Heading off to take on the world - the Class of 2011

H i g h S c h o o l N E W SGroup 4 ProjectOn May 11th all of the students in Grade 11 were involvedin the Group 4 Project, part of the Internal Assessment forthe IB Diploma’s Science subjects.Their challenge was <strong>to</strong> create, calibrate, and use, a timingdevice <strong>to</strong> measure the length of a piece of music whichwould be between 2 and 6 minutes long. They would begiven 3 chances <strong>to</strong> time the piece of music.The project was introduced the previous week in a Sciencelesson, random groups of 3 were assigned and the studentsthen had the week <strong>to</strong> prepare themselves for the actualday of the project. The project only assesses personal skillswithin a group environment.There were two main prizes <strong>to</strong> shoot for - accuracy andcreativity.The day was a great success with the students getting reallyinvolved in the process and the challenge. Approachesranged from programmable robots, music as a timer,oscillating springs, dripping water, reaction rates, viscousflow, <strong>to</strong> outrageous Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinsoncontraptions with just about every variation in between. Inthe end the judges chose 4 approaches for their innovativeapproaches:Creativity:1. A marble run approach – Ben Grimshaw, MartinaAssera<strong>to</strong> & Katerina Jersakova2. A Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson machine – DaeganElsborg, Giulia Chiandet, Jessica Hatcher3. A clever use of candles and their burn rate – TeymurAbdullaev, Arman Noor, Katrina Levchenko4. An electric drill, a till receipt roll and a marker pen –Graciella Clemente Ragone, Daniel Kornherr, RachelGilbertAccuracy:1. Using oscillating springs – Robert Schleier, ThomasBenestad and Alejandro Aguilar RomeroThis group measured the length of the song <strong>to</strong> anas<strong>to</strong>nishing accuracy of 0.14%. They calibrated theirsprings using physics equations <strong>to</strong> set their oscillation rateand had superb accuracy.Pizza prizes were enjoyed by all.16 · The Informer 1 June 2011 www.isstavanger.no