This year, I somehow ended end up robotics club with my sister and her friends. The goal of the club is to build a robot and compete with it at the regional competition. The organization that runs the competition is called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and it's purpose is to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. All of the teams are given a standard set of parts and the details of the game at the beginning of January, at an event called Kickoff. Then we are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot, that can operate when guided by wireless controls, to accomplish the game's tasks.
The Bayou Regional Robotics Competition was last week. It was held in Kenner and lasted for three days. The first day is used for working on the robotic, making sure it passes inspection and operates correctly. All day Friday and on Saturday morning, teams participate in qualifying matches. On Saturday afternoon, after the qualification matches have ended, the top eight ranked teams will pick partners from any team ranked below them, and the resulting alliances will compete to be regional winner. Since it was our rookie year, we ran into several major problems, but with the help of our alliances through out the qualifying matches, we were able to finish 35th out of 49 teams.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Global Issue Research Paper: Part II
Remember when I said that I thought writing my draft would be easy because of my outline? I was wrong. When I sat down to write my draft on Sunday, I had the hardest time articulating my ideas. I know people say that getting started is the hardest part but after that it gets better. Well everything was the hardest part for me. Even with my outline as a guideline, the order that I put my points in didn't seem to make sense. All of my information could go in different parts of my paper depending on which approach I took.
I decided that I should just follow my outline for now so that I could get all of my ideas onto the paper. And that since it was just a draft, I could always go back and change it up. I do have a few questions about citing that I would like to address in class, but overall with my first draft written, I feel pretty confident about this paper.
I decided that I should just follow my outline for now so that I could get all of my ideas onto the paper. And that since it was just a draft, I could always go back and change it up. I do have a few questions about citing that I would like to address in class, but overall with my first draft written, I feel pretty confident about this paper.
Nervous Conditions: Chapters 1 and 2
Last Thursday, we started reading a new book in class. It is called, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. It is a semi-autobiographical novel about a girl named Tambu, who grows up in Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s. The story focuses on themes of gender, race, class, and cultural change and how it affected Tambu.
The first two chapters are mainly about the education that Tambu and Nhamo, her brother, received. Though it also talks about their way of life and Tambu's relationships with her family members. Honestly, I was not really intrigued by the beginning of the book but hopefully that will change. However, the first sentence of the book: "I was not sorry when my brother died," did raise my curiosity. If for no other reason, I want to keep reading the book so I can learn the story behind Nhamo's death.
The first two chapters are mainly about the education that Tambu and Nhamo, her brother, received. Though it also talks about their way of life and Tambu's relationships with her family members. Honestly, I was not really intrigued by the beginning of the book but hopefully that will change. However, the first sentence of the book: "I was not sorry when my brother died," did raise my curiosity. If for no other reason, I want to keep reading the book so I can learn the story behind Nhamo's death.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Memories of summer
As I getting bogged down by all the stress that the second semester of school brings, I started to reminisce about summer. I have many great memories from this past summer but I really could not get one particular trip out of my mind. My parent's work associate owns a condo in Roatan, Honduras (a small island off of the northern coast of Honduras) and invited us to use it for a week. Having never been before, we decided to go and see what it was like.
We flew down to Roatan during the first week of August. (I'd just like to mention that according to an article on Yahoo!, the Roatan airport is one of the most dangerous in the world.) While the island has beaches to die for, there are some more interesting facts about Roatan. Like the fact you can go to a lizard farm there. Or that there are only two stop signs on the island and no post office, they deliver mail door to door. Only stick shift cars are used on the island. My parents don't do stick shift. One time, we actually started rolling back down the hill (and those hills are steep). All in all, the experience was incredible and I'd go back in a heartbeat.
We flew down to Roatan during the first week of August. (I'd just like to mention that according to an article on Yahoo!, the Roatan airport is one of the most dangerous in the world.) While the island has beaches to die for, there are some more interesting facts about Roatan. Like the fact you can go to a lizard farm there. Or that there are only two stop signs on the island and no post office, they deliver mail door to door. Only stick shift cars are used on the island. My parents don't do stick shift. One time, we actually started rolling back down the hill (and those hills are steep). All in all, the experience was incredible and I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Global Issue Research Paper
This week, instead of reading for 150 minutes, I focused on my global issue paper. We having been working on this project for quite a while now but I fell like I have really made a lot of progress in the past week. The assignment was to find a global issue, research the topic, and ultimately write a paper on it. The issue I chose to research is overpopulation. I thought it would be really interesting to learn more about this topic. I was curious about the views on the subject, predictions of the future of the population, as well as solutions to the issue.
