This is a journal entry written from the perspective of a British general who has experienced the American Revolution.
The “American War of Independence”
— Humanities —
The Revolutionary War for INDEPENDENCE
— Humanities —
The American Revolution war(1775-1783), was fought between the American colonists and the British. When the British took control after the 7-year war, they suppressed numerous acts that required taxes on the colonists. The conflict between the Americans and the British began to worsen as there were vehement protests after every act was established. The strong demand for money to pay off the expensive wars previously led to the discontent of American colonists. The three main causes of the revolution were the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, and the Coercive Acts, which continuously imposed taxes on the colonists. The Battle started in 1775, with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and ended with the Treaty of Paris, 1783 September 3.
Video:
Photo citations:
Wallace, Willard M.. “American Revolution”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Revolution. Accessed 29 March 2024.
Custom App Design Project
— Uncategorized —
I am making an app for a client. Below is my process journal for this experience. Follow along and see how I create it.
Video of Working App:
Google——The most used search engine in the world initiated from a school project?
— Humanities —
“Google It”
Google, the world’s most-used search engine that processes over 3.5 billion online search requests per day, has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. All we see now is how Google is successful and influential, but not the arduous course of its founders’ early stages of developing it. The nonfiction book, “Google It” written by Anna Crowley Redding, explores the true history of Google transforming from a school project to the most popular search engine. Google’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, dropped out of Stanford while getting their graduate degrees to proceed with their journey of developing the company. The moment Larry and Sergey first met during the summer of 1995, they started arguing about “anything and everything”, which made their first meeting a disaster. “The only thing the two agreed on was their opinion of the other: In a word? Obnoxious.” What brought them together was the common interests they had and a school assignment in which they would team up months after their first meeting that changed their lives——and ours. At first, they created what used to be known as “BackRub” (not Google), which suddenly became viral around their campus. Larry and Sergey started with hardly any resources, turning the company from only 2 people to a global technology company with more than 174,000 employees. What supported Larry and Sergey was their dreams of organizing all the information in the world.
Notebook pages:
Lesson 3: Tracking Complexity
In this notebook page, I focused on using evidence from the book to identify the theme of the first 100 pages (part 1). During the first part of the book, Larry and Sergey are facing the major issue of not having sufficient resources for the continuously developing company, because of the massive demand for electricity, server space, and internet connection. The quotes mentioned on pages 42 and 21(on the post-it notes) adequately reflect the central idea: Larry and Sergey overcame the roadblocks of having insufficient resources and no support during their entrepreneurial period.
The coincidence that no research companies (during that time) accepted the deal of buying “BackRub” (the earlier version of Google) for $1 million, led Larry and Sergey to drop out of Stanford and continue their business. It seemed like bad news for Larry and Sergey when none of the big companies accepted their deal, but it motivated them to work harder as the companies (AltaVista, Excite, Yahoo) made it clear that research wasn’t important for the development of their company. This eventually led to the theme statement: Setbacks may lead us to greater success.
Lesson 4: Reading Strategies for Information + Narrative Texts
On this page, I mainly focused on defining the central ideas in parts of the book. I’ve extracted supporting details from the book to explain the central idea and why it is important. One of the social issues mentioned in this book is anti-Semitism, which brought trouble to Sergey’s family during their time in Russia (they later moved to the U.S.). However, this experience later not only shaped Sergey’s views but also the company’s.
Larry and Sergey’s innovative mindset prompted them to continue developing more and more features to satisfy the users’ needs. This led their company to great success because they are making great progress even though they are the most successful search engine, which prevents them from getting surpassed by Google’s competitors. As mentioned in the book, “If the company stops improving for a year, it will soon be forgotten by the world.”
A few examples of the features Google developed (there are lots more):
Lesson 7: Making Connections
In this lesson, I focused on thinking about how parts from “Google It” connect with the big ideas that appear repeatedly throughout the book. For example, one of the topics I identified, innovation, is a keyword that arises throughout the book, and the author frequently reminds the reader that innovation is what led to the accomplishments Google made.
