1. My project is a short term memory snake-like game that required an immense amount of effort to create. The soldering was fairly easy, but it was tedious since there were so many connections. Programming took almost all the focus. The way that I soldered might have been efficient for me in the beginning, but I soon ran into problems with coding very quickly. Mr. Smith helped during the coding process and filled me in on any knowledge I lacked. The one who really brought the code together was Rosa. She created an equation to help me with the struggles of movement on my LED light strips. Some of the feedback I received was, "a cool idea, but there is a long way to go before it is a game." I completely agree with that comment as well. I have come a very long way, but there is still so much that I still need to code for. Right now a maze pops up that you need to remember, and you can use the joystick to move through to make the maze, but there is no way for me to score it, which doesn't really make it a game. That is something I should focus on over the summer if I have the opportunity. 

2. If I had another month to work on the project, I am certain it would be as great as Pac-Man (not really). I could work on the scoring system and the accuracy test and the rest of the physical needs. I could make it an arcade machine and paint it. I would make it a true game. 

3. The hardest thing about my project was the movement command to "go down". This was extremely hard because the way I wired my LED strips were side-to-side. This created a problem that If I wanted to move straight down, I wouldn't just move down 1 or to the side 12, we had to create a formula that worked to go from, say 11-23 and 4-19 and 7-16. If you look there is no easy way to get one simple number to solve this. Fortunately for me, Rosa was in the innovation lab for a few periods and decided to help me with my struggles. She created a perfect equation that works every single time, so without her, my project would have been way behind schedule or I might have not even found a way to "move down".

4. The most important thing that I learned to do was to keep looking at the same thig a different way. Perspective changes everything. If I didn't see the solution right in front of my face, I needed to change the way I looked at the situation and almost every time by the 3rd time I changed my POV, I found a way. I was trying to work on the "up" function, but was running into the same problems as the "down" function. By some time I eventually thought, "Instead of going up, why don't I move up 2 and then go down once. This was a breakthrough in my mind because I was utilizing a function that already existed instead of making a new one. Overall my project was a big struggle, but somehow I got through it. In my mind, it was a  huge success and I am extremely happy with the way everything came out. It's not finished, but I am still very proud. 

Hey all,

Just to keep our eyes on the podcast a little bit, I have mapped out what your timeline should look like if you were to have just started today.  I know all of you have been way more on top of this and are far closer than this, so feel free to adapt the schedule to your advanced schedule.  

Please remember that the we are expecting high quality audio.  This means you should find a time to schedule a recording session in the lab with a fancy microphone.  

Thanks and looking forward to hearing your wonderful podcasts!