…TechBribe…

Of course… welcome.  Take a look around.

On your first visit:

• change your password
• figure out how to navigate, etc.
• consider adding a post (do you have comments or resources you would like to share?)

And… you might want to check out a few of the features and links on the main page of the TechBribe.

Mr Gauthier

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Example SketchUP drawing – Woo Hooo…

Well Grade 10’s you are only just starting your Radio Free Africa Project within Design and Technology, but as well as practicing your Isometric and Orthographic drawing skills you will need to be able to draw your designs using the CAD application of SketchUP. You should have all downloaded it by now…So time to improve your drawing and SketchUp Computer Aided Design skills. How do you do it – well thats easily you do not need to depend on Dr Tech for help when you can learn yourself. What is the easiest way to learn – you guessed it follow some tutorials. Here are a selection of tutorials you might like to try:-

• Tutorials videos from Google themselves
• Aidan Chopra has put together a massive series of YourTube Video Tutorials which are excellent and start from beginners and then get more and more difficult

So now you have seen some of the tutorials – here is your homework (note these videos can take a long time to load – if so go to the Go 2 School site and download them from there:-

1. Go through a Model a Lantern using this video from (Download from this web address – www.media.libsyn.com/media/atotheo/Model_a_Lantern.m4v)- Model a Lantern – TUTORIAL 1. Print your finished lantern – and email a copy of the SketchUp file to Dr Tech.
2. Go through the Follow Me Roof video TUTORIAL 6- and again print out a copy to go in your portfolio and email a copy of your file to Dr Tech. (Or download from this web address – http://media.libsyn.com/media/atotheo/school_tss_005_h264_640.m4v )

You will have one week to complete these drawings. We will also be learning how to do Perspective Drawings in the class.

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Well what can I say, there were some truly exceptional Eco-House projects and some wonderful Eco-House designs. Congratulations! You can breath with a sigh of relief as that is your main portfolio project in Design and Technology this year, your next project you will only need to be involved in the design and create sections.

Although of course you will do other parts of the design cycle naturally but will not need to show evidence of these. Yippeee!

So your new project is to design and create a simple but ingenius slot together toy/puzzle – in case you were wondering here is the guide for the slot together puzzle.

So to begin here is a few questions to get you thinking about the material you will be using (please produce a word document with the answers on in full sentences or write the questions and then add the answers):-

1. Define manufactured board and give three examples?
2. Define Hardwood and Softwood giving three examples of each?
3. From your definitions – place the numbered pieces of timber (on the shelf in the DT room) into the three different categories? Also see if you can identify and name each type of wood – will need some detective work on the web!
4. Here is the guided question – ‘Is manufactured board more environmentally friendly than natural woods?’ – This is a difficult question to answer
5. What does ‘flat pack’ mean?
6. Find four examples of ‘flat-pack’ products and print out pictures of them, explaining  what you like about them and why they work (e.g. annotate the drawings naming the material used, along with other points you would like to make) – one could be a slot together toy product but their are many other products out there just have a look at the project guide!

While all this is going on, their will be a film crew (only amateur I am afraid – we will need two people) coming around and will be interviewing you each individually about your eco-house project. This will be a celebration of your wonderful work, and will be brought together in a film including animations of your designs. You will need be able to discuss your work and design and what you did in the project – and if possible show some of your drawings and models.

These are the questions they will be asking you:-

• Do you agree or disagree with the original guided question – ‘Can Design Contribute to reducing our carbon footprint and providing a sustainable but comfortable living for us?’
• How does your design back up what you have answered above?
• Explain three of the sustainable features that your design has?
• How has the use of CAD helped you with the design process?
• What or who inspired your design?
• After this experience as an architect would you be interested in a career in design?

Have fun, Dr Tech.

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Well just to give you a heads up I have just updated the version of Wordpress that Techbribe uses so anyone popping back to edit or write a post will be in for a bit of a shock. The whole of the User interface has been turned on its head -which sill take a little bit of getting used to, but with a few minutes things will make sense.

New features that might be useful to you all – are the quick-press tool on the front dashboard which will enable you to post within a matter of seconds and there is also a quick-edit tool within the writing pages as well.

Have fun with the new interface there is quite alot under the hood which I will introduce you to in the near future.

Happy Posting….one week to the holidays

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Here are some other great tutorials – watch them and learn some new tricks that will come in really handy with your house design.

Layers/Components – Shows you how to use layers to hide and show parts of your models

Animate a Camera on a Path – How to animate – looks trickier than it is?

Components – Add trees, Cars, Tables, Doors etc to your design to make it look more realistic!

Remember if you do not watch and follow the tutorials the skills you have within SketchUP will not be enough – and you will end up becoming more and more frustrated. There are many more tutorials over on Youtube – just search and see!

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Over the next week or so Techbribe might be a little unreliable due to some updates and also some problems with malicious code on the server which needs to be cleaned up ASAP.

Sorry for any problems, we will be sending out weblog permission slips this week and should be up and running by end of next week if possible.

Dr Tech

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Starter for 10 – Who designed this?

