Traffic Logistics

I left my house today at 7:00 A.M. to get to my school. I arrived in my first period at 7:37 A.M. I live only 10 minutes away. So how did this happen?

Somehow, the designers of the parking spots of my high school have forgotten that the northern parts of Tallahassee is under intense development in the 1990s (ie Summerbrooke and surrounding communities) and happen to only put 2 lanes into the entry way to our school.

Lets do some basic math. I'm going to assume the following:

• average length of a car is around 5 meters.
• average speed into the parking lot is 10 mph (equivalent to 4.47 m/s)
• average distance between cars is 1 meter. 
• average numbers of cars trying to get in is around 1200 cars
  

Now, without all other factors, such as stop signs, traffic from Thomasville road etc.

5 meters + 1 meters = 6 meters for each car to go through
6 meters * 1200 cars = 7200 meters total
9000 meters/4.47 m/s = 1611 seconds =  26 minutes 50 seconds

Remember, this is under ideal conditions.

That means tomorrow, I wake up even earlier....

-runiteking1

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The Use of Statistic: My Grades

I've noticed that my grades are steadily falling as the year progresses.Here's a breakdown...:

	1st	2nd	3rd
Latin	98.1	93.9	90
Pre-Calc	101.8	92.6	96.6
Stats	96	98	93
Physics	99.3	94.7	92.6
Band	98.4	94	94
Chem	101	96	94
English	98	94	95

If I remember correctly in middle school, I always get awful grades the first nine weeks, improve the second, peak at my third, and fall my fourth. Alas, now I've gotten the habit of hitting the road running with not enough gasoline to power through the whole year.



Running a simple linear regression test showed that I indeed have a negative correlation of -.749 with a r-squared value of .561, meaning 56.1% of all my change in grades is determined by the nine-weeks. A look at the graph with the regression line (y = 101.1047 - 2.6714x, my y-intercept is an amazing 101.1047...haha) in: 

A look at the residual plot shows nothing really weird going on... there's not that much data to confirm a curved shape.

A box-plot of the residuals look relatively normal, no outliers and random stuff:

Okay... now I can run a linear regression t-test. Hmm, I don't think I did this right, but with a t-score of -4.927 with df = 19, makes the p-value close to zero. 


Guess that's not significant then....


-runiteking1
 

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Yu-Gi-Oh Latin Project

Ok, so I'm making a card/board game for my Latin project and need some input. Here's the jist of it:

If any of you played either Yu-Gi-Oh or Battle of Wesnoth (I guess any real time strategy works too) before, its like a hybrid of the two. There will be a deck of custom made cards along side a hex map. The goal of the game will be to defend your own city, while taking over your opponent's city. The city will be placed on the ends of the map (which should be square).

The three (as more would mean more work for me) factions will include:

1. Romans (characterized by legions, technology, and manueveribility) (America)
2. Barbarians (armies of mobs, speed, and concealment) (GLA)
3. Greeks (phalanx, shock troops and brute force) (China)

 If playing the barbarians, you need paper and pencil to write down your "stealth armies" movement.

To start off, the Romans will only get  5 troops (as they are usually the invading army) and the others will get 7. The troops will be chosen by the player from their respective decks. I forgot to mention that every deck will be stacked the same way, so for example the standard Roman deck will maybe include: 14 legions, 2 experinced legions, 3 calvary, and 4 light troops plus other modifiers like technology cards and such (ie that will be the maximum a Roman army can have).

Movement will be characterzied by the number on each card. Barbarians will generally have larger numbers (but the largest won't be larger than Roman/Greek calvary), and phalanx/legions will all be the slowest. There will be certain things each unit can do. The phalanx for example, will have a big decrease in its health if attacked from the front first, then the back but if the opponent cannot outflank it, then it will double its attack power on the next turn. The barbarians can choose two armies and "cloak them" by taking them off the board and recording their movements on paper, once it attacks, it will be visible forever.


