My Life With Technology

       By Hayden Hilgenhold

        Technology; can’t live with it, can’t live without it.  These days, the world literally runs on it.  So, who does the upkeep on this technology?  Well, in our school, that would be Mr. Wright and his tech team, something I am glad to be a part of.  Granted, some weeks I can go without having to help him one time, because I go in second period and Sean usually gets a lot done during first period.  However, some days, we can be particularly busy.  

I remember, after Christmas break, we were all extremely busy for almost a week.  “My screen broke, I don’t know how,”, “my charger doesn’t work and I need a new one,”, “Why won’t my internet connect?”  The list went on and on.  It really helped me appreciate what people like Mr. Wright do.  Especially considering, up until this year, he would be doing his job, plus what he has the tech team do, all by himself.  His job takes a lot of patience, multi-tasking, and hard work.

Another place where I have had a huge experience with technology is up at IU.  Last year I attended their School of Informatics and Computing (SOIC) summer camp and had the time of my life.  Never had I ever been allowed to try out such expensive technology.  The Google Glass, the Oculus Rift, smart watches, etc.  Also, I got to code my own chat bot.  Granted, said chat bot was extremely buggy, but it was still more than I had ever done.  It was a very fun experience and I’m glad to be going back this year.  

Technology has had a huge influence on my life, and I think it’d be fair to say that, in these times, it’s had an impact on everyone’s life, in one way or another.  We’ve come a long way since I had a dial-up connection at home that couldn’t support a simple flash player.  We’ve come a long way since it took me 30 minutes to buffer a 5 minute YouTube video.  And I’m sure, in about 5 years, I’ll say we’ve come a long way since every high school student was given a laptop to use. Technology advances quickly, if for no other reason than to keep up with the rest of the world.

Building a Computer

By Chris Bybee

Building a computer consists of a few stages. The first step is to gather the components to actually build the computer. You will need...

Motherboard, RAM,m Harddrive or Solid State Drive, Processor, WiFi Adapter, Case

These are the essential parts of the entire build, they are all required to have a fully functional computer. There are extra components that you may want such as a graphics or sound card for better performance or gaming. In RAM selection you are usually looking at around 8-16 Gigabytes of memory. DDR is a measure of the speed of the memory. You will want to get at least DDR3. There are many choices in motherboards. One of the biggest considerations is the physical size of the board. You can select mini, micro and normal. This will depend on the size and type of the computer that you are going to build. The board has to fit in the case. 

In processor selection you may want to shoot for an AMD FX or an Intel core i5. These are good middle of the road processors from each of the 2 main processor companies and are the best bang for the buck deal that you can get. With great graphics and processing power, these two are both great choices. 

Finally, hard drives, these come in many sizes. 1,2,3,4 and 6 Terabyte models are fairly common. 1 TB is equal to 1000 gigabytes. Take your pick, but the bigger the number the more room you have to store files, including pictures, video and games. The speed of the drive is very important as well. The standard speed is 7200 RPM but the best you can get is 10000 RPM. This is important as it determines the speed at which your computer can access your files.

After you make the selections, it is really just a matter of screwing the parts together and cabling the internal components. Then you can start it up for the first time and enjoy your new computer!

Passion Based Learning AKA STEAM

By Nick Etienne

So I bet you’re wondering, what’s S.T.E.A.M? Well I am here to tell you. S.T.E.A.M is part of the brand new Powered Up program. It is a class where students study what they want and what they are interested in. In the Powered Up program it is listed as Passion Based Learning. S.T.E.A.M stands for: Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Some examples of what the students at Perry Central study are: music intro, web design, and CAD programing among other things. I interviewed one of the students in the class and asked him to describe a typical week in the S.T.E.A.M class.

   “Well we do something different after roll call every day. On Wednesdays we watch a TED Talk video, on Fridays we share something that we learned that week, whether or not it’s related to what we are studying.” Replied the student.

I then asked how grades were taken if what you are studying is self-directed.

“Every two weeks we have to write a blog post about what we have been studying. It has to be very descriptive with specifications on what we are studying, what we learned, and why we were interested in it. We also have a wrap up day, which like the name suggests, we wrap up what we have been working on for the past two weeks”

S.T.E.A.M is a revolutionary new class that will be covered in the Powered Up conference that will be hosted at Perry Central June 2nd and 3rd. It is a new age class that will help students learn how to follow their passions and turn them into something more.