last day of lab :-(

For our last day of lab, we started out with a HUGE road test. Students entered the class room to discover a dismantled computer at each of their desks. They were a little shocked to have to wait in the hallway until exactly when class was going to begin. But once they saw the computer parts everywhere, they knew what they were going to have to do . . . or they THOUGHT they did! AJ gave them detailed instructions about preparing their computers for the customer, who would be coming in an hour. They had to fix the computer, get any missing parts, and then make a lot of changes to the software and the appearance of the operating system. They dove in to it with some trepidation, but by my observations, they stayed determined and did their best. Way to go 2012!

Then we had some work time to finish our BTW while Eliza corrected yesterday's permit tests and she and AJ told each other jokes.

After that, students presented their projects.
Allie went first and gave an impressive presentation of her home computer and her computer of the future. She wants to make a computer that will read people's thoughts and show them on a screen so the speaker/teacher can see if everyone is understanding. It will be able to read people's word thoughts and picture thoughts.

Then David presented. He gave a good presentation, first talking about each of his computer components in a very relaxed and funny way.

Taylor presented next. Her computer was meant to be a computer that she can use to watch movies at home.
Her second project was a blog entry about a computer that designs and creates ice cream flavors. (That would sell millions!)

Ninah told us about her fantastic computer, and about her future computer that creates a virtual 3D image of any clothes you want to try on.

Brandon talked about his different components for the computer he built for programming. His dream computer helps catch wanted criminals, it will identify them no matter what their disguise and no matter where they are hiding.

Richie showed us a cute picture of puppies before he told us all about his computer and its various components. He  bought some candy for Chou so he would spend enough money. (Very Funny!). His computer of the future reads thoughts of people who are handicapped and can surf the internet for them.

Jon has built himself quite an impressive computer (although he confused RAM with hard drive memory when explaining it). He has such a good sense of humor that everyone was laughing during his presentation. He created a game in Scratch where a cat would run around maze.

Bronson's computer was impressive, with a case that lights up (wow!). His mouse is shaped like a car! He also made a Scratch game, but it wasn't working. In his game, built with Garrett, the roadrunner and coyote were chasing each other through a maze.

Dhondup's computer components were nice, with a motherboard with on-board sound. His Scratch game was a pong game that knocked out bricks. It was built together with Diana.

Diana also built a nice computer, and she and Dhondup did a great job on their game!

Malibu's computer looks great! and her project was a game that had three objects: a person, a cat, a ball. She made a self portrait cartoon for the person in the game.

Garrett wanted to build a computer for making videos.

Everyone did such a great job! It was an amazing camp and everyone learned a lot! I am so glad I got to be here with these amazing students.

Almost to the Finishing Line!

Today's Schedule

Start to 2:10 Work on BTW
2:10-2:20 Break
2:20 - 3:00 Permit test re-take, silent work time
3:00-3:10 Break
3:10-4:00 Finish BTW

Tomorrow:
Road Tests
Present Projects (Scratch and BYOCOPU)

Here is a snapshot of what is happening right now (1:36):

Everyone is quietly focused on working on his or her BTW. All you can hear are a few whispers, mouse clicks and some typing. AJ is kneeling next to David's computer helping him look over his BTW to see how he is doing with his computer purchase. He is encouraging him to maximize what he can get for his money. They are talking about why his optical dive is SO EXPENSIVE! And Chou mentions "Do you guys know that if you are making a gaming computer, sometimes Linux won't all the games you want?"

During class today, some students went with Michelle to talk to some incoming high school students about the importance of science. Here is a quote from an email from Michelle describing the experience:

"I just took a group of 4 ITA students to the PEOPLE Science Prep class.  Alison was telling me how they totally lacked motivation and I figured our kids could talk about their own experience and maybe help out a bit.  After 10 minutes in that room, I want to hug every one of our students [...].
We are all so LUCKY!!!!!!"


It is true that we ARE lucky: lucky to work with great people, including Michelle!


While everyone was working on projects, I met with most of the students to talk about their blogs, mentioning what they are doing well and what they can improve. It was interesting (for me at least!) and I hope it helped. The general advice was to add more details and to stay on top of proper English. Some students have a handle on both of those things already and we were able to talk about features of Blogger that they could use to enhance their blog or to create a personal blog for their own use.


Then we talked about how the most important part of a project is right at the end, when you are working really hard and finishing up. AJ played a song for us to wrap up the day, and everyone headed out in to the lovely weather.


Have a nice day, everyone!!

Scratch and Sniff!

We started off making a short little game in Scratch. It was cool and fun, fun, fun! I couldn't get the ball to chase my cat, but the kids were doing great. I can't wait to mess around with it some more and I bet the students feel the same way. Then we had some work time in Scratch and some time to work on the BTW.

