Tina Lin

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Blog

• Fall

  October 4, 2014

• Today was the first meeting. Phil went go over the rules for the apprenticeship program with us. We were given graphing composition notebooks to record assignments in and many forms to sign. Mr. Broadnax came in to teach us info on business ethics. We also found out who our mentors were going to be. I have Ron Broadnax along with four other boys. After going through the rules, we had a tour inside Shodor, got cubbies, and took pictures.

• October 11, 2014

• Doctor Robert M. Panoff came in today to teach us a lot of new and interesting information. He talked about expectations, observations, and reflections. We were given Sudoku problems at the end of the day to solve. I was able to finish first. Our homework assignment was four fours.

• October 18, 2014

• Doctor Robert M. Panoff came in to review about what we had learned last week. Phil and Dr. Panoff both taught us some information about modeling and had an activity with making models out of a rope. For the rest of the day, we worked on excel with Phil only and completed an "Average of My Neighbors", mx+b, and disease model. I was able to solve my mistake on the disease model and was able to input a cure rate successfully without others help (at least not that much).

• November 1, 2014

• Today, we learned about command lines and unix using terminal. There are different commands like pwd and ls that doesn't change anything while others such as cd and rmdir can change and remove things. We did an activity where we try to create a binary tree with directories and files. I was able to create it successfully with Aidan's help. We then had a second activity with a tree but this time, we had to copy and move directories. I successfully moved and copied the directories and files without any help. To conclude, we worked with terminal for the whole day.

• November 8, 2014

• Today, we did a finishing touch on learning terminal on how to login to my account and transporting files. We then started learning vensim and created a disease model including susceptible people, infected people, recovered people, and dead people. Things that affect those people would be an infection fraction, recover fraction, and death fraction. I learned how to create a graph for the desired variables.

• November 15, 2014

• Today, we created a disease model using agent sheets. I created a depiction for each and had a counter to count the number of each peoples' population. My model was able to last a long time without have a single population to disappear other then dead people, which was meant to be. Agent sheets aren't confusing anymore and is actually pretty easy. I now know how to create methods easily.

• November 22, 2014

• Today, we chose our partners for our project. One of us had to create a vensim model and the other had to create an agent sheets model. Our topic was seals and fishes. We decided that I would create a vensim model and my partner would create a agent sheets model. I was able to create an outline of my model successfully without help and it was correct! That was so surprising. Anyways, I started to work with Megan since she also had to create a vensim model. Our models at this moment is the exact same.

• December 6, 2014

• Today, I almost finished my vensim model on seals and fishes, tagged or not. The only thing I need to do is reach the goal for the populations of fishes and seals and i think no one has been able to reach the goal without breaking any parameters. Also, I started to work on my website. I believe I am almost done with it. I learned how to use html and css to create my website, adding my favorite color to my webpage. We added a blog, which did take a while because it wasn't showing up, until Aidan helped both Megan and I on it.

• December 13, 2014

• Today, I was able to finish my website and vensim model. My partner wasn't able to come today to present so I only presented my model after trying to access his agent sheets model. I learned that after copying something from safari that included (") and pasting it into text wrangler, I had to re-type it in to text wrangler or else it wouldn't work. Also, today was the last day of this semester as an apprentice.

• Spring

  February 7, 2015

• Today was the first day of the second semester for shodor. We worked with java script and on Bouncing Particles in which we fixed errors in it. We learned how to use Safari console and how to access it. In java script, we learned the purpose of commenting things and how to comment something, either as a line or a whole section. This can also be used in Safari console. To open a console, 3 keys need to be pressed. They are the "option", "command", and "c" key. We learned how to us arithmetic symbols in console and found various results in the way someone could type in those symbols with different numbers.

• February 14, 2015

• Happy Valentines Day!!! Today, we learned more about java script. We worked on fixing and changing things in Time Alive, Diffusion, and Magic 8-Ball. I was able to add that to my website by the end of the day. In java script, something new that I learned today was loops. We learned about for loops and while loops. Also, not only were there loops, we learned about if and else statements used for programming that was similar to agent sheets. Today was also my first monthly meeting for the second semester (Spring semester).

• February 21, 2015

• Today, we had a review on loops. we worked on adding multiples of 3 and 5 all under 1000 together. Also, we worked on another bouncing particles model where we changed the particles' color using various ways. After our break, we learned how several things work in the safari console like [] - square brackets. Then, we had a group activity with prime numbers and having multiples starting with 2 to sit down (composite). My number was 6 so I was the second person to sit down. After lunch, we worked on "The Sieve of Eratosthenes", which was an actual model of the activity we did after our morning break online. Another model we worked on was the Vehicle Race Model. We looked at their different properties.

