Week 7 thoughts

What I learned:

-No matter what you're doing you have to troubleshoot. At several different instances building my sensor I thought I had problems when it turned out I didn't have any problems at all. First, after setting up the circuit on the breadboard for my sensor to hook up to the computer I wasn't able to get the LED to light up. Switched out the LEDs to see if that was the problem, rewired everything to try to figure out what I did wrong, but nothing worked. Finally Jim suggested that I just plug it into the computer and see what happened. Turns out the circuit was set up fine, and as soon as I wrote a program the LED blink as it was supposed to.

Next I hooked everything up with the variable resistor to prepare for the connection of the thermistor. After connecting the variable resistor and changing the resistance I saw no change in the output on the computer. Kept trying and trying to figure out why it wasn't changing like it should but nothing was working. Finally decided to hook up the thermistor just to give it a shot. As soon as I had the thermistor wired the output on the computer started doing exactly what it was supposed to and I was able to begin calibrating the sensor just fine. Shows you just have to keep sticking with stuff I guess and eventually you'll figure it out.

What I'm excited about:

-Spring Break! Haha but seriously its pretty cool how fast we are moving in class, almost done with sensors already and getting ready to move on to doing some robotics. I have no idea what to expect when it comes time to build our robots, so I'm really intrigued as to how that is going to go. Pretty pumped to give it a shot!

Suggestions:

-I think everything is going pretty smoothly as of right now so I can't think of anything at the moment that I think needs to change. Just going to keep chugging along

Week 6 thoughts

What I learned:

I really like working with the sensors. Wiring circuits and working with stuff like that is not something I have ever really had any experience doing, but after being a bit slow starting off I am really getting the hang of it now and really enjoying making stuff on the breadboard. I am really picking up new skills in this class, which is one of the reasons I signed up for this class. I am glad I am expanding my knowledge and hopefully that will continue.

What got me excited:

Continuing on with the next step of the sensor project. My sensor turned out working well (wooo passed the test) so now I'm pumped to start getting the sensor to interact with the computer so that it can be programmed. This past class I built the circuit so next class I'll be all ready to go to connect it to the computer and start with that process.

Suggestions:

It didn't effect me, but I think it was frustrating for the guys who were trying to get the computer going but weren't even able to get logged in and the program opened properly. But thats all part of the process I suppose.

Week 5 thoughts

What I learned:

Its a good thing I started my second scratch project early. I had planned to do a pool game and had been working on it for most of the two weeks of class before I decided only a few days before that I wanted to completely change my project and do something different. I wasn't really happy with how the pool game was going-it seemed like I was borrowing a lot of code from other pool games published online, and quite a few other people in the class were doing pool as well. I decided to abandon that and try to make a predator prey interaction. I think the end result was pretty good, so I'm glad I was on track with my programming in order to be able to recover from hitting a roadblock like this.

What got me excited:

Working with the sensors and getting mine to work. The first day when we went in to see the sensor project I was pretty intimidated. I understood all the concepts behind what we were making and everything that was in the first two chapters of the book, but creating it myself was a completely different challenge. I couldn't really grasp how to make what was on the paper materialize on the breadboard, so I did some more reading at home that really helped give me a better idea of what I was facing. After getting over that initial intimidation I had no problem getting started, and even though I had some problems at first I was able to keep working through and eventually get it. Having that light start blinking right at the end of class was pretty rewarding.

Suggestions/What I would change:

I thought it was really cool that Dr. Thomas came down to check out our projects. I think it was a good idea and it might make sense to do this for some of the other projects if any other faculty want to see what we have worked on.

Week 4 thoughts

What got me excited:

My pool game is moving along slowly but surely. It really sounds like such a simple project, but there are so many things interacting that the coding actually is getting pretty complex. I am trying to stick to the fundamentals for now and get the foundation working before I keep building it up. Right now I think that I have all of the basic functions figured out of how to get two balls to interact with each other, the wall, the cue, etc. Now its just a matter of adding on to this so that a full set of balls can do this at once. Hopefully now that the basis is down the rest of the project shouldn't get too complicated.