A.J. gave us a quick demo about purchasing online by talking us through his thinking process as he looked at different components on Newegg.

Things to remember when purchasing:

• get the best you can afford to have a working system right now
• keep in mind the ability to upgrade
• maximize what you purchase

READ THE  CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Then we played Review Jeopardy and took a permit test.

Weird Al, a magical mystery tour, and some chili-covered mango

We started our day with a couple of Weird Al videos that were making fun of the world of computers. The we took a Learn @ UW quiz on the videos and talked about the videos. Funny! It is cool that we all get most of the jokes now, and we wouldn't have got a lot of them just a week ago.

Then Brad stopped by to take us upstairs to RADS for a tour. We learned about the different services provided by RADS and saw the workshop where they do their magic. AJ and I were joking before we went in that it was like entering the Chocolate Factory . . . (Everything you see is eatible, I mean edible) . . ..

Apparently, there were too many people for the whole group to then tour the DoIt Tech Store, so the class returned to the lab to continue working on their BTWs.

We worked on our BTWs for the rest of the day. AJ shared some chili powder covered mango with everyone. The class seemed to like the unusual treat, although they drank a lot of water afterward!

Everyone worked on the BTW and chatted until it was time to take the permit test, which proceeded in silence.

And that was it!  All in all, a pretty darn good day.

I am enjoying my role as supportive instructor: reading and composing blogs, making comments and asking questions that keep the flow going, and generally acting like Ed McMahon on the Johnny Carson Show.

Second Monday: we know a lot already, we're ready to learn some more!

It was great to see everyone ready to go today!

We started with a series of questions regarding operating systems:

• What are the differences between the different types of OS's that there are? (different programs)
• Do you need and OS to make an OS? (don't know!)
• When connecting to another computer can you get all the information from one computer to another? (yes, but not automatically. Depends on the operating system)
• How much information can an OS hold? (complicated question: doesn't really hold information, but it can control information, have information programmed in to it, take up certain room in the computer, like the way Windows included Internet Explorer in previous versions. The less things the OS uses, the fewer resources it takes up within the computer. It can take up a lot of hard drive and it can use up a lot of RAM too.)
• How do you make an OS? (don't know! look it up!)
• What makes one OS more expensive than another? (market, supply and demand)
• In general, how expensive is it to install a new OS, as compared to upgrading/dating? (Depends, look it up!)
• What makes one piece of software more effective than another similar piece? (personal preference)
• What are the basic functions of an OS? (too complex to answer in this class)
• UBUNTU: Why no search box in Google Chrome? (different program for each browser)
• Is there an OS that is better for home computers? (depends on what you are doing, there are some OS specifically built for servers, for simple devices, etc)
• Are there any OS other than the ones we have covered? (yes, there are tons)
• Is a newer hard drive better than an old one that's been wiped clean? Even if the specs are the same?  (tricky question, very possible that it could be better/worse, depending on a lot of factors)
• What does BIOS stand for? (Basic Input-Output System)
• What besides a computer is need to make an OS? (don't know)
• How does a computer translate between decimal numbers and binary?  (codes for each letter, codes for each number)
• What pieces of hardware are necessary and what are optional? (great discussion question, do extra research: power supply, motherboard, memory (hard drive/ram), processor, 
• Why do we need a BIOS? (basic input/output system = start-up sequence program before OS, software that is hardcoded in to the motherboard. You can reconfigure it, but it is hardwired in to the motherboard)
• Why is upgrading necessary? (not 100% necessary, helps with security
• Is there a program that helps you to create an OS? or do you need to know binary? (don't know for sure, probably written in a language called machine code, which is different)
• What makes the flavors of Linux different from each other? What are they? (there are a ton of them! Look them up and read about them.)
• What was the hardware called to uninstall and reinstall an OS? (???)
• How do you use binary with words? (codes for letters)
• Are certain OS better for certain programs? (issue of preference)
• How is video written to binary? (many types of formats, depends on how it is rendered, you can look it up and learn more)
• How is antivirus software made? (not 100% sure, but probably similar to a spell checker, programmed to look for certain things and then remove it)

A.J. proceeded to answer the questions that he knew the answers to, (but then there were some that he didn't know about).  It was a long discussion, but we got a lot of our questions answered!

Virus Information:

Students were given a few minutes to look up information about their questions and then about various kinds of viruses. Each row had a different virus to research: worms, rootkits, phishing, trojan horse. We also took a few minutes to talk about how to evaluate sources on the net.

