CS4HS Idea

Samsung, iPhone, LG are all examples of popular cell phones brands. In today's world, cell phones are everything to us. They let us communicate world wide, get directions in seconds and even play pointless games for fun. But how did our phones today become what they are? That is my topic I will be discussing at the CS4HS Annual Student Showcase and Competition at SUNY Buffalo State.

CS4HS is an annual grant program sponsored by Google promoting computer science education worldwide by connecting educators to the skills and resources they need to teach computer science & computational thinking concepts in fun and relevant ways. Our team at SUNY Buffalo State has been honored to present a workshop in the CS4HS program for over 150 Western New York Middle and High School teachers for six summers. The CS4HS Student Showcase and Competition represents the results of a number of these teachers starting computer science clubs and offering computer science classes at their schools.

Today's phones are so advanced that they are better than the computers used to send Neil Armstrong to the moon. "Put simply, the iPhone 6's clock is 32,600 times faster than the best Apollo era computers and could perform instructions 120,000,000 times faster. You wouldn't be wrong in saying iPhone could be used to guide 120,000,000 Apollo era spacecraft to the moon, all at the same time." says ZME Science. So if an iPhone 6 can do that, imagine the power of the iPhone X. So all of this sparked part of my brain do find out how phones became this way. So I'll do research and present my findings at the CS4HS program. 

NASA Test

NASA makes astronauts take tests to see if they are qualified to be an astronaut. I just took one of the exams that they have to take and it was rather difficult. I had to look at an image and see what shape was within it and it started off easy but then got harder and harder. I couldn't imagine what it would be like for them to do it with a time limit and under so much pressure. It was a great learning experience and I would encourage everybody to take one of the exams and really get an appreciation for what they do to be space worthy.

Kindness Week

This week in my school it is Kindness Week. A week where everyone focuses on doing kind deeds and gestures. For a project I wrote a thank you card to a teacher that has done a lot for me and the school. After I wrote the note it made me feel at ease. When I got done writing I felt happy because this person deserves this card and thanks but not a lot of people do it for him. Also by doing something nice to others, I felt glad as a person. I encourage everyone to write a thank you note and do an act of kindness because it really does make you feel good on the inside.

If I Won The Lottery...

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery at some point in their life. But if I won the lottery there are so many options to do with that money. The first thing I would buy with the winnings is a better house for me and my family to live in, but still stay within our home town. It would be somewhere In the woods, near a stream but still close enough to my friends I could bike to their houses. It would be two stories with two bathrooms and three bed rooms. It will be filled with new couches, chairs and furniture. It will have a basement where we would keep our hot tub, gaming room and storage space.

The gaming room would include a mini bar, three 4K QLED Samsung TV's for our X'Box One X, Play Station 4 Pro 4 and Nintendo Switch. It will include a couch, two recliners and a glass table in the middle. There will also be surround sound with Bose's Speakers. The ceiling will have LED strips of lights that change color throughout the day. In a corner there will be a bed so when friends come over they can sleep there or I can if I'm to lazy to go upstairs to my bedroom. 

Another thing I might buy is the 2019 Ski-Doo Renegade X custom painted black and green, has heated handles, back seat for a passenger and will have LED headlights with LED strips of green life for underneath. There will be a sticker on it that makes it look like a topographic map  I would also get a matching snowsuit for it. I would do this because snowmobiling is one of my favorite activities to do in the winter. I would use it everyday there is snow and if there isn't snow, I will travel north to where there is snow. The colors I chose are some of my favorite color combination and it just looks awesome. 

The last thing I would buy would be nothing. I would save it and invest it so that I will always have it and hopefully increase it so my children never have to worry about financial issues in their life. I would also use some of the saving to pay for college and pay off my student loans as soon as possible so that burden on my life goes way. 

Those are all the things I would buy, what would you buy if you won the lottery?  

The Gloves

If I had magic gloves it will have four abilities. They will enable me to write neat, type fast, have super grip and be sticky at times. I would need them to help improve my writing so people can read my handwriting and I won't be afraid to write out my homework instead of typing everything. On the other hand, for the activities that I would need to type for, I would like to type faster so I could get my work done, giving me more free time to hang with friends and work on sports.

I would use these gloves for sports as well. In foot ball they would turn sticky when the ball gets near my hands so that I can catch every ball effortlessly. By doing so I could get a scholarship for free college and go to Nation Football League (NFL) so that my life will be a great success and I can give my family and friends           whatever they need to show how much I care about them.

Finally I would use them in my favorite sport, lacrosse. By them having super grip, then I can run up and down the field not worrying about getting the stick knocked out of my hands, not that I need that anyway. This could lead to, like mentioned earlier, scholarships and going to the Nation Lacrosse League (NLL) or Major League Lacrosse (MLL). Both would make my life amazing and I'd be the happiest person alive.

Recently I have read an article from the magazine Wired. It was named No Sleep For Bees Just Use Magnets. I was written by Leah Shaffer about the work of Barrett Klein. The main idea was that humans don't function as well when they are tired. So Barrett Klein hooked magnets to the feet of bees and kept them awake to see if they have a similar reaction to humans. The most surprising thing I found out was that they do react the same way because I didn't know that insects need sleep  like humans do. One question I have for this article is since when we ship bee farms and keep them awake does that make the honey a lower quality? I'd like to learn how other animals react to not getting enough sleep so see how many species get affected like humans do. The topic of not getting sleep effecting humans work is something worth doing more research about especially since video games and phones keep people up later than they use to. The same because this issue has been growing and will be a continue to grow.

Mini Autobiography

Hello, my name is Justin. I am currently a Junior at Alden High School. I am a very athletic person. I run track and play football for my school. I also play lacrosse for a travel team called the Buffalo Storm. Another extracurricular activity I participate in is the play and musical at my school.  One of my favorite things to do with my free time is go in the woods and take pictures of the flora and fauna. My plans for the future are to be an engineer, hopefully one relating to a biochemical engineer. I do not have any college picked out as of right now but I am working on doing research to find the right one for me.