Author: ovidi38650@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

Home Design and Technology: 3D printer

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As possibly the last project of my high school career, I decided to make something a little more complicated and intricate than any of my previous builds. Although while building my electric skateboard I had to master some basic coding, I wasn’t able to take those sills beyond rudimentary. This project required both electrical skills, programming and some more duct tape than I would like to admit for something that’s supposed to be a ‘precision tool’

I began the project by researching commercial ‘kit 3D printers’ that you are meant to assemble, taking note of the shapes, designs and electrical components of the builds and finding individually purchasable alternatives.

I took the information I had regarding the general shape and construction of the DIY printers online and draw the following outline using photoshop. This was then laser cut and assembled to form the frame of my printer. Given the fact that I had never used the schools’ laser cutter, nor draw an outline to be cut before, I was very happy with the result and only had to resize and recut 1 piece.

From this base, I began to assemble to the electrical components, starting by uploading a program that I found online and edited slightly to work for a printer of specific dimensions to a microcontroller board. I then started the arduous process of plugging in the stupid number of separate, almost identical wires into very specific ports.

Then the most dangerous portion of the build was attaching the power supply. This was a high voltage component that i had to modify to work with the limits of my printer, meaning that I wasn’t exactly certain what would happen when I turned it on. Fortunately, I am still alive and the money I sunk into this project remains unwasted.

The final step was just the final assembly and attachment of the stepper motors (these control the X and Y movements of the nozzle) and the attachment of the hot plate (controls the Z movement by moving the plate forwards and backwards). These steps were quite straight forward and just involved some screws and a small amount of force to get everything in place properly.

With some aesthetic additions, the project was finished. Although it wasn’t particularly difficult, it is one of the most complex and cool things I’ve ever built.

EE Final Reflection (R3)

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I was extremely happy with the piece of work I produced. The many hours of hard work and difficult topics that were researched made for, what I believe to be, an interesting paper. However, if I were to undertake the project again, I would change the piece’s initial direction. Instead of focusing on the EU as a whole and examining all the effects of EDCs, social and economic, I would make the focal point of my essay a specific country. I would examine the rates of cancer and the probability of causation of EDCs on individual ailments or illnesses in, for example, Australia. This would provide for a more in-depth review of the effects of EDCs as opposed to the broad, yet all-encompassing path the final paper took. I believe the strategy I incorporated of reading as much as possible on the topic before writing both helped and hindered the process. This method meant that I had a huge range of knowledge from reputable sources I wanted to include, however, this meant I lost the depth of my argument, skimming over some of the more import points of discussion in favour of cramming everything I had read into my paper.

Home Design and Technology: Record Player

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Although my most recent project is really quite different from anything I’ve done before it has been one of my favourites so far. Although it did not consist of much construction nor ‘designing’ it was actually very difficult for me as I had never done anything remotely similar in the past.

I am a huge fan of music, particularly 60-80’s rock and prog rock. Although I know very little about what goes into making a song, I love music and have always listened to any new song or album recommended to me. As such, I decided to build a record player.

Building a record player from scratch, at least for someone of my talents, is almost impossible, as such I assembled what can be best described as a motley crew of high-end audio equipment to create my own, unique, record player. Unlike a majority of my projects in which the most time-consuming part is actually building the thing, this was more of a research game. Learning intricacies of music reproduction, what parts to use to achieve the best sound, the most durable parts that will allow me to take the player with em when I move overseas and how to maintain the player once I had built it.

Home Gym Third reflection

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In the past 2 or so months I have begun to slow down in terms of growth. Being someone of a very tall, but also quite lean build it was often difficult to build muscle, even despite regular training and good diet. However, as mentioned, in the past few months my growth spurts have begun to recede meaning that my efforts in the gym no longer serve to just tone muscle, now being easier to build it. Although the changes are quite slight, they are noticeable.

The biggest factor that has changed, which is one that I have been trying to improve for a while, is my BMI. Due to my height and relatively lanky frame, I have had a very low BMI, far below average for my height. Although I have always been well within a healthy range I am always a little bothered by this notion of ‘underweight’ or being called a stick.

Roughly 6 months ago, I had a BMI of 18.8, at 188cm and 68kg, although this is still considered ‘healthy’ it was far below where I wanted to be. After beginning training around 8 months ago, as well as filling out naturally, my BMI is now a far more realistic 20.2 (77kg at 192cm) placing me in the 30th percentile for weight, as opposed to the 9th percentile.

