Final Standings

Leader board at end of class

Parker B 226 levels completed

Emory K 183 levels completed

Grayson P 154 levels completed
Sophia W 131 levels completed
Elias U 125 levels completed
Jose C 122 levels completed

Riana A 107 levels completed
Jayvin N 96 levels completed
Sander R 89 levels completed
Tyler P 89 levels completed
Brody R 82 levels completed

Sadly, our time together has come to an end.

This week is our last week together. I need you to have all work completed and submitted by 5 pm on Thursday, June 4th so that I have a chance to compile grades.  
By Thursday, everyone should have completed at least 72 levels and the bonus for completing 100 levels is that I will go back to any of the weeks we have been out and you did not reach the limit for that week, I will raise your grade to 100 for each of those weeks. 
Your accounts should stay active through the end of June. You will see your improvement in the online scoreboard, along with all bragging rights that entails, but I will no longer be able to update grades at that point.  

Leader board right now
Alex M 249 levels completed
Parker B 226 levels completed

Emory K 183 levels completed

Grayson P 154 levels completed
Sophia W 131 levels completed
Elias U 125 levels completed
Jose C 122 levels completed

Riana A 106 levels completed
Jayvin N 96 levels completed

As of 1:00 pm 6/4


For those that are attempting the Python Gym, the first two levels do not give you any points the way they are written now, but after you finish them the way they are set up, if you select "Try Again" then copy and paste the code below into your coding panel, you will earn 100 points for each:

from robot import Robot

import time

robot = Robot({"communication":{"communication_manager_type":"js"}})

# start your code here:

robot.cs.drive_distance(1150)

A message from our school nurse

Nurse Kris sent this out this morning and I don't know how to get it to everyone that it might help

Please share with your school community:

Children who received free or reduced-price meals at school can get extra food benefits called Pandemic EBT or P-EBT, due to COVID-19. Families can get $365 per eligible child on a P-EBT card to use groceries. If families haven't received a P-EBT card in the mail, they can apply online thru June 30, 2020. More than 250,000 kids across San Diego County are eligible for $365 through P-EBT!

Find out if you’re eligible in less than 2 minutes, by applying at ca.p-ebt.org.

School Leaderboard

By the end of week 5, everyone should have completed at least 60 levels - these students have done a whole lot more

Alex M 249 levels completed
Parker B 225 levels completed

Emory K 183 levels completed

Grayson P 147 levels completed
Elias U 125 levels completed
Sophia W 125 levels completed
Jose C 122 levels completed

Riana A 106 levels completed
Jayvin N 96 levels completed

As of 6:30 am 5/30

Although you only need to get a total of 72 levels to earn a 100% for the 6 weeks, if you hit 100 levels, I will go back and change any missing CoderZ weeks to 100% as well.  Are you up to the challenge? You will still need to do one level a week so I know that you are trying, but if you get to 100, you will end out the year with six A+ grades in my gradebook. 8 students have done it so far.

For those that are attempting the Python Gym, the first two levels do not give you any points the way they are written now, but after you finish them the way they are set up, if you select "Try Again" then copy and paste the code below into your coding panel, you will earn 100 points for each:

from robot import Robot

import time

robot = Robot({"communication":{"communication_manager_type":"js"}})

# start your code here:

robot.cs.drive_distance(1150)

CoderZ Stole My Points

I had 7 levels left to complete in the Python Gym and I would have completed all 4 courses of CoderZ.  It was not for lack of trying that I could not get those last levels.  I spent over 4 hours on one, but every time I clicked on run to test my program, CoderZ would lock up and I would have to log out and log back in to make changes.  I let the engineers at Intelitek know and they "fixed" it.  They really did make everything better, but in the process they made it so teachers do not earn points for doing levels. I logged in today and competed a level before realizing my 37500 points were gone - oh, so close: ( 

