By:Jacinda P.

working as a team

Working as a team can be a hard thing for everybody.

When working in a team requires communication because situations like a team members missing and if someone is sick, they are not gonna know what to do next class and just be lost. That is why you get their email or phone number or anything that you can reach them with so they aren’t lost the next day.

Team work can be hard for people who are more independent and like to work by themselves because then they might want to “control” or “lead” the group when everyone should have equal opportunities to share your ideas and work on the project.

On that subject, everyone should have a say in the group because during a project you should be enjoying it and do what you like, working as a group you have to compromise because everything can’t be your way.  You have to do something everything likes, kind of like a pizza, when some want cheese but someone wants meat lovers you can just get half and half and you both can enjoy the pizza. It should be the same with a group.

In a group you have to get along to work together. So if in class you get put in a group with someone you don’t like then you have to be mature and get your work done because if you don‘t want to do something it not only affects you but it affects the whole group, so the whole group should not fail just because you didn’t want to contribute to the group because you didn’t like someone.

So in conclusion, working in a group can be a good thing if you make it, you have to have communication, maturity, and integrity to work in a group.

The newest addition to our school is our Makerspace. In the Makerspace we have PLTW, this year in PLTW we have modules that are based off of the pathways we have in highschool which are Biomed, Engineering, and Media Tech.

The Makerspace is made up of two rooms. The first room has the tables and computers and we have to use for Media Tech and our haiku modules. The second room is the building room where you can build things for engineering and also biomed. There’s paint, tools, and anything else you would need to build with. I love the makerspace because it’s a place where you can be creative and think outside the box and go your own way with not that many instructions to do.

In 8th grade you’re supposed to start thinking about what pathway you want to be in next year, and in makerspace is where you can experienced any kind of pathway any way you want to. I know the makerspace was not an easy thing to build and get reading for the school year for everyone to use. So I would just like to say thank you to our 8th grade PLTW teacher Mrs.Sauter for the makerspace because she made it happen and now we can be creative in our own way and have new awesome experiences in our last year of middle school.

Scratch, Hour Of Code

 

At the beginning of last week all of the 8th grade students participated in HOC, or also known as Hour of Code. During the HOC we all went on a website called Scratch and used different combinations of coding to create different patterns, movements, sounds, and projects.

 

The first time we did this we started with our first task, which was to create a fun design to show our names. We used coding to make the letters change colors, move, have sound, talk with speech bubbles, and even more! What we had to do directly to get all these different things to happen was we had to choose different blocks that have a specific actions and put them in specific orders to have them talk or move.

 

There are different themes for each block. Each block had a different meaning/job. For example, one block said,”If clicked” meaning that you would put multiple blocks under that had different abilities and that all did something to make your Sprite do something when a person clicked on it. Now I bet you’re wondering what a “Sprite” is. A sprite is a decal or sticker that you have chosen to code/program. Programing these sprites were not very hard. The only thing that was hard was trying to get the blocks to coordinate with each other to get them to do what you’d like them to do.

 

During Hour of Code I kept asking myself one giant question. Why are we even doing this in the first place? What is so important about it? At the end i realized one giant point that was trying to be noticed, a point to be made. Not enough women are in Coding. Everyone has thoughts saying,”Coding? The stuff with the numbers? And blocks? Oh my, that seems so scary and just too complicated.” Scratch made me realize that it really isn’t that hard or scary. Scratch simplified it just into blocks and all we had to do is arrange them into a specific action. Hour of Code had a giant impact on myself because i learned that nothing is as scary as it seems. I also realized that i’m actually kinda interested in coding.

 

In all, Hour of Code had a giant message but within it, everyone took away something different. I leave you with one last thing though, don’t be afraid to do things outside of your comfort zone, you might enjoy it in the end.

PLTW
Hour Of Code 2014
Jasmine A.

This six weeks we started something called the “hour of code” where we used the computer to get onto a website called Scratch, Scratch is a website that allows you to create anything you want, involving sound, motion, and programing your “sprites” to do what you want, when you want them to. A sprite is the character you choose to program, it can be chosen from the default characters or you can draw one on your own.

To program your sprite you have to click on it and on the side you will see all the commands you can choose from, and the commands fit together like a puzzle, the cool thing is that you can choose how long your sprite performs an action for, they can go on forever or just for a few seconds it’s really just all in your hands, its all up to you.

I actually really enjoyed using Scratch because it reminds me of how we got to experiment with it in elementary school, so it basically helped me rebuild my “programming skills” which is really cool.

Now that I remember how to use the website I think that I may just use it in my free time, because I think it would be really fun to create something on my own, without instructions on the side, telling me what to do.

PLTW
My Experience
Briseyda D.

This semester is almost coming into an end and i have learned a lot from this PLTW class. I had a lot of fun working in engineering, biomedical, and media tech. I don’t know what pathway i’m going to take yet but i hope that in the next semester i have a better idea of what i want to take. I am excited for the maker project because i will be able to learn and create something new.

In this class i have learned new skills. It will be great if every school had a PLTW program like his one because this program helps kids in a lot of different ways. It helps kids decide what pathway they want to take and also with that have an amazing teacher to guide you through it.

Since i’ve been in this class it has been challenging for me, i have been a procrastinator and it becomes even more challenging. This class is not like other classes because we are mostly in the computer. Even if the class seem really challenging and you want to give up, don’t, don’t give up because this class is worth it and it is going to help you in the future. I’ve had fun in this class and i am excited to come back next semester.

Hour of Code 2014

Payton M.

This six weeks, our class participated in the Hour of Code 2014 by having an ARS Week of Code. We used Scratch, and made an animation of our names. Our whole school participated in the Hour of Code to support women in coding, and computer science fields.

