Winter Break was extremely fun for me. I did many things and went to several places including six flags and big bear. In big bear, I went skiing with my family and had some really good indian food. I went to six flags with my friends a couple of times all though one of the trips it was raining. I spent Christmas with my family. My family traded presents in the morning and then traded with the rest of my aunts, uncles, and cousins at night. For New Years I stayed up till 3 am with my cousins and then popped poppers at midnight. One of my favorite parts of the break was just being able to sleep in.
Today we talked about the robotics team and the game that the teams had to play. The theme was steampunks, which I thought was pretty cool, and you could score points by moving gears, fuel cells, having your robot climb a rope, and spinning the air ship. All of it seemed very interesting, especially the idea of the airship with people on top. The robotics team seems extremely fun but it is also very time consuming and would conflict with my baseball scheduale.
Today Mr. Miller showed the class how to use the google drive website option. We all got logged into google with our gusd accounts and made files and other website templates. I made one and titled it camry. It looks bomb and I'm really proud of my hard work. ;) So far I'm not really digging the new method and would prefer to stay on notepad++. Theres just something that doesn't feel right.
We did another Wednesday challenge. Everybody got into pairs and had to complete the task of cutting out a perfect 1 foot by 1 foot cardboard square. My partner was kevin aka BIG KEV aka BIG K aka KEVMAGLEV. We had to go dumpster diving in order to get a piece of cardboard. We got an adequate piece of material. We drew all of our guidlines with a sharpie and a carpenters square. Only was person per group was allowed to cut with the knife; that person was me. For some reason I couldn't cut a straight line until after trying multiple times. We eventually got it but it wasnt super precise. It was fine though.
We did another Wednesday challenge. Everybody got into pairs and had to complete the task of cutting out a perfect 1 foot by 1 foot cardboard square.
My partner was kevin aka BIG KEV aka BIG K aka KEVMAGLEV. We had to go dumpster diving in order to get a piece of cardboard. We got an adequate piece of
material. We drew all of our guidlines with a sharpie and a carpenters square. Only was person per group was allowed to cut with the knife; that person
was me. For some reason I couldn't cut a straight line until after trying multiple times. We eventually got it but it wasnt super precise. It was fine though.
square WC
Today we worked on websites including google sites and also learned the basis of CSS from Kirk. I continued to do HTML because it looks clean, but its also not too complicated. Jason also helped me to complete creating a home page on my website. It looks really cool now. Im really happy with what my websites becoming.
Today we worked on another Wednesday challenge where a group had to build a contraption out of rope, rubber band, paperclips, a push pin, straws, and popsicle sticks
to move three golf balls from one paper bag to another. My group built a thing that used bent paper clips to spoon the golf balls. It was a
pretty hard challenge but it was also very fun. My team got 1 min 30 sec.
Ebola WC
Today the class learned how to make a home page on html. I already made one but I didnt do it the way that dr neato is teaching the class so Im a little worried about that. I think its fine thouh. Other than that all Ive been doing is just working on my website.
In class today Dr Neat showed us examples of good websites from the last grading period. Half of the people were doing google sites and the rest were html.
The google sites looks pretty cool but i'd rather do html; it makes me feel more accomplised to use a more complicated option.
January 24, 2016
Today I was absent because of a doctors appoitment, so there's not much to write about. I did hear though that we started a project where we had to
build a car out of glue, cardboard, and straws.
January 25, 2016
Today we did a wednesday challenge where everybody in the class got into groups and worked to Design a handout for the robotics team to give away at the Robot Con. You had to make it cool, 50 cents, creative, and sort of relate to the game. My group designed a little teck deck with two wheels. In hind sight it was a terrible idea because it had nothing to do with the game theme. The presentation was the funniest part because it was by far the weakest overall. We had no idea about what the toy was going to do. The picture below is not of my groups invention but of the winning design.
Today we worked on Websites during most of the class period. I mainly just finished a couple of my Wednesday Challenge forms.
