Entry #19: Weill Hall Trip Tomorrow

3/20/13
1:20 pm

Alllllrighty so my mom brought home some Styrofoam coolers yesterday for my project. She also told me she has lamps for me, but no bulbs so I'll have to buy those myself. I have duct tape at home, but I think the thing I'm gonna need to really be careful when choosing is the thermometer/humidity regulator. It's supposed to be pretty accurate, and I want that since I don't want to mess anything up!

On a completely different note tomorrow I'm gonna be leaving school at about noon and go to Jonathan Butcher's Lab in Weill Hall at Cornell University with my mom, dad, and students that are coming in from a different high school. There we're going to going into a lab to see some experiment being done on chicken embryos, which fits perfectly with my WISE project! I'm not 100% what it's like, but I know that he does cardiovascular and developmental engineering using the chicken embryos! But he terminates the embryo 2 days before they develop central nervous systems so it's completely humane research. That's about all I know so far, but  once I go I'm sure I'll have learned a ton more, and I'll be able to tell you a lot more about the whole experience! Here's the link my mom sent me about Jonathan Butcher and sort of what he does, and who he is, in case you wanted a little bit more knowledge of all that.

http://www.butcherlab.com/index.php?page=people&show=2

Another cool thing is I'm gonna see a 3D printer. That should be really awesome! Basically what it is, is a printer that prints actual inanimate objects from a digital model. Basically what you do is you create tons of layers of the blueprints of what you're trying to print, and then you put it into the printer. Usually this kind of technology is used to make jewelry, shoes, architecture, cars, and a lot of other fields. I thought this was the coolest thing ever! All you do is create it online, and then you can just have the printer create it for you! My dad also is looking forward to seeing that. I thought that the picture below kind of gets the point across of what one kind of printer looks like, and how to create the final product!

Entry #18: The Power of Lists

3/18/13
1:35 pm

Another post! Two posts in one period this has got to be a record. This time it's all about the lists. I have a lot of lists to make though so this comes easy.

For example here's the materials I need, a list you guys have already seen:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)

A list in order of how much this will cost me (roughly):
-Styrofoam cooler = free
-Duct tape = $2.00
-25 watt bulbs and a lamp = $7.00
-Temperature and humidity monitor $10.00
-Bowl with a sponge in it = free
-Chicken wire = $10.00
-Clear piece of glass or plastic = either free or $5.00
so that's going to be more or less around 30 dollars. Then I have to figure out how much the chicken eggs will cost me and where I'm getting them from.

So far I'm at about $180 or so? Oh gosh that sounds like a lot:( I guess it's time to write a proposal for a grant!! And start doing some chores for my dad..fun...

I've asked my mom if she had any materials and sent her a list of them. I'm sure she has some but I'll need to get some other ones too! I should be getting some materials this week and setting it all up next week or so!

Entry #17: In Class Reflection

3/18/13
1:10

So I'm sitting in class writing this as a reflection. And I'm answering the question of what have I found surprising, unexpected, or unintended in my project so far.

Actually a lot. I had no idea my plans would be flip flopping around. I thought I'd make an initial plan and I'd stick to it and some things wouldn't go as I planned but now that I've decided to make the incubator now and do the coop later..I didn't know that my plans could completely change like that, which I'm fine with but I just didn't intend on that happening.

Another this is the cost. The coop will be the most costly thing is what I have figured out by now, and the incubator not as much. I would've thought that the incubator would've needed special materials that would cost a lot of money but it turns out that the plywood will be much more costly.

These are only two things that have surprised me so far, and I'm sure that there will be many more surprises on the way! I'm pretty flexible to my plans changing and things popping up that I did not expect, but I'm sure there will be a few frustrations along the way as well!

Entry #16: Incubator Materials

3/14/13
9:26am

So last night I talked to my parents about heading on a different track with my WISE project right now, and how I'm starting to think more about the incubator rather than the chicken coop.
I listed the materials below which I'll need after listening to the video with headphones on.

