CS Economic Project

The links of our work:

Presentation online (iCloud): https://www.icloud.com/keynote/013x1EEpSkHXTfu_5NAFp_ipA

Presentation

Spreadsheet online (Zoho):https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/ropen.do?rid=2um4289a0dcd97d8a4f25b84ebc7096e685b2

Spreadsheet

Personal Experience & Feelings

Personally, I really like my work and our effort, as a group, done to the presentation. I love the presentation I made really much and I think in my mind it is a kind of art rather than simply a homework or assignment. Basically, I did the presentation making, flowchart+Pseudocode making, background searching, and I also helped a bit with the spreadsheet formula. When learning spreadsheet in school, I just couldn’t help being amazed by the formula behind all the little cells. I think spreadsheet is a skill that will help one with his or her normal life a lot. For example, when comparing data and calculating data with the same method, usually people will just put all the numbers in calculator and then put all the results in a table. However, with the help of formula in spreadsheet, such things won’t even bother me again for I can just entering formula in spreadsheet just like what we did in this project comparing the GDP and McD indexes of selected countries.

I think the same is for presentation making. I know there are a lot presentation on how to work with iCloud. Yet I didn’t think that’s useful until this project. I was always bothered with the shift in styles and format when changing a keynote to a PPT or the reverse. This time, I just imitated the way that the presentation are given to us on the class webpage that people can collaborate with my presentation on viewing only. We encountered all kins of problems and difficulties in the process, however, we figured them out on our own. For instance, the flowchart is too long to put into a horizontal presentation, then I add an animation on it and made the duration of the animation long enough just for people to see the content clearly. I really enjoy the process of making a good looking presentation. I add gif and pictures from the official website and edit them to fit my presentation better. I made the gif loop back and forth and made some menu options using photoshop editing them with the same color and size. I really like this kind of work for I treat it as art. The process of trying and working things out are the things that fascinate me the most.

What to improve?

Basically, I think there are still a lot to improve on the skills of spreadsheet making. Some formula we used are not mastered steadily. For example, when applying a formula to cells in a row, the automatic change of the formula is supposed to be solved by adding a “$” in the middle if I remembered correctly. Yet it was not working. We also encountered problems making a graph. The problems were caused essentially for the sake of poor memory. We forgot how to do the tasks. Another example of the poor memory of us is that the problem we had making a pseudocode. The task of making a pseudocode was assigned to my partner initially, yet she had problem understanding and transforming the flowchart. After discussion about the translation, we decided to let me to write the pseudocode. During the process, I found that I almost forgot how to write a pseudocode! The solution to the problems are basically reviewing the presentations, which will also benefit for my final exam revising, and practice more. I think I will definitely meet the goals for I must do the review and I use spreadsheet in my science classes frequently.

 

 

Spreadsheet

• Spreadsheet software

Spreadsheet. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2017. <http://www.okclipart.com/Formatting-a-Spreadsheet-Clip-Art30zndvfsvn/&gt;.

A spreadsheet is what called Excel or Numbers; it is a bunch of organized cells with rows and columns which can be used to enter and store data and do some basic instructions for the users.

• Some real-life examples of how spreadsheet software can be used

Numbers; used to imitate chemical reactions

A spreadsheet can be used to imitate chemical reactions for chemistry; profit and loss account for business; calculate and record students’ grades and so on. It can do some basic calculations with formulas or run some basic instructions with codes provided. For example, in the picture provided, which is my chemistry homework, the spreadsheet helped me to calculate the equilibrium of a reaction. In that case, I did not need to calculate very hard and enter the data into a bunch of cells by myself —— the spreadsheet did it for me! The data in a spreadsheet can also be used to draw corresponding graphs.

angry-birds-spreadsheet-art

It can also be used to express art as well! (work cited: Angry-birds-spreadsheet-art. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2017 <http://www.microsofttraining.net/b/spreadsheet-art-10-of-the-best/&gt;. )

• Discuss some functions of a spreadsheet software

GPA Spreadsheet Calculation

It has many functions! If you enter “=” in a cell, it will consider the following input as instructions for it to run. It can add, minus, multiply and divide numbers and run equations. What’s more, it can also randomly pick numbers within a range if you enter “=random” and calculate the average by entering “=average”. It can also run some basic codes as shown in the picture above. The code can be entered into the cells and the instruction can be run automatically.