• March 7, 2015

• Today, we were assigned another partner project. My partner this time was Jack. We worked on completing a model with java script on seals and fishes again. What we've completed today was the seal's reproduction ability and its death either by starvation or old age. For the rest of the time today, we were trying to figure out how to incorporate the sound, which is something similar to like a scent, on fishes and seals.

• March 14, 2015

• Today, we worked on our project again. My partner wasn't here so I ended up working with Megan and Anja. We found out how to incorporate the sound (or smell) function of the fish. Also, we applied the strength of the tagged fish on the canvas so we can keep track of which fish is tagged or not. I believe we are very close to completing the project and can finish in time to present next week. I hope all goes well! Click on Seals and Fish Javascript Model to view the project.

• March 21, 2015

• Today, Jack and I completed or believe we completed our fish and seal model using javascript. We added tiny bits of things to the project before we presented it to everyone that was there today. The power did go off several times today for a while so I took a break with Narga. At the end of the day, I presented second to last with Jack on our project and was able to say a few things about it, including what we did first, what the hardest part was, what the most understanding part was and what we could have done to make the model more realistic.

• April 11, 2015

• We did some parallel computing today. The questions we had to answer are, "What are some of the top supercomputers in the world?", "Where are they located?", "How many cores do they have?", "Where would the Blue Waters supercomputer show up in the list?", and "Why doesn’t it show up in the list?". Some of the top supercomputers in the world are Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) in China's National University of Defense Technology with 3,120,000 cores and Sequoia in Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with 1.6 million cores. Blue Waters supercomputer would probably show up as the first or second supercomputer in the world because it is very powerful. It probably didn't show up because it didn't want to provide info.

• April 25, 2015

• Today is the last day of learning computer programming as an apprentice for the year of 2014-2015 at Shodor throughout the school year. We learned C programming today. We worked on computing pi, which was something that we started last week when I wasn't there. In the morning, I had a monthly meeting with Ron for the last time until summer. After lunch, we worked on trying to parallel program pi, or a number very close to pi that would stay constantly. I named it Parallel Computing Pi C Program.

• Summer

  June 15, 2015

• Today is the first day of my summer blocks. Phil begin our day with a few instructions on how the rest of our summer blocks was going to be like and on our assignment today. We created a HLD document from a chosen scenario. The scenario I chose was about a new 24-hour gallery wing opening in Louvre Museum. I was hired as a developer along with my software engineer to help maximize the foot traffic in the gallery and maximize the number of art pieces the gallery can display. The three main agents are the art pieces, guests, and the curator. The guest has three different depictions, a viewing one, a happy one, and an unhappy one. The guest comes into the gallery from the right side as a viewing guest. The guest can either change into a happy or an unhappy guest later on when something occurs. After I finished my HLD document, I worked on my website and learned to put in a picture for my background and messed with the colors of the borders or the words.

• June 16, 2015

• Today is the second day of my summer blocks. We began our day by starting on someone else's HLD Document and creating either an agent sheet model or javascript model of it as a software engineer. When I first worked on it, it was so confusing that I had to constantly get help that I couldn't even understand. Then throughout the day, I began to understand the different tools and actions I could use to help build my model which encouraged me to work even harder. I basically use everything that seems to do the job and test it out to see if it worked, and if not, I would change it. I would guess that I finished approximately 10-20% of the project and will have to work harder to complete it by the end of this week. Anyways, I hope I can finish it in time.

• June 17, 2015

• I came in earlier today to get a head start and have more time to work on my project on the art walk anew agent sheets model. Turns out, I have a lot of problems that I need to fix and need plenty of help on it. During the first half of my day, I was a documenter of an Exploration In Engineering workshop for rising 6-8th graders. Their goal was to build a model strong enough to hold a foam cup and as much marbles possible without crashing. THe model is supposed to be made out of straws and pipe cleaners. They learned how the right shape can make a better structure like triangles and not squares. After documenting them, I worked on my agent sheets model. I was so stressed out because whatever I implemented into the behaviors of the agents, it wouldn't work. In the end, I was able to get the counter to work and the main problem that I haven't been able to fix is to get the guests to leave the artwork after waiting for a few seconds.

• June 18, 2015

• Today, I tried to get as much as I could done before the model was due tomorrow but that didn't work out. In the art walk anew model, I got the happy and unhappy people to leave through the exit by disappearing when they are next to the exit. Also, the waiting guests can move away from the art work after recording that it has seen an art work. However, I need it to record that it has seen that specific art work and leave for a different one, which isn't what I currently have. I actually did get a lot of things to work but not enough to persuade me that I will be able to complete it in time because I believe that we will only have a half day tomorrow due to presentations of our work.

