Sunday, my students and I boarded a plane from Los Angeles and flew to Phoenix, Arizona. We changed planes and flew about 1,700 miles to place where there is a beach. The students will be studying marine plants and animals, they will be conducting experiments, and will be learning to snorkel. You job today is to use Google maps and other resources to name the possible locations where I may be. Please post a list of your educated guesses with reasons for each place on the list.
38 Comments
Summer school starts on Monday June 18th. I have two goals for summer school. First, I want my students to increase their understanding of how technology can help them learn on their own and how technology can help them create products which will grab other people's attention. Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs. During the summer I will be blogging about my progress. A second goal was to take a group of students on a science trip that may change their lives forever. I am doing that today. What are your goals for summer school? List two and describe them. One down and one to go! If you have to ask which one is done and which one is not then you are not looking closely enough. The clean carburetor on the left took about 8 to 10 hours to rebuild. I have never rebuilt a Zenith 35-40, multistage, twin port carburetor with a diaphragm, so it took a really long time. The most frustrating discovery was that the engineers placed a short screw in the middle of the carburetor to keep it all together. It only took me about 2 hours to figure out where that was and how to remove it. When I get to the second carburetor it should take me about 3 hours. I was very pleased to find that the first carburetor was not all gummed up inside and that it cleaned up very well. The first carburetor had a torn diaphragm that was probably affecting performance the last time my brother drove it. Otherwise it was in excellent condition. The Germans really built precise, well manufactured equipment in the 60's. When I get a free afternoon it will get done. This is what the engine bay looked like recently. The old battery that was on the right is out, the air filter holder and cover to the twin carburetors have been removed and I was trying to get the carburetors off. There are four bolts that hold each carburetor onto the intake manifold. The two on the outside of the engine were fairly easy to get off. The two on the inside took so much longer. There is absolutely no space to work so I actually resorted to taking off the valve cover. That made the job much easier but it still took about 4 or 5 hours to remove both of them. I am in the process of rebuilding them with new rebuild kits. We are still working on the old car. We have already taken out the gas tank. It smelled horribly of old rotten gas. It really is a repulsive smell. We took the tank to an old fashioned radiator repair shop in La Habra, Ca, near where we live. It is the kind of repair shop that reminds you that old radiators are not made out of plastic, unlike new ones. It is the kind of place that reminds you that old radiators are very difficult to replace, so you repair them. It is dirty, messy, a little disorganized and full of dangerous chemicals. This shop is one of the few that remain in our area that will recondition an old gas tank. The gas in the tank had been there for nearly twelve years. There was still about two gallons of the putrid smelling fuel left in the tank. When the owner had us look inside is contained a dark sludge, that was what we left of the fuel. He removed the fuel level sending unit and showed us the gummy dark sludge that was covering it. Very sticky and slimy. The owner promised to remove every trace of the offending fuel, clean the inside, re-coat it with an epoxy to prevent the inside from ever rusting again, and to soak the fuel level sending unit in solution as well to clean it up. As you can see from the photo he did just that. We are thrilled. We have the new fuel lines as well and the tank should go back into the car soon, perhaps after the second carburetor is rebuilt. So, today you start some electronic masterpieces. You will be learning about movie making, digital photo editing, web page creation and multimedia presentation. You will be making each of these during the school year. You will be graded on the quality of your work, not on the amount of time it takes you to complete. Before you begin I want you to complete two tasks. I want you to write about your goals for this class and I want you to write about your expectation. Regarding your goals, I want you to write two. I want you to describe the goals in detail so that we can evaluate your goals later when your projects are complete. Regarding your expectation I want you to be clear. I want you to write about two expectation. Each expectation should be a paragraph long and should be clearly explained. Your expectation may or may not become true, we will examine your expectations again at the end of the class. Mr. Aitken School started on Tuesday August 30th. I have two goals for this trime. First, I want my students to increase their understanding of how technology can help them learn on their own and how technology can help them create products which will grab other people's attention. Secondly, I want to learn from my students what best meets their needs. During the school year I will be blogging about my progress.
To begin with I made a big purchase in the summer that I have wanted to make for a long time. I purchased my own domain name. That means that I no longer have to point my students to long web site addresses that they usually can't remember. It is now just, www.mraitken.org! I'll add details about the process as the summer goes along. What are your goals for this trimester? List two and describe them. Yes, my feet are wet! I am sure you could come up with some very usual reasons why my feet should be wet, after all, it is raining. It's October in southern California and it is raining. This in itself is unusual. It is usually still warm and dry well into the month of November or December. Still, it is raining in southern California and it is a school day.
I am not one to go jumping in the puddles any more, though I should be and many of the students have been. Many of the students have wet feet today. Some of them because they were jumping in the puddles, some of them because someone next to them was jumping in the puddles, and some of them for a long list of of other reasons. Of course, I still have not told you why my feet are wet. Perhaps I should. My feet are wet because I have holes in my shoes! I know, you may say that every shoe has at least one hole in it, but that would be a smarty-pants answer. My shoes have the kinds of holes in them that you don't know you wear them when it is wet outside. The holes are apparently in the soles of my shoes because it only took about two minutes of walking across the wet playground for the water to seep into my sock and all the way to my feet. So, my feet are wet. I think it would be much better if I had been jumping in the puddles getting others wet, but I'm a teacher and an adult so I'm not supposed to do that. Even though I want to! If it were a Saturday I would wear my especially large shoes (which make an especially large splash) and run around the playground , jumping in puddles and soaking my students. Well, I can always hope can't I. Saw this going home on Friday. A Nissan GTR. My child has been so infected with the car that this is his favorite car. It is amazing what you see around you if you will only enjoy the view. So many times in our lives we hurry through the journey and miss the scenery or the people we travel it with. I appreciate my family so much. I took this picture because I knew my son would like to have it, I was on my way home to a caring wife and my daughter and son had folded all of the clean laundry that was waiting for me, and most importantly, a God who knows exactly what I need. Thank God for the journey and my fellow travelers! My question to you is where are you going and who is on the journey with you? So, we made the trip. It was rather epic. Since we had to be back for other reasons the trip was rather rushed. We left Friday evening at 7:30pm and we walked back into our front door on the following Tuesday at 7:30pm. The second day was the most difficult, we traveled 766 miles in one day. The picture was taken of the car on the trailer that we used to transport it back to California. I took the picture at our friend's house in Portland, Oregon on Sunday afternoon. We left later to spend the night in southern Oregon. The total miles were 2258. All this was done in four days, which I would not recommend. It was a shame to pass so many beautiful places in Oregon and not have much time to spend there. The car does not run right now. At the least we will need to drain the eleven and a half year old fuel and add in fresh fuel. We will need to change the radiator fluid, the oil and the air filter, and put in a new battery just to see if the engine will start. The rear differential appears to be leaking fluid. I will need to check the level of the fluid before we attempt to drive the old car. I do not want to burn up the rear axle if there is no fluid in the differential. I have all of the service record which begin in 1967! Some from Spain, some from France, and one from New Jersey. I don't quite know how the one from New Jersey fits in. Later records have notes from different mechanics that the overhead cam and the timing chain and all its accessories need to be replaced. There is even a note from one mechanic that the timing chain appears to have skipped. I am not sure how difficult it will be to find these pieces. No matter which way this turns out, I am thrilled. I love old cars. I love the smell of oil and the challenge of keeping them going. This is not my first time with an old car, I've done this before, so I know what I am in for. |
Details
Author
Mr Aitken Archives
February 2023
Categories
All
|