• a screenshot of your work with some brief explanation

Siri’s spreadsheet

This is the spreadsheet that I made during the class and completed after class. It is basically about how to create a form that can do basic calculations and a series of instructions. In this spreadsheet, students’ grade are recorded, and GPA and average grades are also calculated. In this spreadsheet, functions such as IF, AND, RANDOM, AVERAGE and so on are used.

• Conclusion

During the class, I learnt how to type a real code that can really function in real life. It was really exciting to see my code running. The amazing technology shocked me. I can no longer enter numbers in the cells one by one and do the complicated calculations on my own. I can simply drag the cells to copy the same instruction and enter the equations to calculate for me. After the first class, I immediately applied the skills I learnt and did on Zoho in Numbers. They have slight differences but they function similarly. I then quickly completed my chemistry homework imitating the reactions. I believe the skill is more than useful in the future. It can be applied in numerous fields.

Softwares

Hierarchy of Software

Hierarchy of Software

 

There’re two kinds of software which are the system software and the application software. System softwares can also be divided into operating systems, library programs and utility programs. The Application softwares are categorized into general-purpose application software, special-purpose application software and bespoke application software.

 

Difference between application software and system software

The system software is used to operate the computer hardware to run the application softwares. It is considered as the operating systems and platforms such as Microsoft or OS(for apple). Yet application softwares are designed to do specific kinds of tasks. For instance, the Photoshop, Pages and PPT are application softwares.

 

Different types of application software and system software

system software

The picture above shows the different types of system software.

As for the application software, it has 3 types in total, which are general-purpose application software, special-purpose application software and bespoke application software. General purpose software is more powerful. It can be used for several kinds of tasks. Keynote and photoshop are the examples of General purpose softwares. Yet special-purpose application softwares are used to only run a certain type of tasks. They can only do single tasks like the calculator. The bespoke application software is designed to run a specialized tasks that only focus on a specific purpose, which means this task is not used universally. The software we use in the MUN to record the meeting process is an excellent example.

 

Conclusion

In this week, we have learnt a lot about softwares and this was the first time that I was aware that there were so many different types of softwares. I used to think that all kinds of softwares are functioning in a really sophisticated way. However, I now find that some tasks are actually really simple and straight-forward. For example, a calculator seems much simple than when I didn’t know anything about CS before. All these types of softwares may be designed in different ways. They are all built up by codes and programming. I now understand the softwares better and can basically recognize the types of the softwares that I use.

CS Flowchart Poster

Flowchart + Pseudocode Poster

Poster-Flowchart

Poster-Pseudocode

This is the Flowchart poster made by myself. The topic is “Siri’s Plan for an Amusement Park.” It briefly describes the process of choosing what to play of me in an amusement park. I decided to do this because my friend and I just went to the amusement park several days before.

The whole precess looks like this:

I need to first enter into an amusement park. Then I would like to play a ride that is not terrifying and can make me relaxed. After that, I will play the roller coaster and gyro swing. I will repeat playing this 2 rides until I get satisfied or bored. Then I would like to go to the Kid’s Paradise. I will first play the mini drop tower there, and then play the bumper cars if I am not satisfied. After that, I will determine which and how many rides to play based on the time remained. Then I get out of the park.

Generally, I missed the input in the flowchart in the first time, and I misunderstood the usage of the rectangles and parallelograms from time to time. The pseudocode seemed to be okay. So I fixed the problems afterward and remembered that the parallelogram can only be used when there’s an input in my flowchart. 

Flow Chart

lamp flowchart; citation: en.wikipedia.org

Flowchart

Diagram that illustrates the sequence of instructions to be operated to get to the solution of a problem. Pseudocode and flowchart can be transformed from each other.

Flowchart symbols and rules

• start with a “trigger” event
• direction of the flow
  • should always be left to right, top to bottom
• rectangular
  • calculations
• parallelogram shape
  • one input one output
  • must be input/output something
  • if calculation, use rectangle
• diamond shape
  • one input and 2 output

The sequence of a flowchart should be top to bottom and left to right. There should be a start point and an end point of a flowchart. A flowchart should be logic and finished.

