This is a really cool movie on an NXT robot that solves the Rubik’s Cube. (There are other clips in this movie too, but I liked the Rubik’s Cube one the best)
I chose this because I am interested in creations that can solve things. In school I wanted to make a slingshot on our robot, but I couldn’t find any good movies on that. I am really impressed at how the person programmed the robot to solve it. It is amazing! A ROBOT is solving the Rubik’s Cube! I wonder if there is a tutorial on how to make it solve the cube.
Dear Isabella,
I am writing back to answer your question, “After what happened on April 19, can war between the colonies and Great Britain be avoided?”. If you ask my opinion, I truly think that a war between us colonists, and our mother country can be avoided. First of all, they was no reason the redcoats had to march here to take our weapons. Well we had to defend ourselves, from them torturing us. Plus, they didn’t have to enforce all of the taxes at us, then none of this would have started. Also, many people have lost their lives, for just trying to protect their country. My brother for example, died. We are free people, we deserve to live freely. Lastly, we have lost our ammunitions. We could have used these against someone else. Now it seems like all of those weapons went waste. This is why I think the war could have been avoided.
Sincerly,
Alice Sterns Abbot
Tributary Time
What role do tributaries of the Assabet River play?
by Mehak Kang
I have learned a lot throughout DPC. But the topic I researched most on, was tributaries of the Assabet River. I was really glad that I got this topic because, I well basically knew what tributaries were, I just needed to research on tributaries of the Assabet River. The definition of a tributary would be: smaller water bodies such as brooks and streams, that eventually flow into a larger water body. Many questions occurred in my mind. I had to research on all of these questions to be an expert. The questions that came to my mind were: How many tributaries flow into the Assabet River?, What are the tributaries names?, Are they really, really polluted?, To what types of animals do the tributaries provide homes to?, and lastly, What is the longest tributary?
To investigate these questions I read computer articles and a couple of books. It took a lot of time to research because my topic was not easy. The reason it was not easy was because the Assabet River is not a famous, huge river, like the Mississippi River, so when I searched it on the web, there were very few websites that provided the information that I needed. When I searched “tributaries of the Assabet River”, basically nothing came up. Even the OARS website did not explain much about my topic. It was extremely difficult to get all the information that I needed. Then I finally chanced upon a map that gave me the answers to most of my questions. After exploring all these questions, I came to many conclusions and answers. I found out first, there are at least 16 named streams and brooks that flow into the river. Next, the longest tributary that contributes to the Assabet River is the Nashoba Brook. It is over 48 square miles. Some of the tributaries that contribute to the river are:
But there was something that was still bugging me. It was: if the tributaries are polluted, all the trash will eventually flow into the Assabet River. This was not good because the Assabet River is already a class B river with all it’s own trash, and on top of that, the tributaries contribute to it. If we could clean the tributaries, the Assabet River will also be cleaner. After gathering all this information, the fun part was only to come.
My favorite part was when I had to layout all of this gathered up information onto a scratch. This was one of the best ways to present my work and knowledge, because it was a video game. The reason, I chose to make a video game was because everybody loves a video game. When they would play it they would learn about tributaries and how they contribute to the Assabet. It also explained a bit about what problem this wonderful resource is facing. to Soon I could publish this and the whole world could see. Making a video game is one of the best ways to spread awareness and to display your knowledge to the world.
There were many times I ran into trouble. Like the scratch just won’t get to work, sometimes. It took ten minutes to save. But those problems weren’t really big, I soon got over them. I also got a lot of help from the bigger scratch experts, just like I was asked for help from people in my group. But throughout this DPC experience I have noticed that we have totally spread awareness and the assembly played a big part in spreading awareness.
A couple new questions that I have, are -
Will people actually help?
Will video games actually make as big as a difference as I think?
Will people appreciate our work and understand?
