Poof ? ? ?

A fun application with a weird name... That's what we kept ourselves busy in the computer club this evening. But more about that later. 

We started off by watching a video about a cool robot ...which can climb stairs, another which runs on a treadmill, and a third robot which... wait for it... does push-ups. :-) This was a nice way of rounding off our robotics lessons. Thank you to Mr. Woithe for sending me the link for this video.

So, let's get back to the "Poof" app.  With Kerpoof Studio you can make cards, movies, pictures, drawings, tell stories, or even 'spell a picture'. Tonight we were just interested in making movies though. Two of the characters (Jane Ryder and Slim Pikkens) I used in my movie can be seen below. 

Kerpoof can be accessed by pointing your browser to www.kerpoof.com where a simple registration process and email confirmation will create your account for you - free of charge. Classroom use is made easy by a teachers tool section which allows me to create bulk accounts for my learners with very little effort - if you know how. Just a few Excel text functions allowed me to strip, concatenate, auto fill, and auto-generate relatively random password for the whole computer club, and register them all without them needing email addresses. All of this in under 3 minutes. Isn't that just peachy?

Now as for the "create a movie" section which we delved into this evening...   The very colourful and well organized interface allows you to do the following in this order:

• Choose a theme
• Choose a scene
• Choose from many characters
• Animate your characters
• Build your animations by placing commands on the 4-channel timeline

Competition

I turned this lesson into another competition for club members to participate in. And up for grabs, is another wonderful chocolate & sweet hamper from our friendly Sunridge SuperSpar. This is what they must do. Each club member must create a movie using Kerpoof aimed at entertaining the Gr. 2/3 crowds. The best move wins the hamper. Simple. These movies must be done by the next club meeting in two weeks.

Diary
Our next club meeting will be on Monday evening, 7 May 2012 at 17:15.

That's it for now. How yourself a smashing last half of April.

Robots vs. Humans

We continued with our lesson on Robotics this evening, and started off by Googling Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" as made popular in his 1942 short story "Runaround". The 3 laws state that:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

These laws are of course fictional at this point in time but it is - none the less - interesting to take note of.

We had a quick talk about the different types of robots in use today:

Mobile Robots

Mobile robots are also known as Automated Guided Vehicles that are primarily used for the work of material transportation in large workplaces such as warehouses, hospitals, container ports and alike. They function in such areas with the help of wires or lasers, by sensing the environment in which they operate.

An advanced version of AGV is known as Self Guided Vehicle (SGV). Such robots are PatrolBot, Speci-Minder, Golfer, Tug, and so on. These robots can be taught navigation separately in a particular environment. Moreover, such robots also have competency to conduct non-sequential tasks in complex environments. Because of this, they are also referred to as intelligent robots.

Industrial Robots

As industrial tasks require accuracy, speed, reliability as well as endurance, industrial robots have potentially replaced humans in performing those tasks. In the last 30 years, robots have attained an edge in automated production lines. Many industrial robots these days perform palletizing as well as packaging, laboratory applications and dispensing jobs.

Telerobots

Such type of robots function at places, which are not safe or inaccessible for humans. An operator placed at a certain distance from the telerobot commands it with the aid of space shuttle. Laparoscopic surgery is one such thing that is performed with telerobots.

Telerobots are also used for exploration of space. Some of the applications of these robots are for construction of spaceships, maintenance of satellites, development of space station and alike. These robots have also found their application in military and are increasingly used by US military.

Robots in agriculture

There are many robots that are still in an experimental stage and have been used to pick apples, gather harvest, plant seeds and transplant seedlings. Moreover, there is one such robot in Australia that is used to shear sheep.

Service Robots

These types of robots are used in Japan and are divided into two categories; one is for professional use and the other one is for personal use. Professional robots are used for military purposes, to perform underwater tasks and clean harmful materials. Personal robots are appreciated for their artificial intelligence and used in house cleaning, caring of elders, entertainment and so on.

We also watched some YouTube videos about various different robots. You can go check them out for yourself:

• Bird robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l0xavWi7kU
• Industrial robots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNVhtOCcrE
• High Speed robot hand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KxjVlaLBmk
• Titan the robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKm2aOd62ZI
• Kismet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KRZX5KL4fA&feature=related

Lastly we had another little "robot navigation" competition. This time, Amore and Anje walked off with the prize - I nice big chocolate hamper donated by our friendly Sunridge SuperSpar.

