Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Objective: To explore a career in engineering, and then say why I would want to be in the engineering field.

Design Process: I researched my field of engineering and wrote my findings in the Google Doc.

Learning Target: Learn about different careers I could pursue in the engineering field.

Reflection: Using what I have learned from this research project, I know more about the field I want to go into. I already knew some things like that I will need to know a lot of math and that I will need to get a bachelor's degree in engineering. The pay did surprise be though, I thought it would be a lot less since I didn't really have a scope on how much living a life actually costs. I do like that in the civil engineering field I won't be behind a desk a lot because that would just be horrible, not getting to move around.

Objective: To interview a professional engineer about their job field and present the findings to the class.

Design Process: I talked with people that I know to see if I know any engineers, I found a person who was one so I called them and set up a time to speak with them. We had a phone interview since he lives out of state, and I then put the transcript into a powerpoint, answered some conclusion questions and presented it to the class.

Learning target: To interview an engineer in the field you want to be in when you grow up.

Reflection: This has shown me what another job in the engineering field would look like if I were to go into it. I have learned that being a sales engineer is more than just being in the phone all day trying to convince people to buy a product I designed. I applied really bad interview habits by saying "um" a lot and learned that there is a fundamental of engineering exam I am going to have to take to do any job related to engineering. From this I have broadened my scope of future jobs titles just a bit.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partners: Jack Mayer, Sebastian Garcia, and Ethan Rosenberg

Objective: To create a compound machine using a VEX kit that lifts 500 grams or 1000 grams. Also to calculate the mechanical advantage, ideal mechanical advantage and gear ratio.

Design Process: My group and I each sketched different ideas of a compound machine that could lift the given weight while still in the parameters. Out parameters were to have 4 unique simple machines, including a gear train. Then we had to decide which one out of each of ours would work the best and create it. As we finished out build though, we realized that the gear train just didn't work so we ended up redoing the entire gear train. After we accomplished that, we took our measurements and made a presentation about our compound machine.

Learning Target: Learn how to build a compound machine with a group and measure the AMA and IMA using measurements the students measured.

Reflection: I applied what I learned about how to calculate actual mechanical advantage and ideal mechanical advantage. While doing the project I also realized just how intricate a compound machine can get from using basic simple machines. Working with the people around me, I helped create a compound machine that didn't fully work, but I ended up knowing how to fix what went wrong. Before I did this, I didn't really apply what I learned about calculating mechanical advantage at all to the real world, I just knew it was a thing that could be done.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partners: Ishan Gupta and Adrian Juarez

Objective: To use a solar panel and hydrogen fuel cell to power a car and calculate the load and power used in the electrical system.

Design Process: We used given instructions on how to build our car. From there we attached the solar panel and used a multimeter to measure the load power, and voltage going through the electrical current. Then we attached a hydrogen fuel cell to the car and powered it up by attaching it to a power source. The it was attached to the car and we measured the voltage, power and load of the fuel cell using a multimeter like the solar panel.

Learning Target: To show that we know how to build using a VEX kit and measure voltage, load and power using a multimeter in a circuit.

Reflection: Doing this project made me realize there are so many ways to store and make energy than just the basic ways of renewable and nonrenewable and batteries, See how the hydrogen fuel cell powered the car was amazing though, since it didn't even seem like energy was being made or stored. I also applied the formulas I learned about electricity and circuits, Using the multimeter also helped me get better at converting units of measurements to other units. Building the actual car was also an experience because before I used different robot kits so this was cool. In addition to that, I also used a beadboard to complete a circuit which was really interesting.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partners: Ishan Gupta and Adrian Juarez

Objective: To find a type of insulation that is more renewable then fiberglass, and relatively cheap.

Design Process: We researched things with similar R-values as normal insulation and fiberglass. We settled on newspaper, and inch thick of it. We then brought it to class and cut out 8*8 inch squares and laid them on top of each other and glued it all together. When it got time to measure if the insulation would work or not, we combined with another group and used their insulation of felt fabric, cotton balls and duct tape. We used a temperature probe to get the temperature, but our data was skewed because we moved the proe mid experiment. We put it in for 20 minutes with a lightbulb in the middle to see if our insulation would work, then we let it cool down for 20 minutes.

Learning Target: To research and make a renewable insulation and then test and see if the insulation works or not and record the findings in your engineering notebook. Then answer the problems to go along with the activity.

Reflection: In this project, I applied some of the new formulas I learned regarding thermodynamics, which helped me see some of the things I would be doing should I continue to pursue a career in engineering. I also used the r values of different materials, which showed me just how good different materials can keep heat in. I learned how to use a logger pro, which was the temperature probe we used, and I also learned that research is a huge part to start any project.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partners: Nicholas Leal and Ignacio Rodriguez

Objective: To create a renewable energy system using 2 fuel cells, 2 solar panels and a hand crank to simulate wind.

Objective: To figure out the best place to put a wind and solar farm an why.

Design Process: This project was a little weird, we only got half of the original project done, but with that we researched different things about the LEDs we were to use as a show of the electricity needed to power an industrial or residential area. Then my partners and I each made 2 brainstorming sketches for different configurations that we could use to power the lights. For the second project borne form the original project, the student teachers teaching us had a day where we learned about solar and wind power and the optimal places for farms and the power each turbine or solar panel produces. In addition to that, we did individual research over the topics too. We then put everything we learned into a presentation, where we discussed the optimal spots to put a solar and wind farm, either separate or together, and why, and how big it would need to be.

