What I did at Shodor this week:
August 2nd 2012
I worked more on my css for my Portal website today. I have learned many things about how to incorporate both animated and non-animated pictures in my css file. I have found that graphics are the most fun part of web design, at least in my opinion.
August 1st 2012
Today was spent on my Portal website. I have almost completely finished it, and I am now working on my css to make it look fancy.
July 31st 2012
Today I documented the Shodor Scholars Program. I documented the entire day, and it was very interesting. I did SSP last year before I became an apprentice, and it was interesting to see all the potential newcomers.
July 30th 2012
Today I continued to convert the website I had made with my friend into Snap2. I have put all the content into my ApprenticePortal website, now I am working on making another CSS page to go along with the other website. I have found that it is slightly difficult to modify an existing CSS page to an HTML format it was not originally designed for.
July 27th 2012
Today I documented the iPhone workshop in the morning. After lunch, when the workshop was finished, I continued to work on my ApprenticePortal project.
July 26th 2012
Today we had Monte come in. Monte was the very first intern at Shodor, and he is now a major in informational science. He taught us all about databases, and I think that they are really interesting.
July 25th 2012
I continued to work on my ApprenticePortal website. I am now converting a website I made together with my friend Anna. I am working on putting it completely into Snap2.
July 24th 2012
Today I spent working on my ApprenticePortal project. I learned how to incorporate AgentSheets applets into Snap2. It was actually easier than I thought.
July 23rd 2012
Today was the first day of the second block. It was very busy as there were four different workshops going on in the building. I had finished converting my website into ApprenticeFun, which is just a test drive, and now I am working on putting it into ApprenticePortal, which is the real thing.
July 20th 2012
Today I kept working on my Page Render project. I put all of my blog on it, and with the help of Eric, my home content.
July 19th 2012
I continued to work on my PageRender project in the morning. In the afternoon, I documented the Web Design workshop.
July 18th 2012
Today I worked on my PageRender project and, with the help of Ernie, I got my blog and portfolio pages to show up!!! I was so excited.
July 17th 2012
Today I continued to work on my HLD document and completed it. I also continued to work on transferring my website into PageRender. I found out that although it takes longer than HTML to build websites in, PageRender saves time in the long run by being easier to edit in. If PageRender is implemented with SNAP2, then it saves even more time, because then we don't have to go through the checking in process every time we want to edit our files.
July 16th 2012
We started to work on our High Level Design documents for transferring our websites into PageRender. We are transferring our websites so that we will have a backup of all our work in case something happens to our original. The purpose of the HLD (high level design) document is to serve as a plan to go by as we work on transferring our websites. As PageRender is in PhP, I am also learning more about the programming language.
July 13th 2012
We worked more on our PhP models today. In the afternoon, everyone presented the model they liked the most. The models were very interesting, and it was very interesting to see how people could take a few guidelines for a few models, and then make theirs completely different from everyone else's.
July 12th 2012
Today we learned Pag Render in the morning. Page Render allows you to edit the content of websites. It is a framework that makes editing a website easier. We also made a webpage using Page Render in our Newdev files. In the afternoon, we worked some more on our PhP projects. I am coming to like Php more; I think that it is pretty fun to use.
July 11th 2012
Today I worked a the reception desk for my ODAA in the morning. While I was at the desk, all the other Apprentices learned about subversion. Subversion is a repository that can hold files for people to edit. In subversion, if a group of people are working on the same model, they are able to duplicate it so that each member can work on the same model, and have their own version of it without affecting the original model.
July 10th 2012
We continued to work on our PhP projects today at Shodor. I have started to work on several more of my projects, including my Dice Roller and my Background Color generator. I have found that sometimes, helping others with their projects gives me ideas for my own that I otherwise would not have thought of. I came to this conclusion while helping Caroline with her Background color model.
July 9th 2012
Today I started Block Two of the Shodor Summer Apprentice Schedule. This was my first time coming in since May 5th. Today we learned about PhP. I found that it was similar to JavaScript, but easier to learn and to use. I worked on one of the projects I was assigned to, my Dice Roll model. I have already made this model in JavaScript, and now I am converting it into PhP.
May 5th 2012
Today Anna and I finished up the model, and then we presented. As this week was only for those who had not finished their projects, there were oly a few people here. Everyone's presentations were very cool.
April 28th 2012
Today we worked in the lab on our JavaScript projects. Anna was not able to be here, so I worked in it by myself. A few people have already finished their models, so they presented today. Anna and I have not finished yet, so we are going to present next week along with some others.
April 21st 2012
Today Anna and I worked some more on our JavaScript project. We had a few bugs, but with Ernie and Aaron's help, they were all cleared up. Next week Anna will not be able to come, so I am glad that we were able to get most of it done.
April 14th 2012
This was our first class after break, and now we have started a JavaScript project. We are doing one of our existing models over again in JavaScript. Anna is my partner, and we have decided to do the fire model. The fire model is a forest of trees, and when you click on one, it catches on fire. The other trees around it also have a chance of combusting, also.
March 17th 2012
Today we worked in the classroom as the workshop students were not here. We did more Javascript today, and learned how to do more really cool things with it. One of the things we did is a random color generator. Every time the page was reloaded, the divs took on a different color. Another thing we did was to make a rectangle do a 'random walk'. This meant that a rectangle 'walked' randomly around inside of a square. At the end of the day we were given a homework assignment.
