Today was our first day of school. This class looks fun and I can't wait for our first Wednesday challenge. Here's a link to the calss rules: Rules

Today we completed our first wednesday challenge form. Here's the link: Bridge I also think that the group that I was placed in will prove to be an effective one.

Today Mr. Dr. Neato taught us how to make a webpage. The goal for this is to make an electronic journal to keep our daily activities. I hope we learn more tags so that we may customize our webpage!

Today my grop worked on our bridge design. We are planning to elevate the bridge and then add supports on the bootom. Currently we are waiting for the glue to dry. However, we had drafted different designs for the bridge, including a lattice, suspension, diagonal lattice, and a simple cable thickening design. A flat bridge would be prefereable if the weight was distributed over a long area. Unfortunately, this test requires a strong centered design with suports pulling the weight to the sides of the cinder blocks. Support on the bottom would also be prefferable but not neccessary. An arched design would also prove useful especially to eliver the weight across and not concentrate it at one point.

Today we continued our glueing endeavors for the bridge design. We are testing various types of cable thickening designs including a coating of glue, 2,3,2 structure, and a 3,2,3 structure. We flattened the stabalizer for our bridge to balance on the cinder block. We then added suports to keep the end of the bridge stable. Hopefully, the angle on the side support may allow our bridge to be curved and arched, so that the weight may be applied only to the sides of the bridge. Note to self: Softening the noodles via boiling will not help the design. In fact would add weight and be difficult to place effectively. They also tear too easily so coiling it across the bridge will not prove effective.

Today we leared how to put pictures on our website, here are some sampples of activities that we have done so far. Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures on the "teacher share" so here is a model for our bridge. Enjoy!

Today we worked on our bridge and here are some pictures.

Today we worked on our bridge. The elastic properties of the glue are coming in handy. We plan to lay on to lay it on the side and use the other end as a counter-balance.

Mr. Neat today talked about his weekend and how messed up his sons day was. We then saw our grades today. I was upset at first, but Mr. Neat said that if we improved that he wouldn't count this first one which helped a bit. I'm going to try harder to write more frequently and improve on my score.

Today we worked on our new wednesday challenge. We had to create a system of alligning pvc pipes to roll a marble down to reach a bucket. I was assigned to Erin's team and decide to take a more coah and observatory role. I saw more experienced students share their ideas and observed our initial attempts and saw various flaws in our technique. I decided to coach the team and enforced ideas like taking tome to line up and decelerating the ball as it passed through one's pvc pipe. Thankfully, we were effective in placing our marble first. But, we were not as successful in placing marble and the bouncy ball. (Probably due to a mix up in the instructions that we were given)

Today is a simple work day. We had to finish our Wednesday challenge form and work on our websites. Here's the link By the way: PVC Marbles

Today we discussed the Invention Challenge. Basically, we must move a ball from one area to another with three modes of transportation. We must also have a sound making device at the end of the journey of 3 meters. One Idea that I had incorperated the ideas of my classmates. First, we would have a bungee slingshot to propel the ball into a big circular tube. Then by timing test runs, we would optimize the length of the tubing. By, using air pressure and graity we make the ball roll through the tubing. Lastly, we would have a hole at the end with an infrared tag to start the sound making device. We had a guest speaker,Mr. Wilton, also attend our class. He talked to us about his buisness and also about the rules and qualifications for our machine. Because of him we were able to comprehend the details for the Invention Challenge. Here's a link to his website! WEBSITE!!!!

Today we worked on our webpages. I changed some sizes and colors of my webpage. We also learned google sketchup, whick looks really cool!! I feel like graphing my house in sketchup now. I learned the viewing tools and played around with some creation tools as well.

Today we worked on Google sketch up and designed "interesting" things. I designed some stuff but I didn't end up saving anything.

Today Mr. Neats daughter discussed her major and her college experience. We wrote a wednesday challenge form for her presentation. Her Presentation

Today we worked on our webpages. I typed so much I think I got carpel tunnel.

