Loads and Forces

Hi again everyone!!! Today I will be talking about meows! 

me·ow

mēˈou/

noun

1. 1.

   the characteristic crying sound of a cat.

verb

1.

(of a cat) make a characteristic crying sound.

synonyms:

mew, mewl, cry More

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No! Just kidding!!!! I will be talking about forces and loads. If you don't know what I mean by that, read the following:

Here are some examples of forces:

1. Squeezing:  Compression - a pressing force that squeezes materials together.
2. Stretching:  Tension- a force that stretches a material apart.
3. Bending: Buckle- the force makes one side of the material squeezes together and the other stretches apart
4. Sliding:  Shear - a force that causes part of the material to slide past one another in opposite directions.
5. Twisting:  Torsion - an action that twists a material

Loads are what they sound like, loads. Whether it is someone sitting on a chair (live load) or the actually chair itself (dead load). In this post, I will be focusing on loads around my house and the forces that are taking place on them. Well, here goes…

Not my actual table.

An example would be the dinner table. The live loads on it would be anything set on top, like forks, spoons, and knives…, any type of food or dish/plate/cup, or just anything we put on to it like books , paper , CDs , or computers. The dead load would be the table itself, including the wood and glue used to make it. 

The force taking place is mostly compression from gravity and the weigh of all the things on it.

An interesting thing is, I could be a dead load and a live load. For example, my hair is a dead load to me. It is part of me and is always connected to me (unless I shave of course). The things that I am wearing, like my watch and my clothes, are a live load. 

Loads and forces are everywhere!!! The chair you are currently sitting on, the screen that you are looking at!!! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS POST!!! SEE YOU SOON!!

image credits: Table from http://discoversouthwestnm.com/wood-dining/33/reclaimed-wood-dining-tables/

MYP1 Math Evidence of Learning

Le Jardin Academy's Middle School Math class taught by Mrs. King

Current Unit Question: Why is it important to have a common mathmatical language?

Significant Concept: In order to communicate mathematical ideas effectively there needs to be a common understanding of symbols and rules.

Evidence:
In this unit, we chose a number system and researched about it. Amelia and I chose the Binary system. It was very fun and surprisingly simple to understand. This unit, was an especially interesting unit, were we learned about all different math systems. Some examples were:

• Roman Numerals
• Mayan
• Japanese and Chinese
• Indian/Arabic
• and Egyptian

Also, "Did you know that the base of our number system comes from India/Arabic?" That means that our system originated from the Indian number system. 

I think that it is important to have a commom mathmatical language so that we can all understand eachother! I mean, if we just had random symbols that only a few people understood, nothing would go right and the mathmatical world would be all messed up! This is also what could happen if we didn't have languages that people understand. No one would be able to communicate! Just like languages, there are many different number systems, like I said before. Different places in the world have different corresponding systems that everyone in that location understand. It is very important to have a common number system just like it's important to have a common language!

Photo Credits:
Roman Numeral 2 comes from: http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/roman-numeral.html

Unit 1: Bloggers of the World Unite!

Design Technology
Unit Question: How can sharing our ideas online (in a responsible and safe manner) have a positive effect on our community?
Significant Concept: Information can be created to better connect with an audience.



Evidence:
I learned that creating a blog helps put your thoughts and ideas out to the world but also having fun with and expressing creativity to make your readers interested. I learned how to use and navigate Blogger and I learned how fun it can be to have a blog.
I also learned the Design Cycle;

Investigate
Design
Plan
Create
Evaluate
Attitudes in Technology

I learned so many other things but it would take to long to write. You know, those sort of things that you write down on paper, but don't memorize by heart? 
In this unit, I learned so much and am eager to learn more. We did many fun and educational activities, and when I look back on them, I begin to realize how much I enjoyed them all. I wonder what the next unit will be about…

I think that creating a blog helps people put their thoughts out in the world and express their creativity, personality, and originality. The blog creator can post thoughts and ideas out there that can influence people who read it. It may cause those readers to do something kind and beneficial to the environment, the world, or people in need.  Also, the blogger can write something inspiring that they might read later and be influenced by what they wrote. I will use my knowledge about blogs in a positive way by posting interesting helpful, and creative ideas and stories on my blog. This could affect  readers in a positive way and cause them to do something that is beneficial to the environment, people, or the world we live in.

