1. Finish your next draft of your paper. Proofread it well. Incorporate the feedback from your classmates (see below). Have it printed out with bibliography and your name and a staple or paperclip all PRIOR to class so you can hand it to me at the start of class.
2. If your myth debunking is not yet portfolio'd, do one (hopefully) last version and complete that and print it out with your name and your prior versions attached in back and hand that in at the start of class.
3. Do whatever homework your group assigned you for your Robotic, Interactive, Miniature Golf project.

• Save it and take good care of it. It must be submitted with your next draft. You should paperclip it to the draft so you do not lose it. 
• Use the feedback! Right a draft that I will read next. It should be goooood. It should address all concerns raised by your classmates (unless they involve pink hearts). It should be complete (answer all questions that you and your peers said the paper should answer). It should start with an engaging introduction (avoid "My paper is about..." or "Robbie is a robot." Hook your reader in). 
• The next draft is due MONDAY, January 30, 2012.

• Your rough draft of your applications of robotics paper is due on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25th. You need an already-well-in-advance-of-class, double-spaced, printed-out copy for peer editing. Your peer will use the rubric sheet from the assignment, so you should do so as well and make sure you have addressed all questions. You should start your rough draft by tomorrow at the latest (you are free to do so now).
• With the handouts from class:
  • Read the double-sided "9-9 Remembering the Properties".
  • On the handout that says "Objective A" in the upper lefthand corner, do #'s 1-6, 9, 13-17, 19-21, 23, 24.
• (m^3)^4 is not the same as (m^3)(m^4). What are they each equal to and why?
  What is ((y^4)^3)^2 simplified (no parentheses). Hmm, I just wrote "no parentheses" inside of parentheses.
• Thursday, we will be reviewing for FRIDAY'S QUEST on metric prefixes, scientific notation, properties of exponents, and estimation problems. You may bring into the question one 3" x 5" file card (some are available at school) with any facts (e.g., popultions, distances, etc.) that you think are helpful for estimations. You may also put the laws of exponents down. All information must be handwritten on the one card that you are allowed to bring in with you.

• Finish your outline in NoodleTools.
• Find more online resources. Don't be half-hearted. Read as much as you possibly can looking for new insights and new information.
• Do not put too much on any one notecard. You should include for each card only content that belongs under one of the headings of your outline.
• Drag cards to the outline and make sure:
  • That all items in the list of questions that you brainstormed (see January 10th) are clearly going to be addressed somewhere in your outline and...
  • That you have one or more notecards for almost all headings.

1. If you have changed topics or not given me a robotics application proposal, do so.
2. If you need to review prefixes, do that to.
3. Submit your next revision of the mythical creature or person debunking. Be sure to include all calculations that support your claims. For example, rather than saying "Cupid has to shoot 1,000,000 people a day," provide the reaoning:

There are 7,000,000,000 people on the planet. Let's assume each one falls in love 3 times in their lifetime. With an average lifespan of 60 years, that leaves one falling in love every 20 years. That means, on average, that 1/20th of the world's population falls in love each year:

7*10^9 / 20 = 3.5*10^8 people fall in love per year
3.5*10^8 people/year * 1year/365 days = roughly 1,000,000 people per day.

Alternatively, you can keep your prose compact but refer to an appendix of carefully labeled and explained calculations (e.g., "(see calculation 2)").

These should be portfolio worthy pieces!

• Using your peer edits, write a new, better version of your mythical person (or animal) debunking essay. Hand it in with the peer edited version attached in back.
• Memorize your metric prefixes. Really! A pop quest's a coming!
• Do the bottom half of the handout from class on scientific notation.
• Fill in the rungs with the items at the bottom of this ladder of mass.

• In the spirit of the Santa Claus debunking article, write a discussion analyzing the believability of a mythical individual such as the Tooth Fairy, Cupid, Easter Bunny, Elijah at Passover, etc. Be sure to use real facts combined in a clever and hopefully humorous ways that builds on the skills that we have been developing with regard to estimates. 
• Complete the problems that we began in class on unit conversion.
• Add at least 8 more items to your exponential ladder of quantity.
• Some facts: There are 5280 feet in a mile. The moon is 238,000 miles away from the earth. Some questions:
  • If you stacked up a million quarters could they reach the moon? If not, how many would you need?
  • If you lined up a million quarters edge to edge, would they get you from NY to Boston?
  • How many quarters could you fill your bedroom with?
• New 7th graders did a great job on Tuesday as we covered a lot of ground and got a first taste of the ideas behind triangle trigonometry. Read this handout and pick one problem at the bottom of the page and do it. If you want to learn more triangle trig (how to choose between sine, cosine, and tangent in different circumstances, how to find angles instead of lengths, etc.), please let me know and I will share more materials with you.

