Day 9: Some Explaining to do

Days without Injury: 1

The work day started frantically. We had just arrived at work, and we found out another research group was coming to see our work. We had less than 15 minutes to design and implement a demo, so the pressure was on. Buckets were placed, water pumps thrown into place, and a wild rewriting of some functions were underway. 30 minutes later, our demonstration was up and running, and the group coming to see us were later. Lucky break. By the time they arrived, everything was working smoothly.

We took our turns explaining each of our parts of the project, while the sound of water pouring methodically played in the background. On, then off. On, then off. Some time passed, we finished explaining our project, then the other group left to get a demonstration of the other groups' projects.

Dr. Opar doing stuff and things to the "ant farm" with Ethan

Dr. Opar came to our room to help Ethan with putting plastic in the base of the old "ant farm" so that it will no longer seep blue dye around the bottom. Dr. Stonedahl confirmed the SD card is working again. Sheiny measured and diluted the dye, and took "before" weight measurements of the sand as preparations for tomorrow's experiment. I worked on making different versions of our program to make it more usable, without having to worry about commenting and uncommenting sections of code to get the desired results. We then broke for lunch, where all of the SRI groups met to discuss progress on their respective projects with one another, in a formal-but-informal presentation.

Sheiny preparing the dye for tomorrow

After lunch we collected two more sets of data points with our sensors in our glass jar of water. We took care to note the air pressures between measurements on the first run, and we took measurements every cm for the second run. Unlike our previous runs, we did not allow the door to open during our data collection. The door opening causes a change in air pressure in the room, which alters our measurements.

MORE DATA!

Shortly after, the dean stopped in, and we presented our project for the third time in a day. I'd say we have had a lot of practice presenting. That will be useful later on.

We took another field trip to Menards to pick up more supplies for our experiment. Now we should have everything we need to hold our sensors in place in our "ant farm" during the main experiment.

Saving Big Money

That wraps up our day!