 

Home gym: Second Reflection

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I have been following the same regimen for the past 6 months, it has been relatively easy and not particularly difficult. As such I have not seen too much difference over the past couples months. I don’t have a lot of time nowadays which means I haven’t really pushed myself beyond what I need to keep myself healthy and of a good level of fitness.

However, despite not increasing the intensity of my set, I have also incorporated long-distance running. This is more because I’m really bored cooped up at home studying possibly the most uninteresting syllabus worldwide and need to just leave. Running is more of something I enjoy rather than something I do for exercise, however, I have improved my speed and times while just doing for fun. I can now run 10km in 45 minutes or less. Which is 15 minutes faster than previously.

I would like to continue running and developing long-distance endurance. It is something that I genuinely enjoy and feel that I often do much better at things I actually care about or am interested in. As such I would like to aim for running 15km within the span of 2:00 hours, hopefully, less.

The above photo was from 2 weeks ago, I rode my skateboard with a friend to a point at MBS. I then left the board there and ran home as I was, mistakenly, a few hours early. Although it was only an 8km run and took me around an hour, it was likely the first time I had run a substantial distance from home, not just running around the block.

RC2: First Draft EE Reflection

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My question was revised to The True Socio-economic Impacts of EDC Exposure Within the European Union. This question, despite its simplicity, was actually quite hard to come up with. This is as I wanted a question that was driven by topics I was genuinely interested in, something I could continue to read about and not get inured to its initial charm. As such, I decided that instead of trying to find data that fits a certain research question, I would instead come up with a question that best fits the data that I found most interesting. I was initially put off writing the actual piece in favour of just reading papers regarding EDCs and their effect after going off on a tangent from my initial question. As I had spent so much time reading up on the subject, I found writing the first draft very enjoyable and was impressed with my work ethic. I am quite proud of the quality of writing that the paper boasts, despite this, my paper was a good essay, not a great EE and I need to focus on cutting further below the surface to much improve.

Project Week: After the trip

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Project week was an exercise in patience as much it was a test in independence. The week was plagued with somewhat boring activities, internal conflicts and a general sense of being non-memorable. Despite this, some of the activities were somewhat enjoyable. For me, hiking and rafting were the most fun as it allowed for individual strengths to come into play, not just being as strong as our weakest member.

The first few days were actually very interesting and filled with enjoyable and memorable moments. I believe this is as these were the days we were given free rein and allowed to do what interested us instead of what was planned for us. For example the first day (my favourite) after arriving at the hotel and resting for an hour or so we decided to go exploring and found a wide array of interesting and unique locations. We walked for half an hour or so through an old quarry to find an incredible lake surrounded by mountains. Afterwards, we travelled to some different tourist attractions such as a street label concubine street and a street who’s walls were engulfed completely in murals.

After this, however, things began to go downhill. The second day was fine but after a 6 am start and an hour bus ride tensions were high and morale was low. We arrived at a compound that was littered with what can be described as garden sheds, this is where we stayed for the remainder of the trip. After arriving at 7 am we got 1 hour of downtime before starting another hour long bus venture which prefaced a 4-hour trek. This was, once again, pretty alright. I like hiking a lot and the route was great, despite insane humidity and temperature, it was very enjoyable. I feel it allowed me to demonstrate my fitness and capabilities in walking moderate distances without much trouble. We were allowed to pull away from the main group (me and one other) so we could go at our own pace. As the route was very clear and the chances of getting lost were slim, we ended up finishing half an hour before the others.

Afterwards, we went rock climbing, which was ok. The course was fun, however being a tall guy in a country not used to tall people resulted in my head passing the wire that was meant to keep me from falling. This meant that whenever I’d go to move I would get clotheslined by a steel wire.

The third day marked the inevitable demise of the group. Today was the water sports day, something I personally hate. I can’t handle water sports, no matter what it is, I get sick, hot and uncomfortable. The first activity was waterfall abseiling. This for me is the absolute epitome of something I don’t want to do. I have no problem with heights, however, getting battered by a waterfall whilst descending a 10 m cliff face all while being blinded by rouge sand particles, attributed itself to my waking nightmare. Despite my reservations, I attempted it, albeit once, and made it down with little issues. This shows my perseverance and willingness to try new things, although prompted by peer pressure, I ended up trying and succeeding in the activity.

 

 

Project week

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Project week has been very straight forward and easy to plan. Despite some issues in the begging regarding our location and members, everything has run smoothly thus far. I, as the first aider, had to partake in the 9-hour training course where we learnt the basics of first aid and how to handle certain situations. As we are undertaking some dangerous activities such as hiking, rafting abseiling and caving, I had to learn how to be prepared for a wide range of possible problems.

