Circuits

This past week in Science Honors, we were introduced to the world of circuitry. For me, this week felt like learning a new language: current, resistance, potential, Ohm's law, diodes, transistors, and voltage regulators...what?! Luckily, we used our class time to experiment and have some fun completing labs. Because our balloon project will require circuitry, this unit in class is super important for our balloon-launching-success! 

Let's take a look at some basic circuit-building vocab:

Diodes- current only travels one way through a diode; our diodes were LED. When current passes through them they light up. It was almost like playing with a Light-Brite!

The green light is a diode on one of our circuit boards.

Transistor- a gate controls the switch on a transistor. If the gate is closed, current will pass through; if it is open, current won't pass through. I think of it like an electric fence for cows: if you close the gate you'll get a shock if you touch the fence!

Transistor = small black square

Voltage Regulator- regulators are so useful in making circuits. What do you do if you have a 9 volt battery and want to light a diode that can only receive 5 volts? Use a voltage regulator! Just like their name they 'regulate voltage'; they can receive 9 volts in and send 5 volts out. They come in many different sizes: 5 volts, 15 volts, 30 volts, etc.

The voltage regulator is located in row E of our circuit board.

Resistor- resistors are used to regulate the flow of current by decreasing the amount of current. Resistors remind me of a traffic jam on the highway where only a small stream of cars get through.

The wires are connected to the resistors.

A 'mini resistor' on our circuit board. The colors of the bands indicate how much resistance it has.

At the beginning of the week, the only experience I'd had with circuits was a 6th grade project when I made a merry-go-round that very slowly rotated. By Friday, however, I had helped design circuits, drawn up schematics, and assembled circuit boards. This semester has been filled with so many new learning experiences!

--Olivia

Hatching Fish

Last Thursday, we went to a fish hatchery. If you're like me, that means absolutely nothing. So let me explain...

Caledonia Fish Hatchery

The map above is the hatchery we went to (apparently the oldest one in the northern hemisphere). The point of a fish hatchery is to, well, hatch fish. Essentially, they raise fish from eggs to normal fish-size, and then release them somewhere, in the wild or otherwise. At the hatchery, they have the whole gamut of fish-sizes, from the size of your pinky to the size of your arm. So how do they raise them?

These bins feed the fish.

The little black boxes in the map above are pools of water, which is actually redirected from the stream right next to the facility. All the pools have fish in them that, interestingly, feed themselves. Staff fill up bins (see picture to the right) in the morning, with a specific amount of food, and the fish basically bump into a bar inside and knock food down (kinda like a cereal dispenser).

They only have a few workers at the hatchery, so the dispensers allow them to spend more time on other things and less time feeding fish.

It was pretty cold walking around, but it was still pretty interesting (I think that my feet almost froze off). I was personally amazed at how the fish were quite lively in the water, even though it was so cold; I'm not a Bio major, however, so this may be standard procedure.

Overall, it was a good time.

--Michael

I enjoyed this sign.