Erupt O'clock

 

    As the class Light, Sound, and Time wraps up we are working on our final Action Project. Our final unit was time and we spent the past weeks learning about the history of telling time and the different tools used. Our class was also able to speak to astronomer Taylor Hoyt and some of us read from the book A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. To apply our knowledge about time we are making our own time-telling devices.

    One thing I found interesting was how time has been found historically in nature, the most notable way being how the sun's position in the sky is used to tell time. I wanted to also use nature to tell the passing of time so I chose to focus on geysers. As a geological event, they are incredibly fascinating and can be pretty consistent with their eruptions. 

    So the question remains as to how one can tell time with geysers. I went through multiple rounds of ideas. At first, I thought they could be used as a timer of sorts and one could track their day through the periods between the eruptions of a geyser. This proved to not be a good idea because there can be so much variation and it is only useful for someone who is staying near a geyser all day. My other idea was to create a calendar based on the number of eruptions per day. I then created an animated video to show the idea for such a product.

Erupt O'clock on wrist - PC - 2023

PC - Gyser video - 2023

    This product can be useful for someone who spends their time near geysers and wants to track their day without standard units of time. As the day progresses there will be more eruptions which can be marked on this calendar. In my video, I used the geyser, Old Faithful, as an example because it erupts ~ 20 times per day. Other geysers erupt at different intervals and can be used for tracking different periods of time. The Strokkur geyser in Iceland erupts every 5-10 minutes, so it wouldn't be practical to count the day's progress and could instead be used for tracking shorter intervals.

    Overall I've learned a lot from this AP and enjoyed the process. One thing I wish I could've done better was time management. One thing I enjoyed was the animation process, I had never done it previously, but despite the repetitive nature I enjoyed it and am proud of how my AP has turned out.

Sources

“Current Geyser Activity.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/geyser-activity.htm.

“Predict Old Faithful.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/predict-old-faithful.htm.