Johnson County FLL N.E.R.D.S
Friday, February 17, 2017
Friday, January 15, 2016
competition
anxiously awating our first competition hope it goes well. we have to get up at 5:15 in the morning so we can go to Nebraska city. and i'm so nervous i doubt i will get any sleep.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Monday, January 11, 2016
for our core values poster
We
discovered that all of us but one, are pretty opinionated, so we had
to be careful that we listened to each other and made sure everyone
was INCLUDED and had a
chance to share their ideas.
We
DISCOVERED that is was hard
to not jump in or take over if a team member was not getting
something right away and help them figure it out for themselves
instead of just telling them the answer.
We
learned that we were INTEGRATING
the Core Values we were practicing at FLL in many other areas of our
life, and we didn't even realize it. One team member mentioned her
basketball team, another mentioned playing videos games with other
friends, someone talked about youth group at church and even just
learning to be a better sibling. It
isn't always fun or easy but these are just basic life skills
everyone needs all the time.
We
created a blog www.jcnerds.blogspot.com
to share our ideas with other teams. We met a more experienced team
at the Calvert Rec Center competition that we had some things in
common with and we have been following them to learn more, also.
Sharing and learning with others is
way more fun and important than winning!!
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Field Trip Alter Metal Recycling
Alter Scrap
Three
N. E. R. D. S team members went to tour Alter Metal Recycling, (two
team members were unable to attend) to see what they do with their
metal. When we first arrived we spent some time in their boardroom
listening to them tell us about what they do. We learned the
difference between ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The difference
between these is that ferrous metal is magnetic, thus containing
iron, and non-ferrous metal is not magnetic, like aluminum and
copper. This is one way they sort incoming metal.
Next
we took a tour of their facility. We had to wear hard hats and we
got to see some awesome big machinery at work. We were tested for
radiation as we crossed their scale, we tried to remove a really
strong magnet, and saw huge aluminum can bundles weighing 1,000
pounds. We watched a crane “sweep” the concrete with a large
bundle of wire, another crane make metal boxes “jump” off the
ground, and yet another that was operated without anyone in the cab.
The man operating this crane used a remote control and made the
grapple “wave” at us from across the parking lot. We learned
that at this plant they shear metal, not shred, grind, or melt, which
are other options for recycling metal. They haul their off in
semi-trucks or on rail cars.
We
went back inside and watched a short video that told about the
history of Alter. A man from Iowa founded this company in 1898 and
it has been in their family for 4 generations. They have 54 offices
across the United states and at least one overseas in Hong Kong.
We
learned that if we wanted to melt our baling wire the closet place
would be in Norfolk, NE at NUCOR, or SSAP in Montpelier, IA thus
proving a need for our product in our area.
Both
before and after our tours we had the opportunity to ask some
questions. Here are a few of them.
Q.
What do you do with your metal?
A.
This plant shears metal, which means they crush the metal into
blocks and cut it lengthwise, like a deli slices meat for
sandwiches.
Q.
We asked how much material they brought in, in a day?
A.
We got two answers to this questions, one was that he wasn't really
sure, and the other was that even if he did know that would be
information that they wouldn't share because of the concern their
competitors might find out and that could hurt their business.
He
did tell us that on average they loaded out 14 rail cars and LOTS of
truck monthly.
Q.
We asked what they believed baling wire to be made of (wanting to be
sure we were on the right track)
A.
They said iron or steel, which they consider the same thing. They
also told us that iron can be recycled indefinitely, never losing
enough of it's properties in the recycling process to no longer be
iron.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)