Weeks One and Two:
Drones and How to Operate Them
During my first couple weeks at help desk we have been quite busy with getting introduced to what we're going to be doing during this course and one of the main things Mr. Wong has taught us so far is how to properly and safely fly the drones that he and the school provide for us. We were able to learn the basics about drone safety and how to operate them indoors in places such as the lower and upper libraries but we also learned how to use them outside in places such as the BHS field and parking lot. Besides learning how to operate them we were also able to pilot them ourselves, we did this twice, the first time we went out into the field and used a drone to track and take pictures of us even while we were moving and the second time we were able to use a drone that we could control with hand movements. I have learned a lot of cool and very useful things about drones during the start of Help Desk and I'm very excited to learn more during my time in this class.
Week One of Distance Learning Blogs
First At Home Blog
During these first couple of weeks that we've all been away from school and stuck at home life has been pretty weird, this is something that I never would have expected to have to go through in my lifetime but I have been able to adapt to what's been going on in relations to school and my everyday life. Technology has been extremely helpful for me in this time because it is able to keep me entertained with things like movies, TV and video games but it has also been very helpful in keeping me and my family up to date with everything that is happening with the virus besides those two things technology is also allowing me to keep in touch with friends and family that I wouldn't be able to see due to social distancing and I can check in on those friends / family members to see if they're staying safe during this time. Finally my access to technology is now allowing me to keep up with my school work so that once we eventually go back to school I will not be behind on the work that I need to do and I will be more prepared to finish of my Junior year.
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Week 2 of Distance Learning
During the second week of distance learning I did most of the same work as last week although it was not as confusing as the week before now that I have had 2 weeks to adjust to working at home. My work for help desk this week was to explore one of the online resources that Mr. Wong had given to us and to complete a weekly blog post. I chose to explore Talent Box, a program that allows you to create your own games and programs. I was able to learn using multiple coding languages such as java but I was also able to learn how to make 3D designs and games in engines such as Unity. To do all of this I had to download a program onto my computer called Game Maker Studio 2, there is where I messed around with trying to make sprites/ games. For my other classes I had to make a poem using song titles from my Spotify library (English Class), I had to complete a would you rather assignment for math. For my programming class I was given code and I had to clean it up/ make it look professional, for Chemistry I had to watch videos on experiments and write notes/ answer questions about what happened. Finally for my history class I had to write a paper on Trade in Asia. Besides my school work I have mainly just been doing the same things as week one to keep me occupied, I've been trying out some new games but none have really caught my attention.
This is the program that I used to complete the assignments in Talent Box, the software is called Game Maker Studio 2 and is available as a free trial version and a paid full version.
Blog post 3
After 3 weeks of being at home things have just gotten weirder and it's still a challenge for me to adapt to doing all the work online and from home. The work for this week was relatively simple, in my Algebra class we had to complete a two truths and a lie worksheet that was all about the properties of graphs we were given. For my programming class we had to do a "Tech News Tuesday" where we were given a YouTube video and had to react to and ask questions about what we watched, I choose a video about how Netflix created their very own algorithm to make every thumbnail you see in Netflix personalized to your account. In English we had to make a meme about an article that we chose to read and we had to watch a visual poem, then write a paragraph analyzing the poem and how making it visual was able to enhance the message of the poem. In my chemistry class we were given an article about chocolate and how it is made in relation to chemistry, once we were done reading the article there was a question sheet that we had to fill out with the information that the article gave us. In help desk this week I made my weekly blog post about what I've been doing this week but I also kept exploring GameMaker Studio 2 and am enjoying it for the time being. Finally in my Ap World history class we started to practice for the Ap test that is on May 21, we are breaking down what we have to do for the test and going over every part so that we are prepared for what is to come. Outside of my school work I got up early on Thursday and cheered on the shift change at the Lahey Burlington hospital.
