The 6th graders have been working hard on learning the program Scratch, developed by MIT Media Lab. This is their first classroom experience with programming, and many of them are taking off and really enjoying it! So far, they have completed two of the four sets of challenges, and by the end of the unit, they will be able to use the program to create video games, animations and more!

7th grade has been working to develop their skills with spreadsheets, and are currently making their own “battleship” game with Microsoft Excel. This week we worked on using the “if” function with numbers and text. Pretty soon, we’ll be able to match up and play our games.

8th Grade has taken a little bit of a hiatus from the tech lab since they snowshoe on their day of tech class, but pretty soon we will be working to develop a survey for the entire school on uses of different technologies both in and out of the classroom. They started by thinking about how they effectively use technology at school and the different ways teachers at Billings use tech in the classroom to enhance learning.

Members of the classes included these products in a list of what Apple is known for:

• iPad
• iPod Classic/Touch/Nano/Mini/Shuffle
• iPhone
• Macbook Pro/Air
• iMac
• Pixar
• iTunes
• App Store

We researched different Apple products, including the original Macintosh from 1984, the first iMac, the Apple II series, and discovered a lesser known Apple product the Bandai Pippin. We also played around on the way back machine and looked at what apple.com looked like in 1998!

7^th graders worked in groups to define technology terms in their own words. Definitions included “a network of information that most computers can access” and “the giant digital information superhighway” for Internet; and “a program that lets you connect to the Internet” with examples of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox for Web Browser. Other terms we defined included WWW/Web, Cloud, Web Address/URL, Program, Search Engine and Address bar.

6^th grade has been spending time reviewing Internet use expectations and understanding passwords. In what has become a Billings tradition, 6^th grade heard the story of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington and his experience when many of his online accounts were hacked as a result of poor password choice.  The class worked together to come up with different passwords based on everyday words. Kangaroo became k@N6aro0, computer became c0Mpu+3r and technology became T3cHn0\o6Y.  We decided that good passwords include lower and UPPER case letters, numbers and symbols.

8^th graders were introduced to the Hurt Square and were presented with various scenarios to rank on the square. We decided that sometimes actions online are less hurtful and more annoying, but they still have an impact in our lives.

• View manipulation
  • Zoom
  • Zoom to extent
  • Pan
  • Orbit
• Draw
  • Line
  • Rectangle
  • Circle
  • Arc
  • Erase
  • Paint
• Manipulate
  • Push/Pull
  • Move
  • Rotate
  • Offset
• Advanced features
  • Section Plane
  • Scale
  • Keyboard Shortcuts

There were entries by students from Eton, Whitman, McClure, Vista, Woodinville Monessori and Catlin Gabel. Billings students represented the interactive category, with websites and games. Ben and Cooper entered their Battle of Fredricksburg film, which was well received.

We were honored to be joined on our journey by Noah, a Billings alum who helped found our DigiArts program and one of the organizers of the first Maker Faire trip that we took 2 years ago. Thank you Noah!

The Pacific Science Center and Science Fiction Museum worked together to create an exhibit that looks at the science and technology behind Star Wars and connections between the film series’ science fiction and real-world robotics. Students got to design their own mag-lev trains and explored similarities between the programming in R2-D2 and a robotic vacuum cleaner.

1. Convince your robot to stay within a path outlined by masking tape against a black floor. The path weaves around the classroom. So far, students have figured out how to have their robots stop at the tape and change direction, but no solutions yet on how to the the robot to decide which way to turn.
2. Create a whisper bot, a robot that will only move when it is quiet in the room. If noise reaches a certain threshold, the robot will stop until it is quiet again. As an added challenge, if the robot receives an extremely loud noice (“STOP!”) then it will cancel it’s program and remain stopped forever.
3. Send your robot directly at a wall and have it stop without bumping into anything and then react using sound or movement.

Facebook is way too addictive. I have it because I’m becoming more of a social person and I enjoy talking to my friends.

-8th grade student

Someone friended my girlfriend and said mean things about me so she broke up with me.

-8th grade student

Social networks are a big part of my social life and have helped me in a lot of ways.

-8th grade student

I’ve thought about deleting my Facebook account – depending on my mood and what’s happened both on my account and in my life.

-8th grade student

I’m a different person on the internet than I am in real life.

-8th grade student

Two years ago I spent over 30 hours a week on electronics, and now I only spend about 20.

-8th grade student

I use a fake identity and then reveal another fake Identity to my close online friends as an extra measure.

-8th grade student

People are way too obsessed with Facebook!!!!

-8th grade student

I don’t want stalkers to look at my photos an videos and other information I have.

-7th grade student

I do say things in chat that I wouldn’t say otherwise.

-7th grade student

I am very careful online, and check and edit settings.

-7th grade student

I did “delete” my facebook once. But when I wanted to access it again, everything was there. So you can’t really delete it.

-7th grade student

I don’t usually watch tv.

-7th grade student

Facebook is quite pointless, and I don’t see what is so interesting about it.

-7th grade student

I generally think games alter teens’ personalities, but not a excessive amount.

-7th grade student

I spend many hours on the tv and computer a week.

-6th grade student

I am in denial about video games and how they affect your brain.

-6th grade student

I don’t use online stuff and do no social networking.

-6th grade student

COMPUTERS RULE!!!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!!! COMPUTERS RULE!!!

-6th grade student

1. Make your robot climb an inclined plane and then traverse a table top, stopping within 1.5 cm of the far edge. Students were encouraged to succeed in this challenge using 3 different variables: wheel rotations, time and distance.
2. Send your robot at least 10 feet away from its point of origin and then return to within a 6cm radius of the starting location.
3. Program your robot to travel in a figure 8.

To learn more about this year’s Design Week, check out the daily postings on our main website. If you are logged in as a school community member, you’ll have access to each day’s complete photo albums from the right sidebar.

Lesson 1: Collin led an intro to the NXT programming environment and simple move commands. Super cool!

The conversation was wide-ranging…some of the topics discussed:

• what is the history of AT&T?
• how would the purchase of T-Mobile help AT&T provide service to it’s users?
• how would T-Mobile’s customers experience the change?
• how do cell phone companies marketing departments claim colors to represent their company?
• why does the US have more than one cell phone technology (CDMA, GSM, etc)?
• what is a monopoly?
• why is competition important for the US?
• what is the electromagnetic spectrum?