Wild Chemistry Ride 4 (part 2):


After successfully completing the Energy Tower task, I was better able to carry out a scientific experiment since I had experience from Sunken Treasure. As such I had a clearer plan and idea on what to do for the experiment, for example: building 5-spoke wheel+building tower--> testing out--> recording down data--> repeating 2 more times for reliability--> repeating whole experiment again but instead using 8-spoke wheel and so on. 

My group mates and I had great teamwork this time as well, especially when we discovered in the middle of our experiment that our first plan did not work. Our original idea was to poke holes at different heights in a large bottle, cover the holes with tape and fill the bottle up with water, then remove the tape from each hole for each try and let the water spray onto the wheel. Thus we were planning to investigate if the height from which water is spraying out from affects the speed of the turbine. However, we came up with our second idea, which was to find out if a larger number of spokes on the turbine will affect the time taken for the weight to be lifted to 15cm.

Additionally, we discovered that we had to make the weight stop only at 15cm, thus we improvised and quickly made a simple stopper (two sticks) to ensure that the weight is lifted to a height of 15cm and nothing more.

However, I think we should make an effort to focus more on the task at hand. This is because for the past two experiments, despite us successfully completing the task, we could have been more efficient if we had been less distracted with playing with the materials.

Have a chem-tastic day!