Category: Uncategorized

It is sad to say this but my sophomore year here at MSHS is coming to an end. This means two things; Summer and Exams. For mostly every class the Exam is standardized and in the test-like form to show “what you have learned”, but is this really going to show what you have learned when it is a paper full of specific questions with generically only one answer correct?

What I decided to do for my final exam was mess around with Beyond and make this show the most advanced animation-wise. It took me a while to get Beyond working as Mrs. LaBrecque or Mr. Jacob Phillips had to get it correlated and connected to MSHS’s very own Planetarium. This takes a little while since Jacob is not always around to help as he has his own life and Mrs. LaBrecque has 50 other things to do that are just as important, if not more. Also even though I wish it would, the world does not revolve around me. So instead of getting impatient or frustrated, I brainstormed. I really put some thought into what genre of song, what song, and what theme I was going to go for.

It took me a few days to come up with idea for the laser show, as my as two were very similar and I didn’t want that again. So this time I switched up the Genre. I changed it to more of a mellow pop. I chose the song Parachutes by Coldplay. This song is a little on the short side but that worked since Laser Shows take FOREVER to complete and I was already a bit behind. I liked the story line behind the song as it gave me a family feeling. The song is much slower than my previous choices which came out to help me out with correlating the lyrics with the song.

This show I wanted to prioritize the animations and making them correlate and be advanced, but at the same time not let them overlap. The skills required you are not just born with. You need to have prior knowledge of some type of editing as long as with a mentor who somewhat knows Beyond, because Beyond is very confusing. I learned these skills mostly from Jacob and people around me also figuring it out.

The project was going very well and on time but about a week into the Laser Show, the Song stopped correlating with the animations. You may be wondering how it can just stop. I don’t know what happened but every time I paused the audio it would skip back like 15 seconds, causing it to play the right lyrics at the wrong time. I could not find a permanent fix to it but I found a temporary fix incase it happens to Mrs. LaBrecque. As long as you start from the VERY BEGINNING and do not pause it all the way through, itll play smoothly. This made it very difficult to make the Lyrics on screen correlate with the audio. But I made it work and just started the song from the start, every. single. time.

Another reason why Science for Inventors is just overall my favorite class and helps you learn more. Mrs. LaBrecque chose to let us decide what subject we would like to focus on and pursue the final exam. This really helps my focus and hard work to stay on the right path because as I am doing my work and learning, most importantly I am having fun. I chose to go back to what I started with, The Laser Program utilizing Beyond 3.0 because I wanted to finish with what I started on. I would love to be in this same class in this same classroom with the same teacher next year as this class was amazing. Thank you Mrs. Labrecque!!!

Since my last blog post not much has changed. Slowly, everyday I work a little farther into my laser show to perfect it. I am working slow so it will be as perfect as I can get it. However I am very limited with Beyond as there isn’t enough animations to use. It takes me a while to find a animation that even remotely correlates with the music while producing a story. I have been making progress though and the show is becoming much better than my previous show.

This show will be better because I am starting to fully understand Beyond and the way it works. Mr. Jacob Phillips has been a great help to show me the way the animations are positioned and the way to make them move how I would like. This different positioning and layout is making this show better than my last one, However I believe in my previous laser show it was a better story time line. But when utilizing Beyond, since it is so limited it’s Hit or Miss when designing a show with music if they have enough animations to finish the show while telling a story.

One huge road block I have ran into is making the Laser Show tell a story. I know what I want for the show and animations to correlate with the lyrics to the music to preform a story, however I cannot find every animation to match with the music as I would want. One way I have found to ram through this roadblock is to just write out the lyrics it is saying and only write the important lyrics that kind of visualize a scene into your head.

For my third quarter project, I have decided to go back into the Lasers program. To make my lasershow I am planning on utilizing Beyond 4.0. We have been given three weeks so far to work on our each project. During the first week, I chose to brainstorm what song I would like to do while staying within the restrictions and the song containing a story.

I chose to go into a more hip hoppy, rap – type song. For my project I am using the song “The Bigger Picture” by the upcoming artist Lil Baby. I chose this song because of the story it tells and how I could bring some more light to the Equality issue that stands among us today in the USA. To get me started on what kind of story it could tell or some ideas, I used the website Timeline.ly. The song is about Equality and what African Americans have to go through throughout their life.

Even though we are currently 3 weeks in, I didn’t try to go into Beyond until the end of the second week. One thing that’s a problem with Beyond is that it needs to be hooked up to the actual Planetarium itself and connect to all of the Planetarium’s unique and different lasers. The past week or two has been very busy and the snow days have been getting in the way of work being done. I am very happy to say that I will be getting started on the show itself very soon. Even though I have not been able to get into Beyond’s program, I have not let this deter me from getting stuff done to prepare myself for the show I am making. I have watched a few different animated picture shows that correspond with the song itself. This has led me to many different ideas and how to incorporate a story into this song. My plan is to show the different perspectives and voices that are in this song. My next steps are to get into Beyond hopefully and get started on this unique Laser Show!

