Shopping List Painting Electric Circuits

This has gotten to be a bit of an obsession over the past few days. Using paint to create electric circuits.

Seriously, it is all I can think about. I am making a lot of  "this sweater is OK, but it would be awesomer with some LED light bulbs" statements that make my children hover between interest and a deep tween embarrassment that only mothers can induce.

It started with a CNN article on Pens that can be used to draw circuits. I know, great idea.

Except they are from the UK, and kind of pricey (12 pounds which is about $18 today). And according to my sources on twitter the conductivity isnt great once it is dried over long distances. That said the site has some nice classroom kits that include thumbtack batteries. There has been a hollow empty void in my life that is filled now that I know thumbtack batteries exist - you know what I mean?

Also according to the website these pens are available in Radio Shack, so good for those of us stateside.

Think Geek Conductive Paint

For about $30 you can get a 50ml tub of paint from Think Geek. I have visions of renumbering the computers in my lab using this ...possibilities are endless.

This appears to be the same company, so it is probably the same stuff that is in the pens, but it is a better price point for just the paint.

I also found a video describing how to make copper based conductive paint. Sounds fun, but given my overall free time...I might just head to Radio Shack.

MIT also has some resources listed:

• A Kit of No Parts has a great list, including sources

One of the main reasons I am interested is the application for wearable electronics. I am curious to see if the paint can be used to attach conductive thread to the power source. Ill let you all know if it works.

Need more inspiration? Here is a video of interactive wallpaper made with conductive paint. It plays music.

We do some very simple circuits and logic gates in the APCS Principles class suing play-doh. The play-doh works well because it can be changed and experimented with very easily, but the stuff dries out so nothing can be taken home. This paint would make a nice extension, especially if they can make something to take home. Prototype in play-doh then paint for permanent.

Read More..

Learning to create a bulleted and numbered list FA7

Today I am going to show you how you can use Word to create a bulleted list and a numbered list.  Usually, a numbered list is created to show rank (such as your favorite athlete, second favorite athlete, and so on) while a bulleted list is used to show a list that has no rank (a shopping list would be an example).  These are fairly easy to create, modify, and format so Ill show you how you can do that today before starting on your next Formatting Activity.

Again, I want to remind those of you who have vocabulary words to define to get those completed as soon as you can.  If you want to come in here before school or during lunch recess to do that you are welcome - just let me know.


Activity 7.pdf

Read More..

ToDo List

OK, this is one of those weeks where I am lucky to eat lunch, never mind sitting down to eat. Lots of good stuff, but busy!

So here are some of the things I plan on catching up on:

• Will.i.am on the Internet of things
• Software Predicts Tomorrow’s News by Analyzing Today’s and Yesterday’s
• Commentary: U.S. kids need computer-science education - interesting take on immigration policy and the need for computer science education
• These APCS GridWorld exercises look really interesting.

Read More..

Week of vocab list 7 Internet 3 FA8

This is another vocab list week - this week is list #7, which is Internet #3.  As usual, if you have definitions that you are responsible for they need to be posted on the Wiki spaces page by Tuesday night.

Today we are going to start working on FA8.  This has several components to it.  First, youll be typing a summary of your favorite movie in Word.  The formatting end of it will require you to learn to use the word count feature (very easy to do) in Microsoft Word, and you also will be double spacing your text.

After completing the summary you will post your summary on your blog, and in addition to posting it on your blog you will also be inserting an image on your blog that is related to your movie.  This will also be covered today in class so that you can complete that part of the formatting activity.  This will be due at the end of class on Tuesday.


Activity 8.pdf

Read More..

How to Find if Linked List contains Loops or Cycles in Java Coding Question

Write a Java program to check if a linked list is circular or cyclic,  and how do you find if a linked list contains loop or cycles in Java are some common linked list related data structure interview questionsasked in various Java Interviews. This is some time asked as follow-up question of basic linked list questions like inserting element at beginning, middle and end of linked list or finding length of linked list. In order to solve linked list related algorithmic question in Java, you need to be familiar with concept of singly linked list, doubly linked list and circular linked list. Until stated specifically, most questions are based on singly linked list. For those who are not familiar of linked list data structure, its a collection of nodes. Each node contains two parts data and address, where address part points to another node in linked list. Last node of linked list, often referred as tail points to null. Also a singly list can only move in one direction, towards end. Now, let's come back to this question. Good thing about this question is that, it can also be solved by using two pointer approach discussed in How to find middle element of linked list in single pass. If a linked list contains a loop or cycle it is known as circular or cyclic linked list. As I said we can use two pointer approach to check if a linked list is circular or not.

Read more »

Read More..

How to loop ArrayList in Java List Itrator Traversal Code Example

Looping ArrayList in Java or Iteration over ArrayList is very similar to looping Map in Java. In order to loop ArrayList in Java we can use either foreach loop, simple for loop or Java Iterator from ArrayList. We have already touched iterating ArrayList in 10 Example of ArrayList in Java and we will see here in detail. We are going to see examples of all three approaches in this ArrayList tutorial and find out which one is clean and best method of looping arraylist in Java. Before start writing an example for loop in ArrayList let's think why do we need to iterate, traverse or loop an ArrayList if it’s based on index and backed by Array. If we know the index of element than we can directly get that particular element from ArrayList but if you want to print all elements of arraylist and do some operation one by one on each of them, only looping or traversing will help you.

This article is in continuation of my earlier tutorial on ArrayList e.g. How to sort ArrayList in Java on descending order and How to convert Array to ArrayList in Java. If you haven’t read them already then you may find them useful and interesting.

Read more »

Read More..