Sdudekula27 Blog

Last time in tech we watched a video that explained the history of automatons. A long time ago machines that moved like people was only a dream, it seemed unachievable. After the first successful automaton was built by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737, lots of new and more interesting automatons were built. Some automatons could write, some could draw, some could play music, and some were even coated in real human skin. There were very interesting theories about the differences between man and machine. I thought it was amazing how we could construct something that worked so well, and I was curious about the science behind it and how the machines really work.

Yesterday in tech we learned about different materials, and how some stretch and some fracture. We studied examples like the Titanic, and one example that I found especially interesting was the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. What happened was that due to 42 mph winds, the bridge started curving and moving, almost like a rollercoaster. This happened because the bridge was made of steel, which can stretch. Steel first stretches, then forms a neck, where all the pressure is applied, and eventually that’s where the steel breaks. That’s what happened with the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

Click here to watch a real video of what happened to the bridge! It shows the hard steel bending and curving, and it looks amazing!

This week we did our final project for Computer Tech, where we got to choose from Tinker, Playgrounds, and google sheets to do our project. I chose Playgrounds, and coded an interesting conversation, covering a lot of the things we learned in Playgrounds. Below is a picture of what I did in playgrounds:

Overall, I think that google sheets is defiantly the most useful, but playgrounds was a fun coding app to use.

This week we did more work with spreadsheets, and continued doing a Wellness Log. Below is a chart that shows last week’s wellness log (10/26).

It was a simple process filling out this chart, every time I did anything here I just wrote down an estimate of the amount of time I did that activity for. For this second week, I’m going to calculate averages and totals. The wellness log is a good way to practice using spreadsheets, which can be very useful for things like organizing data and recording progress. Overall, I think that spreadsheets is extremely useful, and after you get used to it, it can make things much easier.

For a while now, we’ve been stepping aside from tinker and other projects, and have been focusing on a coding game called Playgrounds. This week we downloaded a new playground called answers, were we learn about ways to ask and respond to questions. We did two different levels, Text and Types.  Text was learning how to code a question, and types was different ways to answer and make the question and answer more interesting. This made Types more interesting, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Text. Below is a picture of the level Types, along with the answers I typed and the code for how to put out choices to choose from for the answer.

The last swift playgrounds puzzle I was able to complete in Learn to Code 1 was one that I had to figure out for an assignment.  It was called Checking for Switches, and it was challenging because every time you did it the order of which switches were on and which were off changed, and our goal was to have every switch on. The directions were very helpful, because they were clear on how to use the “if” command to make sure we’d only toggle the right switches. Here is a picture of the first few puzzles I did, but there are more below.

I liked Anna Clara’s music video because it was simple and clean, and kinda like a real mini concert commercial thing because the background was an actual stage, and she had a drummer, someone playing the piano, and someone playing the guitar and singing. I think one thing she could add is a little more music, instead of just choosing one, but it’s overall very good.

After watching the video about how technology had helped all those people become successful and pursuing their dreams, I decided that I thought that Vida’s job was really cool because technology helps her a lot. Like she said the computer needs help so her job is to do that. She does the actual analyzing, and I thought that was cool how her and everyone else who works with her know how to do that, and I think it’s an interesting job. I like the system they use, how the computer delivers the information but she kinda does the real behind-the-scenes work. I think it’s an overall impressive job.

A few days ago I finished recording my Capstone TedTalk. It took a couple takes, but eventually we did it. My sister recorded it while I gave the presentation using my laptop to put the images on the TV. Capstone was  a super fun project, and one of the reasons I like it so much is because you get to research whatever you want, something you’re passionate about. You can also choose what kind of project you are doing, like a video or TedTalk. Finally, you also get to interview someone. Capstone was one of my favorite projects of the year. Click here to watch my video on medicine!