Today the robotics group came in and presented what they have been doing for the past week. They have an official cad that they are working off of and have started building a little bit. While they were giving the class a presentation, many people including myself worked on Wednesday challenge forms and their websites in general. It was a very productive day.
Today I just worked on my car. I made a lot of good progress on my car, including finishing the wheels and cutting out the body. Overall it was a pretty chill day.
Today, I finished building the body and axels of the car. It was annoying constantly having to worry about the size constraint, but it is a requirement so it must be done. I glued some stuff together, so hopefully pieces dont start falling off after it dries.
Today is the beginning of February! We did a Wednesday challenge similar to the one that we did last week where we had to design a handout. Instead we had to modify the winning invention, which was the spinner. My group consisted of Mason, Will, and Evan. we did a simple design with a spinner at the top of a straw made out of cardboard.
Today, I worked on my car. Jacob gave me some good ideas so im going to change my entire car. Its going to have a slimmer body and much thicker wheels.
Today I worked on my car, expecially the wheels. As ive gone through this process of creating a car, i've realized that the wheels are the hardest part to get right. Everytime I do test runs, my vehicle always veers to the left or right.
Today I worked on my car some more. I redid one of the wheels that I thought was the main problem for why it was veering, but it didnt work. I think that all of my wheels are screwed up and not straight, so if i want to make it go completely straight then ill have to redo all of my wheels, and I am definetly not going to do that.
Today was another handout related wednesday challenge. Instead the little thing had to be a fidget toy. The same rules apply as the previous few weeks.
We looked online and stole the design of a product called the Boink. Its pretty much just a marble in a mesh bag.
Jason’s team won. They created a stress ball which consisted of a balloon filled with rice. There are also propellers on the back made out of foam to symbolize a zeppelin.
Handout WC
Today I raced my car for the first time. I wasnt feeling too confident because in my test runs prior, my car constantly veered both directions. I ended up having it go 8 feet and 10 inches. I was actually very surprised with my outcome because it usually fell off about 5ft down. I learned that the wheels are extremely important to the car.
Today I raced my car for the second time. I wasnt feeling too confident again because my car is always veering to the left and I cant fix it. I ended up having it go 8 feet and 4 inches. I wasnt too happy with my result because I went a shorter distance than the time before. The car shouldve gone further because it was a angled certain way to comprimise the veer. It didnt work. :(
Today in class, Dr neato and Mr. Miller talked to the class about the latest progress report grades. They were concerned about there being 17 people that got f's. Im not too worried because I have a 95% in the class. The rest of the period, each of the teachers called students who got a bad grade and talked to them about why their website got the grade they got. During the time, I just worked on my website.
Today was the tube toss wednesday challenge. Complete 3 stages of a task where half of the class has a tube and they have to pass it to the next person without dropping any. First everyone had to sit. Second, everyone had to stand. Third, pass it to every other person while standing. Jonathan gave a countdown and when he got to 1, everyone passed it at the same time. If someone messed up nobody got mad at that particular person.
During this time period I will not be posting daily entries due to the fact that I will not be in class, but in Sacramento for Y&G. Its when all of the delegations from California come together to do things such as debate and create bills. I dont have much to talk about because I am writing this before the actual trip.
Today the teachers went over the grades from the past grading period. I got a 95% on my website but unfortunately 14 students still recieved f's. Dr neat was quite dissapointed especially after last week was dedicated to getting those specific people higher grades.
Today was another Wednesday Challenge. The task was to Create a design for a capital “A” and then have another mystery group fabricate it. The two teams will exchange designs and then try and build it with cardboard. We tried to make the design as simple as possible, so we did whole numbers that were easy to work with. We made it 6 inches tall and thought that it was going to be easy, but it was actually difficult. We received a very basic design and made it as close to the sketch up as close as possible.
Today the groups actually fabricated the A's that they recived yesterday. Evan and I did a pretty good job making it as close to the sketch up as possible. I happened to get better at using a box cutter in the process.
Today we went over the winners from the A Wednesday challenge. Evan and I got 5th place, which is not too bad. We were satisfied with the score that we got.
