Here are some reflections from all of my classes at Shodor.
From an early age on, I have always been intrigued by the many wonders of science and math. I have always been interested in chemistry and biology, making many potions when I was little. A great concern for our global environment has also fueled some of my scientific endeavors. I have also been tremendously fascinated by math. I sped through advanced math concepts in elementary school so I could be in Algebra 1 in the 6th grade. Having participated in extra-curricular math and science based activities such as Science Olympiad, MathCounts, Geometry Team, and numerous experiences at Shodor, I fully appreciate the value and significance of math and science in our everyday lives.
Today I got reacquainted with Shodor after a short separation, and it felt
great. I learned the procedures and expectations of Shodor Apprentices, and I
learned the three rules at Shodor:
Today I learned about CSS. I already knew some from prior experience, but this class filled in all of my gaps in knowledge and helped me a lot. Ismael taught us a lot, and e assigned us a CSS Challenge Assignment. Here's a link to my CSS Challenge. It's not quite complete yet, but it's getting there....Hehe... :D... Here's a link to my CSS Challenge if you wanna checkitoutt... In the afternoon, Bethany came to talk to us about the AMC (the Apprenticeship Mathematics Component). We are required to take 5 quizzes to asses our mathematical capability and then do an Interactivate activity based on our level. I hope I do well, because I hear those quizzes are HARDD. eeekk!!
Today we continued to learn CSS. Jonathan helped us with our various questions about CSS, and we worked more with divs and ids and classes. We learned about creating linkbars, and we did lotsa cool stuff. Haha I validated my page using the w3 validator. Here's a banner to show that I'm valid!!
Yay! We've finally reached AgentSheets. Today, we learned about AgentSheets and various functions of it, and we made basic, preliminary SI(without the R, but I added it anyway...) models using sick people and healthy people. When the sick people came in contact with the healthy people, they turned the healthy people sick. All of this was good and happy, but it felt kind of boring, so I added some more agents. I added a stationary doctor, a moving doctor, a terrorist (hehehe to spice things up...), some gangsters, the police, and George Bush. Now that is HILARIOUS!! lol no not really... So we got a new AgentSheets assignment to work on for the Predator-Prey model...ooh and our group project website is up, too. Well its a little bit crappy but it's okay for now you know...I mean - look at how cute those stick figures are!! Aww yea I made them. :D
Today we worked some more with AgentSheets. Dang those wolves eat too much! Poor bunnies :'(...why can't we make the prey something we all hate like hyenas or cockroaches (shudders) or something like that? Why is it necessary to kill the poor rabbits!! Sniffles. I'm sorry, but this predator-prey model is really sad. The wolves eat the rabbits; the rabbits eat the grass; the grass grows on the ground. It doesn't sound like it could bring you to tears, but little do you know...AWW I FEEL SAD. Anyways, things are going great at Shodor. We're all up and running aroung gayly like good children with the Module 2 high. ahh. Things are going on in a timely manner, and I feel confident about this rabbits and wolves project...
Today we're learning about NetLogo. First, we made a really cool color switching model. In the model, agents move around and if they come in contact with another agent they change to their color. So in the end there is one dominant color that all the agents have switched too. Writing the code wasn't hard at all, and it was very neat and cool. I think I like NetLogo better than AgentSheets, because first of all NetLogo doesn't randomly crash on you and make you do your assignments over and over again and also because we get to write actual code in NetLogo. I'm looking forward to working on the reproduction model that we have for homework this week. It sounds really interesting.
Today we continued NetLogo with much pomp and splendour. We worked on this new SIR model with a QUARANTTINE!!! woohoo. The quarantine is like amazing. It's uber-cool. I love it. The sick people stay in there, and they move around and have a ball while the other normal people and the recovered people move around. They can go into the quarantine, too, though. But still it's really nice to be learning more code and cool new stuff to apply it to. Ooh and we got assigned a new group project. It's very hard-looking: we have to make a model of the Avian Influenza with NetLogo. eekk!! But we'll probably get it done anyways...I hope soo...
