Fall Module

October 10th, 2015

Today was my first day as a Shodor Apprentice. As excited as I was, I was also nervous. Yesterday, I found out that my friend Varsha was also in the apprenticeship program so I wasn't as worried about not having any friends. Even though I had Varsha as my friend, I also met a lot of new people. Today at Shodor, we started off setting up accounts for everyone so apprentices can log into their accounts to work. As fun as Shodor was, the notorious Doom and Gloom lecture took place. Doom and Gloom stood up to its name and had plenty of [boring] rules and guidelines that apprentices had to follow. After a long and productive day, I learned so many new things that I never knew before! Today was also the first time I used a MacBook computer.

October 17th, 2015

Today was an exciting day at Shodor! I learned so many new things that are useful at school and outside of school as well. Today, I learned that not all sources are reliable and same. For example, the mass of Mars was different on the NASA website compared to what was on the Wikipedia website. I also learned to use the TextWrangler application in the Mac computers. Since I have little experience using Mac computers, I had trouble understanding how TextWrangler worked.

October 24th, 2015

Today was a fun day at Shodor. I got to learn more about my favorite subject: Business! Ron taught us professional ethics in a work environment. He was very enthusiastic in his teaching and taught some things that I never knew about. He taught us the importance of having good ethics because they help you a lot in the future. Sadly, I had to leave early so I could not get to learn more things.

November 7th, 2015

I was not at Shodor today because I had to take the SAT. Although, I had to attend a make-up session with Shawn and Dr. Panoff. During this session, we learned that Excel was another type of model that can be used for modeling.

November 14th, 2015

Vensim Vensim everywhere! Today at Shodor we learned about Vensim Models! This was a new learning experience for me since I never knew what Vensim Models were till now. Vensim is just another application used for modeling at Shodor. Other modeling applications used in the Shodor Apprentice Curriculum were AgentCubes and Excel. Vensim Models have a visual and a data representation. In the visual representation, Vensim uses graphs, boxes, and arrows. This gives an idea of the model for anyone who is uncomfortable with modeling with data.

November 21st, 2015

Today at Shodor, I learned about using a modeling website to use on the different projects that are done in groups at Shodor. I am excited about using this because this is useful for the things at school and other programs as well. I also heard about using this cool website: Agentcubesonline.com. I am hoping to learn more about this because I would like to create games for fun as well as create useful models for school/Shodor related topics.

December 5th, 2015

Today at Shodor, I learned to create a blog and start on the CSS part on my personal website and my group project website as well. I also learned to form a Vensim model for my group project with multiple factors affecting a Population (or the main topic in the model). I also worked on the CSS part for my website and made it visually pleasing than before. :)

December 12th, 2015

Today was a productive day at Shodor! My team and I got together to figure out how we were going to finish our project. We all shared struggles while working but we also learned a lot from these struggles. My part in our project was to make the AgentCubes model. I loved working on this model because it had many unique visuals with different colors which helped me understand my model better.

December 19th, 2015

Today at Shodor, my team and I worked on the final touches for our group projects. After 12, we started to present our projects. I thought that it was interesting to see different models and ideas for different situations. I learned a lot from my presentation as well as others'. I learned to use bright colors and good visuals to help others understand the presentation better. Today is also the last day of the Fall Module! Time Flies(: I learned so many cool things over the last three months. I can't wait till the new year to start the Spring Module!

Spring Module

February 6th, 2016

Today at Shodor, my team and I worked on the final touches for our group projects. After 12, we started to present our projects. I thought that it was interesting to see different models and ideas for different situations. I learned a lot from my presentation as well as others'. I learned to use bright colors and good visuals to help others understand the presentation better. Today is also the last day of the Fall Module! Time Flies(: I learned so many cool things over the last three months. I can't wait till the new year to start the Spring Module!

Spring Module

February 13th, 2016

Today at Shodor, my team and I worked on the final touches for our group projects. After 12, we started to present our projects. I thought that it was interesting to see different models and ideas for different situations. I learned a lot from my presentation as well as others'. I learned to use bright colors and good visuals to help others understand the presentation better. Today is also the last day of the Fall Module! Time Flies(: I learned so many cool things over the last three months. I can't wait till the new year to start the Spring Module!

