Entry #1 - 9/14/2016
We were informed by our teacher that we has a Physics PBL and we had to pick a project. So we chose Infinity Mirror with LED’s. We chose this after looking into other projects and watching videos to chose the Infinity Mirror because it looked interesting and we both like optical illusions and we are intrigued to find the physics behind it. So we started gathering our materials and researching more on how to do the project correctly and fun.
Entry #2 - 9/27/2016
We started our research on infinity mirrors. We learned how different mirrors have different effects but the best mirror was a one-way mirror. Which is also called a two-way mirror, it's a mirror that is partially reflective and transparent. When one side of the mirror is lit and one side remains dark, it allows you to view the darker side but not the other way around. We also discovered new terms such as focal length meaning the distance between the center of a lens or curved mirror and its focus. Focal point meaning the point at which rays or waves meet after having reflected, or the point from which diverging rays or waves appear to proceed. We also learned about a scientific law which is the Law of Reflection. This law states that when a light falls upon a plane surface it is so reflected the angle of reflection will be equal to the angle of the incidence and the incident ray(moving straight or intersection), reflected ray, and normal ray all lie on the plane of incidence.
Entry #3 - 10/05/2016 We signed to stay after school to work on our website and project with our physics teacher and we finished our tasks and began the project. We learned that we would need window tint in order to make the illusion perfect. We started looking at other people who did the infinity mirror and we started thinking about other colors we could use for the lights to really make the mirror pop out. So we created the rest of our pages and explained what we were doing with our project and the materials we need.
Entry #4- 10/18/2016
We began writing our Social Studies Connection on how the infinity mirror is viewed around the world including its effects along with where the idea came from or how it was crossed upon. From our researched we learned how mirrors date back to ancient times when man first saw reflections in a source of water such as a river or pond, believing it was some type magic. The first mirrors that were created were composed of polished black stone, and volcanic glass. They were found in Anatolia around 6000 B.C. Although we were searching history of how the the “infinity mirror” was created there wasn't much to go off, so we began looking back on how they can be created with a one-way mirror ,window tint, LED lights, styrofoam, marker, scissors, and a ruler.
Entry #5 - 10/30/16
We started writing our script for our video where we explain the principle behind our physics experiment. We included our social studies and English component in the script for the video. We will be using iMovie to create our video and include all of our components and to explain our project in an organized fashion. We will then send the video to our teacher and see if it is accepted. We are editing the video by putting the name of the project, STEM SOS, and the level of the project in the beginning, (Infinity Mirror with LED, STEM SOS, Level 2) and we will have an introductory statement saying our names and the school we attend. Then have the project, procedures, and pictures.
Entry #6 - 11/14/16
We tried building our infinity mirror but it didn't work out, our lights weren't lighting up like they were supposed to and we didn't have an infinity illusion like we planned. So instead, we used our Physics teacher's infinity mirror with LED lights, has the same exact effect and it actually works unlike ours. So we stayed after school to use the mirror and we took pictures and videos of it to create our PBL video. So we created our video, and we posted it on our website.
Entry #7 - 11/17/16
As we complete task 8 and 9, we start writing the script for our video presentation. We first write it on a google document in a rough draft fashion just to see what exactly we need to say and explain and also make it flow with our video. After creating the video and the script, we recorded the video. I made some changes to our script in order for it to be in sync with our video. Our script had a little more extra information than we intended, so some tweaks were made. After I fixed it, we finished our video and script and then showed the script to our teacher.
Entry #8 - 11/20/16
Today we are creating our brochure. Once we create our brochure we will post the links on the website. We'll prepare one in word document format and pdf format. Making the brochure is a very tedious process, but we understand we can get it done and we are trying to get it done as fast as we can and make it as best as we can. We had some problems getting a perfect format for the brochure, but we found a good one on google docs and we used this one.
Entry #8 - 11/25/16
We completely finished our video, website, and brochure. We have a few days until the project is due but we are glad we finished it, we had a very tedious and stressful process during all this. However, we understand that this project is a major grade and even though it was time-consuming, it was interesting and we had fun learning more about mirrors and illusions, we also enjoyed creating the video and putting it together.
Entry #9 - 11/30/16
We showed our teachers our projects and they graded them. Then we showed our Physics teacher so he could grade it. He said the website looked good, and we got a 100 for it. Now we will present at our STEM fair to show parents and students the project we did. Overall, we had a fun time creating our video and project. We learned a lot about optical illusions and mirror history.