• June 19, 2015

• Today, I completed my agent sheets model on the Art Walking Anew. It didn't take me as long as I thought it would which is great. I got extra time to change how things look and make it better. I also uploaded the model onto my website today. Now I am stress-free from having to complete the project in time. I won't be here for like two weeks because of a trip to New York and a small break that is a week long before the second block starts at Shodor. Anyways, today was quite a successful day for me and I learned a lot on agent sheets this past week.

• July 6, 2015

• Today was the first day of block two, week one. We learned about regular expressions today with Phil. We learned about characters and different commands to find symbols, numbers, and/or letters. There are some symbols that act as a function where in order to find just that symbol and not use it as a function, the backwards slash is needed(\). After lunch break, Amalan took over and taught us stuff using javascript to create a canvas and various shapes to create pictures. Our final task was to create a smiley face which I then changed it later on.

• July 7, 2015

• Today, Joel taught us how to use php and we worked with php and worked and completed several projects including the random hex code and the calendar. What I haven't completed yet is the dice roll. Today helped me refresh my memory of using for loops and at the same time, learned how to use different tags, along with echoing things onto a page. Setting a variable using php is different from other ways that I have learned before like in javascript, you would use var, but in php, a dollar sign ($) is used.

• July 8, 2015

• Today, we finished up our dice roll project. We then learned about different forms, super globals, and the main methods in php from Joel in the afternoon. He introduced cookies to us, which was new to me while a lot of other people already knew what it was. I then worked on my background selector page where viewers are able to select a color they want for the background with the drop down box. Thing so far are a bit confusing, but I hope it will get better. I can understand few bits and pieces here and there every lesson.

• July 9, 2015

• Today, we worked on more php projects in the morning. I finished my dynamic page. In the afternoon, Joel taught us stuff about databases, where two main kinds of databases are flat databases and relational databases. We learned about primary keys and foreign keys in tables used in relational databases. Then, we started to work on a relational database in terminal. I learned how to create tables in terminal and add content to it, updating things and changing things. Then, he taught us things about mysql.

• July 10, 2015

• Today is the last day of week 1 in block 2. We finished all the php projects. I completed the Dane Joe project and the XML Blog project before lunch. After lunch break was over, Joel began teaching us stuff on databases using text wrangler. Everything was a bit confusing, especially the fact that I couldn't see what he was typing very well due to the fact that I was seated facing the opposite direction from the board.

• July 13, 2015

• Today is my birthday!!! Anyways, today I accomplished starting a database project called "General Store Project". I created my first table called StoreItems which has three columns (Name, Price, Quantity_In_Stock). There, I was able to add a few items into my table. I relearned how to log back into terminal as mysql. My goal is to get the table to show up on my website and then add other required properties onto the project. So far, there are errors popping up but Iain and Miguel helped me out a lot.

• July 14, 2015

• Today, we worked on our general store project again. I was able to add my table up on my website with the help of Iain. It didn't take too long and I was able to understand 90-95% of what he was talking about, which is really good. Also, before that, Miguel helped me figure out what was causing errors to appear on the webpage. Something else I was able to accomplish was create another table on terminal, but that has no connection to everything else yet. In the morning, there was a quick meeting with Amy and other apprentices about the Forensic Science Workshop we were to help out with, which I did for a little bit. Something I was extremely happy with was the fact that I helped my friend out on their general store project.

• July 15, 2015

• Today, I documented the Computer Programming Concepts workshop in the morning for 6th-8th graders. They learned about functions, arguments, how to draw shapes and get them to move, how to change a picture in a java script file, how to draw another picture on a canvas in which it can move around by creating another variable using var, how to copy a function without using the = sign, all in java script. Then, in the afternoon, I caught up to Megan in the php general store project with her help. She explained to me the codes she used and how it works, which I then jotted down onto my php file for the store. Now, when someone signs up in my login page, it is recorded down in a table on terminal with mysql database.

• July 16, 2015

• Today was Narga's birthday!!! Anyways, I documented in the morning for the computer programming concepts workshop. They continued to work on their java script project with canvases and had a review on if statements along with else statements. After lunch, I went back to the work area for apprentices and continued working on my general store project. There wasn't much I could change because I was busy helping others, but I think I will be able to accomplish a lot more tomorrow, especially with the fact that I won't be documenting tomorrow. At the end of today, we celebrated Narga's birthday with cupcakes that her family brought in.

