2018 in Review, Exams of Robotics

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2018 in Review

By: Sajal Shukla 2018 was a very influential year in the world. There were many bad and good events that took place, but they all contributed to a very unique year. As the year 2018 has come to an end, let’s take a look at some of the major events that happened this year. One of the first major events that happened in 2018 were the winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Ninety-six coun- tries came together to compete in various winter sports such as ski- ing, curling, figure skating, and ice hockey. One of our very own alumni, Kendall Coyne, competed with the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, which one gold at the competition. Overall, the U.S. won nine gold, eight silver, and six bronze metals. Another event that took place this year was the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people died in the shooting, making it the largest school shooting in U.S. history. Though this event was catastrophic, it brought up important discussions about gun control in the United States. It also brought people together to mourn the loss of those seventeen lives and to see how we can bring about positive change in the world. Something else that happened this year was the royal wedding that took place in England. Meghan Markle made his- tory as the first divorced, biracial American woman to marry someone in the royal family. The marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a beautiful moment people all over the world were able to celebrate. Continued on next page

The disastrous wildfires that took place in California this fall were also a significant event that oc- curred in 2018. From August to November, much of California was overtaken by several wildfires that spi- raled out of control and caused so much destruction throughout the state. One of these fires, the Camp Fire, was the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. It caused over 80 fatalities and $16.5 billion in damage. Many people who had to be evacuated from their homes came back to nothing. Although this event was truly sad, there were many stories of heroism that came out of it. There were stories of neigh- bors helping neighbors and people putting themselves at risk to save animals. These acts of heroism helped give us hope through these difficult times. Another event that occurred in 2018 was the midterm elections. Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and Republicans remained in control of the Senate. It was an election with many interesting races in different states throughout our country. Also, a record number of women were elected into Congress during these elections. As Americans, it was an exciting day for us all to see democracy taking place within our country. In the year 2018, there were several positive and negative events that made history, but they all brought us together in different ways. It will definitely be a year to remember.

Everyone’s Favorite Teacher,

Mrs. Partin!!

By: Ariana Iglesia and Samantha Miller Q: Which grade do you enjoy teaching the most? A: “I enjoy 6 th most because the students are very sweet and have many new things to learn.” Q: If you could teach any other subject, what would it be? A: “Language Arts. I love teaching novel studies and grammar. Q: What’s your favorite music genre and artist? A: “My favorite music genre is pop. I like Pitbull and Bruno Mars!” Q: What’s your favorite TV show and movie? A: “My favorite show is the Bachelor/Bachelorette. My favorite movie is Dirty Dancing.” Q: What do you enjoy about Schoology? A: “Being able to provide classroom work and assignments in a paperless fashion.” Q: What is your zodiac sign? A: “My zodiac sign is Taurus.” Q: What’s something funny your kids do? A: “Play cops and robbers with their power wheels!”

Body Language By: Bane Carver Hi, I am Bane Carver/Erin Hayes. Today I am going to teach you about body language. (Just going to warn you it gets creepy be- cause you may not even know you are doing this) (But I do.) I am going to show you some body language to look out for when you are with others. (Like friends, family, teachers, people in general) Once you read this and pay attention to body language you are going to notice it more. (Just going to say it is sometimes creepy) Some of this you are unconscious or unaware of, others you may know you are doing it. Signal number 1 Feet Pointing So feet pointing is a big one. Let's say for example you are talking to a friend or a stranger you should pay attention to their feet. Particularly where their feet are pointing. Little do people know, our feet (secretly ) tell us where we want to go, what we are paying attention to, and what are brains are telling us to do. If your feet are pointing towards someone, that means you are paying attention to them, or engaged in conversation, you are just interested in the topic and that you are not planning on going anyway anytime soon! If someone’s feet are pointed away from you, they are not really engaged in the conversation and possibly their attention is some- where else. If someone’s feet point to the door, that means they want to leave the conversation immediately. Or they really are not interested in the topic, or they have something pressing on their mind. Signal number 2 Lying Lying is also really hard to detect in someone. (if they are good at it) But it is still easy to detect with these signs. When people lie they tend to change their head position quickly. The head will be retracted or jerked back, bowed down, or cocked or tilted to the side .Their breathing may also change. They will start to breath heavier because they are nervous that you might find out that they are lying to you. Their voice may become shallow and their shoulders won’t be relaxed; they also tend to stand very still because they are holding the lie in. A person may also touch or scratch their nose if they are lying due to a tense feeling or nervousness. Additionally, a person might tend to fidget. They also may be staring or rapidly blinking. Researchers from the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. Have stated that people normally blink 15-20 seconds per minute. So if someone is blinking more than that, they are very nervous for some reason.

