Jan 30th- Xplorers-Term 2- Paper columns

Paper Columns (No Scissors!)

Iteration 1:

With 5 sheets of paper and 1 foot of tape build a structure that will support as much weight as possible. The weight must be at least 8.5 inches off the ground. You may not cut the paper!

Iteration 2:

Repeat iteration 1, but make design improvements to see if you can hold more weight.

Jan 20th- Xplorers- Last Day of Term

End of Semester One.

Discussed Greengineering 101, practicing the research piece. Discussed incorporating suggestion into prototype design.

Finished Bike Shelter prototypes:

Jan 20th- GRNG 101's- Weekly Updates

New algae and growth media ordered-- due in on Tuesday.

End of the term- need grading rubrics submitted; permission slips for Feb 10th field trip.

Materials Group-

Joelle- planters outside-- will need more in spring

Am doing research on mycelum--will present several methods of growing it.

In the past students have used glove bags to keep it sterile.

Mycelium can be stored in the Science department refrigerator.

Bikes Group-

Removed the DC motor from the treadmill that Dr. Tupper and Mr. Peloquin got.

Puts out about 6 volts when spun manually. Will be trying to make a friction connection to the bicycle.

Algae Group-

Algae needs less air flow. May have been over-fed. White cloudiness- needs to be disinfected. Have ordered growth media with new algae from Connecticut Biological. Need to sterilize the bottles when setting up the new system.

Aquaponics System-

Need to measure levels of nitrate and ammonia, etc.

What is a reasonable goal to achieve this year- a portable aquaponics system.

Discussed adding automatic controls.

Jan 13th- 101's Aquaponics

Will be researching mycelium- using peroxide method to keep sterile.

A donated treadmill is coming at 2:30 PM.

A new batch of algae was added to the bioreactor. Need 5/8" OD straight tubing connectors.

Questioned the design of the bioreactor-- 1/2" ID tubing holds very little medium-- 1 liter in 25 feet.

Team needs to research how to extract oil from algae, will be putting journal articles onto the wiki.

Aquaponics- ready to restart the system, add some ammonia--should get the plants growing. The plants may struggle while stabilizing the nitrate levels.

Jan 13th- Xplorers- Bicycle Shelter protoyping

Using the plans sketched last period, the Xplorer's began building prototype models for the bicycle shelter for the bike area by the tennis courts:

It was pleasant to see the great variety of interesting designs. Next Tuesday will be a first design review.

Jan 13th- 201/301's- cleaning tank, making soap

Because of the various amounts of clay and other crud building up in the aquaponics pool,

the 201's took the tank out to the ceramics lab and cleaned it:

Meanwhile, it was noticed that the tank temperature was rather low for the liking of tilapia( 68 degrees vs 75 degrees), so additional heaters and heating lamps were added to the tank:

which eventually increased the temperature to 72 degrees.

See http://www.tropicalfishsite.com/what-wattage-heater-do-i-need-for-my-fish-tank-aquarium/ for heater specifications:

Tank Size	Heat 5ºC/9ºF	Heat 10ºC/18ºF	Heat 15ºC/27ºF
5 gal/25 L	25 watt	50 watt	75 watt
10 gal/50 L	50 watt	75 watt	75 watt
20 gal/75 L	50 watt	75 watt	150 watt
25 gal/100 L	75 watt	100 watt	200 watt
40 gal/150 L	100 watt	150 watt	300 watt
50 gal/200 L	150 watt	200 watt	two 200 watt
65 gal/250 L	200 watt	250 watt	two 250 watt
75 gal/300 L	250 watt	300 watt	two 300 watt

Meanwhile the 301's made a nice lavender bar of soap using their soap kit prototype:

The Soap Team

Jan 12th- 201's- Model Building, Fish cleaning

The Bikes Team went full speed ahead on building their bicycle shelter model:

Team Aquaponics managed to catch all the fish, and changed the water in the main tank. They will need to devise a filter to trap particulate matter being thrown off by the hydroton pellets.