Also, on a side note about wearing masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.  I see a lot of stupid people on TV that do not understand this pretty simple concept.  Masks do not protect the wearer from getting a virus, they help prevent a person from spreading a virus. Short of a full MOPP-IV suit that we wear in the military, the masks that you wear do not filter the air you are breathing in, it stops the air you are breathing out from traveling as far as it would without a covering. An N95 mask they wear in the ICU wards in a hospital filters out 95% of the airborne particles, not 100%. So, every medical worker puts their lives at risk taking care of people that did not follow the rules.
Washing your hands is still the best way to protect yourself, but wearing a mask blocks the spread of particulates when you talk, cough or sneeze. Many people are not showing symptoms when they are at a contagious stage and go out into public places spreading the virus while they feel perfectly healthy. 
California has done a great job at keeping our contagion numbers down, as of 6 pm on 5/13 we have about 40 million people living in California and had over 1 million people tested. Of those 73,000 were confirmed to have been infected with Covid-19. Right now only 7.3% of Californians that were tested ended up having the virus, that is only 0.18% of the total population because of how quickly we were told to shelter in place.  Please keep it up, if we keep our numbers low, the hospitals can do a better job keeping up and saving our lives.  

Attendance for GTT

In order to get credit for being in class each week, I need you to complete at least one level each week.  If for some reason you are not able to complete one level, shoot me an email to let me know. Cjohnson10@sandi.net - sorry, if you are one of those that have completed 100 or more levels, I understand if you take a break.  

THANK YOU - to all of those that keep powering through the levels.  This morning when I went to pull scores, I captured the levels from CoderZ Adventures, Cyber Robotics 101, Cyber Robotics 102 and the Python Gym.  By the time I got back to CoderZ Adventures, students had done another 22 levels.  - WAY TO GO!!!

CoderZ Week 2+

If you are not logged into your school account to play CoderZ, you might be one of the anonymous accounts that I cannot give credit to, because you are signed in as "Anonymous" 
- and with two other students that are not from our class and did not complete any levels, as a class, you still averaged 19.7 levels that first week. 

Once again - If you have contact information for your friends from class, reach out to them and see how they are doing. Not just on CoderZ, but life itself. Use the power of social media for good even when evil seems like more fun.

It is not too late to check CANVAS and pull up your grade on old work. Late work can be turned in until June 3rd.


If you get stuck, do not hesitate to please let me know at cjohnson10@sandi.net. Any drawing levels do not give you an end target, just play around for a few minutes then move on. You do not earn 100 points for those levels.

Step 1 - I have done Step 1 for everyone that is enrolled in my classes because some of you were having difficulty with it. Please go to Step 2.

Step 2 - Make sure you are logged in to Chrome using your ID#@stu.sandi.net as your email. Go to play.gocoderz.com Then just use the Sign in with Google option to sign in - please do not click on "Log in", it might give you strange error messages.

If you are on CoderZ Adventures to earn 100 points (A+), you should have done the first 13 levels. If you are on Cyber Robotics 101, it was 12 levels and if you are on Cyber Robotics 102 it was 16 levels. If you are beyond that, way to go!, you have a head start over every one else. If you did not make it that far this week, you will need to do about 12 levels a week to earn the 100 points (A+) If you are already past that point, by the end of next week, try to be beyond 24 levels total. For week 3 try to be beyond 36 levels. If you have already done 314 levels like me, I think you are pretty safe.

This is the level I am working on this week -

I cannot get the magnetic arm to lower and my sonar is not working - but the Python Gym is still just in a Beta Test phase which we are helping out on if you make it that far.

Attendance

As a de Portola teacher, I have been asked to take role for the weeks we have been away from campus.  If you contacted me in any way since March 13th, you will be given credit for being at school the entire time.  However, we are still missing some students that I have not been able to get hold of.  If you have contact with the following students, please tell them to check out the CoderZ post from last week, or even shoot me an email at cjohnson10@sandi.net - remember grading starts up again on Monday 4/27.  

From Period 1 - Meshack, or Jorge
From Period 2 - Lian, Marcos, Micah, Roselia or Jordan
From Period 3 - MJ, Tarran, Brianna, or Dillon
From Period 5/6 - Caua, or Lucas
From Period 7 - Ben

I currently have 2 students logged in as "anonymous" meaning that they did not follow the directions below, but also that I don't know who to give points to. If you see a zero in PowerSchool and you have done levels, it might be you.