Image Credits:

Computer from:
http://intergratedtechnology.com/oceans-action-plan-ocean-science-and-technology-2.html/science-and-technology-picturesoceans-action-plan-ocean-science-and-technology-bxbauc

Reflection Time!

Welcome back readers! It's nice to see you here!-

:)

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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST MIGHT CONTAIN BORING, tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitive, unrelieved, unvaried, unimaginative, uneventful; characterless, featureless, colorless, lifeless, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating; unreadable, unwatchable; jejune, flat, bland, dry, stale, tired, banal, lackluster, stodgy, vapid, monochrome, dreary, humdrum, mundane; mind-numbing, wearisome, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating; informal deadly, ho-hum, dullsville, dull as dishwater, and plain-vanilla CONTENT. JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

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For me, it is  to reflect. What will I reflect about? Well, you'll see...

It is important for me to reflect and evaluate my blog (previous posts, design, colors ect...). This helps me see what things I can improve on, what things I am doing well, what things I edited or changed and more! I can also tell what went well, by examining my blog with a different point of view and a critical eye or sifting through the comments, seeing what readers like and what they don't. That is why, you dear reader, should (actually you are highly advised, majorly suggest, desperately recommended, immensely pleaded) comment. 

Anyway...

I better get to the meaty, juicy, succulent, delicious content of this post or, well,  is running out. If I keep on babbling on and on then this will take centuries to write! 

I feel that the final product of my blog is a great success! The colors, layout, and gadgets add a nice touch to my blog! I am very proud about my blog outcome and I think it is a very positive design! Also, I hope that you like it too. My future posts will be more colorful, with different fonts (with bold, underline, or italic) on different paragraphs! This makes the posts more readable because, I am sure that you readers don't read the whole posts, just tidbits and funny small parts for the same reason I don't read my posts after I finish them . 

I am most proud of my organization and my nice use of color. I think that I have nice organization that makes readers have an easier time to read. One of my goals is to create posts that are interesting and easy to read so reader's comments are more relevant and the readers understand what I am trying to say better. But, I am most proud of my fantastic use of color. The color makes the blog more eye catching and interesting. It brings the reader in and makes them want to read my posts. (Which, by the way, I work very hard on writing) I encourage you, dear reader, to read my posts. I believe that use of color is very important for a blog. Like I said before, it makes the blog more interesting and easier to read. 

These are my design specifications that I think my blog should meet:
~Interesting content
~Icons/gadgets/widgets
~Links
~Videos/photos
~Organization

I think my blog meets most of these criteria. It has pretty interesting content and has a good amount of photos, except I think I need to add more. It is also very important to me to site the photos that I use. I believe that I have a good use of gadgets and widgets too. One of the things I need to work on is links. I need to add more links to my posts. Links provide the reader with great websites that I recommend and websites that are similar to my blog. Organization, like I said previously, is something that I am doing well. I think my blog is well organized and easy to navigate. If you have any recommendations on how my blog could be better, please tell me via a comment! 

I think that I should work on making my blog posts shorter. If I expect readers of my blog to read the posts, I should make it easier for them and create shorter posts but with the same amount of information, just summarized. Also, at the bottom of my blog, I have a few gadgets that seem out of place. Some of those gadgets include, a Harry Potter spell gadget, a poll (which is hard to find if you didn't know it was there), a time gadget, a real Earth and Moon phase gadget that doesn't seem to work, and numerous other gadgets that don't work. I really need to change those gadgets. Maybe delete them or replace them with others, I am not really sure yet. 

I think I can grow my blog by adding informational, moving, and interesting posts that leave readers thinking and taking action to do something beneficial and good to the environment. An example of this would be to inform people about things I think are important, like not littering, and not abusing animals. I can use this blog for a good purpose and I believe I can start soon, maybe even now! 

I think, during this unit in Design Tech class, a lot of behaviors helped me. For one, I did most of my homework on the day it was assigned. I think this helped me because I completed the assignments usually right after school when I had ideas still fresh in my mind. Also, I had more time to do other things so that homework was a balance with fun. Doing my homework prevented me from becoming stressed out, but, since our school schedule has tech so close together, sometimes, it was hard to complete my homework and I ended up needing to do it in class. I need to work on checking my planner to make sure what homework I have because sometimes, I forget what I need to complete and what is soon due. 