Learning Target: To research and test different ways to simulate power generation for a residential and industrial area at different times during the day and night.

Learning Target: To research and calculate the optimal spot to put a solar farm and a wind farm.

Reflection: This project was particularly challenging for me because it involved so much math and a lot guesswork. For the original project I was really enjoying applying what I had learned about circuits and electricity. I learned though, that calculating the different voltages and currents isn't as easy as I thought it would be. This project has shown me that there is a lot to know about how electricity works, and I like that. For the second project, I learned so much. I learned about how physical and economic conditions greatly affect where different power plants are located, along with many formulas about how to calculate the power gained from a wind turbine and a solar panel. This project though, has made me consider what it would be like to be an energy engineer, and I think it would be an interesting field to explore in the future.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partners: Joseph Yu

Objective: To create a truss design that can withstand more pressure than my classmates.

Design Process: We were given a template of the basic design, but were allowed to make the joints into any design we wanted to give the truss more structure.

Learning target: To apply knowledge of truss forces and calculations to design a statically determinate truss.

Reflection: In this project I applied my knowledge of trusses to make a truss that didn't immediately break when weight was applied. I enjoyed the hands on part when we got to actually build the truss, and the actually destroying of the truss. The concept of trusses combined my knowledge of force vectors, moments and free body diagrams. On the first truss, it wasn't the joint that was faulty, it was the actual member that failed, and it makes sense because there was a lot of compression force on the members. For the second truss, it was the joints that broke, showing that my design was faulty when it came to the joints. Honestly though, I am just glad that my truss didn't immediately fail. The efficiency on the first truss wasn't bad because of the way we cut the joints out, but on the second truss we created it to the wrong dimensions which means it wasn't that great when it came to efficiency.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Objective: To create a bridge design that can hold a designated load.

Design Process: I researched different cost for the bridge materials and setup, then created the bridge with many failures. During the failures, I tried out different design until I finally got 3 to work. Then I worked on my design until it could withstand the weight if the designated force, then I did my summary report above.

Learning Target: To apply knowledge and researched knowledge of truss building to make a workable bridge design in the Bridge Designer software.

Reflection: In this project I applied my knowledge of trusses and tension and compression forces to make a successful bridge design. I enjoyed the entire trial and error part because I could see what worked and didn't work. I probably should have been better at time management because I was rushing at the end, but overall the project wasn't bad. The truss did end up working because of the deign I used, the arch design. the modifications I made were purely out of trying to minimize cost, but only one design ended up working, so I used that design in the end. During this project though, I struggled with the entire designing the truss part because every design I made failed until I got to the end and researched real bridges to base my bridge off of. That part was very informative and it helped with the entire project overall.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Partner: Anthony Ramirez

Project Objective: Our project objective was to introduce us to coding in RobotC. It was also meant to be an intro into coding, and a crash course in the coding language. It was also meant to introduce us into a little more complex coding like loops and variables.

Learning Target: To know what each sensor does and how to code it. Also to know how to code in RobotC, which is a mixture of java and c. To know how to code in the natural language made for PLTW courses.

Reflection: I used my knowledge of programing to help me in this. I had already taken a couple of programming classes, and this was very close in programming in Java, so I didn't really have any trouble. Coding for the robot though, was a little difficult because I am used to programming for different reasons. I probably should have had better time management, and done the programs as assigned rather than always be a class behind. The programming wasn't even that hard, it was just a lot to do in a certain amount of time. Learning what the different sensors did was interesting, and trouble shooting the programs was the most difficult thing to do. Each of the programs did end up working, and my partner and I each split the programs in half, so we could minimize the amount of time it took up to write each program. Learning to code in this language opened up my ideas in other languages, and it was interesting to see how somebody combined 2 languages to come out with 1. Overall, this project wasn't that hard, and having a partner made it a lot easier to complete the 23 program we had to write.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Project Objective: The objective of this project was to use all the notes that we took over projectile motion. It was also meant to teach us how to calculate standard deviation, mean, median and mode.

Learning Target: To figure out how changing the variables in a mini trebuchet can affect the distance traveled by the projectile.

Reflection: I had previously researched trebuchets and compared them to catapults, so I kind of knew how to change the different parts of the trebuchet. I added some weight to the counterweight, and I changed the position of the pivot on the arm so that the counterweight would throw the projectile farther. This project was hard because of the fact that I only had mini popsicle sticks on hand compared to some of my classmates who used either jumbo or bigger sticks than I did. Most of the time my projectiles flew about 21-22 inches per throw. I enjoyed seeing the correlation between my notes and the actual project we did based on them. I know that my trebuchet did not throw far overall, but this was a good opportunity to see structural design within an ancient build that could still work today.

Name: Stella Pryor

Class :1B

School: Reedy High School Frisco, Texas

Project Objective: To create a universal jamming gripper with the items around the house.

Learning Target: To figure out how to make a jamming gripper using common items such as a vacuum and funnel.

Reflection: There was a lot that went wrong with this to start with. The first funnel I used ended up being too small and it didn't work, so we went out and got a bigger one. From there I put coffee grounds in the balloon and then that into the funnel. Our gripper actually did end up working, and the suction from the vacuum was enough to pick up a lot of small times like a pencil or pencil sharpener. The hardest part of the project was getting the coffee grounds into the balloon, and I definitely ended up inhaling some coffee. After we finished our video I enjoyed seeing exactly how much the gripper could carry and it got up to lifting my phone, then after that everything got too heavy. I enjoyed building the gripper and experimenting with it. This project was something for us to do while in quarantine, and it