CoderZ

Welcome back - We are up to 133 out of 153 students signed in to CoderZ. They wrote to me to tell me that out of the 5000 schools that signed up across the U.S., we are in the top 25. Please keep up the great work.

If you have contact information for your friends from class, reach out to them and see how they are doing. Not just on CoderZ, but life itself. Use the power of social media for good even when evil seems like more fun.

It is not too late to check CANVAS and pull up your grade on old work. Late work can be turned in until June 3rd.


If you get stuck, do not hesitate to please let me know at cjohnson10@sandi.net.

Step 0 - if you are not logged into your school account to use Google Chrome, please log out of your parent's gmail account you are in and sign into your ID#@stu.sandi.net account. If not, it will log you in as your parents and it confuses me when I go to give out points.

Step 1 - (only the first time you go to play) Go to play.gocoderz.com and select “Join a Class” to join the class, not log in. The code for Mr. J’s class is slimyfootball - all lowercase, all one word - it was not my choice, it was randomly generated - although one of my daughter’s favorite Sesame Street characters is Slimy the worm and she would think that him playing football was hilarious. 

Step 2 - (Every time after the first time you go to play) Make sure you are logged in to Chrome using your ID#@stu.sandi.net as your email. Then just use the Sign in with Google option to sign in - please do not click on "Log in", it might give you strange error messages.

Step 3 - Once logged in, you will have 4 sets of projects to choose from.  Please start at Novice despite some of you having more advanced programming skills.  The activities will guide you through the use of Blockly to code an EV3 robot through a series of challenges that get more and more difficult as you go.

Starting on the 27th, I will be assigning 2 missions a week. Please get out ahead of this and start it now. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at cjohnson10@sandi.net

For those that can't get back into CoderZ after that1st time:

For those that read this far, please use social media to help out your friends and classmates. This does not have to be done alone, but everyone must complete the levels on their own account to earn credit. Challenge a friend to see who can do the most levels - other than Parker, you are not going to be able to beat Parker - he was ahead of me until yesterday - it took me 6 hours to catch up and pass him. Great work Parker!

Stay safe

this is the level I am working on this week -

Advisory

Hey everyone - even if you do not have me for advisory - Mrs. Jaramillo would like everyone to still be checking out her principal's message every week.  It is the first link on the right of this screen.  Please stay informed - watch it for yourself

If you are in my advisory class - please ignore my Canvas announcements that make it look like I am teaching math.  With my tech skills, I am trying to help out Mrs. Hoff and Mr. Labrador get Canvas up and running and the only free space I had was in advisory.  - Sorry

Welcome Back -

Welcome back - We are up to 120 out of 153 students signed in. If you have contact information for your friends from class, reach out to them and see how they are doing. If you have friends that do not have Internet access, the district is handing out devices for de Portola on April 22, 2020 between 9:00-12:30pm at Scripps Ranch HS. If you are not able to get to Scripps Ranch and need a device, please contact Mrs. Jaramillo at jjaramillo@sandi.net and arrangements may be made to have it delivered to you.

One person has signed into CoderZ that does not like points. They signed up as "Anonymous" - if I don't know who you are, I don't know who to give the credit to.

If you get stuck, do not hesitate to please let me know at cjohnson10@sandi.net.

It is not too late to check CANVAS and pull up your grade on old work.

For those that had not already started, I am going to switch everyone over to Lego EV3 - Amazon has a great version of it for us to use - play.gocoderz.com if you are in my class, please click join class, then use the code "slimyfootball" to join my class and enter your information so that I can give you credit.  If you are not in my class, you will need to get a code from your teacher, or go to:

https://gocoderz.com/amazon-future-engineer/?utm_source=Email_Campaign&utm_medium=Amazon&utm_campaign=2020

and follow the links you find there to explore on your own.

Below will be the instructions on how to use it:

Step 0 - if you are not logged into your school account to use Google Chrome, please log out of your parent's gmail account you are in and sign into your ID#@stu.sandi.net account. If not, it will log you in as your parents and it confuses me when I go to give out points.