Today we saw the JPL challenge team show us how far they have progressed. Honestly, I have three reasons why their test runs weren't accurate or prescise. First, the team was divided initially, so it would have been more efficient if they were a single group from the start. This coupled with starting with gravity would probably increased the chance of their success. Lasty, the attempt seemed half complete. I feel that they either ran to too few ideas too slowly or took too much time attempting air pressure and not working togeher.

Today Mr. Neat talked about grades and the invention challenge for JPL. I really wish that I could compete however, I have way too much on my plate. I'm an officer in 3 different clubs so I have a lot of wark to do. Also, I have 5 AP's and it really bugs me that I can't be a part of every club that I like. I really like all of my classes and my clubs but it get's really hectic over time and it's frustrating when I find something else I'm interested in but I just don't have the time. As for grades I was very happy with the grades I got. I feel that I worked hard and succeded! :) Mr. Neat then showed my website to everybody, which made me prideful of my work but I'll try not to let it get to my head. We also worked on Google Sketch up by creating a Jenga block on the program. I honestly love working on this program because we can make models of basically anything. I'm going to see if its free or if we have to buy it and hopefully I may use it to create models for literally everything.

Today we worked on our bridge reports. I started the powerpoint presentation. I actually learned a few cool facts about the bridge that I'm working on. For example, this one guy got shanked on the bridge for getting mad at a knight who was defending some disrespectful jester. Not to mention the fact that he got killed on his wedding day! Here's a photo.

Today we worked on our Wednesday challenge. It basically required us to make a house out of cards and to measure the height of the house. Unfortunately we measured our house and took a picture of it but the judges wouldn't count it because they weren't there to inspect our design. So we ended up with a 3" card house. Here's my report!! WEDCHALL

Today we wrote our Wednesday challenge report. Although Mr. Neat allowed us to divide the height of the structure by the height, our original measurement of 13.5" wouldn't be used. This got me thinking because, as you may imagine, I was pretty frustrated about the whole thing. I was thinking about trust in a capitalist world. I deffinately, understand why claiming a height in a competition without any official measurement may spark some controversy. But, I would think that the only lie worth lying about would be the one that serves a competitive advantage. As in a company that would claim that a drug may cure cancer! But usually, companies don't lie to claim that their product is sub-par. We got a height lower than the winning height without the knowledge that the next day a new measurement would come out. Additionally, I would have no motive to cheat because I have an "A" in the class.
Anyway, I do have to give Mr. Neat credit I would probably make the same decision. But it gets me thinking about our own world. Should we trust companies that claim a specific benefit to their product? They probably know that if they did claim unrealistic effects then they would get suied. But, should we trust government regualtion as well? If a government inspector was easily bribed and we didn't know about it, would people be more comfortable in purchasing the same product. Ultimately, all we know is what we see in the world and relying on corrupt governments or companies isn't the smartest way to live a life. To constantly, refute or test things is the true way of knowing our own world.
On a more philosophical note, I will refrence Rene Descartes whi said "I think therefore I am". Probably, one of the most influential philosophers of his time Descartes asked the first conspiracy theory: is what we know about the world really true or is everything everyone says a lie. Descartes a master of deduction very quickly realized that all of his questions all required a foundation of knowledge to derive other information. Descates then understood that anything you see or tomething someone tells you cannot be used to derive other facts because it may be an illusion. Therefore, he claimed that the only true thing in this world is that he knew that he could deduce certain things and therefore he deduced his existence because to think he must exist in order to think.

Today we mostly a wokday and we wathced Mythbusters which looked at beercolling and batteries.

Today we worked on google sketch up. We made a card with round edges and even found the height of the card by using multiple cards to measure the height o just one. Here's a picture of the card!

Today we worked on our powerpoint for the Bridge Report. I had already done some of the work, now David is going to find a video for our bridge. We worked on transitions and animations. SOme of the animations I was blown away by. Some type of shredding and replacing thing like Whaaaaaa?!?!

