Passive Solar Design
By Cooper Hochman, Peter Nebb, Gabriella(Gigi) Vasquez, and Madison Brand
The Earth's layers
The earth has four main layers. The first one is the crust, it is the thinnest but it's also very hard. The second is the mantle, the mantle makes up 84% of the earths mass and rest between the outer core and crust. The third layer in is the outer core which is made mostly of liquid nickel and iron. The inner core is the core in the inside the middle of the earth. It is also made of mostly iron and nickel.
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The Earth's Orbit
Solar Angles
Solar angles are the angles at which the sun hits the earth. Solar angles change drastically usually when there's a new season due to the new weather/time. What I mean by time is that when spring forward and fall back happen, the sun could be out later/earlier in the day. This changes the time at which the sun sets and rises which also changes the angle the sun hits the earth at.
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Atomic Structure
There are three things that make up an Atom. The first one is the electron, electrons are the smallest of the three particles and they have a negative charge. The second is the proton which carries a positive charge. The third and final particle is the neutron which has a neutral charge(surprisingly). These three particles are formed in the nucleus which is the center of the atom.
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Our Day-lighting design model
Our group was assigned to make a model of a house that uses effective day-lighting techniques. We made this model with cardboard, tape, a small clear pvc pipe, and box cutters. The model turned out a bit rough because our measurements were hard to match by just using box cutters to cut the cardboard. It was also pretty hard putting on the tape while having the cardboard stay straight. In the end though it ended up using effective day-lighting techniques by having clerestory windows, skylights, and more.
Justification Document
This document was made to demonstrate how different energy sources worked and why they may be better or worse than other sources. Our entire class made this document by splitting into groups of four and filling in for two of the energy sources.
Science building design
Our science building design was based off of a U-shape with a slightly modernized exterior. Originally, I was making a model in tinker-cad but Gigi was able to make a better looking model in SketchUp so we ended up using that one. I'm slightly upset that my model went completely unused considering the amount of time I put into it but I think it was a good learning experience(I will elaborate on this in my reflection). The design of our building has multiple wide windows towards the top of the roof, these windows are matched up with how the sun sets and rises for maximum light efficiency.
Reflection
This project was for the most part a very big learning experience. I learned how to make 3d models, be more time efficient, work better as a team, and a lot more. Just because this project taught me a lot does not mean that our project was not good. It turned out to be very good thanks to the effort of my group being cooperative and efficient. One pro about this project was how I previously mentioned that I learned a lot. This is good because I can apply this newfound knowledge into my future projects. Another pro was the people in my group. We were all ready to work when needed and I think that our group worked great together compared to some of my previous groups. On the other hand, one minor con that our group faced was communication. If we had told each other our ideas sooner then we could have worked a little bit faster. Another con was me making an entire model that I spent a lot of time on and not having it used. This was a con for me because I worked really hard on that model and it just went completely unused(Thankfully I did learn how to use a 3d modeling program thanks to my experience making the model which is why I'm not too upset). All in all, I think that our group and project in the end turned excellent and this is definitely one of my new favorite STEM projects that we have done so far.