Bellwork

8/26
The objective today is Tool Safety. We passed off the band saw and chop saw safety test on Friday, so we are going to be finishing up with the rest of the tools. The table saw modifications start this week, and we need to know how to use all the tools in order to build our designs.

8/29
The objective is still Tool Safety, but this time we will be focusing on the band saw and drill press. I've used both before, though we haven't yet done a demo for the drill press, so I'm assuming we'll do that today. The band saw demo was on Friday, and everyone in the class cut something using the saw. We've already passed off the chop saw and watched the demo, so we're almost done with all the tools. Soon we'll be able to start building our projects. Mr. Ludwig mentioned that after these projects are done, there is going to be a lot of free time in this class, so I might use that time to properly study for Science Olympiad. I bombed the Astronomy test category last year, and I want to do better. Besides, I love stars.

9/03
The objective today is Safety Test Fix-Its for the table saw, so we will be correcting any misconceptions that were expressed on the test. The previous instructor chose to use the Advanced Tech class to create a VEX Robotics team to take to competition, and that was all we worked on for the entirety of last year. I am not a very adept builder, but I do have a little bit of knowledge about coding for autonomous and setting up the controller code. I know where to find tutorials to teach me what I need to create for different robots, and I understand the layout of EasyC.

9/04
Yesterday, I took Taylor and Clinton and introduced them to the idea of VEX. Both of them had no experience, so I showed them the parts we have right now before introducing them to the game for the 2013-14 competition.  There are a lot of different challenges to meet in this year's game, such as driving over a 2" high bump and possibly being able to drive under a 12" high bridge in order to descore the balls that are in the goal zone. There is also a hanging bar that allows for extra scoring points, but that may not be worth the points. The robot that can make it up to the necessary height would have to come up quickly enough to be worthwhile.

9/12
If a larger gear is hooked to a smaller one, the smaller one has a greater rate of angular velocity because it travels through (for example) four rotations while the larger gear turns only one. Torque is force applied on an axis, and as the same force is applied to both, the larger gear will experience a greater amount of torque than the smaller one because the larger gear has a larger radius. If you are creating a drive train for speed, it is best to link motors to large gears which are linked to a smaller gear that turns the wheel.