Today we worked on a Wednesday challenge which I enjoyed very much. I am a conceptual, theoretical kinda' guy so I enjoy something to deliberate about. The challenge asked us to consider writing from one to a million or taking a math course. After, many calculations (and misalculations) I hypothesized that it would be more beneficial if someone just took a math course instead of writing to a million. Here's the report. WEDCHALL

Today we worked on our wednesday challenges. Other groups agreed with my conclusion that taking a math course would be better than writing to a million. Also, I was so excited to present today and the best part was that my group won!!! I'm so happy. I had 3 tests today so winning the challenge was the best part.

Today we talked about our Websites. There must have been some sort of mess up with typoes and the server that mrneato has. Then we let the jpl team do what they do and was interesting to see.

Today we talked about our the grading system for our websites. I got a 9.5 in total and then we worked on google sketch up. So heres a photo of what we worked on.

Today we talked about the GUSD internet. Mr. Saw came and helped us too.

Today was our Wednesday challenge day, but we had a few religious experiences before we got started...

Today I worked on my Wednesday challenge form! HERE IT IS

Today the JPL group presented their Google sketch up. The design looked good for a frst draft but we only have a bit less time. I thought that it was a good step forward, but I feel that they are lacking leadership. I had already told Mr. Neat about it and I strongly believe that a good leader would organize and maximize the efficency of the group. Today David and I presented our Bridge report and I have to say that there were some interesting questions asked, such as maerials used to make the bridge. Although, I had no problem answering the question Sebu's group was caught off guard by the question. However, their presentation was actually very well orgaized and presented.

Today we wroked on google sketch up to make a nice structure out of the previously made jenga block. Heres a photo!

Today we had our wednesday challenge. The objective of the challenge is to make an arch bridge out of a material like a Jenga block. The goal is to have the longest span normalized by the length of one unit of the block.

Today was Day:2 of our Bridge challenge. We have a few designs but have deduced one to be the best one. We think that a simple design like stairs or something to be used. I worked on a google sketch up of our model but for some reason it didn't save properly. Here's us preping!

Today we got our model approved and we had an estimate for our bridge length and our prdicted score. We predicted about 3.5 to be our predicted score. We tested out our model and in reality we only broke about 2.5. When I observed our bridge I saw that the model that we made used different units in the google sketchup becauase I used Jenga blocks while in reality we used a different brand. HERE IT IS

Today we had our wednesday challege and I was quite blown away by the fact tht someone had built a bridge with bricks. Alhough that wasn't the winning score it was nice to see some inventiveness. Actually, the team that won was quite iventive as well. The bridge follows the same pattern that our bridge does, but it has a slight difference with the structural development.

Today Mr. Neat talked about how our websited were unexpectadly not to par. I actually, did well and got a pefect score for my progress report. I actully feel very confident of my programming capabilities.

Today we worked on our jenga bridge power point presentations. Then the winning team presented their powerpoint. My powerpoint is on Justin's webpage! WEBSITE!!!!

Today was our wednesday challenge. we have to move an ebola golf ball from one bag to another. Unfortunately, in application our invention didn't hold up because the tape caught the ball too much. Here's some photos and the report. HERE IT IS!!!

Today the top three winning groups presented their winnings. The fastest was 43 sec. But we only got 2:26.

Today the JPL invention challenge presented their plan. Although it was better thatn last weeks, it wasn't the best that they could do. The weekly plan wasn't very specific which led to some confusion. Also, it seemed to me that the members weren't realistic in the time development for speciific parts of their design. Despite all of these things they do have an almost complete google sketch up of their design. I do have faith in their ability to succeed in this project but only if they dedicate more time to making the model sooner rather than later.
Today I also wrote in my own philosophy notebook about political systems. There are actually, four ideologies involved in party systems today: capitalism, socialism, conservativism, and liberalism. Socialism and capitalism are pretty easy to identify but conservativism and liberalism are I think where we get messed up. For example, Democrats call themselves liberals. Liberals by definition want there to be no restrictions on ones liberty to own a firearm. But, we know that Democrats support anti-gun legislation. I attribute the majority of these ideosincracies to the base of each political party. Republicans do have the support of the southern farmer who want firearms. But, Republicans also have rich upper classmen in their base. This is why Republicans support pro gun legislation, which is more liberal while calling themselves conservatives. Conservatives by the old definition want more government controll of certain factors in our lives and would substitute freedom for protection.

