March News

March News PDF Dropbox Link

The Alamo - Davy Crockett

Crockett was born in 1786 in Tennessee. He was a frontiersman, congressman, and a defender of the Alamo. A year after the war of 1812, Crockett enlisted in the Tennessee militia. In 1821 he became a member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives. During his political career, his fame, from reputation as a frontiersman, helped him with his re-election to Congress. In 1836, Crockett was killed during the Battle of Alamo in Texas.

[Source],[Source] :: [Video]

The Alamo - James Bowie

Bowie was born in 1796 in Kentucky. He was known by fighting with knives, and died with Davy Crockett defending the Alamo. The Bowie knife is associated with him.

[Source], [Source] :: [Video]

The Alamo - Before, During, and After

Early History

In 1718, the Alamo was built near the banks of the San Antonio River by spanish settlers. In the early 1800s, the spanish military troops were set up in the chapel. It was named "Alamo" because of its meaning of cottonwood, which is the type of tree they were surrounded in, and their hometown in Mexico. In 1821, the spanish government allowed 300 U.S. families to move to Texas, and after several years, many U.S. citzens were moving into Texas, which would later cause conflict.

The Battle

In 1835, a group of Texans captured  the Alamo, holding control of San Antonio. It was suggested by the commander-in-chief to abandon the fort because of small troop numbers, but they stayed anyway. Even after reinforcements being sent, the number never rose above 200 members, one being Davy Crockett. But on February 23, between 2,000-6,000 members following the orders of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna attacked the Alamo. The texans made it for 13 days before a wall was broken into, leaving a few amount of survivors.

After

After the battle, Mexican forces occupied the fort again. But in 1836, Sam Houston and about 800 Texans defeated the mexican force at San Jacinto. Santa Anna and Houston came to terms with one another to end the war. Today, the Alamo is a tourist site gaining 2.5 million visitors a year, which has several original structures from the mission period.

[Source], [Source] :: [Video], [Video], [Video]

App Inventor - Help Chris Joseph Snatch the Pitbull CDs [Choice #4, Get the Gold]

Dropbox Link

3rd World Farmer

Alamo - Minecraft (Days 2-5)

Here are the rest of my screenshots after Day 1.

Day 2

 I replaced the floor and fixed how the building looked by making it a little bit bigger.

I started on the stairs/ramp inside the building.

Day 3

 I finished most of the chapel, I got rid of the stairs/ramp to redo it.

I redid the stairs/ramp and I liked the way this looked better than the way I had it before.

Day 4

 I started to work on the building next to the chapel.

I finished a few of the buildings and started working on the walls and another building.

Day 5

I finished the surrounding wall and the few buildings connected to it.

I added some cannons to the back of the chapel and by the wall.

Algodoo - Loch Ness

Dropbox Link

Algodoo - Landslide

Dropbox Link

Algodoo - Deliver the Goods

Dropbox Link

Animated Season Cards

Robocraft - Final Post

Overall, I thought the game was alright. I liked how you can build your own vehicle and upgrade it, buy new items for it, and customize it, but I could see myself losing interest of it if I were to continue playing on my own. Fighting, then buying, then fighting, and buying again would feel too repetitive for me personally, but I do like it and it has been quite fun for the five days that we've been playing it.

Quick Game Play Guide:

When you start, you will be in your garage. You can access different menus by pressing tab. By going to your inventory you will find various items that you can place on your vehicle. Left Clicking will place an item, while Right Clicking will remove an item. You use the WASD keys to move around, and aim yourself with the mouse. If you want to rotate a block, use the scroll wheel to turn it how you want. If you want to build a bit faster, you can press X to turn on a line down the center and activate a mode which makes placing cubes symmetrical, which, in my opinion, saves time on building.

By playing battles (press tab and click on either Battle or Classic mode), you can earn money to buy items at the tech tree and cube depot. Here you can buy cubes and place them on your vehicle to make it better. You can also go into Practice Mode to get a feel of how the game works before you start playing with others. Again, you use the WASD keys to turn. To shoot, left click, and to zoom while you shoot, you can hold down on right click. If you get stuck, or flipped over, you can press F to fix your position, and get you back upright.

Robocraft - Day 5

I tried Battle Mode for the first time. I died very often and mostly drove around looking for other people to shoot, but our team managed to win.

 I got some money to spend from winning the battle and I bought a new gun from the tech tree and put them on my robot to try in another battle. 

I found out what you're supposed to do in the battle. Before I would just drive around and shoot people, but I realized I was supposed to either go to the opposing team's base and shoot the round things, or defend my own base. I just joined up with my teammates to shoot the enemy's base down. When you shoot them all off, then your team wins the battle.

My advice would be to keep fighting in battles so you can earn money and buy new items to put on your robot, or replace old cubes with more armored ones. When you keep upgrading and improving your robot you can win more battles.

Robocraft - Day 4

Michelle helped me figure out how to use the Tech Tree, which you can access by pressing tab and clicking on it, or just by pressing T. You can unlock cubes by gaining tech points from doing battles. When you buy them they will be available in your Cube Depot, where you can buy as many as you want, to add to your robot.

This is the cube depot, where you can buy cubes to build with. Here I was buying more Light Chassis Cubes because I ran out of them and I decided to make a new robot. This cube and a few other items are free in the shop.

 I started to build another robot and I accidentally hit something and a red line appeared. It made me place blocks symmetrically. To use this I figured out the key to activate it is X.

I found my new robot had a little better control, and after unlocking new cubes I had better protection from enemies. I went into classic battle mode a few times and sometimes our team won.

My advice would be to use the symmetrical tool because it helped me build my robot in about half the time it would have taken me because I don't need to keep checking the other side every time I place a block. I found it really helpful and used it to build my robot the entire time after I discovered it.

Robocraft - Day 3

I deleted the second robot in the garage and made my own. I didn't have a design I just made it. I tried to make it lighter by using only the light cubes and a few windshield pieces to cover the driver.

I tested my new robot out in practice mode. I don't think the steering is much better than the other robots in the garage. I discovered that if you only use the first wheels in the inventory, your robot will not turn at all, so I used both of them and even tried out using only the steering ones.

My advice would be to make the difference between the front and the back of the robot noticeable because mine looks similar and I keep forgetting which way is the front and I end up turning around in circles a lot and driving backwards.

Robocraft - Day 2

Today I learned how to get different blocks by either pressing tab and clicking Inventory or Q to get to the inventory. Here you can get blocks, wheels, guns, and more. You can place them on the robot by left clicking, or remove them by right clicking.

My advice: You can access other robots that are already made by going to your garage from pressing tab, or press G. There are three including the one that's already in your garage. To select it, just click on the slot and then click on the Load Robot button at the top right corner to use it. Under that button is where you can sell the robot to make money and have a free slot to save another robot you make. You can also buy a fourth slot if you have enough money.

Robocraft - Day 1

I downloaded Robocraft and launched it.

 I got an error but I verified my email and launched Robocraft again and I got in.

I went into practice mode to get used to playing. I got flipped or stuck between rocks a few times but I learned how to flip back by pressing F.

My advice is to stay away from rocks and mountains because you will get flipped if you try to drive over them.