February 20th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I learned about different data types. This was similar to what I learned in APCS so I wasn't very confused. Caroline and I worked on writing the functions of our model. Since it was a bit messy, Ernie helped us write it more effectively.

March 5th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I got a refresher on how to setup a new website since it has been months I made my first website. I learned about the new model for the second group project which I am excited to work on. I was able to finish the project website by the end of the day.

March 12th, 2016

I was not at Shodor today since I was attending a DECA conference at Greensboro. However, Caroline and I worked on our project remotely.

March 19th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I had more practice on JavaScript. Caroline and I finally got our project HLD approved. We edited the website more by adding the model and checking if everything was working.

April 2nd, 2016

Today at Shodor, Caroline and I presented our project. We learned that we could have added more options so the fire could have spread in different directions or could have also been stopped.

April 9th, 2016

Today at Shodor, we finished our unit on JavaScript. We started learning about supercomputers and started our Parallel Computing Notebook. Something fun I did today was writing instructions for a robot to go brush its teeth. I thought this was funny because it had to be very detailed or there could've been toothpaste all over the bathroom.

April 16th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I learned about nodes and motherboards. I'm excited to learn more about this becase I want to study computer science in college. I'm proud of what I accomplished this year. On the first day, I was a bit nervous and overwhelmed by the computers and the content, but I'm glad I joined Shodor at the end of the day.

Summer Module

June 20th, 2016

Today was the first day of the summer module! I was expecting a heavy workload but it turned out to be very smooth. We started working on a project manager & software engineer project. I, a program manager, will work on writing instructions and directions to a software engineer(a random apprentice). We will be working on this project for the first three days and will be moving onto website building. I am very excited to see what I learn by the end of summer. I'm also looking forward to being an intern next year.

June 21st, 2016

Today at Shodor, I completed my HLD for my project manager & software engineer project. After, I started working on designing my website and adding buttons. For some unknown reason, I've had one too many problems with my account on all the computers. In the afternoon, Caroline, Varsha, Adithi, Mikayla and I got a chance to talk to successful women from the Computer Science field. This talk was very helpful since I am applying to colleges in the fall. Before I was really nervous about college, jobs, and internships. After I talked to them I found the key to success and being less nervous: with the right tools, mentors, and passion, the opportunities are unlimited for the future. I was very thankful that I had a chance to hear out wise women from my favorite field of study.

June 22nd, 2016

Today was a very exhausting day at Shodor! I finished my HLD, finished my Responsive Web Design assignment and started a new website! Later, Ernie edited my HLD and asked me to make a few changes. Thinking about how I was going to make the changes was probably the hardest task I had to complete in Shodor. It was difficult because I had to write directions for two different models. After, I started on a new website using a free bootstrap template. Though coding my website from scratch sounds satisfying, I wanted to work fast and get more things done. This way, I can learn more in different fields instead of coding my website to perfection for a long time.

June 23rd, 2016

I was not here at Shodor today because I was sick. However, I finished some HLD work remotely from home.

June 24th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I worked on building my website. I finished transferring my blogs and my profile. I added fun facts and my interests in my profile page. In the future, I will start my own blog on technology and computer science. I also plan to include a tab where readers can email me any questions, comments, and concerns they may have.

June 27th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I tried to work on my AgentCubes model but unfortunately, every computer I logged into had bad luck. I organized a to-do list since the deadline for block 1. I also worked on moving my website files to public.html but the icons disappeared. So I worked on the icons for a little bit without any luck. After Shodor ended, I helped Levi set cards in separate decks and help erase the boards in the workshop room.

June 28th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I finished working on Inkscape and Gimp assignments. I learned about layers and how they can be used to make a new picture from multiple pictures. I worked with assignments like creating multiple blimps and adding clouds using one picture. Later I had to complete another assignment which required to add fireworks behind the Taj Mahal. Finally, I had to make an old Halloween card using different filters like coffee stains and fog on Gimp. It was a long day with a lot of work but I worked as efficient as possible since the deadline is coming up soon. What was great about today was that my computer worked instead of shutting down every 5 minutes.