Here is the picture that me and my mother took as we were cheering on the hospital workers
Blog Post 4
We are now in week 4 of distance learning, being at home does have its perks but it's getting pretty boring here as I have essentially run out of new things to do. For my school work this week I had another two truths and a lie for math, but this time the worksheet was focused on the equations of the graphs instead of the actual graphs themselves. In programming we had to create a program that would act as a weather service for the month of April, I was able to make the program display a certain day's temperature, if that temperature was over or under the average for the month and I was able to make it display all the days in April with their corresponding daily temperatures. In English we had to do a "Shelter in Poems" assignment, this assignment had me reading a poem and then writing an analysis about how everyone that is being affected by the pandemic can use the poem to "Take shelter in". For Help desk I yet again wrote my weekly blog post and sadly had to stop using the GameMaker because my free trial of it ran out. In my history class we are continuing to work on preparing for the Ap test by practicing how to write certain parts of out DBQ's. In chemistry we had to choose a recipe and then using stoichiometry, we had to make a shopping list to get enough ingredients to server 24 people. Thankfully everyone in my household had been able to stay safe and Covid free.
This is the code for the Weather program that I made for my programming class
Blog Post 5
Welcome to the fifth week of distance learning! This week my schoolwork was a math worksheet that focused on parent functions, in the worksheet we had to answer questions about graphs that we had to graph ourselves with the equation that was given to us. In programming we learned about arrays and how to properly loop, display and use them in C++. This was actually challenging because it was some of the first new material I was learning since I had last been in school. In English we have been reading our independent reading books, this week we were supposed to write a narrative that could take place in our book. I was reading the Lord of the Rings so coming up with an extra side scene was actually quite difficult due to how complex the book is. For help desk I blogged about my week and due to my free trial of GameMaker running out I just explored the other resources that Mr. Wong gave us at the start of distance learning. In Chemistry we had to do a scavenger hunt around our house, we had to Take a picture of 2 elements, compounds, homogeneous mixtures and heterogeneous mixtures that we could find in our house. For Ap world we practices contextualization in our DBQ's, this is the second last part of the DBQ that we were practicing for the Ap test. Outside of all of my school work I was able to get outside with my family, we were able to go o a couple of hikes this week. Getting outside was very refreshing and I can't wait till I am able to go to the soccer fields again.
This is the picture that I took with my family while on one of our hikes(Our dog's name is Coco)
Blog Post 6
Week 6!! This week for my schoolwork I had to complete a worksheet where we were given 14 problems and had to find out what the variable x in each problem was equal to. In programming we were given incomplete code to an area calculator, we had to complete the code so that the calculator worked and we had to add in a void message at the end of the program. In English we started to read a book called "Every Falling Star", after reading the first 6 chapters we had to write a "letter of recommendation " from the perspective of the main character Sungju Lee. In chemistry we started to review solutes, solvents and solutions, we had to do a worksheet based off of what we learned during the weekly meeting. In Ap world we did the 4th and final part of the DBQ practice so hopefully I am now ready for the test that is on the 21st. Besides school the first part of quarantine will be lifted soon so hopefully I can get started on training for the fall soccer season and get a haircut for the first time in 4 months. I hope everyone who is reading these is staying safe and is enjoying their time at home with their families.
This is the C++ code for the Area calculator
Blog Post 7
During the seventh week of distance learning I had my Ap World History test, I had been preparing for this almost all of the year and I was quite confident when I was taking and when I was finished with the test. Although I felt somewhat confident with my answer to the prompt, the test was nerve wracking because I didn't know if it would actually submit when I wanted it to due to a glitch that had been happening to other students taking the Ap tests before me. Other than that I did a rational exponents worksheet for math, wrote about the themes in our book for english called "Every Falling Star" and added new parts to the area calculator that I had made last week in my programming class, finally for chemistry we did more work with Solutions. Outside of schoolwork phase 1 of quarantine went into effect so I was able to get my first haircut in a couple of months and I was able to be with some of my friends for the first time since school had gotten out.
This is the Phase 1 plan for Ma reopening that went into effect on May 25th
Blog Post 8
During the eighth week of distance learning it was graduation week for the seniors of the class of 2020! My friends and I were able to attend a Black Lives Matter protest on the Burlington Common, then later that week we also went to the parade for the seniors where I was able to see some of the seniors that I hadn't seen since March when school got out. For my schoolwork this week I had a worksheet on logarithmic form for my algebra class, in programming I wrote a program that would take your mile time and calculate how long it would take you to run a marathon at that pace. In my English class I had to compare dreams in our class reading book to dreams that I had personally had, in chemistry I learned about Kinetic Molecular Theory and Gas Laws and finally for my Ap world history class I had to pick a partner, a topic that was given to us and we had to research it to eventually make a presentation about our topic that'll be due next week.