I think I was  reflective during this unit. I think I was reflective because I reflected on what I did well and what I would work on during this unit. It really helped me because sometimes I had no idea that I was doing something wrong or something exactly right! I was also a thinker when I was blogging, reflecting, even doing my homework. When reflecting, I thought deeply about what I could change and looked at my blog with a different point of view to see what others might think of it. This is one of my favorite methods of reflecting and looking back on my work. 

In my opinion, blogs are important if you use it in the right way. The blogger can share their thoughts in a safe way that can benefit the readers. They can put their thoughts out in the world and express their creativity, personality, and originality through their blog. The blog creator can post thoughts and ideas out there that can influence people who read it. The blog post might be very moving and cause the reader to continuously think about the post. It may then cause the reader to do something kind and beneficial to the environment, the world, or people in need.  

Also, the blogger can write something inspiring that they might read later, be influenced by what they wrote, and learn something about themselves. My goal is to use my creativity and knowledge about blogs in a positive way by posting interesting helpful, and creative ideas and stories on my blog. This could affect  readers in a positive way and cause them to do something that is beneficial to the environment, people, or the world we live in.

Image credits:

http://www.cutestpaw.com/images/the-thinker-2/

http://hypervocal.com/culture/2012/25-cats-helping-with-your-homework/

http://depositphotos.com/20332497/stock-photo-Evaluation-Report-Card-Clipboard-Assessment-Grades.html

A screenshot taken by Clara

                      

• Synonyms for boring (at the top of this post) comes from the built in computer dictionary (on macs)

My Blog Design

Nice to see you again readers! I am sorry that I haven’t been posting for a while but here is an interesting post to throw at you and keep you entertained. In class, I created four blog template sketches of what I might want my blog to look like, layout, color, title, and all. If you didn’t know, this blog is currently named, ‘Clara’s Blog’ and I don’t intend it to stay that way. My aim is to make my blog interesting and eye catching! They all include gadgets. posts, titles, and pictures. Here is the first one.

It’s called the “Cat’s Meow.” If you didn’t notice, I like cats. In fact, I love them, but I also like dogs and all other animals including squirrels and wolves. (Emeline…) My tabs include, Home, Cats, Books, School, Stories, and Other. Home, just contains most of my regular posts, also some gadgets, and photos. The cat tab has posts about cats and pictures of some of my cats. The book post is also pretty self explanatory. It involves posts about books I’ve read, books I like and don’t like, and other books information like opinions, polls about books, and a few gadgets about books if I can find any. At school, I am in a club called creative writing. I love to write and am pretty creative, but my stories can get super random. The stories tab will have some stories that I created, plus poems and other writing. It will also have quotes of the day and the word of the day gadgets. The ‘other’ tab will include things like an about-me page and more pages. The “Cat’s Meow” will be a colorful, interesting, and easy-to-read blog the makes readers become hooked. Some of the gadgets on the homepage will include ‘search this blog’, ‘archives’, ‘follow by email’, ‘translate’, ‘blog-stats’, and other gadgets that will help the reader navigate my blog.

I have three more sketches. My second one (left) is called ‘Candy for Clara’. The tab labeled ‘The Candy Shop’ is basically the home tab. It has important and regular posts, pictures, and gadgets on that tab. And like ‘The Cat’s Meow’ the Cat, School, and Book tab include the same thing, posts, pictures, and gadgets (polls) about cats, school, and books. ‘More’ is just a place where the other posts and tabs go like ‘about me’ and other things. This sketch has a white background, but pretty eye popping pink text-box that will catch the reader’s eye. It didn’t come out very well in the scan but it looks better in real life. I also have a cat avatar on the left side of my banner. This design has less eye-catching colors which creates a more soothing look so that readers can read a lot of posts without their eyes starting to hurt. But it just has enough color to make it look interesting and inviting.  

Here is the third blog design I created. It’s title is ‘Clone Corp’. This is an example of a totally off-topic and random post. In the post I wrote, I said that I work at a company called Clone Corporation. A made-up company that makes clones and comes out with new generations. That, obviously, is not true and might throw the readers off. It is so random and clearly false that most readers might actually avoid my blog because of the false information and crazy posts. Therefore, I am probably not going to use it for my real blog. But, some things I really like about this design is the dark brown background. It makes the text box where the blog post is written in stand out. Also, what I like about this sketch is all of the gadgets. In my blog, I will definitely make sure to add a link gadget, ‘word of the day’, ‘what’s in season?’ (I think it is a pretty cool gadget) and others. Also, the layout of this design is my favorite because the gadgets not only stretch down either side, but they also go along the bottom. The tabs that I drew also add a nice touch, looking like a rolled up scroll. The avatars on the banners is another good idea. I will make sure to add avatars on my blog as well.