Today Isabella came to talk about her experience in College. She talked about how useful robotics is in college. Also we worked on a pencil google sketch up.

Today we went over the google sketch up for the pencil. Also, we looked at how to properly size the photos on our websites.

Today was our wednesday challenge. we went thorugh various avenues of inquiry for the question: Make a machine that would be able to differentiate between a dog and a cat. we decided to make a machine that dogs or cats step on that has a sensor that can detect certian parts of the pwas that may be used to identify a dog or cat. Here's the wednesday challenge. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we worked on finalizing our wednesday challenge. We also watched mythbusters which was pretty cool. There was one about breaking out of jail and another about flipping a motocycle.

Today the JPL group talked about their progress. I think that they will be able to make the deadline. Also we presented our Wednesday challendes which I feel pretty confident about.

Today we saw some cool webpages that did well on the grading period. We also did a google sketch up warm up of a lego block.

Today we got into pairs to improve both of our websites. Ryan and I worked together to fix our websites. Kevin, Hakob and Sumin and Justin's team won. I still think that our answer was pretty cool. Even though their answer was simpler and easier to make, when we thought of it I decided that it would be too inconsistant than a scan test. But, I appreciate the fact that their answer maintained a balance of cost and effectiveness.

Today we had a wednesday challenge. We have to measure how many pieces of candy corn are on an eight and a half by eleven piece of paper.

Today we had time to finnish our wednesday challenge form. We went with a mathematical measurement and a measured estimate. After averaging both values we got 500 which was seven off the actual measure 493. HERE IT IS!!!

Today's Halloween! I saw some really cool costumes. Today the JPL team presented their progress. They look like they got further and they look like they have more confident. Also, we saw some cool bridge reports like the double helix bridge.

Today we worked on a google sketch up of a car battery. Today we had a mock trial competition and thankfully for me Dr. Neat helped me store my clothes. He also gave me a proposition to work on something during class. I told him that I wanted to get more familiar with the machies in the shop. I think that because of this I will be able to discover something that I would like to build.

Today we had some time to work on our webites. We also went over the shedule for our bridge report. Here's my bridge report. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we had a Wednesday challenge to try to make a bridge out of post-it notes. I was a judge and it was pretty cool to try to see what different teams made. Here's the link to the results. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we went over the results of wednesday challenge. I gotta say it was a blast judging.

Today we went over some bridge reports. Also, we saw the JPL invention challenge team presented their progress as well. I think they have done a good job in their progress. As for Mr. Neats propisition, I do wish to work with the tools in the shop so that I may learn the characteristics of trying to make a structure.

Today we worked on the wednesday challenge, it was to design and plan a leego structure and then switch with a group to make a sketch up of their model. David and I worked as judjes for the challenge. We desinged the rubric for grading. We saw some really cool structures which I'm curious to see be modeled.

Today we distributed P5's lego structures to be modeled. If I thought our period had weird structures you should have seen period five's. David and I also worked together to grade the structures and to make an excell document for the grading sheet.

Today we watched mythusters which was pretty cool. David and I worked on the grading document. Unforntuantely, Dr. Nea didn't leave the USB drive to document our grades, but David and I quickly typed it in an excell sheet on David's computer.

Today was a google sketch up day. David and I worked on the grading technique. Today I competed in a Mock Trial compeition and got a 14/15 score which is awesome!!!

Today we were going to work on the grading of the wednesday challenge but we had some tech problems. Eventually we just worked on grading but we didn't input the grades. Also, Mock trial had a lat minute practice session to work for our prosecution team. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we got a new wenesday challenge. Mr. Neats palm tree has lights on it but he has to cut off the dead palms on the tree. As for Mock trial we have another competition but I couldn't make it but I really hope we win!!!

Today the rest of the wednesday challenge groups presented and some cool ideas were thrown around. I'm actually very curious to see who will win this one. THe scores for Mock trial come out today, I can't wait!!! Here are the results for the wednesday challenge for the Lego model! HERE IT IS!!!