What did Meat-eating dinosaurs act like? BY: Elliott Cabrera When someone thinks of a predatory dinosaur, they think of T-rex and the great giants of the cretaceous period. People think of the strong, smart dinosaurs portrayed in Jurassic Park. Dinosaurs did not really act the way they are portrayed in movie. What did they act like? The giant Theropods Theropods are most of the carnivores dinos known to man. T-rex. Giganotosaurus. Spinosaurus. All of these dinosaurs were huge. These Theropods named, are some of the biggest, but how did they act? Well, they hunted big game such as triceratops and iguanodon. After hunting they would have gotten very drowsy and the fell into a deep sleep. They would sleep for a long time. During this time, you might think they would be at- tacked. But no; most dinosaurs feared these giants. After getting a good rest, they would hunt again. The young ones would maybe play with each other. Dinosaurs were smart and social creatures. Their brains were bigger than a lizard. The small theropods. You have heard about velociraptor from Jurassic park. 1 They were not the size shown in the movie - WAY smaller. 2 They were not as reptilian as in the movie. They had feathers. You might have even heard about utahraptor. The largest of the Drom- aeosaur family. (raptor family). These dinosaurs led much more interesting lives than the big dinos. They had to constantly fight for territory and food. In the book, Raptor Red , the author, Robert T Bakker dramatizes the utahraptors life. With brawls for mates, and battles with their enemies, the Yellow snouts. They most likely led a life of warfare. These dinosaurs were defi- nitely killers. The dinosaurs “ending” No asteroid could wipe out the therapod family. The asteroid hit and the herbivores died immediately after. Saying that an as- teroid hit and wiped out all dinosaurs is wrong. We know some apocalyptic event happened. A slice of rock was examined hav- ing a span of millions of years. There was a line and before that line there were dinosaur fossils found in the rock. But above the line the dinosaur fossils are not found. This line has become infamous in the paleontological community. What is it? And why is it there? The “raptors” survived, feeding off carcasses of dead bodies. Also, modern birds lived at the end of the cretachous peri- od. So dinosaurs were already evolving. But still the dinosaurs “end” is a mystery. Ending So, know you know a little more about dinosaurs! Giganotosaurus

Sea Slugs by John Pempek When you think of the word “slug”, you don’t probably think about an incredibly beautiful animal. However, there is a good chance that you will be amazed at the extraordinary, unique, colors and patterns on sea slugs. The pictures below can show this. As the photographs show, sea slugs have made many people think of the word “slug” in a very different way. If these pictures interest you in any way, then keep reading this article to learn more about these incredible, unique, and sometimes downright bizarre animals.

Combat Robotics -

getting started guide

By Elliott Cabrera

It is August 11 th , 2018. In the Peoria civic center. It is a convention; there are booths of arts and crafts. But hidden away in the back, is what this article is mostly about the CIRC (Central Illinois Robotics Club) robot competition. WHAT IS ROBOT COMBAT? It is not a robot boxing match. It is hobby robotics. If you have ever built a remote controlled race car, you are doing hobby RC work. Same thing. You use mo- tors and other parts you would find inside a remote controlled car. WHAT IS ROBOT COMBAT LIKE? Robot combat is basically 2, homemade robots go and have weapons such as spinners, wedges, flippers, launchers, and sometimes fire. The matches are fun to watch. Robots are flung across the arena, pieces everywhere. My uncle was competing on August 11. I got a special view behind the scenes. After a robot leaves the arena, the team goes to the pits to fix their robot for their next fight Here is a video for a fight at CIRC The robots in the video are beetle weight= 3 pounds

