For computer tech, our last project was to make a game design on Scratch. I chose to make the pong game. One of the hardest parts was adding the score. I tried it multiple times, but still nothing was working. Eventually, I realized I had to put the score variable in a specific “forever” bracket in order for it to work. I am very proud of this game. One thing I am very proud about is that I was able to add many components to make this game even more advanced. For example, I added a score and timer. If I had more time, I would add more levels. In each level, the ball would bounce much faster.
I also played someone else’s game. Their game was a maze. I decided to play this one because it was not the game I decided to make. One thing I liked about the game was how the sprites were not the original ones you would use for a maze. The person made their sprite a donut, which I thought was pretty cool. One thing I learned from the game is that you can draw your own background. I knew we could use shapes to make it, but never knew that you could hand draw it. Overall, it was an amazing game!
Like I said, this is the last project for computer tech, and the school year is almost done. Overall, I loved this class. It opened me to a whole new world of coding I never knew before. My favorite project was Swift Playgrounds: “Learn to Code”. I liked this because it taught me the fundamentals of coding, but did it in a fun and engaging way. I think one thing that worked well doing computer tech at home was that we had easy access to the basic materials we needed. I only needed my school iPad for this quarter. One thing that was a little hard was not being able to see the teacher in person and not being at the classroom. This is because it is easier to learn in the classroom than online, and there are more materials to help us there. However, I still think e-learning was fine.
Overall, computer tech has been amazing! I have learned so many things that I will not forget, and it helped me grow tremendously as a coder!
The topic we are doing in computer tech is spreadsheets and how to use them. For one of our projects, we were given data from real life situations. We had to pick one of them to focus on. I decided to focus on the snow totals spreadsheet. This included the snow totals in each US state. Once we picked a spreadsheet, we were supposed to use our spreadsheet knowledge and add things like charts, averages, and more.
Here is what I did:
The first thing I did was add a chart. I did this by highlighting all the state’s numbers. Once everything was highlighted, I added it by clicking on the plus sign in the top right corner and choosing the chart option. Once I did this, I was able to choose what type of chart I preferred. I chose a 3D pie chart. I also added some formulas. I can do this by first highlighting the state’s amounts. After that, on the suggestions panel, there were the average, sum, minimum, and maximum. I chose the sum, minimum, and maximum. I also changed the cell color, font, and font size by clicking the “A” in the top right corner. I also froze the header row. I did this by clicking the row, and scrolling through the options until I found “freeze row”.
Overall, I think spreadsheets were a very interesting and fun topic!
For English, we were assigned a photo essay. A photo essay is a series of photos that when viewed together show what quarantine has been like. I decided to focus on how life changed. This includes different ways of doing something, new hobbies, and how it affects us. I have decided to build my photo essay on Spark Video. I like Spark video because it is easy to make different types of layouts for pictures and text. Before I started it, I had to brainstorm. I looked through my camera roll and saw lots of pictures to use. However, I decided to make something called a shot list and a storyboard. This helped me organize my ideas, and helped me decide what photos to use. I also decided to choose music called “Bringing change”. I wanted to use this not only because of the name and how it relates to life changing. I wanted to use it because it has a positive sound to it, which means we can also look at the positives of staying home which would be spending time with family and taking on new hobbies. I am going to use photos of events that happened through quarantine, and also what we have head to change. This includes my birthday, different learning spaces, online shopping, and new hobbies. I also want to include lots of photos with my family. This is because I want to show that quarantine can also be a great time to spend with family and make a stronger bond. Overall, I love this project and I can’t wait to start adding all the photos!
For computer tech, we have been working on scratch, more specifically “Learn to Code 1”. One of the most challenging parts was the Logical Operators. I found that this was rad because there were many parts to figuring out the code. You had to look over it many times before deciding what to code. The hardest part was “Using this AND that”. This was hard for me because I wasn’t sure at times which o to use, and sometimes I thought there wasn’t an answer. Also, in order to make sure you got the code correct, they would move the map around so you’re not just using the regular code, and making sure you are using the right code. Even though this was frustrating, it did help me become a better coder!
For computer tech we have started to use swift playgrounds. One of the tasks I had to complete was to find bugs in the code and fix it.