June 29th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I finished making a logo and a banner for my new website. I thought the logo wouldn't take a long time but it surprisingly took a whopping two hours. My logo has a boy climbing the mountains with a curvy road. This represents the life of an apprentice as this is the theme of my new website. The curvy road represents the struggles of apprentices and interns as they experience frustration and joy at Shodor.

June 30th, 2016

Today at Shodor, I started on my AgentCubes model and tried different ways to make it look nice and work efficient but had no luck. I also thought of what I was going to do for my Systems model: I am planning to do Excel and use data from AgentCubes and project potential data. I helped Akash with his work and he helped me with AgentCubes.

July 1st, 2016

Today at Shodor, I worked on the rest of the work from my to-do list. I finished my AgentCubes model and will finish my Systems model at home since I do not have much time. This block was very fun yet frustrating at times. I liked all the work we did because it was creative and engaging. I can't wait to start on my website in the later blocks.

August 1st, 2016

Today, I learned to code in PHP. Keith taught me the difference between HTML and PHP. I was confused in the beginning but it turns out there were minor differences like adding a dollar sign in front of variables for PHP and the word 'echo' replaces 'print'. My first PHP project was to print the statement 'Hello World' using PHP. The second project I worked on is called 'RandomHexCode'. The purpose of this project was to generate a random hex code and to change the color of the lettering using the random hex code generated. I found these projects simple yet complicated as it is a new concept.

August 2nd, 2016

Today I worked on the project DiceStats. The purpose of this project was to create a numbered chart (2-12) and plot a star next to the sum of two rolled dice. Every time the page is refreshed, the data is changed and the dice are rolled 50 times. This project required many for-loops and echo statements. Arranging these statements was a bit of a hassle since the program would not work if they were not in the right order.

August 3rd, 2016

Today I continued to work on the project BackSelect from yesterday. This project took a while since I could not get the 'submit' button to work when it was clicked. Ernie helped me on this project and at the end we figured out that we were overthinking and added extra coding.

August 4th, 2016

Today I worked on two projects; DanaJoe and Dynamic Pages. DanaJoe is a project that required to switch the first letter of the first name to the first letter of the last name. Albert helped me on this program by telling me to separate the name into four parts; the first letter of first name, the rest of the first name, the first letter of the last name and the rest of the last name. This helped me a lot because the rest of it was creating sums and using echo statements. The second project, Dynamic Pages, dynamically loads content by passing a $_GET variable. Both projects were not as complicated as the ones before so I got to finish two projects.

August 5th, 2016

Today I was not able to make it to Shodor because I was sick.

August 15th, 2016

Today I was not able to make it to Shodor because I had work at school.

August 16th, 2016

Today I worked on the project Calendar. This project required to print a yearly calendar every time the page refreshes. Abia helped me with this project as it was the most challenging PHP project. Though it was challenging, the project mostly consisted of using arrays. However, the formatting took forever.

August 17th, 2016

Today I worked on the XML Blog project. This project required to create a blog page that uses a PHP loop to display blog entries from an external XML file. I thought this project was bit confusing at first but Anagha helped me understand it better. Unlike other projects, this project didn't take much time because it was just reprinting from another blog. I found it confusing because I had to create two different files and use both of them at the same time. As this was the end of my PHP projects, the rest of the day I worked on my website and blogs.

August 18th, 2016

Today I worked on uploading my projects to my website. It seemed like a simple task but spelling errors prolonged this task. As I uploaded my projects to my website, I started to pick out the projects that I wanted to present for tomorrow. I also made a Powerpoint presentation to organize my thoughts and comments on each project. As I chose my projects for presentation, I realized how much I learned and grew at Shodor. Struggles aside, I had a lot of fun at Shodor this year.

August 19th, 2016

Today is my last day as a Shodor apprentice. As I presented, I noticed that I gained a lot of knowledge in my favorite subject while having fun at the same time. I enjoyed every moment at Shodor and I know that everything I learned will be put to great use in the future. I hope to continue working at Shodor as an intern next year and help future apprentices. Thank you Shodor Staff and Volunteers, none of this would be possible without you!