Lesson 8: Descriptive passages
In this page, I found the descriptions of two contrasting environments (Google’s “old” and “new” headquarters). The two different descriptions of the headquarters indicate the progress Google has made from a school project to a global company. The initial headquarters in Susan’s garage (YouTube’s CEO) is the first office that Larry and Sergey had for Google. As “Old, stained turquoise shag carpet” was used to describe some of the furniture in the garage, it made a significant contrast with “three-million-square-foot” and “the Googleplex has pianos, a rock-climbing wall and it’s all free.” These descriptions reflect the arduous and tough environment Larry and Sergey started with, and the comfortable/encouraging environment they established for their employees.
Lesson 9: Cause and Effect
In this page, I focused on the different features Google developed for its users. I came up with the conclusion that the cause of developing these features is the inconvenience people are facing in real life, and Google’s mission of “making the user’s lives better”. However, the cause of coming up with that mission relates back to the topic: innovation. Innovation is what started Google, kept Larry and Sergey to continue developing Google, and made the company keep on finding solutions to the issues people are having. I made two diagrams for two of Google’s features, Google Maps and Google Shopping. The causes and effects all have connections with each other, as one cause could lead to multiple effects, a certain effect could have multiple causes, or one cause/effect could lead to another, creating “domino” effects (on page 1 of cause and effects).
Conclusion:
“Google It” narrates the process of Google transforming from a small school project to a globalized company, and illustrates the issues and roadblocks Larry and Sergey have come across while pursuing their careers. This book contains a very comprehensive account of Google’s history, therefore I recommend it to everyone interested in learning how two graduate students from Stanford established one of the most influential companies in the world.
Humanist or not?
— Humanities —
Blue Simple Effective Communication Infographic Sophie Wang [STUDENT]
The Renaissance is a period ranging from the 14th to the 15th century, during which people’s thoughts shifted dramatically in society. This infographic shows the key elements of humanism, the belief that people held during the Renaissance period. As shown, humanists uphold the importance of individualism, secularism, classical influence, education, and new discoveries/inventions. I strongly agree with the belief of individualism as I think it’s crucial to not judge a person by their class or background, what they achieve and accomplish should be prioritized. To make new inventions, quality education, and an open mind are important to success, therefore I go for the ideas of emphasizing education and encouraging new discoveries. I also agree with secularism, as I think the separation of religion and politics is a sensible decision. Individuals should be rational and live for their own sake, not because of some religious beliefs or their afterlife. Humanism is the “ancient and new” way of thinking as it can apply to our thinking today, the elements listed above are open-minded, innovative, and beneficial for our ideology as an individual.
“To kill, or not to kill.”
— Humanities —
This Found poem was created with the words of Hernando Tellez in the short story, “Lather and Nothing Else” In the text, Hernando Tellez creates a complex moral situation when Torres, the captain, positions himself in an extremely easy place for the protagonist (narrator) to kill him. The protagonist and antagonist are on opposing sides of the civil war in Columbia, where the protagonist is a secret rebel as a barber, and the antagonist is the executioner on the government’s side.
The first conflict in the story was person to person at the exposition of the story, when “He didn’t greet anyone when he came in,” starts to build tension, as the barber is a secret rebel, and faces his enemy in his shop. The protagonist is then left to a situation where he could easily kill his enemy, and is entangled whether to kill Torres with his razor or not. This leads directly to the second conflict, the internal conflict inside the barber. Torres is a man who killed many people on the protagonist’s side, and the barber killing him seems unsurprising, however, the protagonist faces another conflict, person to society. According to the text, “No one deserves to be the sacrifice that turns other people into murderers… until the world is a sea of blood.” This shows how the barber realizes that if he kills the captain, someone from the government will come and kill him, and then the rebels will start fighting against the government. In my Found poem, the phrase “Murder or Hero?” reflects on this part, whether the action of killing the military captain is a heroic act, or the murderer of many other people. Therefore, if he killed the captain, he would become the murderer of many other people, as they began to take revenge on each other (the government and the rebels).