Today was a pretty chill day. Dr. Neato explained the three "hoops" that everybody had to pass through. I and some other people in the class already passed through the first level. It was to build a cardboard car and have it travel down the ramp at least 100 cm. The rest of the period, I just focused on getting my website back up to date.
Today jason and I worked together to begin working on our second car. For this car, Dr. Neat is giving us a sketch up, and we have to build off of. Surprsingly, it took a while for us to get the measurments; the shape of the vehicle was much different. By the end of the period, both of us got all of the measurments written down.
Today was another Wednesday Challenge. Everyone had to get in groups of 4-5, with one of the individuals being a veteran. My group consisted of Raul, Mason, Jaden, and Ian. The task was to create a model boat tail out of carboard for a rocket. Mr. Miller gave every group a packet explaining the information and formulas needed. My group was extremely confused so we just goofed off the entire period and played with Mason's rubicks cube.
Today we continued the Wednesday challenge. Luckily the information and the task began to make more sense. Although, none of us used any of the formulas, the final product looked pretty good.
Today I worked with Evan to complete the 2nd car the Dr. Neat put onto his website. There were a lot more measurments than the previous car that I raced in the first stage. The design is also very strict on getting the specs right because the pieces fit together like puzzle pieces. I finished two pieces of the entire vehicle. To be honest I was goofing around with Jacob and Evan most of the time.
Today I worked with Evan again to finish our second car. I only got two of the sides done because I had to restart due to accidentally cutting off a piece that I needed. Other than that, I didnt do anything.
Today we started our big third quarter project. Evan and I got into a pair. The task was to design a compartment to carry and protect a pringle chip. You could use anything thats legal to ship and reasonable to purchase. During the class period, we didnt make much progress on the project because we were confused on how it was going to be graded. The trick to get a good grade was to make sure the chip didnt break at all and that the compartment was small and light.
Today Evan and I worked on the chip project again came up with a design to fabricate. The compartment would consist of one 6x4x4 box stuffed with cotton balls and the pringle chip in the middle. The design was simple and protected the chip well. Thats pretty much all we did during the class period.
Today was the last day to complete the design and create an electronic set of instructions. Evan and I were already done with creating the design so all we had to do was create an electronic "blueprint". We decided to create a power point with each slide describing a step. Also because neither of us are good at sketch up.
Today we started fabricating the design that we recieved from another group. It was pretty much the same as ours except that it consists of a smaller box with the chip in it and a larger box that the smaller box would go in. By the end of the period we ended up finishing the smaller box.
My groups predicted score was 6.9 and the actual score was 2.1.
I learned that the key to getting a higher score was to keep the box small and
light.
Today we finished building our cube that held a pringle. We worked really fast and hard because it was due at the end of the period. It ended up looking really good and able to protect the chip. I was a little proud of the device but I couldnt say anything until the final results came in.
Today was a day for everyone who didnt finish to finish fabricating their compartment. Since Evan and I already finished, we put the addresses on it and gave it to cole to be shipped. During the rest of the period, I made good progress on my website. All I have to do left is just finish up some Wednesday challenge forms.
Today was a pretty chill day. Pretty much all I did was work on my website. I finished up two Wednesday challenge forms and inserted a few pictures. Im glad that I made good progress so I didnt have to stress about it on a minimum day.
Spring break was extremely fun for me. I went to many fun places and did many exciting things. The first monday of spring break, I went to the first semi final game of the World Baseball Classic. Puerto Rico and the Netherlands played against each other. It was such an exciting game with a much different vibe than any other dodger game. Im happy that I got to go. Secondly, my family, cousins, aunts, and uncles, went skiing up around Lake Tahoe. We all stayed in one of my aunt and uncles house. There was so much snow. You could really tell by how high the snow banks on the sides of the streets were. They were at least 15-20ft high. We skiied wed-thurs except Thursday we cut it short because the winds were blowing extremley hard. Lastly, on sunday 3/26 I saw the power rangers movie with my friends. It was great.
