Robots are taking over!

Today I went to a workshop with Darryn about robotics. We made Lego Mindstorms. From now on I'm going to make sure that I clean them up once I'm done with them because Me and Darryn got the great job of packing them up because there were the remains of old robots, random pieces everywhere and pieces in the wrong boxes. I like making things tidy so I didn't really bother me. Once that was done we went onto the patterns workshops after lunch. Max J, Max N and I were in a group together because we have all used the mindstorms before, but we still had to make the REM bot and then we can add other attachments to it. All that we got done was the Rem bot so next time we will start programming it on the computer.

What happened in 2000?

When did YouTube launch? 

At the patterns in time workshop today we had to construct a timeline from 2000-2006. We were given lots of big events that have happened over those 7 years, like the launch of YouTube and Twitter. I only knew like two or three of the 35 total, but together with the rest of the group, we got about 11 right at the beginning. Once Katie had told us what ones we got wrong we were allowed to go and research the rest on the Internet. It seemed like 2004 was the year that had the most things going on. It was really interesting to see what has happened over all of those years, and to talk about the similarities and differences, and the patterns that occurred.

One, Two, Three, Four...

Do you know how they measured time a long time ago without clocks? I'm not too sure but we had to make our own one minute timers only using 3 cups, Blu Tac, 2 Pins, Tape, a Straw and 2 skewers. Most of us used the idea of an egg timer. I used the straw with tiny holes in it. The water slowly dripped but it didn't go for the amount of time that it was meant to. I got up to four minutes and then we decided to stop timing it because it was going for too long. I was kind of disappointed because I wanted it to work, but you can't always get it right the first time. Next time I know what I could do better, one of them would be not putting holes where they don't need to be.

Say Cheese!

Say Cheese! In the performance group today we took photos of ourselves and laminated them so that we can make our wall look nicer then just... red.

When we re-arranged the room that wall looked so blank. So Nicola's brilliant idea was to fill it with pictures of all of the us. It sounds easy enough to take a photo of yourself and print it, but it can't be too close but not too far away. Not too dark but not really bright so I had to take like 30 pictures before I got one that I was happy with. These photos are our publicity shots.

Once we had done that we set up some lamps lighting them so now it looks quite nice with the lights and photos.

Behaviour

Did you know behaviour patterns can be changed. We talked about how our behaviour can be changed by things like a sticker chart and pocket money. We watched two video clips and the first one was about a cat named Harry. He jumps onto the fly screen and puts claw marks in it. There was a man that came and put a sheet of perspects over the door  so that the cat couldn't grip onto the door. To stop him jumping him onto the bench he put a little mat down that shocks him. So eventually he will stop doing that which means that he changed that cats behaviour. It's not only cat behaviour. Our behaviour can be changed too. Like having pocket money if we clean our room we will get into a habit of keeping our room tidy and we will get money.  I learnt that behaviour patterns can change.

Geometry

Which way is North? I learnt how to use a compass. Darryn showed us a couple of maps. They were both old and newer ones. We noticed that the older ones didn't have a grid on them and there was hardly any bush too. 

On the newer map we used the compasses to find which way was North. Once we had done that Darryn told us about the orange lines. If they were close together that meant that it was steep. We were given some spots and had to say what the easiest way to get down. It was a lot harder to use a compass than I thought that it would be.

Once you get to know how to use the compass it is actually quite easy.

Crash!!!

Have you ever seen a plane crash? I did. You film the room and then it will have a plane crash right in front of you. It is a special effects app. Lots of people like it and were playing with it all the way through morning tea.

I put beams across the river hoping it wouldn't break and... Crash!!! It split into three different pieces. Darryn was teaching us about some of the apps on the iPads. The first app was called Simple Physics. You have to build a structure that will not break even if it is used as a ramp for a boulder of a dam for a river. It is very hard but fun and challenging.

The final app was Pic Collage. You can cut out pictures and add text to it. I had a play around with a chicken. By holding down on one of the pictures of text, you can switch the placement from having the chicken on the top to at the back. Next week I'm going to play around with that a little more so that I get to know how to use it better.