Step 1 - Go to play.gocoderz.com and select “Join a Class” to join the class, not log in. The code for Mr. J’s class is slimyfootball - all lowercase, all one word - it was not my choice, it was randomly generated - although one of my daughter’s favorite Sesame Street characters is Slimy the worm and she would think that him playing football was hilarious. 

Step 2 - Use the Sign in with Google option to sign in using your ID#@stu.sandi.net as your email and your password that you use to log into computers at school as your password. 

Step 3 - Once logged in, you will have 3 sets of projects to choose from.  Please start at Novice despite some of you having more advanced programming skills.  The activities will guide you through the use of Blockly to code an EV3 robot through a series of challenges that get more and more difficult as you go.

At this stage, we are just trying to get everyone logged in and working you can either use smart blocks or code using Java, it is up to you. Starting on the 27th, I will be assigning 4 missions a week. Please get out ahead of this and start it now. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at cjohnson10@sandi.net

For those that can't get back into CoderZ

For those that read this far, please use social media to help out your friends and classmates. This does not have to be done alone, but everyone must complete the levels on their own account to earn credit. Challenge a friend to see who can do the most levels - other than Parker, you are not going to be able to beat Parker - he was ahead of me until yesterday - it took me 6 hours to catch up and pass him. Great work Parker!

Stay safe

Virtual Robot Academy

Okay - I did not get any response from my PowerPoint Maze projects from students, so lets get back to what we know how to do.This is going to get a little crazy - right now all of you have seen and worked with either a VEX EDR or Lego EV3 robotics system.  Obviously, those are locked up in my classroom and I can't get them out for you to use, but I would still like to be able to get you to understand how to program the robots before we return to school - 

I found RobotC online at http://www.robotc.net/download/vexrobotics/ and found to make it work you need you to go to http://www.robotvirtualworlds.com/download/ and download the software for the robot you are going to use.  It works great but the trial period only lasts 10 days. By the time some of you started to use it, others' trials would already be over. 

So, instead, I am going to switch everyone over to Lego EV3 - Amazon has a great version of it for us to use - play.gocoderz.com if you are in my class, please click join class, then use the code "slimyfootball" to join my class and enter your information so that I can give you credit.  If you are not in my class, you will need to get a code from your teacher, or go to:

https://gocoderz.com/amazon-future-engineer/?utm_source=Email_Campaign&utm_medium=Amazon&utm_campaign=2020

and follow the links you find there to explore on your own.

Below will be the instructions on how to use it:

Step 1 - Go to play.gocoderz.com and select “Join a Class” to join the class, not log in. The code for Mr. J’s class is slimyfootball - all lowercase, all one word - it was not my choice, it was randomly generated - although one of my daughter’s favorite Sesame Street characters is Slimy the worm and she would think that him playing football was hilarious. 

Step 2 - Use the Sign in with Google option to sign in using your ID#@stu.sandi.net as your email and your password that you use to log into computers at school as your password. 

Step 3 - Once logged in, you will have 3 sets of projects to choose from.  Please start at Novice despite some of you having more advanced programming skills.  The activities will guide you through the use of Blockly to code an EV3 robot through a series of challenges that get more and more difficult as you go.

Maze Mania

Sorry you have to be logged into your stu.sandi.net account to view these files correctly.  I am working on creating everything outside the district's servers, but it is a slow process. Check out www.mrjsotherroom.blogspot.com and see if it works better for you - please let me know.

Okay, for Anna, Thomas and all of the other kids that keep checking my site just in case I post something good, this lesson was created a long time ago - I had two previous students (Max and Alex) return to my class from their sophomore year at UCLA.  They were working on a degree in video game design. WHAT!?!? They were actually going to college to learn to design video games? Yes, they were taking classes in video game concepts to help them create their own video games.

The game they were assigned to create their second year was based on an old Atari game called Asteroids and they created it using a "jump to" feature in Microsoft PowerPoint.  I could not find the one that they had given me to play as it was years ago, but I found THIS ONE online.  