There were three options of coding on the Scratch Hour of Code website, but we chose the “Animate Your Name” option, I’m assuming because it was the easiest to accomplish. The website walks you through each step of animating your name. It first shows you how to add a letter, and add color effects, and sound. It then shows you how to add the second letter, and how to add motion, like rotating or sliding.

The Scratch website showed us what coding is — its essentially telling a program what exactly it needs to do. In the real world, you don’t get a series of pre-fabricated commands to choose from and apply to your program. In the real world, you have to write the code yourself, and I’m pretty sure it’s not easy. But, it was fun to see the general idea of what coding is, and how it works.

The last module I did was the materials module. What me and my partner(Catalina) did was first pick out a font that we liked on one of the two links on the haiku page. After that, we had to look for a word that we could write with that font, but not just any word. We had to use empathy, justice, ARS, etc, and we used ARS. What we had to with this project was choose a font, choose a word, then find recycled materials(like old wood, aluminum, plastic, etc) and form the word out of those materials that we found. I forgot the name of the font that Catalina and I found, but we decided to use old styrofoam for all the letters. We wanted to paper mache them after we built them, but first we had to get the letters on bigger paper, so we had them on the whiteboard through the computer and we traced them onto butcher paper. We were going to put a star at the end of ARS but Catalina’s mom accidentally threw it away. Next, we had to build the actual letters, so during class, we cut the letters, and after that we asked Ms.Miesner if she had flour so we could make the paper mache and we got some flour and water to make the paste. We used old newspaper and cut it into strips then dipped them into the paper mache and basically glued them onto the letters. They took a while to dry up but after two days they were finally ready so we could paint them. We painted the letter A white, the letter R dark blue, and the letter S(it was not a Z to those people who thought it was) a light blue. Those didn’t take as long to dry, they were ready overnight, so the next day we took a picture, turned it in, and the last step was to hang it up somewhere in the school. We wanted to hang it up in by the Christmas tree, but it blocked the leaves, so after we spent about an hour hanging it up, we had to take it down. We eventually found a place to hang it, on the other side of the hallway, close to the tree. I had fun doing this module, which seemed easy, but it was harder than I thought. It was pretty fun, but it really got us thinking on how to solve problems(like when the letter A almost fell apart) but other than that, it was fun.
The last module I did was the materials module. What me and my partner(Catalina) did was first pick out a font that we liked on one of the two links on the haiku page. After that, we had to look for a word that we could write with that font, but not just any word. We had to use empathy, justice, ARS, etc, and we used ARS. What we had to with this project was choose a font, choose a word, then find recycled materials(like old wood, aluminum, plastic, etc) and form the word out of those materials that we found. I forgot the name of the font that Catalina and I found, but we decided to use old styrofoam for all the letters. We wanted to paper mache them after we built them, but first we had to get the letters on bigger paper, so we had them on the whiteboard through the computer and we traced them onto butcher paper. We were going to put a star at the end of ARS but Catalina’s mom accidentally threw it away. Next, we had to build the actual letters, so during class, we cut the letters, and after that we asked Ms.Miesner if she had flour so we could make the paper mache and we got some flour and water to make the paste. We used old newspaper and cut it into strips then dipped them into the paper mache and basically glued them onto the letters. They took a while to dry up but after two days they were finally ready so we could paint them. We painted the letter A white, the letter R dark blue, and the letter S(it was not a Z to those people who thought it was) a light blue. Those didn’t take as long to dry, they were ready overnight, so the next day we took a picture, turned it in, and the last step was to hang it up somewhere in the school. We wanted to hang it up in by the Christmas tree, but it blocked the leaves, so after we spent about an hour hanging it up, we had to take it down. We eventually found a place to hang it, on the other side of the hallway, close to the tree. I had fun doing this module, which seemed easy, but it was harder than I thought. It was pretty fun, but it really got us thinking on how to solve problems(like when the letter A almost fell apart) but other than that, it was fun.

In Gateway to Technology I finished the module Screen Printing and then started working on a module called Videography where we learned how to make good quality videos.

When we finished the Screen Printing we ended with a walkie talkie saying “I got you bro” and I thought it was pretty cute. We never finished making the actual shirt because we didn’t have any good screens. But we tried our best and it worked out pretty well.

My group and I were supposed to make a video about the mission statement at our school. So we went out to record some stuff around the school then record one of us saying it but we then decided just to put the words on the video.

By, Yasmeen V

My last module was videography. I really enjoyed it because I learned  how to edit somethings like & anything that is missing with your project it was fun I liked adding voice recording or extra parts of the videos. I feel like we could have been more creative but we were still satisfied with our final project. It was a good model that I enjoyed & wish to do again in the future.

So far this year I have only done the engineering modules. I am most likely going to pick the engineering pathway. I haven’t done much construction like engineering, I have leaned more towards the technology aspect of it. Doing these technology modules, and being around and watching other people building things have has inspired my maker project. By doing this maker project I will get to explore the construction part of engineering and decide if I will also like this.
I think that I will, and I am really excited about it. I have had this idea since the beginning of the year and I am glad that we are finally getting to do it.

So far in my modules I have done Blogging, Mechanical Systems, Automation and Robotics, and Computer Science. All of them were engineering, but the technology half as you can tell. I have always been interested in building things, but I don’t kn ow what happened this year. I got caught up in technology things and never got to do any building modules. I hope that my idea for the maker project gets approved, but if it doesn’t, I will probably do one more module, the Construction and Fabrication Basics, and then either join a group. I
will either join a group focused on building something with wood and using the saws, or a group doing a project on technology, making a robot, website, ect.

I hope that my project gets approved. Think that it will help me to thoroughly explore engineering and help me prepare myself for what I am committing myself to by picking the engineering pathway.