Diary

This was our last SCC club meeting for the term. The date of our next club meeting will be communicated to the club members in the new term.

Until next time...

References

Videos are from YouTube

The description of the various types of robots, as well as the Three Laws of Robotics were all found on Wikipedia.

Humble beginnings

The computer club had it's first club meeting for 2012 on 20 February 2012.

We always have a few admin matters to sort out during the first meeting. This is also a good time to lay down some rules (something which the computer club does not have much of). 

Welcome

But first let me welcome the new club members to the SCC (Sunridge Computer Club). And a very warm welcome also to the parents of the new members who are now a very big part of the club too. The club is aimed at teaching more advanced and in dept topics related to computers and technology in general. However, I stick to my vision of making the club FUN. 

Needless to say, this is not a regular school lesson and as you might have noticed we dress very informally - slops, barefoot, shorts, t-shirt are not just allowed but virtually required. :-) One part of the dress code which is non-negotiable is that each member comes to class wearing a big smile.

Admin

Just so the new parents know what the procedure is at club meetings...We generally take register before we do anything else. This is often followed by a brainstorm session. And then we get on with the actual lesson. 

Computer Club Badges

Each club member is required to wear a computer club badge as part of his/her school uniform. SCC badges can be purchased from Mr. Williams at R25.00 each.

Robotics Part 1

We did not have much time after we sorted all the admin, rules and brainstorming out. But we started with an introductory activity to robotics this evening. Obstacles were placed in the lab and participants (remote controls) had to guide their team mates to certain spot while avoiding the obstacles. This had to be done by using only 3 commands.

Note
Our club meetings are always exactly one hour. I don't leave until the last member has been collected. I ask that parents please collect their kids on time (18:15).

Diary
Our next club meeting will be on 5 March 2012.

Until next time...

Year-End Function 2011

The SCC (Sunridge Computer Club) had it's annual year-end function at The Wild Flower Reserve at Van Standens on Tuesday, 6 December 2011.This is always a nice way to round off the year's club meetings. For me, the idea has always been to get the computer club members away from school and do something completely unrelated to computers.

The Amazing Race

Mr. Vorster was kind enough to sponsor the main activity for the day which was an "Amazing Race" event organized by an outsourced company. They divided our club members into teams and had them race around a large area with varying terrain in order to find clues and solve puzzles. The teams had great fun and it was fantastic to see them be so competitive. We all got some good exercise, and I think it is safe to say that we all went home feeling tired and needing a good rest.

Lunch Time

Fortunately there were more than enough food, cooldrink, water, chips, sorbet, and muffins to restore the energy levels. We decided on hotdogs for lunch as we can't make fire for a braai at the reserve, and the lack of amenities were also a problem. One of the moms gave us a nifty gas stove to use which we needed to warm up the sausages for the hotdogs. Mrs. Van Niekerk was also kind enough to donate more than enough Island Style Sorbets which whent down very well in the hot weather. Thank you also to Mrs. van der Mescht for - amongst other things -  supplying, cut, and buttered 60 hotdog rolls for us. :-)

Thank You

Thank you to all the parents who helped out with donations of food, condiments, money, and transport.

Goodbye

As it is every year, the hardest part is saying goodbye to our grade 7s. But of course their departure also allows for our grade 5s to join and experience the computer club as from 2012.

Diary

This was the last get-together of the SCC for 2011. I will communicate the date of the SCCs next club meeting during February 2012.

Greeting

I wish for you all to have a very merry Christmas and a prosperous 2012. Enjoy the time with your families.

Until next time...

Worldwide Discoveries...

Google Earth can take us places and show us things we never thought we'd see. It can transport us from the Sydney Opera House to Stonehenge in a matter of seconds.

We wrapped up our exploration of Google Earth tonight by visiting some well known (and some not so well known) places. I gave the club members a list of 10 locations worldwide. Two were names of places but the rest were all GPS co-ordinates. They had to use Google Earth to go identify these places. You can go check them out for yourself if you like:

1. Buckingham Palace, London
2. Eiffel Tower, Paris
3. 35°1′38″N 111°1′21″W (the site of a meteor impact at Flagshaft, Arizona)
4. 29°58′34″N 31°07′58″E (Great Pyramid of Giza)
5. 25°11′49.7″N 55°16′26.8″E (the Burj Khalifa in Dubai)
6. 33°51′25″S 151°12′53″E (Sydney Opera House)
7. 51°10′43.84″N 1°49′34.28″W (Stonehenge)
8. 33.775150°N 112.451016°E (The Spring Temple of Buddha)
9. 22°57′6″S 43°12’39″W (Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro)
10. 40°41′38″N 74°2′37″W(Statue of Liberty in New York)

We also did a quick test of what we had previously learnt in Google Earth. We picked two home addresses of computer club members and had all the members measure the shortest 'road' from the one to the other. They had to search for the first address before saving the location, repeat this for the second location, then use the ruler tool to plot a path in kilometers from the one location to the other. We got many different answers but they were all in the vicinity to 1.57kms.

