Technology

 

What Technologically Fun Things Are the Grade 9’s Up to?

By Shefaly Ray and James Kim
May 11, 2015

 

In the Grade 9 Exploring Technology course, the students have been experimenting with various types of new technologies. Some of the things they are focusing on over the last two units are using Makey Makey kits and Robotics from the Computer Technology unit as well as using Google SketchUp and 3D Printing in the Design Technology unit.

 

Makey Makey:

 

In this part of the unit, the Grade 9 students had to create a game or invention using Makey Makey kits. A Makey Makey kits connects to conductive everyday objects that turns the object into a touchpad for the user to use. The TIJ1O students had to apply this as well as the program Scratch to create a game for the assignment. Some examples of Makey Makey games created by the students were Whack-A-Mole, Punching Ghosts, Guitar Zap and many more!

 

Robotics:

 

In the Robotics part of Computer Technology, the Grade 9 students had a great experience with building Lego Mindstorm Robots and then programming them with Enchanting. It was exciting for them to control their self-built robots with various sensors like an RGB, Light, Ultrasonic and Touch sensors.

 

3D Printing:

 

3D printing is seen as one of the improving tech nowadays. It is capable of printing out anything that is connected to the software with the right application. This article will state how and why 3D printing will be “printing” our future life.3D printing is vastly improving; it has been 30 years since 3D printing existed. In 30 years, the 3D printing increased its effectiveness from a simple small model of fragile plastic into a tight, hard model with a strong plastic exoskeleton. Due to these applications, it is now possible for the 3D printing to be openly involved with our lives.

In the Design Technology unit, the Grade 9s are learning to use Google SketchUp to design their personalized key chains which are printed with the use of our 3D Printer. It was definitely an interesting experience to use Google SketchUp as a replacement for hand-drawn sketching.

 

 

OnePlus One Review

By Samyak Lunawat

 

OnePlus One is an exclusive and extraordinary looking phone that was launched in the market in April, 2014.

 

The first addition of OnePlus is a taller and slimmer phone compared to all the other smartphones in the market. Furthermore, it also has one of the best camera with 13 Megapixels of clarity with autofocus and dual-LED flash. Moreover, the internal memory of OnePlus One is 16 or 64GB including 3GB RAM. Furthermore, the battery life of OnePlus One is wonderful along with all its incredible features that it have, on casual use, the battery life can last up to 2 days. The phenomenal OnePlus One comes in silk white and sandstone black. Also, the price of the phone OnePlus One is relatively reasonable, HKD $2,558 for 16GB Silk White and HKD $2,998 for 64GB Sandstone Black.

 

Overall, the new OnePlus One is an outstanding phone with one of the best features that would doubtlessly make your lives dynamic. As a result, I would recommend to you that if you are in search of a new phone and still aren't able to make up your mind with other phones of Samsung, Apple, HTC or others then this phone would probably be a phone that you should consider.