This is my first day at Shodor and today I had a tour and I set up all the necessary accounts and information necessary to complete my apprenticeship. I also received my first assignment this week which was to build a website to host all the files that I create over the year.
This is my 2nd week at Shodor and I am already enjoying the material that we are covering. For years we have taken the calculators and information on the internet for granted, but today's lesson helped me realize that a great amount of that information is misleading. This is because these big programs try to hide the rounding from the user. We also covered how to dress professionally in the business world, which will be really important for when I work.
This week we talked about coin flips and the probability statistics of the coin flip working. We tested this probability in excel and we got randomized results as expected.
This week I started modeling graphs and other types of data using Excel. It is shocking that I could use Excel in a way that engineers use it in the real world to model real world problems. This week seemed interesting to me because I also learned where the formula y=mx+b cam from, which was a nice connection between languages and math.
This week we created an excel spreadsheet in order to represent population change using the equation "Have = Had + Change". We also had a discussion on what fields use dynamic systems and it is a homework assignment for us to think of the subjects which use these models. We also started to use Vensim, which seems kind of hard to understand but I feel like I will understand the interface more if I play around with it.
This week we started using a new modeling software called AgentCubes. This is an online software which is helpful so that we can access our models anywhere or edit the numerous models that are available on AgentsCubes. The two models we created on AgentCubes this week are named Thing1 (shows a thing moving randomly in a world) and Disease (shows a disease spreading and shows how people are either getting better or sick).
This week at Shodor, we worked on AgentCubes and learned more about the online software. We learned how to utilize scents in AgentCubes as well. We also started using Vensim to model data with a more graphical representation of data. The three variables we had were ducks, alligators, and bread. We represented these variables with a real life cycle that they would have.
This is the first week that we are working on our Group Project and I chose Subhag as my partner. He is a freshman at Enloe High School. We chose to do a represntation of Kingfishers and Fish on both VenSim and AgentCubes. We chose this because of the biological interests that we both share.
Today me and Subhag presented our group project. It was sort of stressfull but not really because I enjoy public speaking. We presented to Levi, Andy and a couple others. After the project Levi and Aaron told us what we needed to fix for next times presentation which we definitely will but in my opinion that was a succesful presentation.
Today we received our Forest Fire modeling group assignment, which we can work on with partners. My partner group was Huny and Me. The first week Huny wasn't there so I made up the rough sketch and ideas. The next few weeks we all worked together to create it and presented it a couple of weeks later to Aaron, Levi, and the Class.
This week I originally was not here but I videocalled Huny and fixed up our project. We made the initial design for out fire model remotely and then wrote code for it.
This week we made a couple of dry-runs of our presentations so that it would be spot on when presenting to Levi, Aaron, and the rest of the classrooms. We also started to code in PHP. Me and Huny decided to fix up the Forest Fire model by linking the HTML code together. This week I also helped other groups complete their Forest Fire model as well.
This week we started playing around with parallel computing which seems like a logical approach to computer science. I am most proud of being able to visualize the parallel computing process in my head. This week I also started to fill out my parallel computing notebook.
This week we learned about supercomputers which vary in size and power, but there is a top 500 list, which ranks all of them by power. It turns out that although Blue Waters is very powerful, they don't wish to run the test to determine power because they believe it is a waste of resources, which they could use to achieve something helpful.
This week we started talking about parallel computing, a new concept that I had previously not used. I once got introduced to this during the workshops but never really touched on it after and now hope to do it.
This week I came to Shodor, even though it was optional to catch up on some pending work. I had previously not completely finished my Parallel computing notebook work for the week so I did that and formatted my website as well.
This week I came to Shodor to finish some work and add the Forest fire model to my website. I got work done, along with Sachin and Subhag because we all pretty much had the same pending work.
This week I had my monthly meeting with Levi, where he told me how the summer program is going to be like. He also told me that I had to come in for my stipend meeting so I must also finish everything for that.
Today was the first day of my first summer block and I enjoyed it a lot. We recieved our first block project, which consisted of building an agentcubes model and a vensim model. My idea was centered around a pool with bacteria growth depending on the cleanliness of a person and the bacteria decay based on the chlorine in the pool.
Today was the first day of my first summer block and I enjoyed it a lot. We recieved our first block project, which consisted of building an agentcubes model and a vensim model. My idea was centered around a pool with bacteria growth depending on the cleanliness of a person and the bacteria decay based on the chlorine in the pool.