The players will place their cards by the board and place a token symbolizing each card on the board. This is because you can upgrade each troop and keep track of its damage. The results of the battles will be determined by health token on each card. A certain unit will have certain amount of health points, attack points (ie how many to take off the other person's) and defense points (ie how many to deduce from the damage the othe person dealt you).

This is a REALLY long explanation (and I'm not even through yet like how you can add weapons to boost stuff, and how to heal...) but all this should be common sense.

I'm sort of stuck regarding the economic portions. I'm tempted to make it a coin based system, but then there will be math invovled (and you know how Americans don't like math...). Or I could make it territorial based, with certain "checkpoints" and every two turns, the player recieve a certain number of credits based upon their checkpoints.

This will be intense if I finish this like I describe it...

-runiteking1

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A Good Hint: Both For Physics and For Life

I was doing my physics problem yesterday and encountered this problem, take a look at that hint:

-runiteking1

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The Scheduler

I recently had some problems with the schedule in my school. It's not particularly big or anything but it just been bugging me a whole lot.

So I've been thinking for a bit about how to correct this program, here's my solutions:

The problem this year seems to be that classes or pretty much either over packed or the periods are not spread out enough for you to have a good schedule (i.e. everything you want is in 4th period, thus you can't have a lot of your classes).

I think the first part of this problem might be due to some budget cuts this year in the state but I haven't heard about any teachers getting laid off, so I don't think that is that main culprit. I suspect that the people up at the front desk may have slacked off and didn't really estimate correctly during the previous school year on the class size.

Maybe I'm thinking this is too easy but here goes: For math, this is the easiest part to resolve (yet Mrs. Johnson's class is STILL packed... making me not able to switch... grr), just take a number of "A's/B's" in the classes. Or better yet, just ask the teacher the number they think will continue into the classes. AP stats and AP Calc should be quite easy as it is by teacher sign off only (and I think most APs are quite easy to estimate the sizes, with exception to the sciences).

English should be even easier, for upcoming freshmen/sophomores, just look at the class sizes and spread them out... I think there were a bit of a problem with the classes bunched up tight.And the upperclassmen, figure out the number of possible AP classes and do the same thing as in math.

For science... they should've spread the classes out, espiceally the APs. This way, there will be minimal chance for there to have a schedule conflict. Also another possible thing is to release "premilnary" periods for set classes, like band, Engineering Tech periods, orchestra periods, and the possible places for APs so we can plan for our classes to work out the best.

Anyways... this is just what I think... I personally think this won't work out that well, people will started talking with each other to have the exact same schedule, making classes a pain in the butt. Suggestions?

-runiteking1

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How to Set Up a Mousetrap Gone Wrong...

So... how to set up a mousetrap tutorial, for all you Engineering Tech people.

-runiteking1

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Biology Wiki: Notes for Test

CHANGED URL TO:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/school/

In the age of the Internet, sharing is all the rage, thus I've started experimenting with a wiki for my notes. As of right now, the wiki is being hosted on SpringNotes.com, as it is free and looks adapted for school work.

This is to study for the biology test and we need facts, not "I think that's what Ms. Traylor said." Therefore, most, if not all, entries should be cited unless everybody agrees with you. That being said, I don't want people to be afraid to edit the page. If you are wrong, we will get it changed, and you'll get a better test grade :). Still I want the general page to look as good as possible and since I'm the admin, I have special privileges. Please keep my current formatting, or at least make it prettier.

As you can see, I've already started to work on it and hope the general community will jump on board and share the knowledge. Remember that we learn more by doing and learning from each other than listening to lectures.

The wiki is edited by invite only, thus shoot me an email, and I will get you an invite. Don't be afraid of me... I'm not weird and steal your email address.

http://runiteking1.springnote.com/

p.s. If this works, than be prepared for better study guides by the community.

-runiteking1

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AP World Notes

The AP test for World History on May 15th is fast approaching so I've decided to publish all my past notes. All my past notes from chapter 3 to chapter 22 (7, 17 and 22 are note available) are in the DOC/PDF format as I typed up all my notes.