BUILDING A ROBOT-

To build a robot, you don’t need to be rich. It depends. If you want to buy titanium for armor, that could be hundreds. But if you want to use some aluminum for a wedge, that could be 15

• 30 - 100 dollars. I am in the process of making a beetle weight. I use Lexan for body armor and some aluminum for a wedge. I will make a separate article for how to build a robot. WARNING! KNOW HOW TO BUILD A ROBOT AND THE SAFTY BEFORE ATTEMPTING! LIPO BATTERIES HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO EXPLODE! KEEP SAFE DISTANCE FROM SPINNING WEAP- ONS! TEST ROBOTS IN SAFE AREA! ROBOT NEEDS TO BE FAILSAFE ( ABLE TOO SHUT OFF WHEN IT LOSES CONNECTION)!

WHY IS COMBAT ROBOTICS FUN?

Combat robotics is an actual sport. It is a team sport in which a team builds a robot and com-

petes in a battle. The thing about it is that the spectators go have a great time watching ro- bots get destroyed. But what about the teams that build the robots? They have to rebuild their robot with modifications. Robot combat is so popular, it is televised in 2 shows I know: Battle Bots, and Robot Wars. Witch Doctor hits Tombstone with a spinning drum Links- https:// www.dimensionengineering.comappnotes/ simple_robot/ https://hacklab.hk/?s=how+to+build+an+antweight+robot Design- https://www.tinkercad.com/#/ https://www.sketchup.com/ Design is important because it lets you know what you want to make, and how it will look like Remember, you can always choose different sites. I am just showing what I use. This is a CAD design (CAD= Com- puter Aided Design)

HOW?

Well, the way the mammoth will come back is from its DNA. Like Jurassic park, people are finding Mammoth bones, tissue, and even trunks from the melting polar frost in Siberia. All those objects contain mammoth DNA, which can be used to bring it back. In fact, there are so many bones that some people have made a living off of selling mammoth tusks. Usually DNA wears off very quickly, but, because these bones are preserved from ice (And mammoths haven’t been gone for that long- they became extinct about 3,500 years ago- they were there when the people in Egypt were building the pyra- mids!) , their DNA is per- fectly preserved and can be used to clone it. That is what SOOAM biotech in South Korea wants to do. It is a company that sells cloned dogs. So if your be- loved pooch passes away, call this company and they will bring back your dog for $100,000! Now they are trying to clone the mam- moth. But Harvard’s revive and restore program also wants to bring back the mammoth, in a different way. They want to put mammoth DNA into an Asian elephant genome- elephants genes, that make up what you look like and act like, so these people are trying to “Mammofy” it, or in other words make an elephant look like and act like an mammoth. However, the more detailed way you clone an extinct animal is: 1. Get DNA samples from tusks, trunks, hair, etc.

2. Get the DNA samples and test it, when you are done testing put it in a crisper gene editing device, which is the newest cloning machine that can copy and paste strands of DNA. 3. Then you have to artificially make a womb for the DNA to make an embryo of an (extinct) animal. Than make that animal give birth. That is how you clone one. How you “Mammofy” one is very similar, get DNA samples, and inject it into a descendent of that extinct animal. Make that descendent breed, and they will give birth to that extinct animal. This may make it sound easy, but it is really complicated and the crisper can mess up the genetic code. Where would they put the cloned Mammoth? Well, the place that they will probably put it is Pleistocene park, a biological experiment in Siberia. I will tell you something crazy: The woolly mammoth will have friends. They are also thinking about putting ancient ice age horses and cave lions with it! It might even be an ice age theme park!