• July 17, 2015

• Today is the last day of week 2, block 2. I haven't completed my general store, but I got the submit button to appear only when someone enters both a username and password. I changed some of the colors so that it wouldn't look too boring. I was also a witness to a crime in the Forensic workshop who saw Joker in the lobby the morning of the kidnapping. I was also asked a lot of other questions I had no clue what the answer would be and had to look at Amy and Megan to give me one before I responded the question. It was a really fun thing to do though.

• July 20, 2015

• Today is my cousin's (Ming AKA Jimmy) birthday!!! Anyways, I documented today's morning workshop on website design. They learned how to first start their own website using html and putting everything into their public_html folder. They then learned how to use css to make their website look better then what it used to be. Afterwards, we formed into groups of three to create a javascript model of an already made agent sheets model of something. My group is Anja, Narga and I. We are making a javascript model of a hermit crab simulation. Before the end of the day, the interns taught us some things that we haven't learned yet on javascript and our final task was to debug a javascript code that Keith made. I am pretty close with it, but not exactly done yet.

• July 21, 2015

• Today, I worked with my group to create our javascript model of an already created agent sheets model. Narga and I worked on our agents in Gimp while Anja worked on the actual javascript coding. Narga and I both finished creating the agents with Gimp with took some time. Anja got the basic coding down in javascript and now hermit crabs can move on the canvas of sand. We uploaded a picture of the sand onto the canvas, added the hermit crabs, and got them to move. Those are accomplishments that I am pretty proud of, but my goal is to be able to understand the code better.

• July 22, 2015

• Today, we accomplished a lot in our javascript project. We got our hermit crabs to move around randomly. They have a hunger count to count a number of time steps that it wasn't able to move. Not only that, they also disappear when they get too hungry. Another accomplishment that we achieved was getting grasses to show up on our canvas and when the hermit crabs are beside the grass, its hunger count changes back into zero. All of the buttons currently work (play, pause, and step). Also, I had my monthly meeting today with my mentor Ron. After Shodor was supposively over, I stayed after for the bowling event at Village Lane with some friends and ordered pizza before going.

• July 23, 2015

• Today, Narga and I began working on our seagull that will become the predator of the hermit crabs. We got it to move with the keys w, a, s, and d. I also learned about key codes and that each key has a code to like a = 65, w = 87, s = 83, and d = 68. As of right now, the seagull moves super fast if a, s d, or w is pressed, which I will have to change. This project was supposed to be due today at noon, but nobody has finished it yet. Now we will have to finish it tomorrow in time. Also, we will be going to Defy Gravity tomorrow!

• July 24, 2015

• Today, my group finished up our hermit crab javascript project. The hermit crabs can die from hunger, old age, and from the seagull, which is controlled by W, A, S, and D. Hermit crabs move randomly and can eat the grass to set their hunger back to zero. When their hunger level reaches 20, they die. The grass is set in the bottom right corner. One special thing is that the hermit crabs can scare each other when they are beside each other, or when you click on them, but this can only occur when it is day time. When it is night time, the hermit crabs can't get scared and hide in their shells. Hermit crabs can reproduce but the seagull can't. Last but not least, we have a working play, pause, step, and day/night button. We are going to go to Defy Gravity today!!!

• July 27, 2015

• In the morning today, we did some engineering stuff with Caroline and Rohin. We learned about how things have to be built in order to stand or topple with lego pieces. Then with Rohin, we learned about building trusses with triangles in order for it to be stable. We had a competition on a site to see who can create a truss that has the least values for compression and tension. In the end, my group got in the 30's which is really good. After lunch, Amalan taught us about recursion and how php stands for php: hypertext preprocessor, in which the php in php: hypertext preprocessor also stands for php: hypertext preprocessor. After that, we completed some coding on factorials, fibonacci and simple equations with recursion.

• July 28, 2015

• Today before lunch, we learned about building models out of straws and pip cleaners to be as sturdy as possible in order to hold the most amount of marbles. How to find out the scores for each team is to multiply the height in cm from the table to the bottom of the cup with the number of marbles. My group could've won with the highest score, however, before we could stop adding marbles, it collapsed, giving us a score of 0. Nobody in my group was paying attention to Caroline as she was adding marbles to our cup. Our final score was greater than 5000 I think. After lunch, we learned about jQuery from Ishaan. We learned about the different properties of jQuery and made a small jQuery Project.