• Carry out calculations for determining the number of individually printed letters (characters) in a large library like the Copley.
• Carry out calculations for determining the number of breaths taken buy all humans last year.
• How close are your calculated estimates to your guesses from class?

• We are getting down to the wire! Have a classmate edit your writing during a SREPT, lunch, or before school. Print it out and start laying it out. 
• Complete your comments for your program and get Josh to help you print that out.
• Test, debug, and tes your program some more.
• If you need a setting (track, target, etc.), make sure that it looks nice.
• Make sure that you can stay after school tomorrow if you still need more time.
• Email me with questions.

• TYPE up your poster content
  • Title (clever is fine)
  • Introduction -
    • You can write a cute lead-in story that sets the stage
    • The robot's mission - what are it's exact tasks in the setting (this is not about the details of the program but what the robot does).
  • Instructions for the user
    • How to set up the situation 
    • What will happen (what to observe)
    • What to push, place, or do at different times
  • The diagram of your program (most of you are not ready to print this, but do make sure to proofread your comments by class on Monday).
• PRINT OUT all of the above and bring it to class AND have it emailed or available in some other fashion for editing. 

• Keep working on your design for your robotics olympics device. If you need any particular props, bring them in.
• In the purple book on page 155, do problems 7 - 17.

• Do these exponent questions.
• Keep refining your description of your project idea.
• Write out steps for your next programming task (practice from the sheet or your main project).

• Start building up to your robot olympics project. You want to focus on a task that is more focused on programming challenges and complex behavior than building tasks (although it is fine to outfit a device as needed to match the goals of the task). Brainstorm at least two creative, fun possible challenges. They could involve weird variations on real sporting events, such as finding and knocking over hurdles rather than jumping over them.
• Pick one of the many programming ideas on the final page to work on next. If you completed one in class today, try to pick a different that feels different than or a harder version of what you already did. Make sure to keep the programming files for the tasks since we will want to print out and display some of them. Write a description of the steps needed to complete it and try to sketch out some of the MindStorms commands and the sequence and structure that you will use. 
• In the purple book, do the problems on the top half of page 152, read Investigation 3 (strings of machines), pages 152-155 and do problem set D and problems 1 - 6 of problem set E. 
• If you have not yet done so, do these:
  • Read, study, analyze, and understand the programs Distance Driver and Bounce Back in the handout.
  • Do the final three problems on exponents: rewrite (2^8)*(3^8) as x^y and rewrite 9^2 and 9^40 each as 3^something.

• Read the four page reading handed out in class on logic (true/false) variables.
• Complete this first trimester reflection sheet.

In the exponents chapter, read, take needed notes, and do all problems on pages 144-151.

If you do not have the purple book at home, here are links to the:

Chapter 1 - Algebraic Expressions
Chapter 3 - Exponents

• NOTE: this is a corrected version of the handout that I gave in class. Do this handout of speed (and other) problems. Be sure to review the definition/formula for finding average speed first and be sure to use the right units (speeds always have a unit1 per unit2 or unit1/unit2 form). At time A,
• Myron was P meters away from work. At time B, he was Q meters away. What was his average speed during this interval of time from A to B?
• If you have not done the four Truthteller/Liar problems at the bottom of Monday's assignment, please do so now. If you did but need to explore them further, please do so. 

• Read the 9th page of the fourth chapter. On the 9th page, be sure to watch the video A Universe of Numbers: What is the Stored Program?
• Read this page on binary numbers. 
• Answer the following questions:
  • How are numbers stored and represented in computers?
  • How are programs stored and represented in computers?
  • How is text information (words) stored and represented in computers?
  • What is the binary number 11011 in base ten?
  • How would you represent 17 in binary?
  • What are the next two place values in binary after 64 and 128?
  • What is the largest number you could represent with only 8 bits (a binary digit 0 or 1)?
  • Since there are 26 letters in the alphabet, how many bits are needed to make a code for all of them?
  • Counting in all bases is the same. Once you get to the largest digit, you wrap around to 0 and carry 1 to the next place value. Fill out this form to count in base 5.