Today was a pretty chill day. Pretty much all that happened was that the robotics team talked to the class about their first competition and how it ran.
Today we started a new wednesday challenge. We had to figure out if it is worth it to take a regular math class or instead write one to one million for an entire school year to guarantee an a. We first each wrote out as many numbers as we could for 30 sec and found that on average you can write 66 numbers in 1 minute. With more math, we found how many numbers one could write in 24 hrs. I don’t really want to explain all of the calculations, but we concluded that it would be easier to just take the class
Today the groups from yesterdays wednesdays challenge that didnt get to share went up to the front of the class to discuss their ideas. After that, dr. neato went over who he thought presented the best and had the right answer.
Today all of the robotics team was at their competition so there was sub. For most of the period we watched a live stream of the competition. Will, Mason, and I left at 1:45 to catch a bus to an away game in Alhambra. Unfortunately we lost.
Today the robotics team came back to school. Everyone was wearing their 589 t shirts and medals for an award they won. In class the veterans in class talked about the competition all period. Some of the info included other awards they won and how they did during the competiotions.
Today was another wednesday challenge. The challenge was to estimate the number of pie without using pie (3.14). Groups had to use measurements such as circumfrence and diameter to find it. The people in my group were Jason and Christian. We measured a glue container. To get the diameter we used a ruler, and to find the circumfrence, we used a piece of rope and wrapped it around.
Today kevin talked to the entire class about google sketch up and how to create a design for a skateboard. It was very complicated and I might need a review on what to do. Im extremely excited to complete this project and see what my skateboard will end up as.
Today was the first block period day for the next couple weeks. Its kind of a weird scheduale and the days feel much longer than usual. I am in school for an extra hour, so thats new. In this period Dr. Neat just went over the grades and then let everybody either work on their websites or skateboards. I worked on my website and then tried to finish the skateboard sketch up. Its still very complicated to me, so Im going to work on it with someone.
Today because of the block scheduale, nobody went to their 5th period. The classes I went to were english and math. Although weve already been through a day of the block scheduale, it still feels wierd to have 2 hour periods. Also, since I have baseball for 6th period, I left at 12, right before lunch.
Today I worked on my skateboard sketch up for the entire period. In the first hour and a half I struggled to complete the copy of Dr. Neats board. Thankfully Lucas Howard Ron came over and helped Elizabeth and I, so we ended up finishing in time. For the final half an hour of the 2 hour block scheduale, I worked on my own skateboard. Im doing a similar design to Dr. Neats except that its going to be shorter.
Today because of the block scheduale, nobody went to their 5th period. The classes I went to were english and math. Although weve already been through a day of the block scheduale, it still feels wierd to have 2 hour periods. Also, since I have baseball for 6th period, I left at 12, right before lunch.
Today Evan, Elizabeth and I worked on our skateboard sketchups. I finished my skateboard body, and I'm really proud of what it looks like. The idea is similar to Dr. Neat's except that it's wider and shorter. Evan also finished his design and it resemblse somewhat of a surfboard. It looks pretty cool because it has a nice shape and handles. Elizabeth is still struglling and hasn't really chosen a concept to go off of yet.
Today Kevin went through another tutorial on how to create a skateboard on sketch up. Since I filmed it last time, Dr. Neat asked me to do it again and have Alex post it on his YouTube channel. That whole process took about 30 minutes. The rest of the period I just spent my time tweaking the robot and adding trucks and wheels.
Today was another day of block scheduale so nobody went to their 5th period. I went home during lunch because I also dont have a 6th period due to baseball.
Today I had to leave early because I had to catch a bus to a baseball game. Unfortunately, this only allowed me to work on my website for about 30 min.
Today was another day of block scheduale so nobody went to their 5th period. I went home during lunch because I also dont have a 6th period due to baseball.