Guidelines: The notes was written for me, by me, so some parts may not make any sense. The best way for you to study is to sit down with the book and scan through the notes. For any parts where it doesn't make sense, go look in the book!

Feel free to download the individual files, or the combined zip file.

• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter3
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter4
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter5_1
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter6notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter8notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter9notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter10notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter11notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter12notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter13notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter14notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter15notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter16notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter18notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter19
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter20notes
• http://www.filedropper.com/chapter22notes

• http://www.filedropper.com/notes_1 (zip file)
  

Or if you want, there are embed-able files from Scribd.com (My Profile and Pages)

-runiteking1

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The Biggest Waste of Time

In my school the other day, we had elections for SGA (Student Government Association) positions. It was almost a popularity contest with no use at all.

First of all, we've got to establish some names:

1. Ricardo - One of the most popular person in my school, very outgoing.
   
2. Jane - A bit shy (in my opinion) but she was the president last year.
   
3. Daisy - Also a very outgoing and nice person.
   

So the week before hand, all of the candidates started passing out fliers and stickers, trying to get their names out. Already, I'm hearing people say that Ricardo will beat the living boogers out of Jane cause Ricardo has more friends. My opinion? So true.

Some of the candidates used friends as a method of publicity. A few of the conversations I had with them went on some what like this:

Them: Vote for so-and-so
Me: Why?
Them: Uhmmm... because so-and-so is SOO much cooler than the other kid.

As the week progressed, it became much more apparent that the more popular person will win. One of the correlations that I observed is that the number of votes you get varies directly with the number of stickers you pass out.

In the auditorium on the day we vote, the school makes us skip class to see a bunch of people say: "This is going to be the best year ever if you vote for me!" (Though I must say, Ricardo's speech was quite different). What is the point of this speech when the contest is already decided by the number of friends they have. Also, AP exams are in a a week, so the school is wasting our review times...

While voting, I overheard a conversation behind my back regarding their votes:

Person 1: "I'm voting for Daisy for ________ cause she's HOT and popular."
Person 2: "Okay! I'll do it too!"

And the worst thing about this? Colleges look at your high school SGA career.

How useless and stupid SGA elections are.

-runiteking1

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My Sonnet

My sonnet from English class. Its pretty lame and sometimes doesn't make sense, but I managed to use Guantanamo bay. Also, the reason its so weird is that the last word was determined by someone else.

The "great" George W. Bush used to say
"That the best way to drive is in a mist
or in the humid summer day of May,
sparking ideas for an invasion list."

He always look striking in a great shirt
But his appearance is flawed by his nose.
It seems when God planned him with dirt,
"Leftovers onto proboscis it goes!"

Guantanamo Bay torture is brutal,
But Bush said "the inmates gets free balloons!"
So while he was strolling with his poodle
All he think 'bout is his favorite cartoons.

George Bush needs to be whipped by a large belt
When I think of him, I don't get heartfelt.

-runiteking1

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Stupid Day

Recently, I've been having extremely stupid things happening to me.

Yesterday after a band concert, a few of my friends and I went to TCBY (my very first time there) to enjoy the yogurt. For one, I got an order of parfait AND a small cup of yogurt, at 9:30 in the evening. That got my stomach churning throughout the night. So while on a sugar high at TCBY, I wanted to explore the bathroom, so I opened the door and poked my head in. The next thing I knew, I was hit right on the head by the very same door. I forgot that there were door closers installed on that door.

The next day, I snorted salt. I didn't know that it would be so painful as I had never tried inhaling Smarties or sugar. The pain of it in the nostrils caused me to have to flush water down my nose. Still, I did win a dollar on that dare and I probably will not ever input substance to my body using the technique of snorting.

Thinking that some other dumb people would post stuff on snorting salt, I came upon this website. I think I'm much more intelligent than the person who asked how to snort a mushroom.

