26S Intro. to the Natural Sciences

GSP 1

In science class, I have learned a lot and also reviewed many things from the past. I know about the concept of ecosystems and how different environmental factors affect sustainability. It helps to explain real-world issues, because if you build or do stuff in the wrong location, it may damage the ecosystem and increase the rick of natural disasters. For example when we need to build an Ecohouse, we need to understand the ecosystem nearby and find a way not to break the cycle of ecosystem.And use some good material to make the Ecohouse.It connect a lot with geography; in geography, we have studied climate patterns and land, which help me understand how temperature and rainfall affect where people should buil. Thinking about science and geography can help me build a better Ecohouse.In this science class, it also connect to my chemistry in the past, we have a mostly learned the same thing, but the style of teaching is different.It's both easy to understand, also done experiment, the chemistry class from the past pave me a road to this science class.These show that science is a very subject, it making more sustainable choices for our life.

GSP 2

1) What are 3 challenges and 3 benefits of wind energy from a social, environmental, and economic perspecitve? What are the trade-offs of wind energy? Be sure to include real-world examples connecting what you did in class to these examples.

There have many benefit that using wind energy, it across social,environmental, and economic areas, but it also comes with many importnat challenges. In environmentally, wind power produces no green gases when generating electricity, which help a lot when fight climate change. In Denmark, they use offshore wind farms to power half its homes, cutting millions of tons of polluion each year.It just like the turbine that we design in class, we don't use electricty, no fuel, it just used only a fan's wind to spin.In economically, wind farm save mony for long-term.Wind turbine is a things that safe a lot of money, once built, they need very less fuel, compare to other that make electricty, wind turbine is one that use less resources to make more energy.And last for scoially, wind project create some jobs for people building, fixing and maintaining turbine, it provide some jobs for people, in small town if there have less opportunities at work, the work that provide by the wind turbine can have a very big help in that.

However, thing have both side, there also have challenge.In environmentally, sometime the blade will hurt birds or bats.In the place that have many wild animal, for example California, there have a new that once killed over hundreds of birds yearly, so it means that the blade of wind turbine is somehow hurting the environment.In economically, building a big wind turbines costs a lot upfront, offshore turbines can cost over millions of dollars each.In socially , some people don't wnat turbines near theri homes, because they think they're noisy or block views, which can delay building project for many years.The trade-offs of wind energy mean we have to balance these pros and cons, for example, building turbines far from cities avoids upsetting neighbors but requires more expensive power lines to send electricity to homes.

2) Describe your initial wind turbine design, including what it looked like and why you chose your blade shape, size, and materials. Explain how you tested your turbine. What did you measure (e.g., speed, movement, stability), how did you keep the test fair, and what data or observations did you collect? Describe what problem you noticed, what you changed, and why. Explain how your design improved using evidence.

For our turbine, our first design used 3 long, waterdrop shape blade to connect to the wood stick and a base on the botton to make sure its stable.We use 3 blades because in the real life, the wind turbine is usually 3 baldes, and we think it can make the whole structure balance and stable.But when we make the wind turbine, the blade don't move even a centermeter, me and my teammate are finding the problem step by step, we find out that the blade is too heavy, it causing the whole thing can't spin.To fix the problem, we redo the blade, we use cardboard and light meaterial to fix this problem.It show that after these changes, our turbine can work well, and it show that if we found mistake, we need to find it step by step, and fix it from the root.We feel proud after it really spin, it just like a real wind turbine.

3) What are the environmental, social, and economic impacts of wind energy? Based on your research, is wind energy a good energy solution and why?

Wind energy has mixed but mostly positive impacts, In environmentally, it do less pollution and slow the climate change, but we need to find a approrate place that to build the wind turbine or it could hurt the birds and bats.Socially, it creates jobs for people, but it can also upset people who live near wind turbine.Economically, it's cheap to run long-term, but the cost to build it are cost too high, and wind don't blow everyday, so we sometimes to extra sources to avoid that we don't have energy from wind.Even with these challegn, wind energy are still a great solution and type that we gain energy.When we build turbines in safe places, and use batteries to store power, wind energy can provid cleanand affordable electricity for millions of people.

What specific feedback did you receive?

How did you use that feedback to improve your design?

I got two key pieces of feedback that helped my turbine work better. My teammate told me the head of our turbine is too heavy, it cause that our wind turbine can't spin,ans suggest to use more light material and get more support on the foundation of the wind turbine.Base on the feedback he give me, I change the bottle to straw and cardboard.And I change the foundation to use mutiple bottle and stick to strung together.These small changes made my turbine spin and stay stable, showing that listening to feedback is a key part of improving designs, both in class and in real engineering projects.

Page updated

Report abuse