In this project we had to design and make a functional windmill using mostly cardboard, although our windmill did end up spinning and picking up weights, I think that there is still huge room for improvement. The first change I would make is to make the platform slightly higher, our original platforms height resulted in the cup getting stuck midway. So raising the platform would definitely help. Another change that I would make is to make the wings more stable, our original wings were held by solely toothpicks, which led to them being unstable. So by stabalizing the wings, the whole windmill would be more durable. The last change that I would make is making the windmill more aesthetically pleasing, our original windmill was pretty rough, the toothpick connecting the two cups was completely visible, which made the overall appearance of the windmill seem weak and fragile. This could easily be fixed by wrapping the exterior of the windmill and covering the hole on top of the windmill with cardboard of the same color. This project was heavily connected to my Science and Research Writing class, in that class we had to read lots of research papers. And what better way to do that than experimenting by ourselves? Putting experiments into practice really helps with your understanding of the topic, so that's why I think that the connection between this class and my English class is strong.

In this eco-house project, I chose to build my house in Singapore and the people in that community impact the local ecosystem by disposing water, which contributes to runoff. One feature in my eco-house that reduces this negative human impact is that I added large larger gutters near the lawn of my house to help boost the efficiency of water drainage. Overall, the main focus of my design is to reduce the constant need of air conditioning with materials that absorb heat. I chose to insulate my house with rigid foam insulation to help absorb the heat and resist moisture as Singapore has a hot and humid climate. In our experiment, we found that materials with higher densities performed best at preventing heat transfer. I learned that choosing a right materials in our building designs have a positive impact on how well the house would perform in real world climate. I chose to include mycelium bricks as my main material for walls as they are renewable, complete biodegradable, and they absorb heat quite well. Although my house doesn’t require much power since I included big windows that provide enough sunlight, my main source of power still comes from solar panels. Which sunlight is absorbed by the solar panels and then transformed into electrical energy which is then transferred to the system to be used. My energy system reduces the environmental impact by utilizing natural resources to power my house, instead of burning, fossil, fuels and releasing lots of carbon dioxide.