ELA Component

Week One:

When it was announced that we had to come up with another project once again, I was worried of what I would pick. However, it was not very hard for me to pick a topic as I had assistance from my teacher when deciding what I was going to do. I decided to do the plasma ball and fluorescent light bulb experiment. It was just flashy enough to satisfy my audience, and interesting enough for me to actually research into it. I started by simply looking it up in a search engine, but met with limited success. To my frustration, many other tasks have been asked for me this week, and such I could not find enough information on my project.

Week Two:

I met with better luck in regards to my research. I found several videos of the demonstrations on various college pages. I must say that I was surprised at how simple the actual demonstration was going to be. When I picked the project, I had a vague idea of what I was going to do. Now it seems much simpler than I imagined. My only worry now, is one of my materials: the fluorescent light bulb. Sure, a common, small one is rather easy to find, but a large one, which is what I require, is much harder to achieve.

Week Three:

I gathered materials i needed for my demonstration. I obtained the plasma ball, but I am still not sure for the fluorescent light bulb. My teacher was willing to lend me neon wands. However, they are rather small, and the light they emit is rather dim. As such, I am debating on whether I will go out and buy a large fluorescent light bulb, or just settle for the small neon wands. Showmanship or less hassle? I still cannot decide. Other than that, there was not much progress done on this project this week, as I have been busy with other work.

Week Four:

I started to do the social studies aspect of my project. My connection was how Nikola Tesla's alternating current changed the history of the world itself. This is because a plasma ball is actually a small Tesla coil in the center of a globe filled with various neon gases. The plasma ball is the core of my experiment. Going back to my connection, I stated that Nikola Tesla's changed the world because of his new method of channeling electricity. Alternating current was far cheaper to transport over long distances without losing charge. Something that Edison's direct current was not capable of. This availability of electricity shaped the way in which the United States and the world started to develop.

Week Five:

I started to design my page for the school component of the website. This was rather hard since I am not the most artistically oriented person in the world; that being a huge understatement. Luckily Google has provided a wonderful theme for the artistically challenged. Now, it is no Mona Lisa, but at least now it does not burn the eyes of those who look at it. It was particularly frustrating aligning all the content the way I wanted it to. Every time I wanted to add something different to it, the whole page would get out of order. In the end, I had to leave out some content since it was not possible for me to get it too look the way I wanted it in the allotted time. However, I do plan on fixing this late.

Week Six:

This week, I went on to search for a long fluorescent light bulb. It was much easier to obtain that I originally thought. In fact, the school was generous enough to donate one of the spares that they use for the classrooms. I practiced how I was going to light up the bulb with the plasma ball. It all worked out perfectly; just as in the demonstrations that I had already seen. This was surprising as most of this demonstration had given me some form of fight, but this, which I thought to be the hardest part, turned out to be the easiest. It was also a neat trick for my family. Which is definitely good as that is what most people care about during a demonstration. The pretty colors.

Week Seven:

This was a rather uneventful week for my project. I thought about any way to make my project better, but came out short. I want to say that what I have at the moment is enough, but there is this nagging in my head that tells me that it will not be enough. I guess that what I have will be enough for now. If it is enough for MIT, then it is enough for the STEM fair. The previous years, I did not meet with much success. The first year, my model broke before I got to present; courtesy of an anonymous middle school student. The second year, I did not have the right container for my project and the only part that made it interesting went away. This year, I hope that it will be the time that everything goes as it is supposed to go.

Week Eight:

I am close to getting everything in order for my demonstration. I have all my materials, the background information by heart, and the flashy part of the demonstration is definitely entertaining. This year seems promising. Hopefully, it will be, as this will be my final year doing a PBL project. Going out with a bang would not be so bad. Furthermore, my teacher this year is particularly demanding when it comes to this project. Double motivation such as this cannot fail to produce a good project. Hopefully.

Week Nine:

I am finally done with project. I cannot express how happy I am to get this off my shoulders. Do not get me wrong. This was definitely an enjoyable experience. Running around with a plasma ball and light bulb looking at the nice colors like everyone else was fun. I got to learn some interesting facts about the rivalry that Edison and Tesla had. Maybe enough that Edison does not seem so nice as before. In essence, I got to learn many things that I did not know before, but I do have plenty of other work to attend to.