Today in History!!

Today is the Day of the Doctor!

But what has happened today through time?

On your Blogs list three events that have happened on the 22nd November!

Can you embed videos and pictures of these events on your blog. 

Rank them in importance!

Google Code-In 2013

Google Code-in (GCI) is a contest for pre-university students (e.g., high school and secondary school students) with the goal of encouraging young people to participate in open source. We work with open source organizations, each of whom will provide a list of tasks to be completed by student contestants. Tasks can be anything an organization needs help with, from bug fixes, to writing code, to user experience research, to writing documentation. The contest takes place entirely online.

Thirty Minutes Of Gaming A Day Makes Your Brain Bigger: Science

Could 30 minutes a day keep the neurologist away?

Ulrich Knappek

For years, proponents of video games as more than idle time-wasters have argued that the act of playing games can in and of itself boost brain function. A study published yesterday by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, in the prestigious journal Nature, may be the best proof yet that regularly playing video games can actually make your brain more powerful.

It’s certainly the most visceral. The study, titled “Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game,” found that people who played at least 30 minutes ofMario 64 every day for two months actually grew significant amounts of new gray matter in three areas of the brain correlated with spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory, and motor performance.

In other words: Playing Mario actually grew the subjects’ brains. The control group, who didn’t play, experienced no such growth. (There is no word on how much time the control group, who actually showed slight gray matter decrease — attributable to aging — had spent on gaming forums.)

According to the study’s leader Simone Kühn, “The present study can demonstrate the direct causal link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase. This proves that specific brain regions can be trained by means of video games.”

The experimental group in the study played Mario 64 on the Nintendo DS, which, as the researchers note, shows the iconic plumber both from a third-person, behind-the-back perspective, and on the lower screen, from a bird’s-eye, map-based view.

This dual perspective may explain the nature of the gray-matter growth.

The researchers found that increases in gray matter in the right hippocampus were associated with moving from egocentric to allocentric styles of navigation. That refers to the difference between comprehending objects in space by imagining them in relation to oneself (egocentric) and comprehending objects in space by mentally manipulating them in relation to each other (allocentric). It’s easy to imagine how controlling a third-person avatar and seeing him from several perspectives might help develop the ability to navigate based on the position of external objects in the environment.

But what does the study mean in practical terms? This finding — that playing a video game can actually build brain matter — has obvious implications for education, but also exciting ones in health. According to the study, future research, based off of its findings, could focus on how games could be used to treat PTSD, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative diseases.

The paper describes Mario 64 in rather dry terms, as “a three-dimensional platformer game in which a princess has to be saved.” It turns out that the little plumber may be so much more.

What are the F1 through F12 keys?

Question

What are the F1 through F12 keys?

Answer

Commonly known as "function keys", F1 through F12 may have a variety of different uses or no use at all. Depending on the installed operating system and the software program currently open will change how each of these keys operate. A program is capable of not only using each of the function keys, but also combining the function keys with the ALT orCTRL key, for example, Microsoft Windows users can press ALT + F4 to close the program currently active.

Below is a short-listing of some of the common functions of the functions keys. As mentioned above not all programs support function keys and may perform different tasks then those mentioned below. If you are looking for more specific shortcut keys and function key examples we suggest seeing our shortcut key page.

F1

• Almost always used as the help key, almost every program will open the help screen when this key is pressed.
• Enter CMOS Setup.
• Windows Key + F1 would open the Microsoft Windows help and support center.
• Open the Task Pane.

F2

• In Windows renames a highlighted icon, file, or folder in all versions of Windows.
• Alt + Ctrl + F2 opens document window in Microsoft Word.
• Ctrl + F2 displays the print preview window in Microsoft Word.
• Quickly rename a selected file or folder.
• Enter CMOS Setup.

F3

• Often opens a search feature for many programs including Microsoft Windows when at the Windows Desktop..
• In MS-DOS or Windows command line F3 will repeat the last command.
• Shift + F3 will change the text in Microsoft Word from upper to lower case or a capital letter at the beginning of every word.
• Windows Key + F3 opens the Advanced find window in Microsoft Outlook.
• Open Mission Control on an Apple computer running Mac OS X.

F4

• Open find window in Windows 95 to XP.
• Open the address bar in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
• Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+)
• Alt + F4 will close the program window currently active in Microsoft Windows.
• Ctrl + F4 will close the open window within the current active window in Microsoft Windows.