• Read this page on Boolean logic. Boolean gates which manipulate combinations of 0s and 1s are combined to do arithmetic and every other computation in a computer. There are simple electronic devices that can do each type of gate (and, or, not, etc). Then download and play with this cool program and see what kinds of circuits you can make. Here are some challenges to try (you can print out any solutions):
  • Make a circuit that goes on if any of three switches is on.
  • Make a circuit that has three switches and goes on only if 1 or 2 switches are on but not none or three.
  • Make a two bit adder (that can add two two-bit numbers represented by four switches.
  • Make a circuit with two bulbs. One is on if the number of switches out of four is odd and the other is on if it is even. 

• There are many logic puzzles about islands with two kinds of people. The two kinds are truth tellers who always tell the truth or liars who always lie.

1. You meet a woman on one of these special logic islands and ask her, “Are you a truth-teller?” Does her answer help you determine which type of person she is? Would the question, “Are you a liar?” help you distinguish? Explain.
2. Suppose now that you visit a second island close by. In this second island the people are even more weird. They lie on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and they tell the truth the other days. After spending so many days in these islands you forgot which day it is. So you ask one of the islanders, “Excuse me sir, what day is today?” “Saturday,” he answers. “And, what day is it going to be tomorrow?” “Wednesday.” Can you deduce what day today is?
3. You're walking in this island and you meet a man, who could be either a liar or a truth-teller, and you want to know which kind of person he is. So you ask him, “Are you a truth-teller?” When he is answering, the volcano makes a loud noise and you cannot hear the answer. So you ask him again, “Excuse me, I couldn't hear what you said, did you say you were a truth-teller?” and he answers, “No, I didn't say that, I said I was a liar. Is the native a liar or a truth-teller?” (Hint: Think about what the man could have answered to the first question, first assuming he's a truth-teller and then assuming he's a liar.)

4. You are traveling on a road to a castle and come to a fork in the road where it splits into two paths. Standing at this fork in the road are two gatekeepers, one who always tells the truth, and one who always lies, but you don't know who is the truth-teller and who is the liar. You need to know which road leads to the castle. What single question can you ask one of them to find the road to the castle? 

• Which different technologies and elements of modern computers play the role originally played by punch cards?

• One or two full, nicely written paragraphs on your impressions of the evolution of calculators, the use of calculators, inventors, or any other single theme that you would like to address. 
• Two or more questions that the readings inspired.

• Plan a fun costume to wear to school (or at least some silly clothing).
• In the purple book, page 9, do #8.
• In the purple book, pages 10-11, do problem sets C and D. Remember, a variable represents a number (or all numbers). You can write expressions with it just as easily as if you had been told a specific value, so use your arithmetic understanding and write out expressions showing what operations are involved. 

• Memorization by writing things down, bu creating concept maps, by testing yourself with flashcards, by restating what you know in new ways.
• Practicing problems. Cover up your old work and redo problems from quests and HWs. Make-up problems and share them with each other and see if you and your fellow sharees get the same answer.
• Emailing me with questions regarding any areas of confusion.

• When we are in a car that is turning, why are we pushed to the outside of the turn? Is there a force pushing us away from the inside? 
• Why do we behave like the white balloon and not the helium balloon? 
• Are the air molecules in the car with us tending to move toward the outside of a turn or inside?
• When the car stops, do we move forward or backward? If the passengers are moving forward, what must the air molecules be doing?

• Describe your device and how you make the two noises.
• Include a photograph.
• Present a standard diagram of your gearing (the classic aerial view that has been in our HW is best).
• Perform a gear analysis indicating the gear ratio for both follower axles that are making noise. This will tell how many times each noise is made for each turn of the motor. Show your calculations clearly. 
• Make your report portfolio-level presentable.

• Some problems (click on the link), some of which are review for the request. Do these problems (even if you are OK with a section for the request, please use this as practice). If you did not need a request on the graphing section, or if you did and want extra challenge, try the challenge problems at the end out.

• If you need to request the Newton section, memorize the laws (fully) and write an original example of each in action.
  • Which law(s) involve changes in speed?
  • Which law(s) involve unbalanced forces?

• If were asked to revise (or still owe) the ten-speed bike problem due Thursday (see below), please work on that.

• If you did not yet do Gear Homework II that was due Tuesday, please do it now: Read the notes on this new packet, fill in the blanks on the worked out examples and then do the problem groups A and B.