It got me started thinking about using PowerPoint at a middle school level to have my students come up with their own games.  Over the next few weeks I will be publishing game making videos and look forward to any creations you come up with to share with others.  

If you have fun creating these on your own, please share this website with others.  If you think of ways to make it better shoot me an email at cjohnson10@sandi.net.  Feel free to share your creations with me through your Google drive and I will link them at the bottom for others to see and use.  

Have fun!

Maze Mania - Part 1

if you have trouble viewing this video here, try it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/DmeqczKyiFw
For written instructions (.pdf) from within our district click here

Maze Mania - Part 2 - Moving Walls

if you have trouble viewing this video here, try it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/4cZfIeBirr4
For written instructions (.pdf) from within our district click here

Maze Mania - Part 3 - Triggers

if you have trouble viewing this video here, try it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/9Gn0PtN-tLU
For written instructions (.pdf) from within our district click here

PowerPoint Maze Template

PowerPoint Maze 2

My PowerPoint Maze with Old School Levels

to get past the Zelda levels you might have to ask your mom or dad if they remember how to get out of the lost forest - it's that old

Check Canvas

Right now, I am not assigning any new work.  Please use this time to look back through your assignments in Canvas and make sure that everything is turned in to the best of your ability. A zero on an assignment means that you did not turn anything in. Please get something turned in so that I can grade it.

Citizenship Self Assessment

Today in class, everyone will be filling out a Citizenship Self Assessment.  We will be going over the instructions as a group but each student will fill out the Google Sheet as an individual.  Please make a copy of the Citizenship Self Assessment into your GTT Turn in Folder.  Being honest about your behavior for the last grading period, please fill in the score for each category that best describes your efforts, then submit it into Canvas.

While you are waiting for everyone else to get logged in, please make a copy of this Citizenship Rubric into your Google Drive.  This part does not have to be put into your GTT Turn in Folder as you will not be turning the rubric in.  It is simply a reference for you to use so that you can keep improving your citizenship grade in this class. 

6.2.3 Resistance

Please make sure your kit is in order at the beginning and end of every build session

For the lesson today, you are going to use your multi-meter and a few resistors to explore resistance

Step 1) Open the worksheet for 6.2.3 Resistance.  Please make a copy into your GTT Turn in Folder to be turned in before the end of class on Friday.  You may also want to open up 6.2.3a Resistance Color Bands, but there is nothing to fill out or turn in on it.

Step 2) Watch the video below for background knowledge and the circuits that you will need to design today. You will want to answer the questions while watching the video, pausing and rewinding as needed.

Step 3) Using the calculator built in to your computer, please calculate the resistance based on the color codes then use your multi-meter to check the actual resistance.

Step 4) For the last part, use the "insert" tab at the top of the Google Doc to create a colored rectangle to take the place of the color code on each of the resistors shown.

If you are from outside our district, requesting access does not work.  All of my files are set to "shared" with anyone whom has the link, the videos are being blocked at the district level on both sides.  If you have your teacher email me at cjohnson10@sandi.net, I will gladly share all of my files. PLEASE do not "request access" it does not do any good.

6.2.2 Switches, Diodes and LEDs

Please make sure your kit is in order at the beginning and end of every build session

For the lesson today, you are going to use a Snap Circuit Kit to design and explore switches, diodes and LEDs - Please use the 3 volt side of the power supply module only.

Step 1) Open the worksheet for 6.2.2 Switches, Diodes and LEDs.  Please make a copy into your GTT Turn in Folder to be turned in before the end of class on Friday.  

Step 2) Watch the video below for background knowledge and the circuits that you will need to design today. Use the "insert" tab at the top of the Google Doc to create a drawing of your schematic of each circuit that is shown in the video.

Step 3) Using the Snap Circuit Kit and working with your partner, you will build a circuit with a lamp and slide switch, a motor with a push button, a diode with a lamp and a diode with an LED.  

6.2.1 Circuit Design

Please make sure your kit is in order at the beginning and end of every build session

For the lesson today, you are going to use a Snap Circuit Kit to design and test series, parallel, and combination circuits

Step 1) Open the worksheet for 6.2.1 Circuit Design.  Read it all of the way through and make a copy into your GTT Turn in Folder to be turned in before Friday.  