As mentioned, we as a group have decided to do a much more activity-based project week, spending time having fun rather than doing service. Although we are building houses to fill out the service requirements, it is not the main focus of our trip. I personally am looking forward to the hiking and caving portions of our trip and somewhat dreading the rafting. I hate water and water-based sports but did not want to cause any controversy in the group so I just went along.

The members of my group have all worked collaboratively on the booking and planning of the trip. This contributes itself to the smooth and easy nature of the planning stage and hopefully lends itself to a successful project week.

 

Planning Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NZNLLV67vvccJtkQeEtFJCEpuYiPXV6rgwY4Fl_6sng/edit

EE day: Exit Ticket

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One thing I’ve learned…

One thing I have learnt during EE day is that the collection of data is much more difficult than I had expected. It has been very difficult to identify and utilise helpful pieces of data due to the incredible amount of it that I have at my disposal. As my EE is based on secondary data, I must rely on the accuracy and precision of pre-recorded information, as such it is paramount that I ensure that the sources used are not only reliable but also recent and backed up with numerous trials and relevant information.

What I’m proud of…

I have been able to construct a good format on which my EE will be based and written. Additionally, I am proud of the introduction I have written/ begun to write. Although it is not yet complete, I believe it encompasses the totality of what it needs to and provides an accurate and in-depth introduction to the topic that I will cover.

 

What I’ll be doing next…

Next, I will begin work on creating economic models and obtaining/ writing information relating to the separate production pathways utilised in the creation of plastics and plastic alternatives. I will also be working on my body paragraphs and ensuring the correct ideas and message is conveyed and evaluated throughout.

Home Gym: First reflection

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I have been going to the gym every second day for the past 6 weeks to develop my overall stamina and strength. I have been mainly focusing on strength training as I am someone with naturally high stamina and aim to develop myself into an overall allrounder. The aim of my strength training is to aid in my other activities such as softball and boxing.

I have focused my strength training on my back and shoulders. This is as I was born with slight scoliosis and have had very weak shoulders since I was young. I wanted to develop this as it is a real weakness and affects my ability to throw repeatedly in quick succession, something that is quite important in things such as softball and AFL. The first 3 weeks of my training focused on the upper body.

First 3 weeks to develop a basis

  • 1 Bench press.* 10 (25kg)
  • 2 Bent-over row.
  • 3 Overhead press.
  • 4 Lateral raise.
  • 5 Seated dumbbell overhead press. (10kg)
  • 6 Dumbbell triceps extension. *10 (15kg)
  • 7 Pull-up. *15
  • 8 Barbell biceps curl. *10 (15kg)
  • 9 Push up *45

After this, I gradually increased the weight used by up to 5 kg. Although the training itself was not too difficult as I have been doing similar strength training for a while on and off, keeping the routine proved itself difficult. The fact that I had a set plan and schedule help a lot during the first few weeks while I was still making this a habit. I believe this shows LO3 and LO4 as I not only had to create a plan but stick to it.

On the fourth week, I introduced a lower body element as well.

  1. Barbell Back Squat: 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps.
  2. Romanian Deadlift: 2-4 sets of 8-10 reps.
  3. Bulgarian Split Squat: 2-4 sets of 6-10 reps.
  4. Glute Ham Raise: 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps.
  5. Standing Single Leg Calf Raise: 2-4 sets of 6-10 reps.
  6. Seated Calf Raise: 2-4 sets of 10-15 reps.

Once again, the workout itself was not too difficult and as I have quite strong legs I had no problem dealing with this basic set of exercises. As I have been running every day since I was 11, I have quite high stamina and powerful lower body, as such I made some modifications to the original plan, increasing the number of reps from pretty much all of the exercises. Additionally, as this plan was made with the aid of my supervisor, who is also a licensed physiotherapist who has been treating my scoliosis for years, we were able to create a set of exercises that will strengthen my weak points. As mentioned, the main point of this was to strengthen my shoulders and back, this will help in sports and to aid my back and neck problems.

Overall I found these first 6 weeks quite easy going, although quite tedious and annoying to repeat and often found it hard to stick to my set out plan. I have found that after these first 6 weeks the strength of my shoulders and back have improved quite a bit and am now able to use them for far longer without getting fatigued. I believe my next step should be to build muscle on my legs, despite them already being very strong, they are quite scrawny. Although this is good for long distance running and high/long jump, I would like to develop my short distance sprinting by improving the fast twitch muscles.

I believe throughout this process I also demonstrated LO5 as I worked collaboratively with my supervisor to develop a plan to rectify some of my weaknesses and develop my strengths to improve my abilities as an athlete.