Finally, we learnt about using different layers to indicate various things like roads, borders, labels, phonographs, places, and 3D building to mention but a few.


Year-end Function
Thing have been a bit crazy but I will be in contact with you soon with regards to the details for the Sunridge Computer Club's year-end function. Thank you to all the parents who so generously offered their help.


Thank you
Thank you to all the Moms and Dads who make sure our club members are at the club meetings on time and of course for collecting your children on time.


Diary
I'll have to check our school schedule to make sure whether we still have time for another computer club meeting. I will communicate this to you at a later stage.


Until next time...

Amazing Race - Google Earth Style

Tonight was a good opportunity for the club members to practice what was learnt in Google Earth with a fun competition.

But first the Agenda:

• Take register
• Photographic competition
• Year-end function
• Google Earth competition

Spur Photographic Competition

Spur is hosting a cool photographic competition. Some of the prizes are binoculars, digital cameras and Spur meal vouchers. The poster is up on the wall in my lab for learners to read and they can get entry forms from me.

SCC Year-End Function

We'd like to end our Sunridge Computer Club year off with a nice little get together. So if any of our parents have any thoughts on this then I'd really like to hear from you.

Google Earth Competition

So we spent two computer club lessons on Google Earth. Tonight was the night that we use what we learnt to truly go out and explore (virtually that is). And what would a competition be without a nice reward. Daniel won the large tub of Woolies sweets for finding all 5 locations and answering the questions correctly.

The questions were:

1. What is the name of the Street which crosses Pyramid St, Johannesburg (Edenvale). There is only one Road which crosses it, the other are all T-Junctions.
2. What is the name of the Road which passes under Cresta Shopping Centre, Johannesburg?
3. How many cars are parked on the sidewalk outside 19 Cassia Drive, Port Elizabeth (Sunridge Park)?
4. What colour are the drive way gates at 111 Church Road, Port Elizabeth (Walmer)?
5. What word/words are painted on the road near the corner of Myrna and Pyramid St,  Johannesburg (Edenvale)?

Club members had to use some common sense, Google Earth, and Google Street View to answer the location and give me their answers. This was a fun exercise.

Diary

Please Note that our next computer club meeting will only be on Monday evening, 14 November 2011 as I will be busy with Computer Literacy and Cami Maths assessments from 31 Oct to 11 November.

Untill next time...

Going Street Level

We all know of the White House in Washing DC. We've seen in on TV and in the movies. We might even know where it is located on the map. Google gets us as close to the real thing as we'll ever be without the First Lady inviting us for tea.

But first, the agenda:

• Take register
• SCC badges
• Lesson: Google Earth part 2

SCC Badges

Please note that the winking emoticon on the computer screen with keyboard and mouse is the official Sunridge Computer Club emblem. The computer club badge is part of the Sunridge uniform and should be worn along with the learners' other badges.

Google Earth

We recapped on what we learnt with our previous club meeting about using the navigational tools in Google Earth while we waited for the imagery to load. Specific addresses were explored using Google's "Fly to" feature. We looked at a local address in Newton Park, Port Elizabeth. Then we were off to Three-Anchor Bay in Cape Town where we took it down to street level by using Street View. We learned how to look and move around whilst in Street View.

The highlight of our virtual tour was viewing the White House in Washington DC. Not only were we able to view the White House and White House gardens from above but we were also able to turn on the 3D imagery created in Google Sketchup and view the White House, surrounding building, and even the trees in the garden in 3D.

Back home here in Sunridge Park, the difference between Altitude and Elevation was also explained. As too were the age of the imagery and the process involved in obtaining these images.

Diary

This was our last club meeting for the 3rd term. Our next club meeting will be on Monday evening, 17 October. Have a wonderful September holiday.

Until next time.