Today I had to leave early because I had to catch a bus to a baseball game. Unfortunately, this only allowed me to work on my website for about 30 min. I felt very skeptical about my website this time around because for the entire week I hadnt been able to work on my website very much, so there were a lot of things that still had to be done prior to today. I ended up pulling off my wednesday challenge forms and jpgs that but hadnt finish the daily logs. I planned to finish them at home but unfortunately, my notepad++ wasnt working. PS- Im writing this on 4/25
Today we worked on our websites for the entire period. I had to catch up on some entries and other Wednesday challenge forms. I was worried about getting a bad grade because of incompleted entries but apparently were grading this week not last. The robotics team also came back to school and explained to the entire class about how their competition went.
Today we did another wednesday challenge. The challenge was to Figure out how many planks you can cut out of a 5’x5’ piece of wood. Each plank has to be the same size with a width of 10” and a height of 32”-46”. We first found out how many planks could fit across the 5’ wide board. We were able to fit 6, but we forgot to account the width of the saw blade. So without the extra sawblade width, we fit in 8 boards and had a square of about 20” x 20” left of waste. Our group was very confused for most of the time.
Today I caught up on my website for the first 20 minutes of the period. During the rest of the period, Evan and I went to Alvin in the workshop to print out our skateboards.
Today I printed out my skateboard and began to piece the different parts together. The printer is super slow so it took about 15-20 min to print out my 12 pages. I also made a mistake while taping the pieces together so ill have to redo it.
Today was a pretty chill day in the shop. All that I did was retape the printed out pieces of my skateboard because yesterday I messed it up. It kept separating in the middle and it got me worried that I had to re-print, but it eventually worked itself out at the end.
Today we did another wednesday challenge. The challenge was to to Create a design for a paper airplane and trade it with another group. The group to farthest fly the design that they received won.Evan and I just used a very simple design where you have to fold the design in 2 times and then create wings. The design that we received was more complicated. We created a very easy to fold and aero dynamic paper airplane.
Today I cut out the 4 boards for the layers that would be used for the skateboard. It was pretty easy but it took a while
because it required a metal pole and a group of 4 people had to share it. There was a lot of waiting.
May 8, 2017
Today I glued the 4 pieces of cardboard together. It was extremely satisfying to spread the glue around. The process was also
very messy. Im worried that I didnt put enough glue on the sides though.
Today I worked some more on my website and skateboard. On the skateboard, since the glue finished drying, I traced out
the shape of it onto the cardboard and cut it out. It was my first time using that type of saw. It was pretty cool and a lot
easier than I expected it to be.
Today traced out and drilled the holes for the trucks. I also got to use another tool today, the drill press. The only
thing is, is that I've used one before. Im just waiting to put the trucks on. I didn't take a picture of me drilling the holes
but here are some pictures of it right after.
Today I tested out my skateboard to see if it would go straight. I went out into the hallway and rolled it down the little hill.
At first it was straying off by a couple feet, but then I went to go and tighten my board a little more, and it worked like a
a charm. On some runs, I got 0 inches away from the line and on others, I got 8 inches away from the line. The picture below
is a notepad of all of my test runs and the average.
Today I worked on my website the entire period because I am done with the cardboard phase. I wasnt very productive due to the fact
that there is a line for the presses and it would be useless to have cut out pieces of wood that arent being glued together. Theres
a really long line that I'm gonna have to wait behind.
May 17, 2017
Today instead of doing the wednesday challenge with everybody else I glued and pressed my board. It felt good to finally make
some progress with wood. Aj helped me to glue and I helped him so that the proccess would go faster. By the
end of the period both of us got done.
May 18, 2017
Today I took my pulled my wood out of the press and traced the outline of my board onto one of the faces. I made a lot of good progress that Im very
proud of. I got done early and was ready to cut but there was a long line so it didnt happen. The rest of the period, my website got
updated.
Today I cut out my wood and attempted to draw the center line for my trucks. I tried to draw my line right in the center, but apparently one of my of the sides is larger than the other. This is quite disappointing and difficult because if I make my line in the center of the board, then the trucks will be slightly lopsided. I have no idea what I'll do.