Over the past week, the time I have spent on this assignment has really helped me feel more confident about what my end result will be. At the beginning of the week, I did more research on overpopulation, gathering general information on the subject. As the week progressed, I started on the basic outline of my research paper. After, I started trying to fill out the outline. As I attempted to do that, I realized that I needed to go back to researching and find more specific information. I also started to pick out quotes and passages from the text that I wanted to include in my paper. I did not start my draft, but I am confident that it will not be too difficult because of my outline.
Over the past week, the time I have spent on this assignment has really helped me feel more confident about what my end result will be. At the beginning of the week, I did more research on overpopulation, gathering general information on the subject. As the week progressed, I started on the basic outline of my research paper. After, I started trying to fill out the outline. As I attempted to do that, I realized that I needed to go back to researching and find more specific information. I also started to pick out quotes and passages from the text that I wanted to include in my paper. I did not start my draft, but I am confident that it will not be too difficult because of my outline.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Reading Response 2
I made a lot of progress in "Sex on the Moon" this week. After inventorying thousands of moon rock samples, Thad Roberts started thinking about the monetary value of them. Thad had never been that interested in money, but as a college student with at least eleven thousand dollars of debt, the idea that NASA considered some forty thousand dollars worth of moon rocks to be "trash" because they had been experimented on was crazy. So he started concocting a plan to sell these moon rocks because a single gram of moon rock dust alone, was worth five million dollars. At first, Thad had no intention of letting this plan go anywhere besides his head, but then he met a fellow college student that could help him find a buyer.
When I was reading this book, I had forgotten that this was a true story. But now, as I think of the things that Thad Roberts is actually doing in the book: working at NASA, experimenting with lab samples, handling actual moon rocks from the Apollo missions, I become overwhelmed. I am just amazed at all of the things that a twenty- three year has accomplished. I also find the fact that he is a triple major to be very impressive. I had actually never heard of someone majoring in three things before and I could not imagine the challenge of doing it. When Thad joined the NASA program, he reinvented himself. He was normally a shy, sort of outcast but he was given the chance to be outgoing and popular. And he succeeded. Among his co-ops, he is something of a social butterfly. I really like the idea of being able to reinvent yourself. I would like to try it sometime, not that I am unhappy with who I am, I just think it would be a very interesting thing to try.
Book: Sex on the Moon Author: Ben Mezrich Time: 155 minutes Pages: 70
When I was reading this book, I had forgotten that this was a true story. But now, as I think of the things that Thad Roberts is actually doing in the book: working at NASA, experimenting with lab samples, handling actual moon rocks from the Apollo missions, I become overwhelmed. I am just amazed at all of the things that a twenty- three year has accomplished. I also find the fact that he is a triple major to be very impressive. I had actually never heard of someone majoring in three things before and I could not imagine the challenge of doing it. When Thad joined the NASA program, he reinvented himself. He was normally a shy, sort of outcast but he was given the chance to be outgoing and popular. And he succeeded. Among his co-ops, he is something of a social butterfly. I really like the idea of being able to reinvent yourself. I would like to try it sometime, not that I am unhappy with who I am, I just think it would be a very interesting thing to try.
Book: Sex on the Moon Author: Ben Mezrich Time: 155 minutes Pages: 70
The Harlem Globetrotters
Last Saturday, I went on an outing with my family. My parents, my sister, Rachel, and I went downtown to see the Harlem Globetrotters. The Harlem Globetrotters are a basketball team that incorporates not only athletic skill, but comedy and tricks as well. Since the show started at two in the afternoon, we arrived early so that we could spend a little extra time around downtown. We walked along the levee and ate lunch at the North Street park. Eventually, we made our way to the River Center, where the show was being held.
The Harlem Globetrotters were amazing. For two hours, the basketball players entertained the crowd with jokes and impressive tricks. Rachel and I had so much fun watching them play and dancing to the music. My favorite part was when one of the players jumped up and climbed onto the basketball goal and started hanging off of it. I had so much fun and would definitely go and see them again.
The Harlem Globetrotters were amazing. For two hours, the basketball players entertained the crowd with jokes and impressive tricks. Rachel and I had so much fun watching them play and dancing to the music. My favorite part was when one of the players jumped up and climbed onto the basketball goal and started hanging off of it. I had so much fun and would definitely go and see them again.
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