Relating to this food thing, Cracked.com posted a post on the 7 most common foods that give you a high. So next time you want people to ingest items through their nose, give them some of these foods.

edit - Yoshinator reminded me that

You completely left out the part about you trying to inhale water through your nose and it dripping out of your nose and mouth. You also left out the part when you stuck paper towels up your nose to try and absorb the salt, the part when you realized that salt could have gone into your brain, and the part when Mrs. Traylor said that she would buy you a pack of ciggarettes so you could inhale them and then you would never want to smole again.

Oh yes... school. :)... plus a picture thanks again to Yoshinator.

-runiteking1

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The Irony of "Green"

This year's major cliche is "Going Green." Everyone is going green, from Brittany Spears to the city of New York but not enough commitment is going into the effort, thus stupid mistakes are made to go green, that probably made the world a slightly less green place. The same thing happened at State Mu Alpha Theta this year, where the poster theme was "Math Goes Green."

1. "Tickets." By my estimate, at least 500 people went to the convention. Most of the people took three tests that needed "tickets" to attend. For crying out loud, they didn't even check for the 1500+ A4 sized paper. If they're going to print something out, at least use it.

2. Absolutely no recycle bins. The whole point of the convention to me was to do math (which may I say, is very strenuous after a while). I took a total of about 7 tests, some requiring large amounts of paper. When we were done, some of us threw it away while some didn't (usually the team tests were thrown away) but there were no recycle bins. Even if I wanted* to make the world a better place, the convention made it a bit harder by not providing trash can.

3. Creates More Hype. In the world of clarinet manufacturers, Buffet-Crampon is one of the most renowned (because I own one of their top-of-the-lines). To their credit, they make some of the best clarinets around, but they are trying to use the hype on "green" to gain sales. They have a product line (called Greenline) in where the Grenadilla wood is replaced to the extent of 5% by carbon fiber to prevent cracking. This does not save trees at all and taps into the "green" hype of America by connecting with the word green. Please, just change the name.

Bonus - Just take a look at this article about how stupid Apple is right now... not their products though.


*I'm quite proud to say that my family is quite green. All of our bulbs are fluorescent, we barely use the A/C or heater and we drive an Accord/CRV, some of the more efficient cars around.

-runiteking1

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Band Paper

I spent a really long time procrastinating for this little thing. It's not really well written but... it's for band.