F5

• In all modern Internet browsers pressing F5 will refresh or reload the page or document window.
• Open the find, replace, and go to window in Microsoft Word.
• Starts a slideshow in PowerPoint.

F6

• Move the cursor to the Address bar in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and most other Internet browsers.
• Ctrl + Shift + F6 opens to another open Microsoft Word document.

F7

• Commonly used to spell check and grammar check a document in Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook, etc.
• Shift + F7 runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.
• Turns on Caret browsing in Mozilla Firefox.

F8

• Function key used to enter the Windows startup menu, commonly used to access Windows Safe Mode.

F9

• Opens the Measurements toolbar in Quark 5.0.
• With Mac OS 10.3 or later shows all open Windows.
• Using the Fn key and F9 at the same time will open Mission Control on an Apple computer running Mac OS X.

F10

• In Microsoft Windows activates the menu bar of an open application.
• Shift + F10 is the same as right-clicking on a highlighted icon, file, or Internet link.
• Access the hidden recovery partition on HP and Sony computers.
• Enter CMOS Setup.
• With Mac OS 10.3 or later shows all open Windows for active program.

F11

• Full-screen mode in all modern Internet browsers.
• Ctrl + F11 as computer is starting to access the hidden recovery partition on many Dell computers.
• Access the hidden recovery partition on eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo computers.
• With Mac OS 10.4 or later hides all open windows and shows the Desktop.

F12

• Open the Save as window in Microsoft Word.
• Shift + F12 save the Microsoft Word document.
• Ctrl + Shift + F12 prints a document in Microsoft Word.
• Preview a page in Microsoft Expression Web
• Open Firebug.
• With an Apple running Mac OS 10.4 or later F12 will show or hides the Dashboard.

Computing History

Watch this video and make detailed notes on your Blog as a Time line old to new.

Create Hyperlinks to external pages where you can read in more depth about the people you have just learnt about.  (Do not link to Wikipedia!)

How To Convert Binary To Decimal

Alfred the Great Quiz

CS Python Refresher

http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python

Armistice Day to be marked in the UK with silence

The Queen led the ceremony at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday

Continue reading the main story

The anniversary of the World War One armistice 95 years ago is to be marked in the UK with a two-minute silence.

Ceremonies will take place at military bases, churches, schools, town halls and at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire at 11:00 GMT.

And armed forces charity the Royal British Legion is holding its annual 11 November event in Trafalgar Square.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Edinburgh will visit Belgium, where some of the war's most deadly battles were fought.

Armistice Day, which honours personnel who have died since WW1, this year comes a day after Remembrance Sunday.

On Sunday, two-minute silences took place at war memorials across the UK and Commonwealth, in tribute to fallen members of the armed forces.

In London, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family laid the first wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, before a march-past by 10,000 military veterans and civilian representatives.

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Bebras Challenge 2013

Bebras Challenge 2013

Click here to take the Challenge

Design Log for Winners Take All

DESIGN LOG

You must use a design log to record the design process as you develop your products. This should include:

• key stages in the design and development of your products
• annotated images of your designs and finished products
• explanations of your design decisions
• changes made in response to feedback and testing
• details of the software you use to create each product
  
  

 Create a design log. You may wish to use these template questions to help you.

 Save your design log in your Design Log Folder in Unit 3 in your Sites folder.

 Update your design log as you work through the project.

Year 11 Storyboard

Moodboard and Storyboards is a maximum of 11 marks

A student must have recorded progress from the initial moodboard,through design 

prototyping and testing, to the final game and include evidence of:

• the entire design process with evidence of extensive testing and detailed response to user feedback
• full justification of design decision
• development of a wide range of effective assets.

How can you make sure that your storyboards will meet this descriptor?

MAIN TASK

You need to first draw the storyboards for each screen on paper

1. Main Screen

2. Instructions

3. Story (from Overiview)

4. Level 1

5. Level 2

6. Level 3

7. Level 4

8. Level 5

9. Win Screen

10. Lose Screen

Click here for your Storyboard sheets

The drawings need to be detailed but you only have to draw the backgrounds, not the 

platforms

• By the End of the lesson:
  
  
  Create 5 drawings - Need to work a little faster
  Create 6-7 drawings - Get Miss to check and you will get a GREEN
  Create 8-10 drawings - Get Miss to check and you will get a GOLD (prize)\\
  
  

  
  
  
  

  Plenary: Give feedback to your buddy on back of paper

  2 STARS and 1 WISH

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