This is the link to it in case you missed it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ

So here's pretty much what I'll need for a DIY egg incubator according to that video that I'm going to be basing my incubator off of:
-Styrofoam or plastic cooler (I'll probably do Styrofoam)
-Duct tape
-Light bulbs and a lamp (25 watt suggested)
-Temperature and humidity monitor (use one as accurate as possible)
-Bowl with a sponge in it
-Chicken wire (quarter inch squares suggested)
-Clear piece of glass or plastic (from a picture frame suggested)
-Fertilized chicken eggs (of course)

As you can see the materials aren't super expensive at all, and as luck would have it my mom actually has a lot of the stuff I need at her lab! I was really excited to hear that because that cuts my budget down, even by a little bit.

I've asked her to bring in whatever materials she has in her lab for me, and hopefully I'll have all the materials gathered soon, and be ready to start building it! I'll show you guys pictures when I actually start constructing it!:)

Entry #15: Incubator Plans

3/13/13

1:37pm

Yesterday I had another meeting with Mr. Reiff where he cleared up a bunch of questions about the assignment that's due next Monday. It doesn't specifically relate to my project, but it's just an in depth analysis of the Biology comic book that I made a post about earlier.

Anyways I found a great DIY video on a chicken incubator and all the materials I'll need and how to set them up and such.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ

That's the link if you're interested in watching it. Unfortunately I'm in the library and I don't have headphones so I can't listen to it, but I was actually looking for this video before I found it today because I've watched it before when I did research on incubators and this was my favorite video by far. It's extremely helpful and lets me know what materials I need and how to assemble them which is exactly what I needed to find. 

I also wanted to find a video and not just an article about making and assembling an incubator because I don't have to picture what the final project will look like, I have it right in front of me in the video.

As well as this I've decided to make two incubators, each containing 6 eggs, so if something goes wrong in one incubator, the other half of the dozen eggs will not be affected. This will it might assure a high percentage of eggs that will hatch in the end.

For now, when I go home I'll listen to the video, figure out what materials I'll need, and where I can get them. There may be some materials I need to order online, but I'm pretty sure for the most part I'll be able to go to Walmart, Lowe's, or Target to get what I need.

That's all!

Entry #14: Response to "Practicing"

3/11/13
1:26pm

I really enjoyed reading the short article about practicing. I understood when the author said, "practicing and playing are rarely synonymous. As guitarists it's safe to say that we play a lot, but rarely do we actually practice." I'm not a musician and my project really has no room for practicing but I understood this quote very well.

I really wish that my project allowed me time to practice doing things such as building a coop or incubating the eggs, but unfortunately I just don't have enough time to:( I can't really practice any of the stuff I need to accomplish in the end. I guess I wish I could practice so I could fix the bugs and glitches in the project so that my final project would turn out flawlessly, but unfortunately I'm just gonna have to wing it.

Other than that I found the whole article interesting with lots if valid point and opinions. Most of the time I get bored reading articles but this one was short enough it kept my attention. Even though the only reason was that the article got cut off.

Entry #13: Response to Biology Comic

3/7/13
1:40 pm

Mr. Reiff on Monday also gave everyone in the class a previous WISE journal to look at just so we had an idea of what ours should look like. They actually look pretty similar, except for the journal I looked at was in paper, and mine is on the internet so that was a big difference.

However, the content was very similar. We both talked about what problems we are facing, if we are getting behind, and other similarities. But I'm dealing with chickens and the boy whose journal it is is about a biology comic book. I guess that both of us are dealing with a type of biology to a certain extent, but mine is more focused on the big picture of life. My project deals with the entirety of an organism while his project is all about what happens on a molecular level of biology.

It was very interesting to get a look at someone else's journal, but other than that and the few similarities I found we shared it wasn't that helpful to read.

Entry #12: Response to Movie

3/7/13

This Monday our class watched a previous WISE movie on a boy who built a farm for his project.

I thought that the video was very well done. It showed a lot of action, construction, and had good narration and interviews that helped the viewer know what was going on. The background music always fit and made sense with what was going on during the scene.

As far as relating to mine, this project didn't really match up completely. But as far as building, I am constructing a chicken coop which involves the same thing that the boy's project did.