Step 2) Watch the video below for background knowledge and the circuits that you will need to design today. Use the "insert" tab at the top of the Google Doc to take a picture using your web cam to show that you built each circuit that is shown in the video.

Step 3) Using the Snap Circuit Kit and working with your partner, you will build a series, parallel and combination circuit and answer all of the related questions.  


If you are from outside our district, requesting access does not work.  All of my files are set to "shared" with anyone whom has the link, the videos are being blocked at the district level on both sides.  If you have your teacher email me at cjohnson10@sandi.net, I will gladly share all of my files. PLEASE do not "request access" it does not do any good.

6.1.6 Generators

For the lesson today, you are going to use VEX parts to design and test a hand crank generator

Step1) Open the worksheet for 6.1.6 Generators.  Read it all of the way through and make a copy into your GTT Turn in Folder to be turned in before Friday.  

Your prototype will be graded based on this rubric - please read it all of the way through before starting your build. Design Brief for you to fill in, but it does not need to be turned in.

Step 2) Watch the video below for some building tips that may be useful in your build today.

Step 3) Using the VEX parts from your Basic Kit, and working with your group mates, design and build a prototype for a hand crank generator that will provide a near constant power supply to light your LED.

If the video above fails to load, try watching it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/7Zg2C6FoAa0 

GTT Testbed Programming Instructions

If you are from outside our district, requesting access does not work.  All of my files are set to "shared" with anyone whom has the link, the videos are being blocked at the district level on both sides.  If you have your teacher email me at cjohnson10@sandi.net, I will gladly share all of my files. PLEASE do not "request access" it does not do any good.

RobotC Intro - Part 1 - Getting Started

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/yVuhOIvt6o4

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    Set up RobotC to use the VEX 2.0 Cortex using Natural Language PLTW

    Set the Compiler Target and Download the Firmware to your VEX Cortex

RobotC Intro - Part 2 - Motor and Sensor Setup

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/cbQIB2w1UBs

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    Open a PLTW Template and save it as VEX Tested Practice XX

    Use pseudocode to annotate your programs

    Set up the GTT Testbed Configuration and apply the motor and sensors 

RobotC Intro - Part 3 - Programming Motors

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/PPpqXp4fQ-8

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    Set up a motor with a start function, wait function and stop function for it to work

On your own, you are challenged to:

     Figure out how to turn on the right motor, left motor and claw motor (forward and reverse)

RobotC Intro - Part 4 - Naming Motors and Turns

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/bEUmfTC_VCA

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    Rename code in a program so you use the proper name instead of the port number

    Make your robot do a point turn and how to fix your robot from turning 

On your own, you are challenged to:

     Use the untilBump function to start your program

     also not mentioned in the video, use the untilBump function to stop your program

RobotC Intro - Part 5 - Potentiometer and Limit Switch (for summer camps we will skip the potentiometer - but the Limit Switch is very useful)

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/EHToqO9_oNE

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    The potentiometer works

On your own, you are challenged to:

    Use the untilPotentiometerLessThan function to turn left

    Use the untilPotentiometerGreaterThan function to turn right

    Use the untilTouch function along with the limit switch to make the robot go in reverse

RobotC Intro - Part 6 - Solution to Potentiometer (Again - for summer camps we will skip the potentiometer - but the Limit Switch is very useful)

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/_RJRtavYHuo

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    What the solution to the potentiometer looks like

On your own, you are challenged to turn on an LED after the limit switch is touched

RobotC Intro - Part 7 - Line Tracker (for summer camps we will skip the line tracker - this is left here as a resource to others out there working with VEX and RobotC)

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/xdB6MYIAt7k

By the end of this video you should know how to:     

    That it is important to always compile the program and download it to the Cortex 

    That unless you tell the LED to turn off, it will stay on until the battery goes dead

On your own, you are challenged to add a line sensor to shut down the program

RobotC Intro - Part 8 - Last

To watch this on YouTube - https://youtu.be/Z8rrWEZW7Wg