Why mammoths? Well, the reason people want to bring back the mammoth is because of 3 main reasons:

1. to save the environment from global warming. Mammoths can save the environment because they plan to put them in Siberia’s Pleistocene park, a frozen tundra with lots of ancient ice, but under all of the ancient ice are tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases but all the ancient ice is melting- but if it all melts, it will release a huge amount of green- house gases into the air and make earth much hotter. So, they want the mammoth (and other herbivores) to go eat the grass and bounce the sun’s light off of the ice to prevent it from melting.
2. Curiosity. What did mammoths look like, feel like, and act like? We can’t learn this from bones, so they want to “Remake it” to learn about it and study it. 3??? Who knows what else they want it for- something shady, of course. Could scientists be making the mammoth as a weapon or for something else?

What else are they trying to clone?

Well, the extinct species that Harvard is focusing on is the passenger pigeon (which is the one they have worked on the most, and the one they are almost done with.), health hen, and of course the mammoth. Other people are thinking about cloning the dodo, the Tasma- nian tiger, various bird species, the woolly rhino, the Moa (Looks like an Ostridge- but no wings! They are also super close to finishing it!), saber toothed cats (more specifically, cave lions!), 40,000 year old ancient ice age horses! And even early humans! But the one that is the craziest, the most wild, and the one that seems impossible, but possible (that Harvard is not doing), are the dinosaurs. Yes, the dinosaurs. I did not misspell it. THE DINOSAURS.

Controversial - Cloning Well, these aren’t things to make you forget everything you just heard, these are things that people don’t like about cloning. Are scientists just making some genetically modified hy- brids, like in Jurassic World? Here is what one person said about all this dinosaur cloning, “We can create all kinds of weirdo stuff by modifying a gene here and there,” says Norell, “We could modify humans to have a tail. That doesn’t make us a non- humanoid monkey. That just makes us a human with a tail.” From the news article popu- lar mechanics. Lots of people don’t like the idea of bringing back prehistoric animals. “They had a reason why they went extinct.” People say. I agree with them. Dinosaurs and mammoths were gone because they couldn’t keep up with evolution and went extinct. I agree with bringing back species that humans killed to extinction, because it fits in our time period and can repair broken ecosystems. But a prehistoric animal is the odd one out. It doesn’t belong here. It is cool, but is not right. Many people think that they are creating a Frankenstein like beast. Only time will tell. Below are links of the latest news on cloning. Links are below: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a21622026/jurassic-world-how-to- clone-a-dinosaur/ http://reviverestore.org/projects/woolly-mammoth/

2019 Winter Word Search! By Samantha Miller SNOW SNOWFLAKE HOLIDAY SNOW-SUIT COLD MITTENS SCARF HAT IGLOO ICICLES SNOWMAN Q S F H F S X V J O O F W Z C B M L P I Y T S D G H J K Y G F S Q Z X F G T U J H P L G D S N O W Q T C HO F U F K Q I K I Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L Z X C V B N M H O L I D A Y C Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L Z X C V B N M Q G I M P S G C E J U Y B V X Z W Q O I H L Y A X Q P M A C O L D C W F G K P T G H Z K F B G H T E S Q A O P H B C E K J N B T H A T C Q T P O U F H D S X C H Y I P T S N O W S U I T Q W E R T Y U I O P L K J H G F D S A Z X C V B N M I T T E N S Q P A L Z M W O E I R I T U T Y A S D F G H J K L G V H B J N K M L P O I U T E D H D C X Z A Q T I U Y R S C A R F Q A W S E D R F T G Y H U J I K O L P M I G L O O Y G V I P O K L M J N H B G V F C D X S Z A Q W E R T Y U I O P I E T I C I C L E S W O T Y V G B H I U H K L P O Q A E D S W Z T X D F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z S N O W F L A K E Q A W S E D R F T G Y H U J I K O L P O I U Y T R W Q A G H H L O G E B F G W S N O W M A N J K X C G H T Y I O P L K J H G F D S A Z X C V B N M J U Y T G H B V F R E D Q A P O Y G H U L K J N M B G V S X D F E R C G H T Q A W S E D R F T G H I Q Z A S D E R P O I U F G M T R Q