Thursday, February 5

Science and Music Projects

Posted by Mark at 8:59 PM
Draeden recently completed his 5th grade science project, which involved us renting and putting up a pinewood derby track in our house.  That was a lot of fun.  His project is about how weight distribution on a car changes its performance.  His results, which involved timing a total of 60 runs of the car down the same lane with varying weight positions,  showed that putting the weight further back but still in front of the rear axle was the fastest.  The results were not especially surprising, but it was interesting to prove first hand that moving the weight behind the rear axle causes stability issues that hurt speed more than the extra potential energy of having the weight start higher up helps speed. (which is one reason why it always makes sense to spread the wheelbase as far as possible - we used the standard wheelbase for this experiment.)  Kristi helped him put his display together and I think it turned out very nice.  Here is a picture of it:


Helping Draeden with his science project and a comment by Liam inspired me to do my own science project.

Kristi is taking a folklore class this semester.  After she finishes that class, she will have completed an associates of science degree, so she is working on figuring out where to continue working on her degree and choosing a major.

Maryn is taking two computer science classes, a public speaking class, and an English class this semester.

Nikkail recently finished a songwriting class at school and she created some amazing music for her class projects.  Here is the three movement piece she composed and produced for her final project.  She is busy with orchestra, symphony, and debate.

Draeden recently got a new bigger mountain bike that fits him better, and we have been trying to do a lot of riding for fun and to prepare for the upcoming race season.  He has also started learning computer programming in python and I enjoy helping him do that.

Liam is doing good in his first year of ALPS and is learning to work hard on his homework even when it is sort of hard.  I am proud of him.

15 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2015 at 7:07 AM

    It's interesting to hear how you Kristi and the kids are doing, thanks for the post! The science project looks great.
    Nikkail sounds like she is learning so much and having a good time. And for a long time I've wished we knew what to do to teach some programming to our kids. Where should we look?

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  2. MarkFebruary 6, 2015 at 8:42 AM

    I found a book called "Python For Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming" at the local library. I also found books on Scratch programming, which is a more visual environment for teaching kids about programming, but Draeden is more interested in learning Python because he thinks it seems more real (which I'd agree with, but Scratch might be great for some kids).

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  3. MarkFebruary 6, 2015 at 8:47 AM

    I should add that from what I've seen, all of these types of books start by explaining to you how to download free tools for Windows, Mac, or Linux to use to follow and do the lessons in the book. So, its pretty easy to just find a book like that, and then just start working through it. Draeden and I just spend 30-60 mins in the evenings when we have time. There are probably good websites on this too, but I find that I prefer and trust published books more.

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  4. Lisa CarlsonFebruary 6, 2015 at 9:56 AM

    You are so funny. Thanks for the update.

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  5. MarkFebruary 6, 2015 at 2:38 PM

    Today at Draeden's class science fair, his project was selected as one of the ones to move on to the district science fair next week. He is very excited about that.

    Sadly, my project was rejected with comments such as "your hypothesis is too obvious" and even "don't take Carpenters songs so literally". I am heartbroken.

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  6. MarkFebruary 6, 2015 at 2:43 PM

    I uploaded Nikkail's song as a 12MB mp3, which is kind of big, but it is about six minutes long and I selected fairly high quality. I could put up a smaller, lower quality version if that is too big. Or if anyone wants the full cd quality 62 MB wav file, I have that as well.

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  7. Lisa CarlsonFebruary 7, 2015 at 2:26 PM

    I'd love to hear the song, but haven't been able to get it to play.

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  8. EricFebruary 8, 2015 at 1:40 PM

    I enjoyed Nikkail's song. I imagine that was a lot of work putting it all together.
    I think Draeden's science fair project is a fun idea. Congratulations on moving on to the district science fair! One of the disadvantages of the timing of our move this year is that Trevor missed out on the pinewood derby, but he likes the designing and building more than the actual event, so we will make other projects throughout the year to make up for it.
    I also enjoyed your science project research, although I question counting angry birds.

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  9. DadFebruary 8, 2015 at 4:07 PM

    I like both science projects and the music. Could we get a copy on CD?
    Lisa, mine played only after I picked to download a player from a list that dropped down from the top of the page.

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  10. KevinFebruary 9, 2015 at 9:38 AM

    I really enjoyed the music.

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  11. BrianFebruary 9, 2015 at 8:20 PM

    I think both science projects are awesome. If I'd been the judge, I'd have sent Mark's on too. There's some very solid hypothesis-driven work there.

    I'm listening to Nikkail's song right now. It's great! Thanks for posting it.

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  12. BrianFebruary 9, 2015 at 8:21 PM

    I like the way part of the song sounds like the random noise on a vinyl record.

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  13. MarkMarch 11, 2015 at 1:22 PM

    Draeden took his science project to the district science fair and advanced to the regional science fair, which will be at BYU later this month.

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  14. EricMarch 12, 2015 at 5:05 AM

    Nice job Draeden!

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  15. BrianMarch 12, 2015 at 11:34 AM

    Congratulations Draeden!

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