Read this doc on Scribd: Rite of Spring and Three Pieces
Marshall Jiang Rite of Spring and Three Pieces Table of Contents: Introduction – pg 1 Beginnings – pg 1 Rite of Spring – pg 1 Three Pieces – pg 2 The Rite of Spring was one of Igor Stravinsky’s most famous and influential works. From its first, strained bassoon solo to its climatically end, the Rite kept its audience entranced. So how did this primordial work, which caused a mass riot at its opening performance influence modern music? Beginnings: One cannot begin the investigation into The Rite of Spring without looking at Stravinsky’s roots in music. Stravinsky’s first exposure to orchestral music came at a performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. There, he first developed his taste for orchestral music. Later in his life, he went on to study with Russia’s leading composer of that time Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and was greatly influenced by him. Later compositions of Stravinsky showed mimicked Rimsky-Korsakov’s imaginative scoring and instrumentation. Rite of Spring: The Rite of Spring’s unusual beginning highlights two important influence of this piece. The very first sounds from the bassoon illustrated Stravinsky’s creativity and ability to change. Before his piece, most orchestral compositions’ melodies begun and was mainly played by the strings section. Stravinsky however used the bassoon and the clarinets (woodwinds) as the main melody/harmony in the beginning. The very first bassoon solo also utilized the highest notes possible by that instrument, creating the strained, village sounds at the beginning. Fellow composer Camille Saint-Saëns famously stormed out of the opening at Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées in Paris infuriated by Stravinsky’s “misuse” of the bassoon. The beginning bassoon solo exemplifies Igor Stravinsky’s use of folk music throughout the ballet. Of course, the whole ballet was based on pagan rituals and culture, but such parts as the opening solos came from folk songs (in the case of the solo, it was Lithuanian). To create the special sounds of the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky employed a plethora of instruments not normally used. Such examples are the Eb clarinet, alto flute, bass clarinet, piccolo trumpet, bass trumpet, and the Wagner tuba. Stravinsky also ordered a very large orchestra, with woodwinds in numbers of five. This abnormal orchestration (at that time), coupled with the extreme registers of the other instruments, created the unusual sounds. This allowed the harsh, brutal melodies to be even more pronounced than they already are. The Rite of Spring showed the subtle beauty of harsh, grating melodies. Debussy heavily influenced Stravinsky in this technique but Debussy, at its most dissonant, was never harsh. This piece almost single handily destroyed the notion of tonality and laid the ground works for new, terrifying melodies (Think Jaws). Some of the primordial sounds of the Rite of Spring were due to the fact that Stravinsky used the strings and winds section as, basically, percussion. This is very evident in second part of the first movement (The Augurs of Spring) where the first and second violins, violas, cellos, and basses play straight eighth notes, creating the pulse and drive of the movement with the brass emphasizing certain beats. The Augurs of Spring also showed Stravinsky’s pioneering work in ostinati, evident in the 8-horns accents. Probably the most significant contribution to modern music Stravinsky makes with his Rite of Spring is his play on meter. Instead of the steady one-two one-two of a march, or the one- two-three of ballet, Stravinsky uses such unusual time as eleven four in the part two of the second movement. To create the unpredicted mood in the end, where the Chosen One dances herself to death, Stravinsky constantly changes the meter around to create tension. According to Philip Glass: “the idea of pushing the rhythms across the bar lines [...] led the way [...] the rhythmic structure of music became much more fluid and in a certain way spontaneous” This sometimes causes the performers themselves to be thrown off-balance like the dances, and the performers cling to each downbeat. His use of the art of rhythm influenced later greats like Aaron Copeland. His use of bar lines led the way to “additive motivic development,” which is where notes are added or taken away from the theme with no regard to the meter. Modern works today are sometimes direct variations of this great piece. No other piece, with the exception of Gustav Holst's The Planets, is more routinely borrowed from than The Rite of Spring. From the Disney film Fantasia, to the music of Aaron Copeland, to the Tatooine desert in Star Wars, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is everywhere. Three Pieces: Three Pieces is a lesser-known clarinet solo written by Stravinsky for an unaccompanied clarinet. However, lesser known, this piece still had an impact of music literature. Using his experiences in The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky had a play on rhythm and bar lines yet again. Never in the whole piece does the meter stay the same for more than three to four measures (with the exception of the second, which does not even have bar lines). In the second movement, Stravinsky “messed up” the basic rhythmic sub-units. As previously stated before, the second movement contained no bar lines and is totally defined by the tempo markings of: Eighth Note = Eighth Note Sixteenth Note = Sixteenth Note Three Sixteenths Notes = Eighth Thus Stravinsky redefined the engine behind the piece. To make it even more confusing, Stravinsky sometimes grouped the sixteenths notes into two, prompting performers to be more careful about their rhythms in the movement. In a testament to Stravinsky’s adaptability, he used a12-tone style to compose this piece alongside a deep jazz influence. In the first movement, he loosely based it on Schoenberg’s atonal pieces, showing that he could compose in any style he wanted (this was due to a “war” between Schoenberg atonal camp and Stravinsky’s traditional tonal language at that time). In addition, the third movement (and some parts of the second) had distinctive jazz roots. Most of the third movement seems like its part of a jazz improvisation, with funky rhythm and grace notes mixed together. The last surprise of Three Pieces is its preference on instruments. The first two movements are to be played on an A while the last two on a Bb. This creates a, though slight, distinct sound change between the third movement and the rest of the piece. Also, bringing on two clarinets for an unaccompanied piece creates the “the theater” much more effectively. Works Cited Friedland, Sherman. “Stravinsky Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo.” Clarinet Corner. 4 Apr. 2004. 14 Apr. 2008 . Glass, Philip. “Igor Stravinsky.” Time 8 June 198. 14 Apr. 2008 . Gutmann, Peter. “Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.” Classical Classics. 14 Apr. 2008 . Music. Dept. home page. Queens College. 14 Apr. 2008 . “A Musical Chameleon.” Dayton Philharmonic. Dayton Philharmonic. 14 Apr. 2008 . Queenan, Joe. “Q is for quirkiness, R is for Rite of Spring.” Gaurdian Music. Gaurdian Music. 14 Apr. 2008 . Stravinsky, Igor. The Rite of Spring . Dover, 2000. Google Books. 14 Apr. 2008 . - - -. Three Pieces. Eagle Court, London: J & W. Chester, 1976. Taruskin, Richard. Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions. Oxford University Press, 1996 . Google Books. 14 Apr. 2008 . Thomas, Micheal Tilson. “Stravinsky Rite of Spring.” Keeping Score. San Fransico Symphony. 14 Apr. 2008 .

