Hi there!! My name is Martin, and I'm thrilled to be a '27 blogger for People Places Pines! A small rural town in Maine called Veazie is where I call home, and I can't wait to tell you about what life at Dartmouth is like! Carving the slopes in the winter, hiking through woods in autumn, or basking in the Green in spring and summer, that's where you'll find me! Stay tuned for everything Big Green!
In this course, we covered all the basics of ecology: how organisms interact with each other and with their ecosystems. My favorite parts of the class were the labs: they took place outside and we explored ecological concepts around campus!
This course was on everything energy: how we use it, how we generate it, and how we can improve our current energy systems in light of climate change. We visited nearby energy systems, including Dartmouth's very own heating and energy facilities. This course was awesome!
This term, I've been taking ENGS 21, Introduction to Engineering. At Dartmouth, engineering takes a project-oriented learning approach, and so for this "intro" course we've basically been designing and building a project of our own interest for the whole term, learning the engineering process along the way and helping solve the problem that we've identified.
Each week in ENGS 21, we learn new engineering "skills" or techniques that help with our project. Each group is assigned a helpful teaching assistant (a student who has taken the course before) and an instructor at the Dartmouth machine shop—the specialized engineering tools and machines area.
As far as identifying a problem to solve, we were given the freedom to choose any problem we liked as long as there was a clear goal. We decided we wanted to improve recycling—specifically, the recycling of aluminum cans. My group has been designing and building a "smart can recycling" machine in order to prevent recycling waste—specifically, cans—from getting contaminated with other items or substances by sorting pure cans from any other objects.
Our first working prototype of our machine... made of PVC pipe and some circuitry!
We've been testing, designing prototypes, collecting feedback, redesigning prototypes, and—as of just recently—producing our final product, which we call "Smart Sort." In ENGS 21, a significant part of your class is also presenting your work to judges, collecting feedback from them on the engineering process, and integrating their suggestions. It's a great introduction to the engineering process, as professors and faculty guide you through whatever project you choose! I've provided some photos of our project below:
These are some components I 3D-modeled and printed for our sorting mechanism, a skill you'll learn in ENGS 21!
Our final working prototype and product... Smart Sort!
IfENGS 21: Intro to Engineering sounds interesting to you, you should consider taking it… who knows, maybe you'll decide to study engineering at Dartmouth!
Green Key is one of Dartmouth's major spring festivities, bringing two popular music artists to our Gold Coast Lawn. My weekend was filled with friends and fun!
What an incredible spring! This term was undoubtedly my favorite that I've experienced thus far, and as I wait to board a flight back to campus for a highly anticipated Sophomore Summer, I reflect on everything that allowed this spring term to bloom.
