The theme for this year’s STEAMfest is movement. Every class is doing different projects, using STEAM, that have to do with movement and transportation. In the eighth grade, we are building projects that use automation with a goal of helping the world to become a better place by solving a specific problem.
In our group, we are trying to solve problems that deal with food supply distribution. We wanted to solve one of the food waste issues that goes on in our school: students throwing out uneaten food. We decided to build a robot using an arduino board that would travel throughout the school. The plan is that it will pull a series of containers down the hallway. It will make a stop at each classroom so that students can either put their unwanted food in a container for other students to take or select a snack that another student left behind.
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The assignment we were given was to think of a procedure that would let blood travel easily through a vessel blocked with plaque. The plaque clogs the vessels, which creates a blockage and if the cells cannot pass through the vessel, a procedure needs to be taken to ensure that the body is kept healthy. We learned about several well-known surgeries and tools that remove plaque from a vessel. One of the frequently used surgeries that is used to direct the flow of blood inside vessels is coronary bypass surgery. This surgery uses another vein by attaching it to the aorta of the heart and then to the blocked vessel below the point of blockage. Some materials that are used to compress the plaque into the sides of the vessel are catheters which are sometimes used with the help of a stent. These tools expand the blockage so that blood can travel more easily to other parts of the body. Our first plan had a few errors so as a group we decided to created a new plan to fix the blood flow. The materials we used throughout the project were a large tube resembling a vessel, a small tube taking the role of a replacement vessel, chocolate frosting representing plaque, pipe cleaners, duct tape, a cup, a rubber band, a hot glue gun, and water which was symbolizing blood. In the larger tube we spread the frosting on one end and froze it for about a week. Our original idea was to create a balloon catheter which involved a small and large tube, a finger from a glove, a few pipe cleaners, and rubberbands. We thought that if air was blown in the small tube which was attached to the balloon, the balloon would inflate, and that the flexible stent (the pipe cleaner wrapped around the balloon) would expand with the balloon. We would then take out the balloon but leave the stent pressed against the wall of the “vessel”. However, our balloon and stent did not have room to expand in the vessel. After thinking of another plan we decided to use coronary bypass surgery. We started by melting a hole into the plaque-filled vessel using a hot glue gun, and attached the replacement vein to the opening of the hole. Securing the replacement vessel with duct tape and pipe cleaners allowed the blood’s new route to work smoothly. We poured water through the top of the larger tube which flowed into the replacement vessel. The water then poured out of the small tube and into a cup. After planning and experimenting with many tools, the water successfully traveled through the vessel without any disruptions.
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