For part one of our Outdoor Classroom was to design and build a solar water heater. We spent the first few days of this project learning about heat transfers and atoms. Then we learnt about the suns angled rays and how they are vary in the different seasons. Then we started designing our solar water heater. We worked on it for about 4 days and figured out what angles we needed to use for the rays to successfully reflect light onto our water heater.
Angles of the Sun
The sun throughout the year changes drastically in angle measure from 23.5* to about 70*. When the sun's rays hit a tilted part of the Earth, the rays are spread out over a greater area, which combined with the 23.5* angle of tilt from the Earth creates the seasons. When the sun directly hits an area and spreads our that space that would be considered summer, but if you were on the other side of the world it would take longer for the rays to spread out and it causes less daytime which is considered winter.
Clients Needs Survey
After we chose our site selection, we decide to conduct a client needs survey to see what the students, staff, and teachers want incorporated into there outdoor classroom. Below I have a link to the survey and you can look more in depth.
Atoms are the basic structure of all matter. There are three parts to an atom, protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged, neutrons have no charge, and electrons are negatively charged. Protons and neutrons are found in the nucleus of an atom, while electrons are found in electron shell surrounding the nucleus. When two or more atoms are linked together, they become a molecule. Molecules make up the elements and are another, bigger, building block of all matter. Molecules make up the elements and are another, bigger, building block of all matter, which makes up the more generic elements such and oxygen, carbon dioxide, and sugar.
Laws of Theormodynamics
Law 0: states that if two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.
Law 1: states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed.
Law 2: states that the state of entropy of the entire universe, as an isolated system, will always increase over time. The secondlawalso states that the changes in the entropy in the universe can never be negative.
Law 3: the properties of systems in equilibrium at absolute zero temperature: The entropy of a perfect crystal at absolute zero is exactly equal to zero.
Specific Heat Capacity
An objects specific heat is how easily heat is transferred to it.
Radiation
This form of heat transfer is similar to a transverse wave and requires no medium to travel through.
Why we should use less energy
This is a chart showing the pros and cons of various forms of obtaining electricity. You can avoid all of the cons if you simply don't use electricity.
Materials Heats Testing Lab
In this part, we tested multiple materials for their ability to hold and retain heat under a lamp, it's ability to hold and retain heat inside a fridge, and their ability to absorb water. This was so we could determine what we wanted to make the structures in our outdoor class-room out of, and to see what material could withstand the elements best. We tested the object two ways. In the first part, we put the materials under heat lamps and took their temperature every five minutes. For the second part, we soaked objects in water, let them dry for five minutes, then took their weight to see how much water was left in them. All of the data we collected and added to a google sheet form.
Wind Turbine Lab
In this project we designed a wind turbine that efficiently generated electricity when put in front of a fan and a leaf blower. Our group mostly stuck with paper models and the last moel
Site Selection
After our detailed analysis of our survey we had concluded that the students and staff wanted a quiet and relaxing area that is easily accessible from all classes throughout the San Marin campus. Below are our pictures of our site selection of the area that we wanted to use.
Outdoor classroom
Below is our presentation which includes all of our blueprint and has an in depth representation of what our plan would have looked like.
Reflection
I feel throughout this project there were lots of pros and not many cons that I did. This project was very interesting and I had lots of fun working on and completing this long and hard task. Two good things I did in this project was staying on task and doing what I was asked to by my group mates which in the past I have struggled on. I feel through out the year this is one this that I have definitely improved on as an individual and as a student. Another thing my group did well was that we communicated very well, where as in past groups that is an area that we have struggled in. We compared ideas together and stated our points and discussed what the pros and cons of doing that would be. Two things that I as an individual need to improve on is my leadership skills and my ability to express my ideas more clearly. I want to take the lead role of our next project and be a good role model to my group mates and my class in general. I need to discuss my communication skills better by speaking as an single student and put my point across clearly to my group mates. All in all, I really enjoyed this project and hope to do more like these in the future.