ππ And, last but not least… (definitely not least!) Pie et Pi! ππ

This blog sketch is called ‘Pie et Pi’. Both pie’s referring to the number, pi and the pastry, and the word ‘et’ meaning ‘and’ in French. The number, just incase you didn’t know is a never endless number. If you are wondering what exactly this number is, here is a direct paragraph from Wikipedia.

The number π is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and is approximately equal to 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes romanized as "pi" (/paɪ/).

You can click on the word ‘Wikipedia’ above to learn more. I can recite a whole lot of pi, (actually not that much) and love to memorize more. This is what I know:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781. If you want to memorize some of pi, you can go onto piday.org. But anyway, this design has a few of my favorite and most important (in my opinion) gadgets including, ‘translate’, ‘follow by email’, ‘search this blog’, ‘Word of the day’, ‘Kelly the virtual cat’, (or some virtual animal like that) and more. I also, want to include a dessert gadget if there is one. This blog sketch, has pretty much the same tabs as all of my designs. Home, School, Books, Cats, Stories, About Me, and Other. I like this design because, in my opinion, it is the most neat and organized sketch I made. I also think that the design of the textbox looks nice, it looks like it is taped on with strips of tape. Also, the URL in the box above, is basically pi, all of the numbers I could fit in with the word pi and a dash (-) before it. I also, if I choose this template, want to have a pie and pi background. I am basically aiming for a background with both, the symbol of pi (π) and a small doodle of the pastry (pie). Up, in the top right corner of my banner, I have a cat avatar. Actually, I don’t think it is possible to have an avatar as a cat, but if it is, I will definitely have one. If I do use this design, I want the words in the title to have a theme like in the drawing. In the word pie, I want the dot in the i to look like a cherry and the letters to be red and brownish, like a cherry pie.The ‘et’ can be blackish or grey and the pi can be a green color.

My final decision is hard to make. My aim is to combine all of my designs into one. For example, I like that title, The Cat's Meow and Pi et Pie. I will choose one of those two for my final title. Also, I think that in the Clone Corp sketch, the dark brown background with the light white background in front looks really nice! It certainly stands out and is really eye-catching! I intend to use that dark background in my final blog. There are pros and cons of each blog sketch I created. Here are my final decisions:

Title of Blog: The Cat's Meow or Pie et Pi, now officially The Cat's Meow
Gadgets/widgets: Search this Blog, Follow by Email, Archives, Visitor number, Virtual pet, Poll, Word of the day, Translate, What's in Season?, Links, Quote of the day, and more. If you have in recommendations, let me know.
Colors: Dark brown (maybe woodgrain) background, white text box, and colorful titles. Pages will be different colors and a variety of patterns if I am able to do that. Now, the background is officially a red and orange fall leaf pattern. If you think that it is too distracting, please comment.
Design/Theme: Cats, pie/pi, and writing and reading. Mostly cats and pi/pie though.
Pages: Home, School, Books, Pi/pie, Cats, Stories, and About Me/ Profile. Anything else? Please comment.
Banner: Title and Avatar of a cat if I can. If you can't make cat avatars than I will create an avatar that looks somewhat like me.
URL: Depending on the title of my final blog. If it turns out to be The Cat's Meow, than I will have
http://www.thecatsmeow-kittypi.blogspot.com. If the title turns out to be Pie et Pi, the URL will be:
http://www.pi=3.1415926&pie=pastry.blogspot.com
or maybe
http://www.pi-3.1415/or/pastry.blogspot.com

Bravo for finally reaching the end of this never-endless blog post (just like pi!)! If you read through this whole post at least, not just skipped to the bottom. I worked very hard on it but I doubt you read it all. Really, if you did, you truly are amazing! You have a long attention span! I did say it was going to be interesting but, I guess, it could be a little boring. My other posts will not be this long (well, actually, umm, maybe they will…) I hope you enjoyed my post, if you read through it. Most likely, my blog will eventually look like a cross between all of the designs! And, please, in your comment, include your opinion on what blog design I should choose. Also, if you have a gadget recommendation or something else please tell me. I look forward to seeing what you think! I hope you were entertained and look forward to my next post! May all the meowiest meows be with you! And stay tuned for my next post! If you really like this blog, you can always follow by email once I set up the gadget. See ya! Over and out!