Today we presented the score for the Wednesday challege for the lego structures. Mr. Neat said that they would be graded for the group that they get their structure to sketch up from. Personally, I think that their own lego structures should be graded versus the structure that is given so that scores arent counteracted but are added. For example, if there are two groups they both would have to sacrifice complexity and diversity to make an easy structure for the other group to make an easy sketch up; this would result in a conflict of intereste because they would work againts their score to increase the chance of them winning. This in turn would result in an inflated score because they would just try to make a complicated structure to get the first half of the score full and accepting the fact that the sketch up will inevitably be difficult for everyone.

Today we did a google sketch up of a door. I helped out so many people out it made me feel so at home. By the way here's the picture of the door.

Today we were planning on making a sketch up of the room. Matt and I are working on the entire room by exporting different models into ours'. I think the entire model is going to go well. I also presented how to make the sketch up of the door handle I felt that my talent for sketch up is showing.

Today we had a Wednesday challenge. We had to design a robot to put into the robot challenge. We came up eit the idea of having a robot with a claw to hook and move the balloon. We also thought that a mini robot with a belt to climb the pole to climb to the top. Here's the Wed chall form. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we presnted our wednesday challenge to the class. We saw some cool designs that were more defensive and other more offensive robots. I also talked to Mr. Neat about my prject to make a desk buddy. It has three parts. One of the parts is a clipboard that detaches, it has compartments and other things as well. Mr. Neat asked me to masure and sketch up my design to visualize the dimensions and to see a prototype of my design.

Today we watched a video on bridges. We were having trouble with the audio so we stopped the video partway through. I used the rest of the time to study for my Bio test and finnish up my notebook.

Today we saw the JPL crowd present their experience with the JPL invention challenge. P5 scored second place in the competition which is awesome! Also we won the Wednesday challenge for the robot design. I think the minibot was the deciding factor. We got to see the minirobot that CV entered in the 2011 wednesday challenge.

We got our final wednesday challenge. We have to to design a suspension bridge that can support a billiard ball. A suspension bridge rewuired cables by definition. Our teams were chosen for us. I'm not going to share any details of our design in case anyone is spying on us.

Today we had a second day to plan. We decided on the materials that we were going to use for our bridge. We wanted to make it crystal clear of how to make our bridge on our powerpoint.

Today we finished our progress of our powerpoint. Mr. Neat told us what specifically what we should imput as our prediction for our span. We predict that we will finnish by the end of today.

Today we goit our grop powerpoint. I know that we are doing Adirian's bridge. I'm so excited because i thought his idea was amazing. By the way here's my powerpoint. HERE IT IS!!! Here's the PDF of the bridge we have to design. HERE IT IS!!!

Today we worked on our bridge. It's also finals week so I gotta study for my APUSH final. (spoiler: got a 100%) I'm also going to get my english final back (spoiler: 90%) I also showed Dr. Neat my invention. We worked on various ways to improve the design. I'm going to go home and keep working on it here's a photo!

Today we worked on our bridge that Adrian gave us. I know that Adrian is an intelligent human being but it hink it takes more than intelligence to understand the specs that he gave us to build. It required us to melt gatorade bottles and use fishing line to make the span of a bridge. I felt that this was somewhat ludacris becasue we had a limited ammount of time and limited resources. Additionally, I felt that the design of the bridge wouldn't accurately fit the definition of a suspension bridge. If the ends of the string were connected to weights then it wouldn't fit the accurate definition of a suspension bridge because there were no verticle cables. I also thought that if all criteria were met, then the tower would have no relevance because the actuall support would be from the weights of the end and therefore wouldn't require any support from the top. Additionally, tying string to string if you have tried is in fact excruciatingly difficult. I felt that after some progress in making the bridge I had to decide to change some of the design in order to at least attempt to roll the ball. Despite all this I did enjoy the ability to lead my group in an effective manner to at least resemble a suspension bridge. Here's the letter to G8. HERE IT IS!!!