For my Semester 1 exam project, I was given two choices; those being either make a toy that has a function or purpose or make a succulent plant vase. I thought about it for a day and brainstormed ideas of each weighing which was the best. I chose to make a Succulent plant holder because in my room at home I have a corner of my room that has succulent plants under a huge light that my mom forces me to keep in my room. ( reason being is because my room is in the basement it is the perfect density for the plants to thrive as my Mom says)

To start off I went to a few different sites that show 3-D printed designs to get ideas that would work or not. One of those sites being Thingiverse and I searched Succulent holder vase. I looked at them and began my design. I knew that I would want 3 different pots in one big vase and have a little water reserve type thing at the bottom. So I began tinkering around on TinkerCad and building my device. After building a water reserve at the bottom and the three vases above I knew I needed a drain, so I searched on Thingiverse a “drain”. I decided to use one of the first that came up for a sink. One challenge I faced was that when I first started to print it and I came back the next day and it was a designer error which is linked below. The error was that the water would not drain down to the drainage hole where I anticipate the water going after the succulent uses most of the nutrients in water and it filters down to the bottom.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rmn1BFWr8sEA2ALTIoZTjTcgccT0SmZU/view?usp=sharing

One thing I would like to fix is make the drainage system better as it isnt very good. Also I would like to make the stairs more symmetrical.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10wyMHb1XCsKM7gD0cAj8bKIMYYE08BLu/view?usp=sharing

The final product before the water dissolves the dissolvable PLA ^^^

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16WaOVNnwbhE1hkn1ZD-3pycPvGfiikUWv8rMH2xt-5A/edit?usp=sharing

I decided for my choice project I was going to do a paper towel holder tinkering with TinkerCad. Recently, at my house, I noticed that our paper towel just kind of stands alone and it doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing to me. So I decided that I would make one at school in my favorite class, Science for Inventors. While doing this project I learned that I don’t necessarily have to use screws to connect the long arms that will hang from the ceiling. However, I knew that I would have to screw it into the wall in order for it to be secure. I also learned the sizing of the hole I would have to make for the screws to fit in perfectly. In order for the two pillars to connect, the one that has the indent in it would have to be identical to the diameter to the other one, In order to make this work I made a identical pillar to the one that would hold the paper towel and I turned it 90 degrees on its side and made it into a hole. Then I layer it on top of the other cylinder. I don’t think I can pursue this project anymore, however, this is a great gateway for me to start making other everyday household objects.

Hello, I am Charley, a sophomore in high school, and I am looking forward to going to college after high school, hopefully getting a four-year bachelors’ degree, a four-year medical degree, and four years of residency. Then after those 12 years of college, I hope to complete a fellowship program and find a job as an anesthesiologist. I took the class Science for Inventors (SFI) because I wanted to further my knowledge into the three subjects this class focuses on, 3-d Printing, Lasers utilizing our amazing Planetarium at MSHS, and Virtual Reality. I am mentally inclined in the Lasers field because it uses a program that I have used before in school so I have previous knowledge that helps me. I also like to think I am a good constructor but there’s a lot I am looking forward to learning using the 3-d printers. I am really interested in making projects for myself using the 3-d printers printing things that I think should be a thing or even cool things I like that I can put into my room. The biggest challenge I am not looking forward to is the switch from Tinkercad to Fusion360. I have tried Fusion360 but I am just not there, yet.

On Friday, I finished my laser show. I fixed everything to be perfect and lined everything up with the music. Now that my laser show is done I really want to go look at it in the Planetarium to see what it looks like. Now that I am done with that, I am going to begin 3-D printing and today I am going to figure out something worth printing.

Yesterday, I got threw a little more of my laser show. Although yesterday in my blost I wanted to finish up my laser show or get close to done, I got side tracked trying to figure out how to make a picture off the internet into a laser picture. In the song it says “Lil Uzi” and I took a picture of lil uzi off the internet and put it into a laser picture. It is much harder than I thought to get it perfect and today I am going to figure it out further.

Yesterday, The first of November I continued to work on my laser show. The song is getting very repetitive and annoying so I am happy I am like 2/3 done or so. Today I am hopefully going to add a little more to make it like 6/8. The laser show has stopped really featuring the same characters because it only has so much of one character. It was also a lot more difficult to make the show correspond with the music than I thought. The song also kind of goes by fast so it gets difficult.

Yesterday In class I resumed working on my laser project. As before I told you that I will be making a laser show that corresponds with the music. Yesterday I added multiple effects that go along with the music. I started like a introduction and the main two characters. Although I have spent some time on this I still have a lot to go.