Grade 9’s for your first assignment – its all about finding out what you understand about Design and Technology as a subject and how famous designers link to the IB learner profile and AoI or not?

In pairs you need to find out and research a specific designer from one of these areas of the design world. You can pick one of my examples or choose your own, but you will only have ten minutes to decide, and once a famous designer has been chosen – no other group can choose it!

1. Architecture e.g. Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid
2. Fashion e.g. Issey Miyake, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan
3. Engineering e.g. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Santiago Calatrava
4. Graphics e.g. Johnathan Ive, William Morris, Daniel Eatock
5. Product Design e.g. Phillipe Stark, James Dyson
6. Animation Design e.g. Nick Park
7. Installation Design e.g. Tony Oursler, Doris Salcedo
8. Furniture Design e.g Robin+Lucienne Day, Charles Rennie Mackintosh
9. Green Design e.g. Trevor Baylis
10. Industrial Designer e.g. Yves Behar, Alvar Aalto

You must print pictures and be able to write some important information about the designer, what they have done and what is important to them. You must also be able to explain how you think the designer fits in with the AoI and IB Learner Profile.

You will present your work using A3 Paper, and include printed pictures -sketches – written text – titles – colour etc. You will need to have a reasonable understanding of the designer as you will also present next lesson to the class what you have found out about the designer. along with what you think there priorities as a designer were in connection with AoI and IB Learner Profile.

Note only one person in your pair should be on the computer researching, while the other is bringing the poster/presentation together. Please use drawing boards and be creative in your presentation – show me what you can do!

HINTS:

Areas of Interaction:

H______ I_______, E________, C_______ and S_______, H______ and S________ and A_______ to L________.

IB Learner Profile:

Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Risk Takers, Balanced, Caring and Reflective.

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Welcome back Grade 9 and 10’s hope you had a great summer and are raring to go this year in your Technology lessons. We welcome a new teacher to the High School this year Mr Gauthier – who will be teaching a Computer Technology in Grades 9 and 10 – his alias at the moment is ‘jimmylinux’.

Crash, ElvisVonWeasel and of course myself will all be using this weblog in both Computer Technology and Design Technology so it will be a much busier place this year so check back as often as possible to see what is happening, get help from your fellow students and of course comment on other students points of view.

Note to all students familiar with using Techbribe, your accounts have all been wiped so we will be starting fresh with new aliases etc – so start thinking. Both Grade 9’s and 10’s will over the semester do two projects – one a full portfolio based project and the second a more relaxed practical based project with no portfolio evidence needed. More to follow soon…..have a great year…

Dr Tech

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Well schools is finally over. Well done to all Grade 9 students who have just finished and handed in their – Flash Animations of Action, there were some great animations considering this was a small end of year project. I might post a few of the best on the blog over the next few weeks.

Finally I would like to say both Crash and I have had a great year with both Grade 9 and 10 groups, and wish everyone a great summer. For those not returning I hopw you will take have had a great learning experience this year which you can take with you and impress at your new school.

(Note I have put everyone’s posts into one section and user, and deleted all users. So you will still be able to search for your post but will not be able to login! Sorry.)

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The deadline for the Animation for Action project has been agreed with Crash and Dr Tech – it will be either Wednesday 18th June or Thursday 19th June depending on which day your lesson is on. All you will need to do is email a copy of both the .swf file and the .fla files to your teacher by the end of the day.

You final grade for the semester will be a combination of your How-To movie project and also the Design and Create grade from this Animation Project.

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For my animation i am going to do a video showing the world the effects of cosmetic and medical testing on animals. What I want to show by the creating of this animation is what multi million pound company. This video shows what Monkeys are subjected to.

For my animation I am going use pandas and song to illustrate the cruelty in which some animals are treated. I am going to call my animation panda song. In this animation I’m going to have pandas bobbing their heads and singing about animal cruelty. At some parts in this video they are going to sing about other animals. For this animation I am planning to use flash animation software.

In this animation I am going to use a variety of different effects including monition tween and monition pathway software. This will give my animation movement. I am going to make my animation funny because adolescence generally remembers things better when they enjoy them. In my animation I am going to make that point that using animals for medical and cosmetic testing needs to be stopped.

164boat

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Due to popular demand, heres Ooodles of Noodles – note some of the tricks it uses e.g. movie-clips and moving backgrounds are so easy to do!

Check here for a great moving background tutorial and here for a tutorial on how to make it look like a person/creature is walking combine the two and you have Noodles on your back!

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Grade 9’s, Dr Tech here with a few comments and reminders about both projects that are running at the moment. Time as always is your enemy with both projects as you only have 3 weeks left to finish both – but remember you are only producing a product this time not any evidence/portfolio work.

Screenplay reminders:-

• I would imagine you will be filming over the next week and a bit, so producers and directors will need to make sure that everyone is organised and ready for filming on particular days and times. You can film during lesson times, but you will also have to film afterschool or at lunchtimes to get everything done.
• Make sure all information is placed onto your film pin boards so that everyone in the class knows what they are doing.
• Once you have filmed a scene, remember to pass this onto the film editors as they can start editing that scene straight away.
• Students have been asking if there will be a FOSCARS, and the answer is there is no time. The three films will be shown at an assembly if you all manage to film in time, and we can also make voting forms to see which is the best.