-runiteking1

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Stay Anonymous, By Posting in a Directory?

This is stupid. Somebody posted just their name and grade in the directory of my school. The whole point of a directory is so that people can email/call you. (Note: Picture is blurred due to the amount of information on it, but the essence isn't changed)

For those of you who own the directory (you know who you are), go to the page where the staples are visible.

-runiteking1

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You can smell it in the air

It's that time of the year! Not Christmas, not summer (how i yearn for thee!), and definitely not time for filing those tax returns! (oh wait..)

Regardless, it is certainly course request time! As a senior, I initially thought that my encounters with this stressful beast was over, until I realized that I must accomplish one more task before completely resigning as a high school student: I must pass on my experience and advice to all you underclassmen, in hopes that you will make the right decision for yourself and eventually pass on your experience when the time comes for you.

**********
*READ FIRST*

A couple of points I want to clear up before I begin:

1. Do NOT take a class solely because your friends are taking it.

This is your schedule. Not their's. As much as you want to be with them or want to compete (trust me, I know that feeling) against them, only sign up for a course because you WANT to take it. When you sign up for a class, it is like committing a whole year of your life to it. If you don't want to do it, then don't waste your time. Taking a class you don't really want to take makes you dread the class even more during the school year.

2. Do NOT sign up for courses just because you want to be valedictorian.

Now I am NOT advocating taking general classes and committing GPA-suicide; instead, I am encouraging you all to take the focus off that itty bitty number. It has come to the point where GPA does not play as a large role as it has before in the college application process. I suggest setting a reasonable goal. For me, it was top 10, and since I am currently ranked 4th, all is good. There are plenty of students in my class who have been accepted into amazing schools and they were certainly not valedictorians. With so many other factors contributing to your college application, in the big scheme of things, GPA should not be the main thing to worry about.

3. Have an idea of what you want to focus on

As you can see below, my schedule is heavily infused with math and science classes. You can use your electives to fill with classes that you want to focus on. Not only does it show colleges that you are interested (and performing well, assuming that you all are) in that specific area, but it will also be a more enjoyable schedule for you. Basically, if you take classes of subjects that you enjoy, you will do better because you are more motivated to work for it. I know some people who put AP social studies courses in their schedule just to fill it up and just to have that extra 1.0 point for their GPA (see note #2), but they ended up complaining about it all year because they hated social studies in the first place.

**********

These are my schedules from all my sophomore, junior, and senior years (I figure no eighth graders will be reading this) at Chiles. Of course you are not expected to follow it, but I will make some comments about the classes in general:

SOPHOMORE YEAR:
1. English 2

2. AP Statistics
I advise this class for those who are mathematically-inclined. If not, save this for Junior or Senior year

3. AP Psychology
This class is open to only one sophomore a year (unless Mrs. Womble changed up the rules). If you are still adamant about taking this class as a sophomore, talk to Mrs. Womble about how you can get into this class.

runiteking1 edit - Sophomores can take AP Psych now, with limited restriction.

