Month: July 2014

  • Shoichi and the Zoo

    Today we took a little ride to the Woodland Park Zoo.
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    Steve, Veronica, Judy, Étienne, Carlton, and our Japanese student Shoichi.

    I am still working on how to embed my Strava postings here. Until then, follow the link. We rode as a group of 6! It took me half an hour to gather enough bike shoes and swap pedals for all of us. Étienne rode his single while Carlton stoked the tandem with me.

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    Asian Small-clawed Otter (Veronica's favorite), Sleeping Meerkats, and Étienne riding a lion.
    The otters were a big hit. They ran about, played tag, and found little pieces of fish to chomp on.

    We get Shoichi for another week! What adventures will we take next weekend?

  • The Comedy of Errors

    Veronica took a one week class on Shakespeare from the Taproot Theater. In 5 days they auditioned, read, blocked, costumed, and performed William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. The class started on Monday and they practiced script free by Wednesday. The cast ranged in age from 9 to 16 from the local community.

    The best part for me was the independence Veronica showed. After escorting her the first day, Veronica took charge of her own commute, using the city bus. She never missed the start time. Our Veronica is maturing!

    If you are not familiar with the works of Bill, Wikipedia has a great review of the play. Through the mistaken identity of two sets of identical twins, a series of wild mishaps, slapstick, and comedy occur. Veronica teacher put it best when she told the actors not to think about the plot too much because then you will realize it doesn't make any sense. Oh, the setting is 1950!

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    Here is the program with the cast listing.

    Veronica played two characters. She played the merchant of a business, and Courtezan. Listining to her practicing the verse made me very proud. She kept up her piano practice, crocheting, and cross country conditioning for the fall.

    Here, as the merchant, she warns Antipholus of Syracuse he should not be seen around Ephesus under penalty of death.

    Mom's favorite line: “My present business calls me from you now.” We are actively looking for the perfect opportunity to use it so Watch Out!

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    We have to show the girl with the Bling Ring. I missed the money shot when Veronica gave the audience a big wink upon getting the ring.

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    The Cast. They really had a great time and accomplished a whole lot of fun in five days. Veronica already wants a two week camp. Perhaps next year.

  • BattleBots

    Carl is attending the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at UW. Introduction to Robots uses the LEGO NXT kit and a laptop for programming. They study the purpose and types of robots. Carl met more than one student that will also be attending Hamilton Middle School this fall.

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    The Robot Secret Laboratory, located on the campus of UW, is this incredible building of glass and steel. I ride by on the bicycle each day when I come to pick him up.

    One day he and another boy were sitting alone at one end of the room. They were back to back in some kind of time-out. I rode on to the pick-up point and waited for his class to conclude and walk up the hill. While waiting I talked to the vice principal and asked if my Carl ever got called into her office for behavior issues. She assured me not. All of her students were here as a privilege and very well behaved. When Carl arrived I learned that he and his lab partner were conducting a programming exercise where one person holds and describes a Lego structure and the other has to build it without seeing the original. Most partners used the main classroom area but Carl and his wanted a quieter space.
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    Here is Carl’s work station with his partner. They had a tub of lego parts, sensors, motors, and the programmable brain. Using the laptop they built the program before downloading it to the bot.

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    Battle Rules

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    Proud fathers of the Dodo Bot. When the battles were announced, all we knew was the bots name, not the builders. As soon as I heard the name, I knew that was Carl’s.

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    The Dodo Bot

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    The Dodo Brain. The students use this interface to build decision loops, timers, delays, and outputs. I looked around the room and all the programs appeared a little different.

    After starting their bots, the program must have a two second delay allowing creators to get out of the way. A light sensor detects the black tape on the border of the arena and the bot must remain inside. Some sensors were not programmed very well or the sensor was damaged in battle and the bot would exit the field.

    Here is an example of the Dodo not having the correct calibration and loosing because it left the field.

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    Other battles were not without attrition. As long as the bot continued to move, the game was on. A few teams utilized an ultrasonic sensor to detect and attack an opponent.