March 10th 2012
The workshop students were here again, so we worked in the lab. We did some more Javascript with Doug and Aaron. After lunch, we learned about fractals with Levi and Jenny. The fractals were really interesting, and my favorite was the Julia Sets. I thought it was interesting how Julia thought of the different colors as prisoners and escapees.
March 3rd 2012
Today we worked in the lab again, as the workshop students were in the classroom. Doug and Aaron taught us about JavaScript. JavaScript is a little like html code. We made strings and wrote code to chang years and minutes into seconds. After lunch we learned about arrays and loops. We built an encrypting section in our code, and had JavaScript encode something that we wrote.
Feb.18th 2012
Today we worked in the classroom as there were no workshop students. Aaron taught us all about high performance computers. They were very, very interesting, and I learned a lot. We learned about Moore's law, which states that a PC should double every eighteen months (this law was proved wrong pretty fast). After lunch. we learned about computer clusters, and how if you wire enough motherboards together, you can eventually get a supercomputer. We made our own little clusters at our tables by wiring our computers to each other. Our cluster had one person acting as a head node, and she put a cd into her computer and opened up GalaxSee. After the head was all set up, the rest of us put the cds into our own computers, and started up GalaxSee. GalaxSee is a really cool tool that shows how stars in a galaxy interact with each other, and we were able to adjust the stars' gravity and mass.
Feb. 11th 2012
Today we worked in the Apprentice lab due to workshop students using the class room. In the lab, Trey and Joel taught us hexideciamals and all about networking. After lunch, we had Mr. Hochberg, and we moved into the classroom, as the workshop students were gone. With Mr. Hochberg, we learned how to make a mathematical model of the terminal velocity of a cat falling out of a skyscraper. The terminal velocity turned out to be sixty miles an hour. The terminal velocity of something is the speed at which a falling object's acceleration stops.
Feb. 4th 2012
Today we learned all about the parts of a computer tower, and how to put them together, which was really, really awesome. We learned about casings, motherboards, power supplyers, heatsinks, and generally everything that makes a computer compute. We learned about this during the morning, and then after our break, we 'built' our computer online, using the parts and kits that the websites supplied. One of the things we learned from this excersize, is that it's much less expensive to build the ultimate computer out of parts, than to buy one pre-made. Also, by using parts, you can customize it, which is really cool. After lunch, all the people that weren't ready last week presented.
Jan. 28th 2012
Today we presented the models that we have been working on for the past two weeks. First, we had to put the link to the models on our websites, and adjust some little things. This took up the morning, and after that we practiced our presentations. After practicing for a while, Anna and I went and presented. It went better than we expected, and after presenting, we watched all the other people do their models. Their presentations were very nice.
Jan. 21st 2012
Today we continued working on our models. Anna and I have finished everything except the AgentSheets model. While I was working on that, Anna made a group website for our models. Now, all we have to do is finish the AgentSheets and then put the links on website to our models. We also had Rob Hochberg come in and teach us probability. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot.
Jan. 14th 2012
This was the first class after Christmas! We are working on another model in AgentSheets. We had a choice of modeling either cops and robbers, or a water cycle problem. Anna and I paired up, and we chose the water cycle one. I took the AgentSheets part, and Anna took the systems modeling (Vensim) part.
Dec. 17th 2011
Today we started building our own AgentSheets models. We had to model a disease, and my group chose the brain-eating amoeba as ours. In the model, there are people wandering around on the ground. Then, they go swimming, and get an amoeba in their brain. After a little while, they die.
Dec. 10th 2011
Today we presented our completed AgentSheets models,and stored our data in Excel. We had to model an epidemic, and then try to stop it. Our solution was to use doctors and nurses. If the sick person came in contact with a doctor, then the sick person had a hundred percent chance of getting vaccinated. If the sick person came in contact with a nurse, then the person had a fifty percent chance of getting a vaccination.
Dec. 3rd 2011
Today we learned about agent modeling with Agent Sheets. During the first session, we learned how the model ran, and how the rules work. During the second session, we experimented with changing the simulation properties. We also did a project, in which each table was a team, and each team was assigned a different simulation property to change. My team was team six, the wildcard team, so we got to pick our property, and we picked the step number. For the project, each team got a simulation property to change. Our team chose to change the step number. After we did our project, we learned about the sick model we would work on outside of this project with our groups.
Nov. 19th 2011
Today we learned all about office ethics. That was very interesting, and how Mr. Broadnax presented it was so funny that I will always remember what he and Cameron taught us. We also had a lesson about science from Dr. Panoff that was very interesting, too. Another thing that we learned was how to access all of our Shodor work things from a PC at home. Also, we got an ethics homework assignment.
Nov. 12th 2011
Sadly, I was not here today, but everyone else who was there was informed who their mentor is, and worked some more on their websites.
Nov. 5th 2011
Today I started the Apprenticeship Program! We didn't use the computers much, because we were being told all about Shodor. We got some paperwork to bring home and fill out. After lunch, we did use the computers, and we set up our own public HTML folders! I am, in fact, writing on it right now. Then, we used Terminal to write a few sentences on our websites. I think that Terminal is the coolest thing in the world. Actually, I used it to make the home page of my website! (I used Text Wrangler for the other pages.) We also learned all about the Apprenticeship handbook.