4. Pre-AP Chemistry
As you can see, I have 2 sciences. If you want to focus on something science related, I definitely suggest doubling up on your sciences. There is definitely no way to take all the science classes at Chiles without doubling (or tripling! see Junior Year) up on science courses. However, before you do that, make sure you are motivated enough to work extra for science (or math or social studies or whatever your interest may be)

5. AP Biology
Same for Pre-AP Chemistry. Also, AP Biology is one of the most time-consuming AP courses at Chiles. It is definitely worth it (last year's passing rate for Chiles was 100%!) but be prepared to be swamped with work.

6. Latin 2
Of course I am a bit biased, but TAKE LATIN! In general, the foreign language department isn't too great, so you're going to encounter not-so-good foreign language teachers no matter what language you take. But Latin's club (Junior Classical League!) is so much cooler. What I love most about it is that it's not just Latin. You take academic tests that cover a wide range: mythology, greek derivatives, history, Roman culture, Mottoes abbreviations and quotations, etc. In addition, there's creative contests where you can submit mosaics, paintings, sculpture (really anything) and there's even athletic contests called Olympika. With the Latin club, there really is something for everyone. (Sorry for that JCL plug. I had to!)

7. Trig/Precalc
A given. Not much to say about this.

JUNIOR YEAR:
1. Physics Honors
My advice for this would be futile. There's a new teacher now and I have no idea how she teachers honors. Someone want to comment on how she teaches?

2. AP Environmental Science
This is the year of the three sciences. Call me crazy, but I ended up balancing it off pretty well in the end. I only advise this if you are extremely motivated and do well under lots of stress. The AP exam for this was fairly easy.

3. AP Chemistry
You are pretty much expected to teach yourself with this course. I love Mrs. Ewart, but she doesn't quite cover everything that the AP requires. This class is more math based (while AP Bio is much more English based, meaning you write a lot of essays and lab reports and learn vocabulary while in AP Chem it's a lot of equations and formulas)

4. AP Calculus BC
Mrs. Johnson is the best math teacher at Chiles. You all should be fine with this class. But be prepared to work.

5. AP Language and Composition
This is the AP class that pretty much everyone takes. There's not much to say about this.

6. Latin 3
I won't digress about Latin again.

7. AP US History
Take this if you're particularly motivated. Mrs. Thomas doesn't teach very well and to me, history is extremely boring.

SENIOR YEAR:

First semester:
1 and 2. Calculus 3 (dual enrolled at FSU)
Dual enroll if you run out of math classes. Professor Ewald is amazing at teaching Calculus 3. Also, if you dual enroll, I strongly advise taking it in the morning (see second semester dual enrollment for more)

3. AP Physics C
Again, my experience with this will not help anyone. I believe next year Chiles will offer Physics B instead and will have Mr. Carpenter as the teacher instead of Mrs. Trowbridge

4. AP Latin Literature
Be prepared to teach yourself.

5. Anatomy and Physiology
This is a pretty nice class. Easy and some interesting material. Please don't take this if you're not particularly interested by biology and dissections.

6. AP Literature and Composition
Another class that most kids take.

7. AP Macroeconomics
I hate econ. But take it because you can't graduate without it.

Second semester:
1. AP Literature and Composition

2. Teacher's Assistant

3. AP Physics

4. AP Latin Literature

5. and 6. Differential Equations and Biocalculus Computer Lab (dual enrolled at FSU)
This semester, as you can see, I switched my dual enrollment to the afternoon. DO NOT DO THIS! Along with senioritis, having to drive to FSU in the middle of your schedule and coming back to Chiles again makes you extremely lazy and unmotivated to do ANYTHING. When it's in the morning, you get it over with immediately and just continue at Chiles for the rest of the day. With this afternoon schedule, you have no idea how many times I've skipped Differential Equations.

