Passion Project #5: Challenges


My Passion Project is going very well. I am almost done with my final project, my game, but I will also make a slideshow about Unity itself and its founders. But I have also experienced many challenges. One of these challenges was that the Unity version in the video I watched was from 3 years ago, but I was using the latest version, so some of the things they did I had to do a different way. Unity still had all the same features, though, so I found what I had to do, it just took a little longer. Another challenge I faced was that sometimes Unity froze so I had to restart my computer, but I realized later by watching some tutorials on how to fix it that it was because I didn’t have the latest version, so I downloaded that and sure enough, it stopped freezing. Overall, though, I am proud of my problem-solving skills and how they’ve developed through this project.

This is how far I’ve come with my game so far:

There is more to it, but I enabled fog so you can’t see very far.

Electricity and the Atom/Tech Post 6

We started learning about electricity and atoms. I have always been pretty interested in this topic, so I am pretty excited we will get to learn about it. Mr. Calvert made an EDpuzzle, and that was pretty cool. I never knew that there were different types of atoms, and what really surprised me is that these different atoms have different weights. I also thought that it was really awesome how technology has evolved so much, and we can actually take pictures of atoms. I never thought that it was possible. I also thought it was cool how this one guy Dalton predicted, almost exactly, how the atoms looked. This is a picture of a hydrogen atom:

EDpuzzle/Tech Post 5

So, with the coronavirus keeping us out if school, We need to find a good resource to keep teaching us about our topics. One resource we have been using that I really like is EDpuzzle. The way it works is Mr. Calvert assigns us a video, but what EDpuzzle lets him do is add questions to parts of the video, so he can see what we’ve learned. EDpuzzle is cool because the videos are pretty interesting, and you can see if you really understand with the questions. This is a picture of the layout:

Passion Project #4: Learning About Myself

I have learned a lot about myself already during this Passion Project and these times. One of the major things I’ve learned about myself is that as a learner, I would much rather be doing things hands on, like the actual coding part, than be doing research. But I know that both of these are important, so I have to push myself to be doing great research. I’ve also learned that I can be very resourceful when I need to be. I already kind of knew this about myself, but I am seeing it in action during this project. As I expected, there is not much about Unity’s creators and facts, so it was tough to find good information, but I figured it out. What I have learned about myself as a reader is that I try to find only the most important things in articles and not really read them, so I am trying to stop doing that and read the whole article. As a writer, I have realized I tend  to go straight to what I think is important information, but now I am trying to write the whole story, not just the cool parts. I know that I have a tendency to procrastinate, but I am trying to shut that off. I think I have really improved as a time manager for myself, and I am trying not to procrastinate with this project.

Passion Project #3: Revisions

I have come a long way with my Passion Project. I am almost done with my written notes, but it has been hard because there is not really all that much information about the founders of Unity, but some websites have had good information. The resource I am finding most helpful is a YouTube channel called Brackeys because it has a video on literally ANYTHING you could think of about Unity. It also has some good tutorials, and I might follow one as my final project. Another very helpful resource is a book called Unity Cookbook. One of the note-taking strategies I am really working on is writing things down in my own words. I am trying not to plagiarize anything, so I really have to write things down my way. It is also helpful because I may not understand everything that the website says in a while when I forget the terms, but if I write it down my own way, I will definitely be able to understand it. Anyway, so far, I think I have been making great progress. It has been tough, though, because there are not that many resources on the founders of Unity, but I have been making it work.

This is a picture of the book I’ve been using:

Passion Project #2: Identifying Resources

As you know, my Passion Project topic is Unity, a video game programming language. The way I went about identifying my book resource is I went on Amazon and I found the book with the best and most ratings, then I did the preview and saw that I could understand it, so I bought it. The way I went about identifying video resources was I went onto YouTube and found the most popular one. Then I went to their channel and saw that they made a lot of tutorials on Unity. So I just used those. The resource I think will be the most helpful is the YouTube channel because it has literally anything you could think of about Unity. The nonfiction reading skills I want to practice are, number one, reading a paragraph or page of the book, and then just writing down what is most important, and number two, note-taking in my own words. These skills apply to interviews because the interviewer must take in the most important information related to their topic. The second one relates to interviewing because the interviewers have to write it down their own way to understand it later. Thanks for reading, and I will see you later!

This is a pic of the main part of the YouTube channel I’ve been studying:

Passion Project #1: How Did I Come Up With My Topic

For my Passion Project, I will study a video game programming language called Unity. The process of selecting this topic was easy. I’ve always been passionate about video game programming, but never really dove into it. I was originally going to do video game programming in general, but then I realized I would need to narrow down at one point, so I did a bit of research and discovered that Unity was the most powerful, yet beginner-friendly, coding language. My guiding research questions will be: Who created Unity, what was it created for, what is it mainly used for, what else can it be used for, which major corporations use it, how does it compare to other languages, were other languages based on it, how does it actually work, and will a sixth-grader be able to make something on it. I chose these because I am also interested in learning about the history of Unity. I also included questions about how it works. My letter is attached, and I will see you soon!

Letter: Daniel Pantchev – Passion Project 2020 – 4800888

This is Unity’s layout:

Soldering/Tech Post #4

In tech, we are learning how to solder. Solder is basically like glue, but it is melted metal. It gets really hot, so I’ll have to be careful! We have a circle with a little ring on the top, and we are ordering wires to make a design. Mine says Bet. This is a picture of the circle we will put our design in:

See you guys soon, but with all the stuff happening with coronavirus, I’m not sure how soon!

Cardboard Box Construction/Tech Post #3

Yesterday we constructed the cardboard box that we will use for our automata. There were 5 sides, which were all labeled by burnt in letters. We also got our wheels back. Mine is a big-wheel. This is a pic of it:

I plan to make a quarterback throwing a ball, the ball being connected to the big wheel. When it spins, the stick will go right and left. That’s basically my whole idea. See you next post!

 

Automata/Tech Post #2

In Tech we are making Automatons. My idea is going to be a football player throwing a football, and the football will be controlled by a big-wheel. We have already sketched our idea, and we sent our vector images to Mr. Calvert so that he cuts them with the laser cutter. We used Vectornator to draw our wheels, which are called cams. I’m excited to build my automaton on Monday. I want to see how it turns out.