# Testing share from the sl4a editor
import android, math  droid = android.Android()  pi = 3.14159 print ‘  pi: ‘, pi print ‘Sine: ‘, math.sin(-3.1) print ‘Sine: ‘, math.sin(3.1) print ‘Sine: ‘, math.sin(pi) print ‘Sine: ‘, math.sin(pi / 2) print ‘Sine: ‘, math.sin(3 * pi / 2)

App Inventor implemented a new feature for saving canvas images. What we need for data collection and analysis.

With the upgrade of my phone to Android 2.2, I can finally try some of the more demanding apps. I watched a Google talk about i Robot’s initiatives. The speaker demonstrated their test interface with cellbots.

This is a serendipity of my testing the web-based interface. Represents the possibilities!

Next time I’ll be more aware of back light.

I’ve been using a potentiometer as an element in circuits fire testing Arduino hardware and software.  I understand the theory of trim pots but the details of their construction have been a black box. So, I dissected a trim pot and more I have a much better grounding for understanding and using them. I wanted to share that by taking a picture. But when I tried to use my phone’s camera, the photos were not satisfactory.

This morning, I read about research at UC Davis using cheap lenses to create low-cost but careful microscopes using smart phone cameras. Inspired by their simple approach, I searched for a lens. I couldn’t find the one I wanted so Kate reminded me about the objective lenses on our surplus dissecting scope.

The colored disk is about seven millimeters in diameter. While I clearly need some refinement in technique, this looks like very promising approach!

Dani, a member of the Bowdoin College Robotics Team, gives Mt.Ararat middle school students a close encounter with Spock, a soccer playing robot.

Frequent cycles of improvement give users more capacity but come at the cost of non-stop relearning. For example, I have tried unsuccessfully to learn how to zoom with the camera in my phone for several weeks. I’ve tried multi touch, menus, settings, and any other approach I could find. I even tried the help documentation!

Last night I finally discovered the rocker switch. Android phones don’t standardize physical buttons so they favor software solutions. That bias lead me to overlook the physical switch as a solution to my problem. But every phone has a volume rocker switch. It makes sense in retrospect but it took me a surprisingly long time to discover the solution.

So, I discovered the control but did not have enough time to get proficient and got in trouble. I zoomed in and then I forgot the change. Later when I tried to take some photos, I had difficulty with camera stabilization. Zooming in requires more stablilization. This photo shows the challenge.

Brooke Smith, junior, and Rebecca Sandlin, parent, serve on the committee and helped to present the plan to the School Board. The Board clearly values these perspectives.

The winter of 2011 has deposited the most snow in history. ITeam is learning about Creative Commons and attribution. We took these pictures to share at MediaWiki Commons.

Summer wants to learn more about pharmacy a a career. We needed a photo to depict that context. This one comes from the local RiteAid.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJROTMzT1dPUEFPT1UxWUFPaEdNWEE6MQ&ndplr=1

What can ITeam learn from the pros?