• Today we saw that a 21 speed bicycle could actually be a 19-speed bike and, functionally, even less than that. As you pick gear sizes for a bike, you clearly want the gear ratios to be spread out relatively evenly to avoid redundant (repetitive) ratios. Here was what we found for the bike today:

• Gear Ratio	33	25	22	21	17	15	14
  49	1.48	1.96	2.23	2.33	2.88	3.27	3.50
  37	1.12	1.48	1.68	1.76	2.18	2.47	2.64
  28	0.85	1.12	1.27	1.33	1.65	1.87	2.00

• Design the gears for a ten-speed bike that has two front gears and five rear gears. The gear train has to meet these requirements:
  • The highest ratio has to be 3.5.
  • The lowest ratio has to be 0.8 (or 4/5)
  • No gear should have a ridiculous number of teeth (e.g., 4 or 100).
  • No two gear ratios should be the same or even that close.
  • The ratios should be as evenly spread out as possible.
• List the number of teeth on each gear.

• We are going to start making noisy machines. We want motions that are not all circular but that is what we start with because our motors spin around. Go online and research linkages and cams (two separate topics). Draw one (or more if you get motivated) example of one of each and how it produces something other than round and round spinning.

• Quest on Tuesday. Know Newton's Laws; position, velocity, and acceleration graphs; and how to apply them.
• This is Zero Gravity program: link.

• Got thirst? Please bring a water bottle to class.
• Complete/redo the final few problems on the chocolate factory sheet. making sure you calculate the weight change rates. They are a lot like speed calculations.
• In the purple text, Impact Mathematics, read, take notes, and do all problems on pages 300-303 (which is Chapter 5.1, Investigation 1, Problem Set A). 
• I have Q quarters, D dimes, and P pennies in my pocket. How much money is that?

• Play with Moving Man some more. Try to do the following:
  • Move him so his velocity graph is U-shaped.
  • Move him so his acceleration graph is always 0 but his velocity graph is not always 0.
  • Move the velocity lever so that his position graph is wavy (up and down repeatedly).
  • Move the acceleration lever so that his position graph is wavy (up and down repeatedly).
• Remember the two assignments to memorize Newton's laws? Remember Newton's laws? There will be a spot quest on these tomorrow.

1. Purchase and bring in 1" binders for portfolios for MST (and for other classes for which you have not gotten one yet). Get section dividers as well (Engineering will need 7 dividers (nothing fancy needed and we will provide pocket sheets for holding work). 
2. Make sure to have your hand-written or printed out lab report that was due on Friday to hand in.
3. Play with Moving Man more (click on the tab that shows the graphs as well): http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/moving-man.
4. Do the first page of the Moving Man Graphing sheet. First sketch what you think will happen, only then should you use the program to see what does happen - it will be a challenge just to move the man to reproduce the position graph! Do your best and once you get something close-ish, sketch the real velocity and acceleration graphs that match your motion.
5. Do problem 4 of the other handout.

• The main question and your hypothesis
• Materials
• Procedure
• Data
• Analysis
• Conclusions

1. In the absence of an unbalanced force, an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion indefinitely along the same straight path (retains its velocity).
2. In the presence of an unbalanced force, an object experiences acceleration according to the formula F = ma (mass times acceleration).
3. For every force, there is an equal and opposite force.

1. Finish the rest of the Ranking Functions Handout (both sides of the second piece of paper). 
2. Write a careful description of the steps you would take and measurements you would make to determine the speed of a car going down our ramp.

1. Why does an object keep moving?
2. Why does an object speed up?
3. Why does an object slow down?

• Finish your measurements for your three runs and include them in the chart of the handout. 
• Answer the question on the back of page two (below the chart) that begins "It would be nice...".
• You are creating a mathematical rule for combining your two variables (your far and straight measurements). Apply that rule to your three trials. Do the scores make sense? Does a bigger score mean a better run or a worse run?
• Does your formula work? Does it reward longer and straighter rides or does a less straight run get a better score than a straight one? Test out values that you make up yourself. Make a table with six made-up pairs of measurements for really good runs, similar runs, and runs that are the same for one variable but different for the other. Find the score using your rule for each of these six made up trials.

• Read pages 21-27 of the Engineering the Future reading packet (the one with Amy Smith in it). Study the diagram on page 28. Answer questions #3 and 7.
• On your Gravity Powered handout, complete the questions through the first one on the top of the second page. Really think about and identify as many different variables that might be affecting your car's performance as you can. Write in sentences. Think about the steps in the design process. What might you research to help you build a better car? What alternative solutions are you considering? What counts as a "test" of a particular model? Does one attempt tell you what you need to know? How do you think about the variability of different runs?