it... What I liked was that we had a group to do it, everyone in my group had a role or was always supporting the group in some way. It also helped that everyone was really focused at all times. In my group I felt that I helped as equally as everyone, one person in my group wasn't able to read a pulse on a wrist as accurately as I could, but she could understand directions more than me. My group was a perfect cycle, everyone would try different roles, and no one ever argued about anything, it was all always respectful and effective.
REflection
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Perspective to me means the different angles that every situation can be looked at. The most challenging part for me was the amount of writing and reading we had to do for this project, and that is my weakness. I don't have the best reading or writing stamina, and this project as hard as it was for me, really gave me a big push in improving those skills. Also another challenge was just the amount of maintenance for the 3D printers, although I enjoyed getting to learn the ins and outs of it. I learned a lot on the English in terms of the critical lenses and ways of analyzing literature. For the Biology side, a lot of the learning was about the 3D printers and how to use different types of computer programs. This project taught me to look at different opinions in a new light, and to understand different people viewpoints on different issues.
Exhibition
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For exhibition night, I was in charge of the presentation of the microscopes. We were given the entire biology room as the display for the microscopes, it was great because we didn't have to share space and we got total freedom. We displayed the microscopes by best functionality, best design and look, and the ones that took the best pictures. From the ceiling we had prints of the pictures taken hanging down for parents to see. On the far side of the class, I set up two 3D printers for people who have never seen one work to get to see exactly how it works. I would give little lesson to people who were more interested than others as well. This exhibition was great, we had the entire school exhibition that night, so more than just the juniors parents came in to watch what we had done. We also had the new freshman for the next year attend as well. Also have the biology honors projects displayed was also great because it showed more than just what the class project was.