What I learned:

While its nice to concentrate on one thing at a time, I think I need to remember that there is more than one thing going on at once. I was getting pretty into developing my pool project but I wish I had taken some time out of that to work with the circuits at some point in the past two weeks. At least my pool project is moving along well and hopefully I'll be able to jump right into the sensor and circuit stuff once I'm done with that. I'm going to make sure I read all of the handouts on the web so I'm ready to go right away with a good idea of what I need to do.

What I would change:

We were on our own this week being pretty independent with our work without class meetings, so I don't really have any suggestions for things that should change. I'm excited to keep plugging away with the pool project for next weeks presentation, and then to switch gears and start working with sensors.

Week three thoughts

So its week three already and we are continuing to move right along.

What I learned this week:

Other people are a very valuable resource. After our presentations of our projects I spent some time looking at other peoples programs, especially the code they used to create what they did. I also used the scratch website forums and project gallery to look up some things I did not quite understand. It was very interesting to see the different ways that people approached their programming. For example I struggled with the use of numerous variables in order to control the program and have the sprites do different tasks. After looking at some other peoples programs I learned how to use the broadcast command to have certain functions performed. While what I was doing worked, it wasn't the most efficient way, and so by sharing with other people I was able to learn something new.

What got me excited:

I am pretty pumped that we got our first sensor assignment this week. I have never built something like that before, so I think it is going to be a good challenge for me and I'm excited to get started. Reading the first two chapters of the book much of the material is a review from physics classes I have taken, so I am glad I have a foundation I will be able to work off. I am sure the process of building a sensor will start slowly for me as I try to figure out something new, but I'm ready to give it my best shot.

What could change:

I really liked how the presentation day went and that we got to show our projects to the class. It was fun to see everyones work. I think it would be cool if we voted on prizes for our projects-things like best overall, most fun, best glitch, etc. Winners could get a candy bar or something. Other than that I think that class has been going great so far.

2nd week thoughts

So after another full week of class and our first project completed I think I'm getting a better idea of what this course will be like.

What I learned this week:

-Programming is only as difficult as you make it. Working with scratch was very easy and the program generally makes it very simple to accomplish things. However at the same time this can also make things difficult because you have to be able to figure out how to achieve what you want with only a basic set of code. As I went about creating my program I continually hit obstacles where it took me a while to figure out how exactly what approach to take in order to accomplish what I wanted. Obviously there are several different ways of coding to make the same thing happen, but I thought it was fun problem solving to figure out what would work best with my program. I also thought it was interesting that I spent much more time debugging than actually writing the program. It was fun to challenge myself to keep improving the program throughout the writing process.

What excited me about this weeks activities:

-Getting our second scratch assignment. I was very happy with how my first project ended up as I put a lot of time into to make sure it ran smoothly. I am pumped to work on the second project and see what types of more advanced things I can incorporate. I like the challenge of programming because really you have the freedom to create anything you want to as long as you put in the effort to do it.

What would I suggest to change:

-I think some people might say that they would have liked more time to complete the first scratch project, however I think the amount of time we had was good because it forced us to learn how to prioritize with programming and establish a base for the program before we start adding things. At the beginning of the project I had tons of grand ideas about things I wanted to include in the program, but with the time constraint I was forced to stick to what was more realistic and then later add things after I had the foundation of the program completed.

1st week thoughts

So starting off this week I was very pleased with the outlook of class for the year. Here's some thoughts so far:

What have I learned this week:

I've realized that for me programming is really a combination of two things: art and science. Working on my scratch program so far there have been times when I've been challenged creatively to develop some cool ideas. On the other hand, I have also hit some points so far where I know exactly what I would like the program to accomplish but have to solve problems on the programming side to make it succeed. So far working on the scratch program definitely has me using "both sides" of my brain, which definitely has me interested for what will be coming for the rest of the semester.

What excited me about this weeks activities:

I definitely got excited about class as it has become clear we will be working very independently to develop new skills and understanding. I think this class will be a very refreshing change from other lecture-based classes I have. This class is definitely one where what I get out of it depends mostly on what I put in, so I pretty pumped to challenge myself in this course. I think that this class could be very useful for me in the future so I'm excited to learn as much as I can.

What would I suggest to change:

As of right now it is difficult for me to think of any changes that this class could benefit from. Right away we were thrown right into the material to experiment with things for ourselves, but I think that so far that has worked really well and has made me very motivated to put in the effort required to learn the material. As the semester progresses I hope that I still have this enthusiasm for what we are working on.