Yay! Today was a much-needed workday. We worked on lots of stuff - argh so much to do! Right now, I need to finish the AMC part 2, update my website, do the group project, and whatever else I'm forgetting (believe me, it's a lot). The group project has made no progress. at all. Last week we came in to work on it, but unfortunately the power went out for a second and I lost all my precious work. NOOO how am I ever going to finish? I've still got pretty much the entire NetLogo model to do, and I still need to do the powerpoint! We've managed to get an extension on the group project, though, so it's a little better. I guess I should focus on getting the easy stuff done first, then. Wish me luck...hehehe...
Today we learned about modeling diseases with Microsoft Excel. It was very
interesting to see how one can perform these neat function with Excel, as I
didn't know how to do computational modeling with Excel. Normally I use the
program for organizing and budgeting and simple organizational and planning
tasks. I didn't know about using these features to model epidemiology. I am very
proud of learning how to create scroll bars and modifiable graphs and additional
elements to the Excel worksheets. I did not know how to do a lot of these things
before, but now I know and I'm glad to be able to use these skills in the
future. Valerie taught us very well, and she was tremendously helpful.
Today we learned about making SIR (Susceptible, Infected, Recovered) models with
Vensim. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to add a Recovered People box
variable. It was really cool working with graphs and tables - I have made some
very extensive models in Vensim before, but I haven't had too much experience
with making graphs and tables before. I made a neat, efficient, and functional
model using Vensim (without losing all my work!). It was great to use Vensim
again, and now I feel confident to pursue bigger, better endeavors with Vensim.
I also enjoyed changing around the infection fraction and observing the change
in the other values. I wish we could have gone a tad bit deeper into the model
with the program and added more factors and a recovery to make it more
realistic, though. It's very cool when you have a big model with Vensim and
there are a bunch of separate components that all connect to each other. It's
really challenging to comprehend and create such models sometimes, though.
Therefore, I think it was good to start with the basics first this time.
learned tons of exciting things this week! Primarily, we learned about
pseudo-code, PHP, and more about modeling. On Monday, in the morning, Ismael and
Luke taught us about the basics of programming logic and the importance of
pseudo-code. We worked on several example situations to practice programming
logic and writing the pseudo-code for them. In the afternoon, we worked on
modeling with NetLogo and continued the logic idea. On Tuesday, Ismael and Luke
taught us PHP in the morning, and Kelley and Philip and Jason taught us about
graphing and skewing data in the afternoon. I learned about a cool graphing
program that uses world statistics called Gapminder. On Wednesday, we did some
more advanced PHP including arrays in the morning with Luke and we did some more
modeling in the afternoon with Philip and Kelley. It was really fun making a
zombie model in AgentSheets! My group made some pretty realistic zombie
depictions for our model. On Thursday and Friday, we worked on and presented our
group projects for PHP and modeling. For the PHP project, our group worked on
databases and MySQL using PHP. Instead of making a boring powerpoint
presentation, our group made a website about it. I had fun working on it. For
the the modeling project, my group worked on modeling the spread of a fad using
NetLogo. We added several interesting components to our model. It was really
cool to think about all the factors that go into a real-life situation like
that.
This week we learned about system administration and improved our math and verbal skills. In the mornings, Joel and Philip taught us about operating system basics and system administration. On Monday, we learned about the structure and history of computers, operating systems, and servers, and about Unix and Linux. We started out with a scavenger hunt where we used the computer (primarily the internet) to find out about the history of Mac OS X and Unix. Over the next few days, we learned about using BASH and Terminal and the various commands used to accomplish various tasks. We learned about basic movement, file manipulation, pipelines and redirection, text manipulation, editing permissions, VI, and lots of other useful concepts in Terminal. Now I will be able to use this knowledge in future endeavors. I think all of this will come in vary handy in SystAdmin 2! Also, in the afternoons, we worked on Math and Verbal topics. We completed another two sections of the AMC - the Algebra and the Probability and Statistics - and worked on various interesting activities. These included writing a paragraph about superpowers, coming up with math homonyms, writing a story with three math words in it, and researching Florence Nightingale and polar area charts. I learned many interesting things through all these activities, and I'm very grateful for this experience.