Wednesday April 25:

Today I went to talk to Ms McDonald during lunch and talked about new ideas for the project. The first idea concerning physics would be looking at the physics behind sports and then improving it applying the physics. She gave an example of a girl from last year that did that and then improved her jumping by around 20 cm. Although I wanted to make, design or test something. At the end of the conversation we decided I should have a look on the Internet and see what kind of projects people have done in the past and see if it would interest me enough to do for my personal project. 

Monday April 23:

Friday the grade 9 class and I had a meeting with ms. Cole. The meeting was about starting the project and giving the grade 9 class a general out line of what needs to happen during the upcoming months ahead. Dates where thrown around and papers organised in a black folder by the 7^th grades were given that would guide us in the process. My personal binder was not very well organised and was missing some pages which made it harder for me to follow during the meeting but at the end I was able to figure everything out. Ms Cole also briefed us of some interesting ideas for the project and also reminded us of the areas of interaction.

I have been thinking of the ideas she told us and landed on looking at the physics involved in making an efficient wind turbine. This idea of course evolved from just making a wind turbine to the complex idea of looking at the physics involved. I went to talk to Mr. Weatherly and he thought it was a great idea however, he thought it would be better if I were to ask a scientist to help me with that. So I send a message to Ms McDonald and asked her to become my supervisor. The message underneath shows this and clearly shows the idea of the wind turbine. I chose her as I had her as a teacher in 7^th grade and knows me fairly well in terms of interests. 

“Dear Ms McDonald,

I have been thinking about what you said last week about looking at the physics behind sports. But then I had the idea of looking at the physics involved in making an efficient wind turbine, and I was wondering if you could help me with that.

kind regards,

Ruben”

Ms. McDonald answers the very same day explaining that she would be glad to be my supervisor however knowing me she though I would get bored with the idea and would therefore not succeed as well. Looking back at Friday what ms Cole told us the worse grades come from the students who get bored with there project. So I decided to meet with her Wednesday during break. The message underneath shows her reply:

“Hi Ruben,

I do not mind helping you at all.  If this is what you want to do, you can do it, however, knowing you and knowing the topic, I think you will get bored really quickly.  This is something that doesn't take a lot of time or effort to figure out.  I can see that you are leaning towards doing something Physics related and I would like you to be open-minded - you can do really cool and creative stuff, and you will not get bored after a month either.  

I would like to extend your thoughts here and challange you a little bit - try and go for something that aims to "make the world a better place" - not in a superficial kind of way, buy in a practical kind of way.  To use your wind turbine as an example - what do you aim to achieve by doing that?  Be more economical, etc.  Think of those kinds of things when you think of what you want to do.  

If you will get a better idea if you sit and brainstorm with me, your welcome to do so.  Can I ask that you come and see me so that I can give you some guidance for your journal and help you organise your journal entries from the beginning.  Please write all of this down and keep email conversations we have, because you need to submit all of this as part of showing that you've communicated with your supervisor.  

Let me know what your thinking and how the process is going.

Regards,

Ms. McD”