Animation 4 Action Reminders:-

• Remember not only to watch your teachers demos for Flash skills, but to search out your own either on YouTube or other sites.
• Here are some other great tutorial sites:- Webwasp, GotoAndLearn, Smashing, Cartoon Smart , Flash Banner Tutorials and there are many more….just go out and search…
• Remember all you have to do is produce an animation promoting your organisation and cause, the style and content is up to you!
• Note check your guide to see all the skills you should use within your animation for it to be of a high enough standard for a good creation grade!

Comment Fever:-

If you thought no-one else but Egham students read this blog, check the comment placed onto Geologyrocks latest post below. Have you checked comments on your post? -Comments from afar on geologyrocks post. Make sure you comment on each others posts, communicating and networking is the best way to learn and share ideas!

How-To Winner:-

So far the ‘How-To’ video with best reviews is called - ‘How To Breakdance’ (Note you will need to login to see the video!).I have not closed off voting and reviews yet so things could change?

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I chose the topic of Freeing Tibet for my animation project because it is an important topic in society at the moment and it can bring biased opinions which will make it more interesting. Already there have been activists that are supporting the “Free Tibet” campian, that have made it clear to China how they feel. They have climbed the Golden Gate Bridge, in order to fly two flags. One that says, “Free Tibet 08″ and the other that clearly says, “One World; On Dream; Free Tibet”

(http://www.earnedmedia.org/Free%20Tibet%20SF%2020070407.jpg) And a web link to see the news site are: http://youtube.com/watch?v=C6eqO7Da7aI&feature=related

On youtube there have been many postings of events, and protests that have been occuring all over the world. One in San Francisco that was large is shown here:

There are many groups that are supporting this cause and that is one of the main reasons why i was inspired to us this certain topic as my animation theme. Some links to support groups are:

http://www.freetibet.org/

http://www.tibet.org/

My plan for my animation will be based on a certain topic of the war that is going on, and not the entire idea and aspect of the war. I will mainly be focusing on why “China should free Tibet.” This is because i think that this is the most important and broad topic of the event. I will use images and facts from the websites listed above to hopefully prove a point that, Tibet Should Be Free.

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WWF adopt a panda you can adopt a panda in asia and help sponsor it. For just £2.50 a month you can support a panda. By supporting a panda you wil recieve a packet of panda related goodies and provide enough money to support a panda for a year. Your £2.50 a month will help protect the pandas, provide more conservation land for them and help care for injured pandas.

WWF’s giant panda programme has been working for 25 years now and since the start of the programme wild numbers of pandas have grown to around 1600 pandas and they have created sixty giant panda reserves. WWF have been working with the Chinese Government to make sure there are more areas in China where the giant panda can find the food it needs and live in safety. The panda is incredibly vulnerable to habitat loss and bamboo loss which is the pandas main source of food. Due to expansion of villages and cities pandas which used to be free to roam throughout china are now limited to an area only about 1.2 km wide. WWF works with the chinese government and local communities to reduce these threats to the panda by increasing the size of conservation areas and helping local people to be less dependent on forest resources

Donating to WWF will benefit the Pandas, the environment and the local community. Here is a sample of my flash animation skills so far – Dr Tech says be careful this is a little psychadelic – wow-man!

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For this animation project, I have chosen the Shelter Box Foundation. This foundation provides emergency aid for victims of natural and other disasters anywhere in the world. The box includes : a ten person tent, a warm bed, water purification, cooking aids and utensils, a practical toolkit and a children pack.

I chose this charity because we have been talking about it in Advisory. We have also been trying to set up various fund raisers as the boxes with all the contents in it are quite expensive. Although the boxes with everything in it is expensive, you can buy the items seperately.

In my animation, I will be focusing on trying to get people to raise money for this foundation. I will do a web-banner or a short movie clip with Adobe Flash CS3.

Here is the website for the foundation : http://www.shelterbox.org/morecontents.htm

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For my Animation for Action flash project I decided to raise awareness about Malaria affecting children in Africa and many other parts in the world, but especially Africa. The reason I chose Malaria as my subject is because I used to live in Angola, which is a country that is affected severely by Malaria. I personally never got malaria because my mom always told me I had to wear mosquito repellent. However, many of my friends did get malaria, but since we all came from wealthy families we could prevent the disease from getting worse.

However, there are many children in Africa that don’t have access to hospitals or any medicinal supplies. Having to see this everyday and talking with people whose parents or children lost their lives because they couldn’t treat this disease is something really hard. I have gone to different orphanages where I heard stories about their parents dying because of Malaria. I just want to show that it is a huge problem in the world that not many people are aware of because they live in countries where hospitals could be just around the corner. Living in a country like this and having to see this everyday has made me want to share some facts about it with other people. For my flash animation will show pictures and there will be facts popping up so everyone can learn from it.

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