Adv Engineering

Should We Expand the Use of Nuclear Energy? Radioactive waste. We’ve all heard about it. And we all know where it comes from — nuclear power plants. A nuclear power plant is an energy-creating facility where worker burn fuels such as uranium and plutonium to help generate electricity. Say no to nuclear power plants! Nuclear power plants are terribly expensive to run and release fumes into the atmosphere that are not healthy for the economy nor for the environment. And when the facility blows up, it creates a giant health hazard. I haven’t even mentioned how much waste is stored when these plants produce energy! Nuclear power plants are expensive, not to mention dangerous. To run a power plant costs at least nine billion dollars,  per unit . In the article titled, The Cost of Nuclear Power , from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the author states, “ The industry has failed to prove that things will be different this time around: soaring, uncertain...

Board Game - Project Blog Post Summary:  This project was when we had to create a board game in the hopes of being able to think like an engineer. We had to come up with a design for our board game and make sure it was fun for everybody.  Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started? I knew what made a board game fun, but I'd never really thought about the key components to making a board game in the first place.  Inward-Looking: How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like/dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece/work?  I was very proud about this piece of work-- I felt like it truly expressed how I am as a creator of such board games and as a designer. The parts that I liked about the board game were all the designs in general-- I liked the structure of the board and the design of the cards (though I felt the design of the box itself was a bit too basic). I can't say I ...

Charity Fair - Project Blog Post Summary:  This project was when we had to research different charities and decide which one was bested suited to our cause. Before this though, we had a debate over which charity type was more beneficial- small charities, or large charities. I learned that a lot of the money just goes to admin costs in large charities. I also learned that smaller charities are a little bit less-known, so they're more unreliable. Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started? I chose the subject of animal abuse for Charity Fair, and before we started, I knew that a lot of animals faced daily abuse and that only a few of the abusers were sentenced to prison. I knew that some animals faced psychological trauma for years when they went to shelters and that some cases were so bad that they were euthanized. Inward-Looking: How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like/dislike? Why? What...

 \ Are Paper Books Better Than Ebooks? You’re in the library with your parents. Which side do you prefer? The side with the computers and tablets for kids to read their ebooks, or the side with columns and columns filled with rows and rows of printed books, some with covers beaten with time, some with fresh, shimmering covers that reflect the rays of light in colorful waves? I suggest that you go to the printed book side for several good reasons. Printed books are much better than ebooks, for several good reasons. For one, paperback books can boost the retention of a reader. Second, the brightness of a tablet screen hurts your eyes, while printed books don’t emit such light. A study has found that infants learn more from hands-on/kinesthetic reading. Another study has found that ebooks can degrade our deep-reading skills. Furthermore, the light the ebooks emit can contribute to the ever-growing problem of visual fatigue, which is a condition “marked by tired, itching,...

Reverse Engineering - Project Blog Post Summary:  This project was when we had to find an object that had 7+ parts to it and take it apart. While completing this project, I learned a lot about the cordless phone that we were taking apart and I learned the names of a few components of the motherboard, such as a capacitor (holds the data of the motherboard) and a resistor (resists currents).  Backward-Looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started? I knew a little bit about the subject since I had this class last year and we had the same unit, so I knew that we would have to take it apart, document it in a manual, and compile the parts into a BoM, and I knew that engineerings take things apart to find out how they work so they (the engineers) can apply that newfound knowledge to their work.  Inward-Looking: How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like/dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this pi...

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY Do you feel groggy in the morning? If you answered yes to this question, then are you a teenager? If you answered yes to this question, then note that you're not the only one — scientists have concluded that getting less sleep in the morning puts teenagers (and of course, other individuals outside the age group) at higher risk of traffic accidents. It has also been proven that sleep deprivation can result in poor academic scores. A National Sleep Foundation Poll has concluded that 28% of the teenagers who took the poll have fallen asleep in class due to lack of sleep. The reason? Early school times! Most schools have their start times before 8:30, which means that most kids wake up at around 7:00-8:00 to get ready for school, and this is just excluding the extra curriculum activities that start before school hours. For example, I do Zero-Period Band and the start time is at 7:10. This means that I have to get up at 6:00 to get ready — cram in the ho...