Today was mainly set forth as a work day in order for everyone to finish everything correctly and efficiently. Today I mainly focused on getting an aesthetically pleasing website. I also finalized my basic VenSim and Agentcubes models. I also started to explore the HTML/CSS tutorial.
Today was originally set aside to start the Inkscape tutorial, but instead it was set aside as another work day. Today I worked on making my models more complex. The VenSim model originally did not have many factors and equations. Later on I added some more dependencies to make the model more realistic. I also finished my HTML/CSS template and uploaded the website onto my portfolio.
Today was the last day of the first week of the first block. It was set aside as a lesson day to learn Inkscape. We first started with creating a logo and this software vaguely represented Adobe Illustrator. This software mainly is used to create logos and images, rather than editing existing images.
Today was the first day of the second week of the first block. Today we did the Gimp demonstration. We took already existing images and edited them. We took a turtle image and edited it to explore all the skills we needed to learn. Later I took this turtle image and messed with Ernie and Aaron by putting their faces on the turtles. I used the skills I learned in photoshop.
Today was the second of the second week of the first block. Today we just edited images and created our 6 graphics. I used Inkscape to create the logos and initials because that software is made for creating graphics. It was hard to come up with ideas to design the graphics because the assignment was very vague.
Today I worked on making my website look better. I added the necessary web-banners, as well as other graphics in a separate web document. I also rearranged my cyberduck folders so from next time it will be much easier to find the folders which I need to edit. We also finalized our block one folders and I added css to the graphics portion of the website.
Today was the second to last day of the first block and we finished our agentcubes and vensim models. I also helped Jackson prepare for his presentation, since it was his last day of the first block. We ran some dry runs and this helped me as well because I will also be presenting this project in the near future.
I was not able to attend Shodor today.
Today was my first day attending the second block. I came in at the perfect time because we were just starting a tutorial that failed the day before. This was the first time I had done PHP and I needed some extra help with the program. I mainly learned about how to store variables in PHP and how to use the "echo" function as well.
Today was my second day of the second block. I had afternoon reception today so I tried to get a majority of my work finished in the morning. The computer at reception was acting funny as well, so Joel helped fix it. At lunch we played Kings with cards as well. I also finished my first PHP Krista project as well.
Today was my second week attending the second block. We mainly just worked on Krista's Projects. This was the first time I had done PHP I mainly learned about how to store variables in PHP and how to use the "get" function as well. I also scheduled my second mentor meeting as well.
Today was the last day of the second block of my apprenticeship. I finished all of Krista's Projects part 1. I also finished a majority of the programming syntax guide. The Dice Statistics and Calendar took some more time to do. The Calendar was harder than I thought it would take because the days of each month varied based on what day it was.
Today was the first day of my third block and I was introduced to SQL databases. I also got to see what the E-R diagram was. I also started working on the SQL Guide. Today my ODAA was lunch duty. I also got a hang of using SQL and understanding the way PHP and SQL tie in.
Today was my 2nd day of the third block of my apprenticeship. I finished my SQL guide today and started my library research. I started out wanting to use a background and fonts library but later I decided to do something new and that inspired me to use the animation library.
Today was the first day of my second week of the third block . I finished all of Krista's Projects part 1. I also finished a majority of the programming syntax guide. I also got a hang of using SQL and understanding the way PHP and SQL tie in.
Today was the last day of my second week of my third block. I started working on my SQL Database. I originally thought that it would be just as easy as typing the SQL code but it turned out to be hard to construct tables and link. I also had lunch duty today and the workshop kids were well behaved.
Today was the first day of my first week of my fourth block. I started doing quality assurance on my website and reapplying the animation library well. There was originally an issue I was getting where my website looked different in safari than in chrome. It turned out that the fix for that was clearing the cache in both places and refreshing the page
Today was the second day of my first week of my fourth block. Today, I started making my website more uniform. The blog page had a different menu style than the rest of my website. This turned out to be caused because I had different css files from my portfolio and index to the blogs. I ended up linking the same css throughout the entire website to make it more uniform
Today was the first day of my second week of my fourth block. Today Miguel attempted to break my website because I didn't validate it correctly. I then proceeded to add a restriction where one could only submit the data if they entered data correctly in every field. Today I alse tried to get everything ready to present on thursday because that would be my last day.
Today was the last day of my second week of my fourth block. Today I presented my project (5 projects). Aaron and Joel asked me the most questions about my first block project, mainly vensim and library. Today I will also complete my stipend meeting with Levi.