My found poem is split into four sections, where the first section mentions the protagonist and antagonist, and the identity of the protagonist as a secret revolutionary. The second section is mainly about the barber picturing the scene of himself murdering Torres in his thoughts. The third section is about the debate inside the barber (monolog), whether to kill Torres or not. His final decision was to be a barber, and take the job of shaving the military captain honorably, by lather and nothing else. The final section is where Torres pays the barber for his services, this is where the author creates a complex moral situation with the final twist in the last paragraph, which increases the complexity of the situation, when it turns out that the captain knew all along that the barber was a secret revolutionary, and he walked into the barber shop knowing there was a chance that he would never walk out.
Sewable Electronics Blog
— Uncategorized —
For the Bookmark/Pin/Wristcuff project, I made three plans, a bookmark with a book on the top, a bookmark with a heart on the top, and a pin with a flower in the middle. At first, I only planned for one LED on my projects, but then I adjusted to 3 LEDs for every project. I chose a bookmark to make because I thought it was the most helpful thing to make, as I like to read paper books. I included a little book decoration on top because I thought it was the most relevant symbol that relates to a book. I made this design for myself, as a Christmas present, I think the bookmark will encourage me to read more in 2023. I chose this bookmark design, because the decoration is my favorite, even though it is just a simple bookmark, it is the most useful to me. I did not choose the other bookmark, simply because I liked this design better. I did not change anything from my original plan, because I thought it was already good enough for my final product. I thought of putting the conductive thread on the back of the bookmark, like doing a run-on stitch on the back side of the bookmark, but I was not sure if it would work, so I did not take the risk. I was most proud of my decoration part, because the precise measurements that I made, the stitches I used, and how I attached the felts to the bookmark felt great. I stitched my stitches to the middle of the white felt (the paper for the book) so that it can form a 3-D book.
During the sewable electronics unit, I learned how to sew with conductive thread (which is different from normal nonconductive threads), the way to tieing on and tieing off, how to do a backstitch, and securing the battery holder. Along with the stitches, I learned how to use the EPX, using the blocks to code how the LEDs work for the final project. I think my planning for the positive and negative sides and matching them to the correct outputs on the EPX needs improvement (final project). Some areas I need to improve are improving my skills in hiding the conductive thread that is being stitched on the felt (Bookmark/Pin/Wristcuff project). The project I planned for the EPX was not very reasonable with the positive and negative sides for the LEDS, I planned for too little space between the positive and negative pathways, which can lead to the LEDs not working, and not enough space to contain all the LEDs because the conductive threads blocked the LED’s original location.
- What were some challenging areas and how did you work through them?
EPX project: Some challenging areas for me were planning before my project, but I worked through them with the help of teachers and classmates.
Bookmark/Pin/Wristcuff project: Some challenging areas for me were the sewing part since it was my first time doing a project with sewing the battery holder and LEDs on, and sewing the positive and negative sides.
What tips, tricks, and advice would you give to next semester’s new students? Please, don’t mention online learning.
I would advise the new students to plan well before they make their project and make the tiniest adjustments from their plan as possible, because many mistakes come from not following your plan in some places and following in other places, for example mixing up the positive and negative sides, getting on the wrong sides of the LEDs, etc.
What would you have liked me to change about the course and how it ran to make it better? Also, let me know what worked well so I don’t change that bit.
I liked how we learned about the circus and LEDs in a gradually increasing difficulty way, and introduced soldering, e-textiles, EPX, and code step by step, so it is easy for a beginner to follow, and learn not too challenging. I really liked how the course was designed, and I enjoyed learning it by the way it is!
My Card Board Arcade Game.
— Uncategorized —
My biggest obstacle was finding the right idea for the card board arcade, and building the basic structure for my card board game.
If I did this game again, one thing I would do it differently is to change the bottles to the card board sticks, so it is all a card board arcade game.
One concern that was shared with me was, the people that came and played our game was not that many.
Welcome to Your New Blog!
When you blog you create posts and posts are categorised according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you. If you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:
- An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category.
- Body – this is where you share your learning. This can include text, images, embedded videos from Dragons’ Tube or elsewhere. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging? Do they want to keep reading?
- Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner
Click on the images below to learn more about blogging:
