My favorite module that I have done so far has been the Media Tech: Videography module. Because I enjoy working with a camera and just filming in general. It wasn’t difficult and it wasn’t to easy either that’s another reason why I loved it.

I went around asking people what they thought about that module, either they loved doing it or haven’t done it at all but, it may seem like fun. More than half the people I asked said they loved or would love to do this module.

This module is mostly about the mission statement and what you think about it or how you see. You go around the school filming what you think represents the mission statement. Such as ‘healthy and well-balanced lifestyle’ you could go and film a gym class working out. This module is very fun to work with and I suggest you try it as well.

-Candace-

Elyssa J. Castillo
7th period
My Favorite Module

My favorite module would have to be building a birdhouse, which is engineering. I really do enjoy engineering, mostly because I get to connect with my dad and he’s in the construction field (he’s an electrician).

The first challenge was new and weird to me because, I don’t know it was just weird. We had to make a wood sandwich with a nail, nut, bolt, screw, a washer. It was pretty hard to nail in the nail with a hammer…people in the movies make it look so easy.

But next came to actually making the birdhouse. We had to cut the wood, glue it, nail it, and then make it all pretty. There was a lot more steps than what you might think it is. But if you put time and effort into this module you’ll end up with an amazing birdhouse.

By: Natalia Vázquez

The main idea of this Module is to learn how to make microcontrollers, learn to use the laser cuter, and learn to identify simple computers and complex computers. This was a great  creative module.

My group was Zoe, Gisel and Macy on our challenge two our assignment was to make something interesting and artistic with the microcontrollers(littleBits) we tested all of them and decided that the best idea was to make a car. Our materials was the littleBits, a hot glue gun and cardboard.

The plan was that our first step was measure in the computer how much is our were we going to need to make the car. The second step was to laser cut the cardboard. The third step was to put the cardboard pieces together by gluing them. The fourth step was testing it with the littleBits and finish!

To make the car was a big challenge we had a conflict on making the car the right size at first we made a mistake our car was too small the littleBits didn’t fit. We all felt really disappointed but that’s the process into making our design. So we measure again to have the right size and the right order to put in the littleBits.

What I most enjoyed in our group was we all contribute in each step.

Videography by Bella Thomas

This is six weeks I find finished a module for videography.During this module I had to work with a team to create a video about our mission statement. The people who were in my group were Madison Irwin,Michiah Thomas and Zoe Renteria.we had lots of fun and learned many skills. But there was also some things that were complicated.

Doing this module has taught me many skills.Some of these skills include knowing how to film correctly.Before I started this module I had no idea how to get the best angels in a camera or how to use the rule of thirds until I asked my sister who is in media tech and she explained.When we started filming we had to use the grid and rule of thirds which was hard at first but then after a while I got used to it.By deciding to do this module I can now use camera’s the right way and also I can know this for 9th grade when I do the media tech pathway

During the Videography module me and my group created a video.First before we were able to do a video for challenge two we had to create a picture that used the rule of thirds.After we did that then it was time to create the video.To make the video we used iPhones and cannon cameras and to edit we use a mac computer with the imovie app.While we were filming we roamed around campus finding the right kind of lighting and symbols that represented our mission statement.I enjoyed this module and can’t wait for more.

The picture is of me twirling and my teammate doing a cartwheel.The picture obeys the rule of thirds

For my last module we did computer science. We got the idea to do a little police car. When we first started it was a big idea, with no setbacks nothing to hold us back. After we got more into the project we fastly discovered that, that was the magic of engineering. We had the idea we had the tools and we started! We had to go back and redraw our idea a few times to fit our car, we also had to fix the car a few times until it all fit, and all worked. For this module we had to be very open minded, because we had to be okay with the ideas that even dough we had an idea it wasn’t always going to be good at the first try. This project made us frustrated, worried, happy, mad, but at the end you always know it’s worth it. This module had us working hard, and made us have mixed feelings, but in my opinion this module is one that shows you how you have to try and try harder until you get something right, and now has become one of my favorite modules I have done before. For this module we learned how to program in our case a little car with little-bits to spin the weals, have the little lights and siren go on and of constantly with just the start button ect.

Hello my name is Leslie, and today I am going to talk about the last module I did. The last module I did was Construction and Fabrication which is in the engineering pathway. My group members were Sara and Jacinda. For the first challenge of this module my group and I had to do a wood sandwich. The whole point of this challenge was to get to know and use the tools in our classroom. For the second challenge we had to do a right angle birdhouse. Our first design was a fail because it wasn’t a right angle. Our second design was also a fail because of the same problem as our first design, but our failures didn’t mean we were going to give up. Our third design was a success because it was a right angle birdhouse. Our third design may have been simple but at least we meet the criteria. In this module I learned a few things. One of the things that I learned was how to use the tools in our classroom. I also learned that to not give up because if you keep on trying then eventually you are going to accomplish your goal.

By: Leslie Morales (1st period)

Recently in my class of project lead the way, we’ve been working on our modules and the one that I want to talk to you all about today is one that stood out to me the most, the one I enjoyed and had the most fun with and the one that came out the best was — drum roll please! — the Videography module.

Videography is basically the same thing as film making, just a shorter version of a film. The assignment was to make a video of a tour of our school and adding the mission statement to it, but since ours was just as good without it, we decided not to include the mission statement.

The first step on making our very awesome video of our very nice school is to film it. We borrowed a video camera, grabbed a tripod, and started filming. We started at the front of the school and worked our way around. As we did this we used methods to film our scenes, like the rule of thirds and panning around the room.

Next, we got all of our videos we filmed out of the camera, plugged the camera to a computer, uploaded all the videos to a USB drive, took our USB drive to an apple mac computer, uploaded them to the mac computer, downloaded it to Imovie, and a lot of other things to get us in the process of editing our video.

We had a lot of fun and laughs while editing our video. My partners and I. We found other peoples videos and played with the backward, forwards feature you can use with your mouse on Imovie and laughed on how funny we looked doing motions over and over again, our partner Prisila had to remind us many times to stay on task! It was a pretty fun time.

Alas, we did have to complete our video, so we edited, added music, fast forwarded some of the scenes and came out with our final product.

Tour of the Ann Richards School –

– Brenda Puente 8th period PLTW

And there it was… Big. Sharp. Metal. It even had teeth! And it made a sound, an atrocious sound. Yellow. Out of all the colors. Yellow. Circular and jagged in parts. It controlled me, yet I knew that if I wanted to, I could control it. Either way, it took over me, but only because I let it. It targeted my 5 senses. I couldn’t touch it, I could get hurt. I couldn’t see it, it was ugly. I couldn’t taste or smell it, because, uh, it was metal. It was stationary and lonely, isolated.

I could go on and on about this “it”. I don’t know if you were able to tell what the “it” was. But… Okay, so, the top paragraph talks about my thoughts on the miter saw, you know, the one in the corner. I’m sure you’ve seen it, its hard to ignore. I did eventually use the miter saw, and speaking in all truth, it wasn’t even that bad, I was just being a little baby, and I recognize that.

The miter saw became alive! It rose from the ashes, I portrayed the tool as a wild beast, fatal & lethal. I learned after wards that my thought(s) were wrong. You can’t say unless you know.

I’ve learned that appearances fool you and that everything isn’t what it seems, there’s much more than looks… I hope this blog post was enjoyed by you;)

Hi! It’s Maite again, and I just wanted to talk to you today about the module I most recently finished. Videography. It was probably one of my favorite ones, because you got to go around the school to film, and get really creative to express the idea of our mission statement. When I first chose this module with my group, I was a bit hesitant about doing it because I had never been that interested in the Media Tech pathway and doing film. Though, once I got started, I really realized how enjoyable it was.

Not only was the filming itself fun, but the before and after filming was fun too. Before the filming, my group and I sketched and wrote out ideas of what to film, what would be said, and who would say it. This helped us create a well made film. Afterwards, we used garageband to put the mission statement into the video as well as some background music. It was really fun to record and find music through that program.

Doing this module really showed me that things that might not have interested you in the past can be interesting to you now if you try them out and give them a chance. The videography module opened an interest int the Media Tech pathway and now I would like to explore that as a possibility too!

I hope that the modules and projects you have done, or do in the future, will inspire you and spark interest in you to go after and explore new things. Exploring new things will help you get a better idea and feel of what pathway you want to take next year, and help you make sure you choose the right one! Have a great day, and thanks for reading!