Worms

• can replicate themselves
• can travel from computer to computer w/o human interaction
• subclass of a virus
• file dependent and can be reproduced

Rootkits

• sneak in to system and make themselves an administrator and can control the computer for whatever they want
• you have to download it yourself
• attach to BIOS or other targets of basic system
• they hide within the system, sometimes cause erratic behavior

Phishing

• tricks you to get personal information out of you
• mimic original sites
• it is us that get fooled

Trojan Horse

• It is like a virus rootkit that looks like an innocent or useful program
• keyloggers, etc
• have to be deleted instead of cleared because it is a file attached to something else
• it appears to be doing something you want it to do, but it is really doing something else

How do you prevent these things getting on to your computer.

• Do not use Limewire.
• Don't download everything you see.

Research on individual questions:

• Carrie
• Different flavors of Linux: which is best?
• They can't tell you what is best for you, because it depends on your computer and on how you use your computer.
• Bronson
• For creating an operating system:
• Linux from Skratch is a program you can use to make your own flavor or app for Linux.

Software on the Cloud

like Google Docs

Introduction to the BTW project:

Binary and Networking

We started with a lesson on binary brought to us by A.J., who helped us transfer numbers back and forth between binary and decimal. He said is isn't like learning another language, but more like just learning to use something you already know in a new way. (So, maybe it is like learning new vocabulary?).

Then Chou talked to us about networking. We looked at some photos of of different cords and cables to see how they can connect. Crossover cords are connected in a way that allows the computers to know that they are sending information back and forth to each other. Or, you can use a hub to connect computers through Ethernet cables. A "Switch" works like a hub, but you can connect even more computers to it. We also learned that "LAN" stands for Local Area Network and "WAN" stands for Wide-Area Network, which is often wireless. A "router" is the most advanced way to create a network, and you need that for a wireless network. Each computer that is on a network is called a "node". Each node has it's own very special and very private address, just like a home, called an IP address. The router has probably has and IP address, but it assigns various IP addresses temporarily to each computer that is active on the network. The "subnet mask" tells you what type of network you are connected to you, and it also tells you how many computers are or can be on that network.

We then took a short break, during which, as usual, the vending machine owners made quite a profit!!

After the break, we began by turning off our monitors and talking about domain names. Chou says that the actual domain name equals the IP address of a particular server. If you know the IP address of a website, you can type that in instead of the domain name and the browser will take you to the correct website.

Then we worked on establishing a series of 4 networks within the classroom. Some rows had a bit of trouble at first. Garret was still working in Linux, so he had a difficult time until he switched to Windows. Then we tried to set up a network within the whole classroom and everyone "pinged" each other to see if the computers were reading each other.

The students then rebooted their computers and then left for a break. Chou wanted the students to ping every single other student to make sure that EVERYONE is on the network.. Some of the students couldn't "ping" each other because they had forgotten to turn off their firewall. We weren't able to get the network working, so we weren't able to play a game together, which is unfortunate. It seemed like everyone learned a lot though, and hopefully we will be able to network and play games on another day.

Learnin More and More (Day Four)

We started with a series of questions about operating systems. We talked about different versions of hardware and software, using the example of the soon-to-be-released new iPhone (which we were all drooling over).
A.J. wrote some questions on the board: What is the difference between Installing and Upgrading an operating system? What are the differences between different versions/types of operating systems? What is the power of an operating system? The Eliza added: What are the advantages/disadvantages of having different types of OS? and What is the difference between ordinary software and and OS? None of these questions have necessarily been answered yet, but that isn't the point right now, since we are thinking about what we want to understand.

The students then came up with questions.

Alli: What goes in to making an OS?
Bronson: Do they do it in teams?

David: What are all the different OS in use and what are the advantages of each one?

Richie: What ARE the different OS? What's different about them?

Everyone shut off the monitors to prepare to listen. A.J. said that they would get different pieces to the answers as they go through the lesson today.

GUIs . . .
Graphical User Interface

Game: Name that GUI! What is that operating system!

We looked at a lot of images of older and newer GUIs and identified which one they were. ( I felt old because I had used the oldest of the Mac GUIs from 1984!!)

After a short break, during which we raided the vending machines, we looked at the schedule from the rest of the camp. Then, we booted in to Windows 7 and installed Chrome, Rocket Dock, Firefox, and Cool Iris.

A.J. talked to us about drivers and how to install them.and we played with the different software we could download to enhance our computers.

We then booted in to Ubuntu and used the free office  software to make a presentation to answer one of the class questions. After finishing the presentation, students had some free time to play around with Linux and see what they could find and use. Most students went right to the games! A.J. then showed everyone how to use the terminal and type in commands in Linux. It was very different from what students are used to!

Then . . . Permit test time! (And Students took it through Linux!).