Fridley Space Program Logo Design Winner

Our sixth grade class (Flight and Space) is currently embarking on their final journey of the year. The students have officially joined the Fridley Space Program, and are currently designing their missions and rockets for launch day in late May.

A week ago, I challenged the 7th and 8th grade students to design a logo for the Fridley Space Program. There were 11 spectacular logos entered into the contest. Today, the results are in! Below, I would like to introduce the winning design of the Fridley Space Program Logo Design Contest!

Design Credit: Donovan L.

Henceforth, this logo will be used as the official logo of the Fridley Space Program. It will be attached to every rocket the students construct. It will be included on the top of every official document the students fill out. It will be the banner under which the Fridley Space Program flies.

Congratulations to Donovan L. on the design of this logo! Stay tuned to twitter for more updates on the Fridley Space Program as we approach launch day!

The First Design

Fridley Middle School's first student-design vehicle in 2016.

In Design and Modeling, students have been working hard to learn and improve their skills using the 3d modeling program Autodesk Inventor.

The final project in Design and Modeling, is to create a car based on their own design. Just yesterday, the first design was printed and the first student in our 7th grade at Fridley Middle School received her plastic, 3d printed car to take home.

Over the next month, the rest of the 7th grade students will be working very hard to research, design, and create their own model cars. The student's hard work will, of course, cause me to begin a printing flurry, in an attempt to print off every 7th grade student's car design by the end of May!

Stay tuned both to here and twitter, for many updates on car designs, and much more from our design classroom at Fridley Middle School!

2016 Robot Challenge

We're back!

I want to apologize for the drought in posts. We're in "testing season" currently, and the change in schedules along with preparing for my one class of testing has eaten up more time than I was hoping. However, I believe we will be back on schedule with this post!

This is the textbook the elevator must lift.

It is time to introduce the 2016 robot challenge! This year, students are challenged to build a freight elevator. This elevator must have enough torque to lift a textbook at least 2 inches off the ground! Students will be limited to their own experience, knowledge, and the resources they find online. They will also be limited to our mechanism pieces we have in class.

This challenge every year serves as a final exam of sorts. It will highlight and assess the culmination of student's knowledge learned throughout the course. It will also, inevitably, lead to difficulty, agitation, and periodic failure, which the students will have to learn to work through to find success.

Stay tuned over the next month, as group updates will be posted on twitter and this blog!

Edit 4/29 10:35 AM: Spelling

Should We Eradicate Mosquitoes: A Student Essay

I believe that we should eradicate mosquitoes because they carry many deadly diseases. Also, they are the deadliest animal on Earth killing more than 750,000 people due to mosquito-borne illnesses. Malaria is one of the most common diseases from mosquitoes, infecting nearly 247 million people every year and killing over 1 million. Other diseases include dengue fever, yellow fever, the Zika virus, and many more. Locally, these diseases are not very common in places with all four seasons. Every winter, the mosquitoes there die or hibernate and every summer they get new ones. These diseases are mostly common in poorer nations, but still affects people worldwide.

These insects are not a major predator, or major prey for that matter, so getting rid of them wouldn't make a big difference in the ecosystem locally. It would actually rid us of the diseases that affect so many people. However, in some other places they serve food for bats, birds, frogs, dragonflies, damselflies, turtles, fish, and spiders. Some researchers say that if we got rid of these bloodsuckers, there wouldn’t be much of a difference in our world today. In fact, bats meals are only 1% mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are not a major prey in any region. They are just used for food for a quick snack.

Therefore, eradicating mosquitoes would not make a big difference worldwide or even locally. They don’t serve as a primary food source in the ecosystem, and getting rid of them would actually help our health worldwide. We would stop being bitten by mosquitoes. That is why I think we should get rid of mosquitoes.

Should We Get Rid of Mosquitoes: A Student Essay

In my opinion, we should not get rid of the mosquitoes. They are an important environmental factor in their ecosystem. Without them, the animals who depend on them for food will decrease in numbers. Many animals eat mosquitoes, such as bats, birds, fish, frogs and tadpoles, spiders, turtles, dragonflies, and damselflies. Many of those species survive mainly on the mosquitoes. They will suffer if the mosquito is eradicated. Although some say that these animals have other prey, they will still decrease if the mosquito dies out. If those animals decrease in population, the animals that feed on them will die too! It will be a never ending chain.

 However, many mosquitoes do carry disease. If they were made extinct, the chance of getting the diseases spread by them would decrease. But, those diseases can be spread in other ways! Killing off the mosquitoes would not completely get rid of the risk of certain diseases. The diseases that are spread by mosquitoes are transmitted by blood. For example: if a human with malaria had an open sore or wound and came in contact with another human being, that human would get the blood of the person with malaria into their system. That could cause them to get malaria as well. 

These are the reasons I think that mosquitoes should not be eradicated. Other animals rely on them too heavily. They are an important part of the environment, even if they are annoying!

The Great Mosquito Debate

As spring and summer approach in Minnesota, we are about to be greeted by sunshine and warmth. However, with the good, comes the bad. Usually, the bad are mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are back in the news, as viruses and disease spread through these parasites. When this happens, the same question always pops up: Why don't we just get rid of mosquitoes?

This time is no different, as news agencies talk about the pros, cons, and opportunities the human population has to eradicate mosquitoes.


The Guardian's Perspective
CNN's Perspective
Slate's Perspective

As scientists, our 7th grade science class has decided to take on this issue, and discuss whether they think mosquitoes should be eradicated, or if there is a larger purpose mosquitoes hold. Over the next few weeks, the 7th grade persuasive essays will be posted here, giving you more insight into this contemporary issue in science.

Automation and Robotics 3/1

Currently in Automation and Robotics, the students are just beginning to learn about programming!

 

To start this learning process, the students are taught about sequential thinking, using flowcharts as a tool. Soon after, the students are introduced to a programming language they will be using called RoboPro. This language is useful, in that it will help the students learn how to use programming to create robots! However, that part is still far off in the future. Our focus at this point, is getting a solid understanding of what programming is, and how to talk to a computer.