For the most part I think all the responses to my questions will be positive. I hope they help the river with the problems it is facing. Mostly, I want the video games to have a big effect on people (even though they are not really video games). For the first question I think, I have seen/noticed people helping us. To prove that statement, kids have mostly stopped running up and down the hill. They are not digging holes in the ground anymore, which is good. I am not sure about the second question though. Because nobody other than my classmates has seen my scratch, which is not not good. But on the other hand, it has only been a couple of weeks since I published it. I really hope that in some time people will learn from our scratch games. The third question, I almost think is silly. People will totally APPRECIATE our work and I am pretty sure they understand it. I fully hope that the questions that I have answered will actually have positive answers.
Some resources that I used were:
The OARS website
http://www.oars3rivers.org/river/tributaries
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assabet_River
Our environmental goal is to protect the SuAsCo watershed. We want people to be more aware of what is happening to the Assabet River and how to stop that. This is really important because we play a role in this watershed too. We also want them to appreciate this wonderful resource. Concord is very lucky to have 3 rivers. One in our backyard, the Assabet. Not many people realize what they are doing can harm the river. When you throw trash, animals think it is food and eat it. Then they will fall sick and eventually the population of many animals shall go down. We live in the watershed; it is the source to all of the water that we get, so if we pollute this watershed it will only come back at us like a boomerang. By researching and collaborating with my group, I have accomplished much and I tend to understand this environmental goal better.
My experience of DPC so far has been great, amazing, and awesome. I think DPC is a great way to learn things. This way it is really fun and not boring. While we are having fun we are also learning. I have participated by making 2 scratches and writing peoples scripts for the assembly. And of course I worked on the portfolio page a bit. My group, Watershed Appreciation is hosting the all school assembly to educate Thoreau school students about the river. We have also made about 5 different scratches. My expectation and hope is that after doing this project we will spread awareness, get people to appreciate and protect this beautiful resource.
My most memorable experience was DPC Day. That day we were very productive. We did a lot of experiments and learned quite a few things. That day my understanding of our SuAsCo goal increased. Also, I was happy because that was the group I wanted. I was in the River group. We ran a lot of experiments which came helpful. With those experiments we made a few graphs. We were also really cooperative. What we did that day was so much, that if we hadn’t had that day, we right now would be way behind.
Our group accomplished many things. But there are three major accomplishments. The first one is the all school assembly. This is really major, because I bet ¾ of the school doesn’t know about the problem the river it facing and when they realize what is happening to the river they will remember and try to help. The next, major accomplishment is the River C.A.R.E.S., because kids will actually write about what they will do to help to help the Assabet. Last but not least are the scratch video games. I, personally think that this is the best accomplishment, besides the assembly. The reason I say this is because, EVERYBODY loves video games. Everybody will play those, and learn a lot while they are playing it. We made several scratch games:
These were our three most major accomplishments.
Our DPC project will make a difference, because many people that our part of the watershed will be informed of the river’s importance and beauty. To make that possible, we are doing River Night which will explain that we have done everything throughout this year. All this road salt and fertilizer that people use is really harmful to this resource. I am pretty sure that if we don’t help the river today, it will to late tomorrow. Already, it is a Class B river and we don’t want to make it worse. Instead we want to turn into a Class A river.
I will personally make a difference by teaching people of the problem the river is facing. I have made two scratches that will educate people about the river. The scratch explains how the polluted river water affects the animals. The other scratch I made was on tributaries/brooks that flow into the Assabet. This scratch was important because, if you throw trash into tributaries it will eventually flow into the Assabet River. My group is hosting the school assembly in February that will explain to the school about his issue too.
I will try to keep this goal alive for as long as I can. I shall educate and explain the problem that the river is facing, to other people. The River C.A.R.E.S will play a big part because it can continue even when we move out. We will teach the younger grades in our school, about the problem the river is facing, which will pass it on to younger grades, and so on and so forth. Also when we hold a River Night, all the groups shall layout all the information that we have gathered throughout the year. We shall also tell them to try not to fertilize their lawn to often. Finally, I will never even dare to do these things. Soon, the Watershed will be a clean and safe place for everyone.