THE TIME HAS COME!!! *tear tear*

Final class and the EXHIBITIONNNNN
So last minute things I did: made the stickers, and COMPLETELY REGEARED THE CAR. We ended up leaving two wheel and putting two turning wheels on the front. Not a fun thing to do 2 hrs before the FINAL showoff.
But the show itself was AWESOME. We eventually got rid of the sound-making resistors because the hall was too loud and the car was getting stuck, but the kids and Wellesley students loved driving the house around (once we reminded them to point the remote exactly right). Success!
Here is a video my daddy took of my project and others:

Retrospective:
Fabulous class. I made great new friends, learned how to build things, and overcame my fear of computer science, all while having a BLAST. Highly recommend this class to everyone.

Thanks for the adventure... now go have your own!
Lucia

Nearly there....

Okay, we're almost done!!!!!
The exhibition is in a few days...
DONE: the house is built and pretty, the balloons are figured out, the programs are written, the car is (kind of) running, the remote works, the clay sculptures are built, etc.
PS Had an AWESOME time regearing the car again. Had to get rid of the rubber bands and replace them with gears, but the sizing isn't perfect and the gears have a great habit of FALLING APART. Grr.
TO DO: Build obstacles, build resistors, spam, get stickers going, fix car, assemble.
Here are pictures of me and the new car, and of me testing the house:

Oof.
Till SOON,
Lucia

COUNTDOWN T MINUS SEVEN DAYS

The project is taking shaaaape!
Look at: our clay scultures, our remote, v2 of our cart, and our AWESOMEness.
Sorry for the delay--so busy building, didn't have time to blog.

THE HOUSE FLIES and makes annoying noises

It's finally starting to look AWESOME!!!
CJ and I attached the balloons to the house today, tweaked the noise makers, and made sure they worked properly and consistently. This is the final result:

And this is the movie of the FIRST TAKEOFF!!!!

We also designed the platform where the figurines and the crickets will go. It looks like this, and will be printed out of PLASTIC!!!!

 It's fabulous.
Till three minutes from now,
Lucia

Clay and Plastic, oh my!!!!

It's going!
We printed out the platform and attached it to the cart:

And we started making clay sculptures! Here's Russell unpainted, and Kevin without her feathers:

Psyched!!
Lucia

This is the fun part.

Last week, we started the extra fun (and time consuming) stuff--the crafts! This is really important, because we can't actually assemble the driving crickets or the sound resistance bobbers without having the cart built or the floating house made. So on Tuesday we went to a craft store (love field trips), and bought:

-acryclic paint

-cheap paintbrushes

-six thin, light, and sturdy wood bars

-thick construction paper

and 

-a HUGE tub of clay

On Friday, CJ was sick (unhappy emoticon goes here), so I started working on the floating house. (The cart we think we'll make with the laser cutter, so I'd rather wait until she's with me to start designing that.) Two and half hours later, after lots of rulers, flying wooden bits, crazy glue, and bad youtube music, I built this much of the house! Note the aluminum inside, the hanging and swinging ball of aluminum, and beautiful craftsmanship.

 

Let's get down to business!!!

We're ready to start on our final projects! (This is actually inaccurate: we began two classes ago.) So CJ and I teamed up to bring 'Up' to life.
After some discussions, we decided to keep most of the plan I'd made with some modification and expansion.
The figurines will be on a base of 2 PicoCrickets, which will be controlled by a remote of 2 other Crickets. (CJ's thinking is that one cricket will control the right wheel, and the other cricket the left.) We wrote this program in which the remote Crickets send out specific infrared signals only when the button pressed, which make the wheel on the other Crickets turn when they receive them. It functions perfectly! So to go forward, you press both buttons at the same time, and to turn you press the corresponding wheel. (Each crickets gets a specific thread of programming.)

We also thought about what the actual presentation would be like. We imagined a full classroom, pull of hip-height cardboard obstacles that create a sort of maze. The Crickets will still be leading a house lifted by balloons, but CJ had a much better idea than covering everything in aluminum. She brought up the idea of covering the inside walls of the house with aluminum and hanging a ball of aluminum off the ceiling; this is perfect, because if the house knocks into anything or moves too quickly, the aluminum will touch and trigger a sound.
Speaking of sounds, CJ and I spent much of the first session getting different sounds for the project. Using Youtube and Dirpy, we got three categories of sounds: random sounds to play as the kids drive (like, 'Adventure is out there!' and my sister's beloved 'my knee hurts' scene); angry sounds (yells from Mr. Fredrickson and Russell); and specific moment sounds (like the score for the ending and the 'Ellie Badge' scene).
This is the program we wrote on Scratch for the playing random sounds in intervals and playing an angry sound when the house gets hit. The other programs are 'stage' sounds--so when the house passes the forest and picks up Kevin, the car will play sounds from when they meet Kevin in the movie and you will be able to place a Kevin figurine on the car.

CJ and I have also begun building the main car structure (which will carry all the figurines). It looks like this: (note the GEARING, size, and color.)

Apart from that, we've been chilling. We can't start on the obstacles until we've got the house and car rolling.

Later y'all,
Lucia