7. AP US Government
Another class most dread but can't do anything about it since you need it to graduate.

**********

So there, my schedule and my input on my classes. Of course, everyone is a bit different. So if you have any more questions, feel free to comment and I'll reply with my opinion. Or if it's a bit personal (or complex) feel free to email me at claravu919@gmail.com


-Clara

My Biology Handbook

Read this doc on Scribd: Biology Project

This sorts of break my internal rule of not publishing my personal work, but I've got to try this iPaper thing... and my handbook is quite pretty. I'm very proud of it.

-runiteking1

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The Real Thing

I received some flak today in World from some of my classmates on a test. On the recent test, our teacher said that all of the questions will be related to study guides that she makes for us every chapter (I lost all my study guides, that's why I read all the chapters again, some 5 times). Apparently, a big chunk of the questions did not come out of the study guides. Our teacher allowed us to go through the questions and find the ones that weren't on it so we could tell her. Through out the period, I was yapping a bit too much but I think I had the right to complain.

First and foremost, the real thing won't let you get your grade back! I think some of the people in my class think that you can go through the actual exam in April and correct the questions they got wrong. That'll be nice, but it will never happen. If we were going to prepare for the test, we might as well have minimal recovery, much like the 50(?) points essay we had to write, from tests as it might develop into a habit. After all, the World teacher is quite realistic and reasonable...

The whole point of an AP class is to make you think, not memorize. Today on my car back from tennis, my little brother finally proved that he can add one's to any number. Instead of rote memorization like I suspected that he was doing, he "showed" in that he counted to the number and counted one further. That's understanding. Though history is some memorization, if you understand the concepts, you understand what you memorize. In one of the arguments, glitchmaster (?) questioned the question (no pun intended) about the Richard Kipling's White Man's Burden. Thought I do agree that it is not on the study guides, a thorough examination of the choices will result in the Philippines as the only sensible choice if you think through it. I suspect people think that 70 questions are too much and just rush through them and not think about the choices.

If understanding is the key, then the thought process will get the question correct. Maybe I executed it wrong, but I was trying to help people by letting them know of how I derive the answer. Much like math where understanding how to manipulate equations and how to derive the equation is much better than just memorizing equations. Understanding the thought process will better guarantee a higher score as the material are going to be different the next time, but the same process remains. I guess the lesson of the day for me is not to yell and be more patient...

The last thing is that study guides are exactly what it's name imply, they're guides! The book contains much more information presented in a much better format due to the fact that our study guides are Q and A. Again going back to the topic of the real thing, the AP test will incorporate the whole book into it, including the minute details that may escape from study guides and those AP Prep books. Hopefully, on the next test, people will actually read the book and only use the study guides as a utility for cramming.

I guess I was being a schmo, but for a better cause.

-runiteking1

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Why old teachers should retire

In my high school, the average age of the teacher (I reckon) around 40 to 50. The main exception is my biology teacher (whose name I will not say), which is around the late 60's. I'm not trying to be a hypocrite as I value an education but somebody got to go to let new ideas flow in.

1. Sickness. It is a known fact that as people age, they will get sick more often, there is no way around that law. We all will die physically some day (as for spiritually, it is up to you to decide). An older teacher will have to take more days off due to sickness than a stout 40 years old teacher. No substitute can replace any real teacher so either 1. Take sick leave and let us watch an old video with almost no educational value or 2. Go teach and risk transferring the flu to all of us.

None of them sound so good...

2. Technology. If you were to choose between doing something by hand or using the computer do to it for you, which would you choose? If you choose the first one, what are you doing on the internet? Heck, what are you doing on a computer? Many old teacher are less competent than the students they teach in technology. Many can't exploit such stuff as RSS feeds, Youtube or even the full power of Google search functions. Technology is here to stay and we might as well take advantage of it.

Even an university offers a YouTube class

3. Improvements over time. The Third Law of Thermodynamics - The longer you do something, the more likely your going to do it again. Pertaining to number 2, many teachers have a set procedure every single year (*cough*Science Corners*cough*). It might not even be the best way to teach. Old teachers' students eventually will fall behind better methods of teaching. Also with all the colleges churning out new teaching graduates, someone got to have a radical new idea.

I'm still not going to say who the teacher is...