Month: October 2019

Here is my project about sensitive ferns.

Sensitive Fern

This week, we went to brys estate vineyard. We got to learn all about the process of making wine and harvesting grapes. The grapes went through a lot of machines. The fist machine twisted the grapes so they fell of the stem. Then they went through a tube in to another big machine. It smushed all the juice out of the grapes and put the juice in a big tray. Then, it goes into a really big container and sits for 3 days or so so it can ferment.
There were people outside picking grapes and moving really quick. I wonder what techniques they have that let them go so fast. Also, how long does a grape vine need to become harvestable after its planted. I learned that we have yeast in the air all the time. Yeast is what ferments grapes. If a grape isn’t harvested, it will start to ferment. That’s why it smells funky by the grape vine downstairs sometimes.
I wonder if they could make alcohol.

    This week we are working in groups to make solar powered cars. Once we are finished, we are going to race them. We had to assemble the car as group and decorate it too. We did research on why solar power cars are useful. They save a lot of energy. Solar energy is  pollution  Free! It doesn’t use harmful gases.

This project has been really fun. It was fun to decorate the car and make it pretty. We got to explore solar cars and I knew almost nothing about them. One thing I learned was that solar panels work from rechargeable solar batteries. It was kind of hard to have 3 people working on one small car the first couple days were really hard. After a while, we started to work together more so it was easier.  Once the car worked, it was really exciting !

This week we went to the Leelanau outdoor center. We did lots of team building like the low ropes course. We went to the beach and cleaned up glass, then went swimming.  I think my favorite thing was the high ropes course.  We took a hike in the woods and it was super pretty. When we went  canoeing we saw a turtle and a lot of fish.  We were outside for almost the whole time, so we got to see a lot of pretty things.

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This year my time at loc was definitely better than other years. I was able to spend time with the seventh graders who I didn’t know as well. Team building was fun but sometimes frustrating. I think it helped us communicate. Once our communication was better the challenges were easier.I really enjoyed doing the high ropes course because it was fun yet challenging. I was very scared at first but I ended up getting better at it.  It was cool to watch people slowly improve on it.