• July 29, 2015

• Today in the morning, we did a small engineering activity with Caroline with a ramp and a marble to calculate its velocity, height, and distance. We had to figure out the distance away from a table to try to get a marble to land inside a film canister. My group (Aneesha, Vincent, and I) was able to get the marble to land inside of the film canister. In the afternoon, Miguel taught us things about ajax. We completed a small assignment that was given out to us by him. Afterwards, we had free time to try to complete the rest of our projects we had from the beginning of summer, which I worked on inkscape and creating my own logo. So far it isn't completed yet, but I am very close (with the help of my sister).

• July 30, 2015

• With Caroline and Ron, my mentor, in the morning, we learned about a circuit and its different elements, like the resistor, LED, capacitor, and the 555 timer. We then made an actual circuit, making the LED light and even blink. Then in the afternoon, we had free time to work on all the projects that is needed to be completed by our last day before school starts again. I got the login page to work and not accept anyone logging in without the right password and username. Also, today, I finished up all the inkscape projects and worked on the gimp projects. I completed all the smaller projects and am working on the logo and background pic for my website so it wouldn't have to be a blank color with the help of Narga. Tomorrow, we will be going to Frankie's!!!

• July 31, 2015

• My group made a successful boat today that held the most amount of marbles when no one expected it because it looked week and wasn't made too neatly. Today was also Dr. Panoff's birthday! I drew the pictures in the card yesterday night that was given to him today dur lunch time and Anja and I drew stuff on the white board in the break room for his birthday like bubble letters and a huge birthday cake. Then in the afternoon, we worked on stuff we needed to complete, which I worked on my website and general store. Then the apprentices whose last day is today presented their website along with all the work they finished this summer today and they were Aidan, Herjot, Megan, Narga, Nemefese, and Braxton (in that order). Today, we are going to go to Frankies.

• August 10, 2015

• This week is the last week of Shodor as an apprentice (4th block, 2nd week). I worked on my general store today and had my second monthly meeting with Ron. I also completed everything I had to make up from the second week of the first block. I finished the gimp tutorial and created my header. As for my general store, I got the check out button to work and added scrolls to increase the number off items you would want to add to your cart. My check out page displays the item, price, and quantity you are about to buy and the total cost it would be. At the bottom of that page, there is a back to store button that brings you back to the store and a log out button that logs you out and brings you to the login page. Last but not least, I changed the colors of things around on all three of my pages for the general store. Now, all I have to do is get the number under the Quantity In Stock column to decrease when the order button is pressed and I also need an order page. Other things may be added, when I am done with my other tasks.

• August 11, 2015

• Today, I worked on my general store again. I got the check out page to work now, which can lead you to an order page. The check out page just displays the items, quantity, and prices of the things you are about to buy. At the bottom, there is a total cost of everything, all added together. Then right underneath that, there are three buttons. The first button (Order) brings you to the order page and says that you have actually ordered the items. The second button (Back To Store) brings you back to the store. The third button (Log Out) logs you out and brings you to the login page. I also created a checkout table today. I still have lots to finish, but I think I will be able to get the main things done, meaning the most important.

• August 12, 2015

• In the morning today, I got my quantity in stock to decrease as people order things. I also got the current money balance of a person's account to display correctly on the order page. Finally, I made every one get $100 once an account is created. The Checkout table works now in mysql, and shows all the balances of every account. In the afternoon, I found out that my checkout button and order button had wrong jobs. When the checkout button is clicked on, the quantity in stock of the things you have selected would decrease and the order button wouldn't work. With Miguel's help, I got it to work using session and to get some things through several pages.

• August 13, 2015

• Today, I finished correcting my login page so now everything works. People have to sign up first in order to login to the store. After signing up, that person has to re-login to check if their account is created and to get in to the store. If that doesn't work out for them, then something will be echoed out and some text will display at the bottom that the username or password is incorrect. Also, If you were to sign up with a username that was already created, then something else will pop up that will say that the username is taken. Afterwards, I started to work on my order history, one of the last things I need to complete before everything is complete to present tomorrow. So far, whatever items a person clicks on and orders, it will display on a table in mysql called orderHistory. However, only the first thing they order will be displayed on the table, nothing else and that needs to be corrected, if I have the time tomorrow. Last but not least, I saw Ernie today. He caught me drawing at the front desk when I was supposed to be working on my General Store, but I was only drawing two strands of hair as a quick break for staring at the laptop. Anyways, it was nice seeing him again. Plus, he remembers that I am Anna's little sister.

• August 14, 2015

• Today is my last day at Shodor, at least that is what I believe is to be correct. I finished my General Store today with some things lacking, but it works fine. I presented today after lunch and got that done, even though I was nervous, standing in front of people. Also, I am about to go watch the ssp program students present their project they have been working on overall for the past two weeks I believe. Anyways, this is most likely going to be my last blog, so..... BYE!!!