• IF, IF-ELSE, IF-ELSE-IF, and loopings in flowcharts

Flowchart & Pseudocode

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• IF —— 1 diamond shape
  • one output
• IF-ELSE —— 1 diamond shape
  • 2 output
• IF-ELSE-IF —— several diamond shape
  • several output
• looping
  • while loop
    • 1 diamond shape- yes/no – loop/output
  • do-while loop
    • 1 diamond shape – yes/no – output/ loop+instructions

Flowchart activities with pseudocode

flowchart – Pseudocode activities

This part let me know well about the relationship between pseudocode and flowchart.

Activity 5/6 (didn’t do in class)

Assignment 1

Flowchart & Pseudocode poster

Assignment 2

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zp92mp3/revision/2

Computational Thinking

• decomposition
  • break down a complicated problem
• pattern recognition
  • look for similarities among problems
• abstraction
  • focus on important parts, relatively ignore what’s less important
• algorithms
  • come up with a step-by-step solution to the solve the problem

After reading this webpage, I finally understand the concept of computational thinking clearly that it helps us solve a problem more efficiently and easily.

Computational thinking is not the same as programming. It makes you able to know what to let the computer do. Yet programming tells the computer what to do and how to do. For me, computational thinking is more like coming up with ideas that can solve a problem more efficient and programming is more like following instructions. I think computational thinking can be used in real life broadly. For example, when driving, there are always several routes that all are capable to go to the terminal. However, if you can think step by step, you can find the route that will take least time by thinking whether there is less traffic lights, less cars passing by each day, whether there is no parks near by and so on using past experiences.

Algorithm/Pseudocode

Algorithm

Algorithm

Algorithm is “A step-by-step clear instruction to solve a problem”. Algorithm needs to be clear and specific. It has to come up with, turn into something, or to achieve something. It is the instructions that the computer should follow in a specific order to work out a task.

LightBot Exercise

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When playing this little game I was just considering it as a game rather than an assignment. So it was really easy for me to love this playing process. In the beginning it was easy. However, it is difficult to imagine the robot’s movement and direction before actually running the procedures. It is amazing how the combination of loops works as well. From this little game, I understand how loops work in a concrete way.

Properties of Algorithm

• Finiteness
  • An algorithm must terminate in a finite time.
• Definiteness
  • The steps of an algorithm must be precisely defined and specified.
• Input
  • Qualities given to the algorithm before it begins.
  • It is usually taken from specified objects.
• Output
  • Quantities which has a specified relations with the input.
• Effectiveness
  • The efficiency of an efficient algorithm should not take a long time and the task should be done within the time a person use pencil and paper to solve.

 

Understanding the Problem

Before creating an algorithm, there are some factors that should be considered.:

• What’s the input? (for example, a number, or a word)
• What will be the output? (for example, a sentence)
• What’s will be the order of the instructions?
• What decisions should be made in order to solve the problems?
• Are any part of the task repeated? (maybe a loop can be created)

 

Expressions for Algorithm

• Natural Language
  • continue to do the steps?
• Flow Chart
• Pseudocode —— What we are learning!!! 😀
• Programming Language

 

Pseudocode explanations and exercises

My Pseudocode Exercise

CPU and Binary

Components of a CPU and their functions

• Control Unit

The control unit is the component inside the CPU that make decisions and send signals to other parts of the CPU. It understands the instructions. It is also in charge of the timing and the instructions sent to the processor.

• Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

The ALU is in charge of the calculations and logic.

• Registers

Registers is the temporary memory inside CPU. Some quickly accessed tasks will be stored here without going into the memory part.

Computing System diagram

Computing system

Data vs Information

Data: Data is only the raw materials and the numbers

Information: Information is the words, numbers and pictures providing understandings

* A computer converts data into information

Binary number representation

Binary numbers only have 0 and 1. Basically, 0 stands for close and 1 stands for open. Binary can do a lot of tasks representing different things. “Data in computers is stored and transmitted as a series of zeros and ones.”

