Week of Mar 20-24 LL #32

Pre-Algebra:

This week I started Chapter 10! I learned about solving polynomials.

Creative Writing:

This week we talked about writing plays. We examined the differences between plays, novels, and movies, and started filling out a chart about playwriting.

Social Studies:

This week I read three chapters of Story Of The World. I'm trying to find book two but so far it hasn't turned up.

Tech (Exploring Technology):

This week I learned about illusions and magic tricks! As you might guess, it was very fun. I learned about the art of misdirection in magic tricks and how the brain perceives the input it gets from the eyes. For my Minecraft build this week, I was to create some illusions in Minecraft!

After researching some Minecraft illusions, I recreated these super cool ideas!

The first was a technique that gave the illusion of a weird, wavy block in the corner of a room. In reality, it is three blocks placed in the corner, facing certain directions as to seem like one block.

The next was a super scary Haunted Coaster!!! This is the entrance.

Down, down, down into a mining center, where the ride begins.

I used black concrete on the walls, floor, and ceiling to give the illusion of a track going into nothingness.

In the ride, the player can see a skeleton head. The eyes are always watching you- in fact they move to follow the player across the room.

This is accomplished by digging a space out behind the eye holes, filling the walls, ceiling, and floor with black concrete, and then placing glowstone blocks as the eyes. The player moves and the eyes "move", creating a very spooky effect.

Elective (Writing for Publication):

This week we took a break from our In Defense Of articles. We are going to be writing pieces to put on the Student Blog at Link Education League. The teacher handed out a list of the things we could write, such as "How To" and "Personal Essay". Then she handed out the list of the values the Link program teaches us, such as creativity and perseverance. We're going to choose one item from each list and combine them for what we are going to write. We brainstormed things like "How To Be Creative" and "A Personal Essay On Perseverance".