These are the steps I had to complete, as well as the path byte was going to take:
There were many bugs I had to fix. I had to make sure that it went the right directions, and made sure to collect any gems or toggle any switches. To fix the bugs, I had not first watched it, and looked over the code. I had to rearrange a bunch of steps to make sure it worked. Even though it was hard at some places, I mad we sure to no give up and keep on going!
For our fantasy unit, we have to write an analytical paragraph for each book we read. Today I’m going to tell you what has been challenging and what’s been easy!
The analytical paragraph is like one paragraph of an essay. This makes it much easier, because I have written a lot of essays like this. They all have the same format, which makes it easier for me to know how to structure my paragraph. The format is: Topic sentence, background information, text evidence, page reference, explanation, further analysis, and a concluding sentence. Another thing that makes it easier is that I have been jotting. By jotting you are able to have all possible ideas for the paragraph right in front of you. Throughout the book I like to highlight the most important notes that are good starters for what I should write about.
One thing that is challenging is the analysis section. After explaining each evidence for a couple of sentences, we have to dive further into why it supports my main idea. I find this hard because sometimes I feel that I have already explained the reasoning behind my evidence. To fix this problem, I like to go back to my book and jots and read them over. After that I think, “What is the big idea from this theme?”. This helps tremendously because it makes me notice things I haven’t noticed before that would help make my paragraph even stronger.
Here is the first analytical paragraph I have written!:
For our assignment, we had to make a music video on scratch. After we did that, we were supposed to watch another person’s video, and write about it. Today I am going to show you what I liked about the video I watched.
In general the video was great! I liked the background, it fit very well with the sprites. I also like the sprites and how there wasn’t too much going on in the video, but it was still interesting. One thing I like about animation is that all of the sprites were not doing the same animation at the same time. The person had one sprite in front doing something different than the other two sprites in the back. I also really liked the soundtrack. I liked how there wasn’t the same soundtrack the entire time. The person changed sounds every couple of seconds, which made the whole thing much more interesting.
For English class, we are starting a fantasy unit. We have to read four books, and write a paragraph about each one.
I have read fantasy books time to time, but they are never my first pick. I prefer realistic fiction or mystery. One reason why I like fantasy is because it is very different to actual life. You can get sucked into a story, and it feels like a whole other world. The characters are very different from regular people, so you also feel connected to certain characters as well. I think fantasy really sparks your imagination. One thing I don’t like about fantasy is that it sometimes gets very confusing. Since it is a whole other world with all different characters, some of it is hard to get. The characters are so complex and may have magical powers or features that we have never seen before.
One of my favorite fantasy books was The school for Good and Evil. Even though it is long, it is very interesting. It was very intriguing because there were so many problems and situations that occurred. It was very drama filled, and had so many cliffhangers. If you are trying to read longer books, choose this one because it is long without being boring!
Here is the book trailer:
As I said before, I had to choose four books. I chose A Wrinkle in Time, When you Reach me, and The City of Ember series. When I was choosing my books, I decided to choose books that were well known. When I chose A Wrinkle in Time, My mom recommended When you Reach Me because the main character in that book reads A Wrinkle in Time in it and makes connections with it in her real life. I chose The City of Ember series because I tried reading it a couple years ago but it was too confusing at the time, even though I found it interesting.
So far, this unit has been amazing and I can’t wait to read more!
For computer technology, our assignment was to go watch a video about coding called “Code Stars”. This video included lots of different people, who were very famous, talking about how to code and how to start. One thing that I realized is that these big coders, like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates all started small. In the video they talked about How they first started by coding something that say makes a circle move, or show what their favorite color is. This surprised and inspired me, because it made me realize that I don’t need to be super good at coding all of sudden, and that it takes time. Everyone has to start somewhere, before they can grow.
For my last quarterly, I have computer tech. For our first assignment, we had to make something on scratch. This assignment was to code something that would tell people about yourself. I included basic things like my name, favorite food or animal, and my hobbies. I included things that helped people understand me better and maybe they would learn things they didn’t know before.
I haven’t really coded before, so this was a little difficult. I tried to use different types of coding. For example, I played around with the sound and motion. I also added text. One thing was that I had to make sure everything was timed right. I stated with the blocked “when the play button is clicked”, and then I would put a timer block to make sure the specific sprite comes in at the right time. Overall, I am super happy with how the project turned out!