Conversion between binary and decimal number system

From the right to the left, every place stands for a number to the (n-1) power of 2. For example, from the right to the left are 1,2,4,8 and so on. If I type in 0010 in binary, that means I have the number 2 (0+0+2+0). 1001 means 9 (8+0+0+1). In this way, a small amount of binary numbers can actually represent a lot numbers. With your 10 fingers, you can represent all the numbers from 0 to 1024.

The numbers represented by binary can be associated with other information such as the alphabet.

ASCII vs. UNICODE

ASCII is abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Most modern character-encoding schemes are based on ASCII.

ASCII

UNICODE

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing system.the latest version of Unicode contains a repertoire of more than 128,000 characters covering 135 modern and historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets.

UNICODE

Computing System Reflection

Key terms in Computer Science

Key Terms in CS

This week we learnt the key terms of computing science. They are shown above. These concepts are important for us to understand.

 

Input, process and output

Input, process and output

Generally, there are 3 stages of the computing system, which are input, process and output. For example, for a calculator, the input is what you press into the calculator, the process is the calculating, and the output is the result of the calculation it gives you.

 

Types of computer

Types of computer

There are several types of computer. Generally computer is not what we call computer in daily life, it actually refers to most machines that have computing system. There are everyday computers, embedded computers, wearable technology, raspberry Pi and micro-controllers.

 

Purpose of a computer

The PPT made by Sandy and I

There are several purposes of computers. We normally divide them in the following 5 groups that are automation, robotics, bionics, data crunching and modeling. We will make presentations about these purposes in pair. I and Sandy is in charge of the automation part.

Reflection of Blogging and Collaboration

Setting up the blog website

the blog website

In this week, we practiced how to add categories of blogs and how to turn the website link in. To achieve this, we need to first enter our blog website page, which is actually the homepage of my blog. Once a new category is created, it will appear in my homepage like the picture showed above. I shouldn’t use the homepage’s link to submit for others are not able to log in my own account. Thus when next time I submit some links to some one, I should always make sure that the links are not related to my own account.

Blogging

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What’s more, we also learned some skills of blogging. For example, we learned how to create a slideshow in the blog. When we choose several images to show, we can simply adjust their layout and choose slideshow to represent them in a more fascinating way.

Collaboration

Collaborating PPT

PPT link   https://docs.zoho.com/show/publish/0fdmda793342036364ca895f67590310f3dab

We also learnt about how to create a collaborating presentation using the website ZOHO online. I have known this kind of website for only a few months. I used Google Docs to write documents with my teammates together online during the vacation. However, I didn’t know that there is a way to make presentations together online before. It is quite fascinating that people can work on a same PPT at the same time on different slides or even on the same slides. This kind of platforms make the work more efficient and faster. I noticed that through iCloud people can also collaborate on Numbles, Pages and Keynotes etc. Therefore we can use this kind of websites to work on teamworks such as the religion project of English class we currently have.

Intro to CS Class

TypeRacer

It was the first week of school and we were new to the CS class. What we did in this week seems fun. We introduced ourselves and our vacation in the first class. In the second class, we tested our typing speed. TypeRacer is a fun website. I thought I didn’t need to type the periods and commas, but it turned out to be that I should, or I couldn’t move on to the next word. It was quite fun to be so anxious when typing. It felt like it was the last minute before a ddl. Mr. Pete also tested whether we could type without seeing the keyboard. I can, most of the time, but I can’t type punctuation without seeing them.

My TypeRacer Result

 

Typing Practice

This website provides typing practice. It can teach us how to type properly. There are many lessons on it. I am still working on it now. It was really fun to do these practice lessons. No body has ever taught me how to type before, but this website can teach me the right posture to type. I wonder whether I can correct myself after these lessons or not for I have typed so much time with probably the wrong posture. I’ll try to practice, though. The lessons are really useful for it can make me type faster if I totally follow its directions.

Typing Practice

 

Avatar

I also made my avatar on the website Mr. Pete provided. I knew the website before, for this kind of avatars used to be popular on WeChat. However I never tried to create my own before yesterday. The process of making it was really fun. I asked many friends to help me choose the components to make the avatar looks more like me. However, it is hard to make this picture look like me for there is no similar haircut model with mine.

My Avatar