I also share some of the same problems that he did.  When he was building he said that things took a much longer time frame than he expected. I expected to be building the coop a while ago, but now I am contemplating building it after Costa Rica, so my time frame as well has been mixed up just as the guy in the video was.

Other than that there was pretty much no correlation between our projects haha. Although I kind of wish that someone was filming me doing this project, or when the chicks arrive, that'd be pretty cool. But I think that I'm gonna make a little film about my project too, or after they have already hatched so I actually have something to film.  I guess that's kind of like the film. Even though they're about completely different things, they're both still films.

Entry #11: 3rd Mentor Meeting aaand Change of Plans

3/5/13
1:41 pm

Okay so I just talked to Mr. Reiff and we kind of agreed upon having a change of plans. I'll still continue working towards the chicken coop but I should probably focus on finding a place to order the eggs from, and getting/making the incubator and all the stuff that goes along with that.

However I still want to get the chicken coop materials as soon as I can, and think of ways to fund raise some money for my project. If I get the materials for the chicken coop, when I come back from Costa Rica I can build it while the chicks are incubating, which will be around 3 weeks, which I believe to be plenty of time, if I already have the materials.

Mr. Reiff also suggested doing a dry run which I think is a good idea. This basically means putting the chicken coop together before I go to CR so that when I come back, I'll be able to put it together easily, and I'll already know the glitches of the structure, since I'll have built it before.

I guess I still have to figure out what kind of work I'll be doing in Costa Rica, or if I'll even be able to. I maybe be able to post one or two times, but I really don't think that we're gonna have great access to the internet...which is actually just fine by me:)

So I've reevaluated my game plan and I'm probably gonna have to reevaluate it again once I go home and finalize things with my dad. Then finalize again! Ahh so many details to work out. But it'll all work out.

Entry #10: A Little Science

3/5/13
1:29 pm

Okay so this is a really interesting picture that I found on the internet that I thought would be super interesting to post. This is a chart of the embryo's of 8 different animals, all at the same points in their stage of development. I feel like such a nerd thinking this is cool...guess my mom's love and enthusiasm of science is finally rubbing off on me. Anyways, it was really interesting that in the first stage that they are all shown at, they all pretty much look the same. And if you compare just the chicken embryo to the human embryo..it's scarily similar.

This next picture just shows an interesting thing that doesn't really have anything to do with anything besides the fact that we descended from an aquatic animal, and eventually branched off and evolved into different kinds of animals in the future.

Anyways I thought that it was pretty awesome how through embryo comparison you can tell how similar all these different kinds of animals are linked together.

Pretty random, but still cool! 

Entry #9: Lowe's

3/5/13
8:56 am

Wowwww okay so building this coop is actually a lot more work than I thought. Well I haven't gotten my materials yet but my dad and I went to Lowe's yesterday and determined what our materials we were gonna use and guessed a rough estimate of the pricing of it all....$150!!! I was actually really surprised at how much that is..and it's just for the wood.

I made a computer sketch of what I thought it was going to look like but it wasn't precise enough so I sketched it out by hand which I will post pictures of once I have all the views sketched out.  My dad and I decided it would be much easier to make the measurements 8x8x8. This will mean it's basically an 8 foot cube.

When we got home from Lowe's we measured how high the deck was and it was exactly 8 feet high! This was perfect because now I will be able to nail the coop's roof directly onto my deck, and use one of the sides of my house as a side of the actual structure, meaning I am able to use less materials! This was all my dad's idea. He has been such a big help with all of this, but I'm pretty sure he's excited to help me make this coop too!

So now what I'll do is finish the sketches of the coop, with all the parts included, see how many pieces of wood I will need, and then run it by my dad to make sure I have everything correct. After that we will get the materials from Lowe's, and proceed to build.

Originally I wanted this to be done before I left for Costa Rica, which is March 29th, but as my dad pointed out, there is still a lot of work to be done before then. This also includes getting the incubator materials and setting that up as well! Ahhhh so many things to think about. But at the same time, I'll have time to work on the coop while the eggs are in incubation which will be about 21 days. So there's a lot for me to consider right now!