Another week dies as fast as it was born. I have been assigned to a companion project rather than the teardrop trailer, which was something I was aiming for. My project, the metal fire rings, involves a combination of AutoCAD and cooperation with a small group of my peers. This week was focused on committing work and heart to these projects, with an essential question to boot.
Monday centered around a challenge (we have a lot of these) for the class. We tried to figure out how to optimise a 10-foot by 4-foot piece of 16 gauge sheet metal to make the most fire rings. We all set to work and found it best to make each fire ring two pieces welded together, rather than once piece. Of course, there was scrap. Tuesday and Wednesday involved learning the basics of the plasma cutter and how to make letters for our rings that the cutter could actually recognise. Thursday was taking a stab at learning how to put images in AutoCad and make them able to be cut be the plasma cutter.
This week also had an essential question: What ways are there to use clean energy/gas?
First, there are solar panels. Solar panels convert sunlight into usable and clean energy. It even lets the user save energy to use for later. Often, the prices are lower, too. Next is wind power. The name is self-explanatory, as wind power turns a giant fan to make electricity. The only limitation is location, as some areas cannot fit the large fans, or not enough wind can generate power. Lastly, methane gas is a possible way for clean fuel in vehicles. As it is a natural gas and human waste or compost can easily converted to it, this is one of the more optimal choices. Too bad it isn't that appealing.
Above is an image of an example of a fire ring, as our group doesn't have any built yet.
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