P.S. If you select 'Other' on the poll, what is your favorite animal, please tell me exactly via a comment or, if I know you, via an email. Please add your opinion to the polls! 

Thanks for readin',

Clara, the alien-cat blogger

Welcome Fellow Cats and Earthlings!

"It's Clara the Cat! She's here! 

Meowy meows are ringing in my ears!"

Hello readers! My name is Clara. Welcome to my first blog post on my on first blog. I am excited about making a blog. Since our Design Tech Class started talking about blogs, I was yearning to create one.  

I think that creating a blog helps people put their thoughts out in the world and express their creativity, personality, and originality. The blog creator can post thoughts and ideas out there that can influence people who read it. It may cause those readers to do something kind and beneficial to the environment, the world, or people in need.  Also, the blogger can write something inspiring that they might read later and be influenced by what they wrote. I will use my knowledge about blogs in a positive way by posting interesting helpful, and creative ideas and stories on my blog. This could affect  readers in a positive way and cause them to do something that is beneficial to the environment, people, or the world we live in.

I learned this knowledge from Design Tech Class through all of the activities and projects we did. For example, we did a project where we examined blogs and wrote about them and their attractive characteristics. I learned a lot about what makes blogs inviting and interesting. We did quite a few more activities in Tech. One of them that I think made me very knowledgeable was an activity where we needed to fill out a worksheet about blogs and how to create them and make them look nice and inviting. In order to fill out the sheet we watched videos that our Tech teacher, Mr. Connors, posted on his on a page of his blog (our class blog). If you want to go to Mr. Connors' home page click here. I learned a lot about the characteristics of a blog and how to create posts and other things. I will not post inappropriate things on my blog. But, keep in mind, that some posts might be very random or silly. Sometimes people need to express their creativity and original ideas. Maybe through blog posts, maybe through other media. So, don’t be surprised if some blog posts are off topic and a little bizarre or irrelevant.

Above-My Design Tech Concept Map
Click here for a better view

Below is a picture of a concept map that I made on my Google drive, showing all of the subjects I want to include in my blog. I am going to talk about lots of different subjects.

New facts that I learn

Books

Animals and nature

Video games

School and friends

And other subjects

I think that a blogs needs to include these 5 critical aspects, or more:

My opinion is that interesting content is one of the very important facets of a blog -It gets readers hooked and interested in the blog so they keep reading. That is very important if you want your blog to be successful and read by many people. Readers don’t want to spend time sifting through useless information.

Icons or gadgets- Blogger.com allows you to add gadgets on your blog. The gadgets include polls, search this blog, games like pac-man and fish, follow by email, and tons of other options! I think those are important because they supply the reader with some information about the blog, some convenient ways to navigate throughout the blog, and other helpful data or available options like search by email.

Links- Links allow the reader to go to other websites that have something to do with the blog. The links can also show websites that share facts with the reader that the creator wants the reader to know. Or the link can just be a recommended website. 

Videos/photos- Videos and photos make the blog more interesting, colorful, and neat/professional looking. They also attract readers. Photos and videos are another way to express your thoughts and ideas. Remember the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words! Well, videos express even more!  They are a good way to express your thoughts while keeping readers interested.

Organization- Organization is also a key to creating a successful blog. People don’t want to take the time to try to read the blog if it is all unorganized and messy. Spelling also helps. It’s easier for people to read your posts if words are spelled correctly with proper punctuation and grammar.

I plan to put time, thought, and effort into making my blog as interesting, neat, and organized as I possibly can. I will make sure to read and double check my posts before I publish them so readers will understand my writing.  But if I do make a mistake, everybody does, then you can leave a comment about it. Also, I will be putting a poll gadget on my blog so I can receive feedback on my blog. Well, happy reading! I hope you enjoy! May ze meowy meows be with you and always ringing in your ears! "Meow!" 

Image Credits:

• Blog Photo: http://www.bubblews.com/news/674346-how-to-create-the-best-blog  (www.bubblenews.com)
• Cat typing: http://www.neontommy.com/news/2012/09/quick-guide-computer-choices (www.neontommy.com)
• Concept Map: By Clara