Peter's Journal

 

 

 

12/03 : Monday

 

           Today we sat in class and were introduced to our assignment by Mrs. Jansen. She talked about how we would construct a webpage on the pbwiki site and use it to display information about our bacteria. Michael and I distributed our work load between the two of us, and we set date lines for when we would acomplish cirtain tasks. In class, I created the main page, and the journal page. Through this, I have been able to record my findings on the web, and cite sources from my research. Tomorrow we should be able to accomplish many tasks and find more information about our bacteria.

 

After school, I came home to work on the web page for a full hour. I sat up in my room looking for some information that could be useful on this project. In addition to facts and info about my bacteria, I looked for pictures because I created a new page that displays pictures that I found. I also changed the scheme of the website from cobra snake green, to future-like orange. From here, I was happy with the progress of this new website and I fell asleep.

 

12/04 : Tuesday

 

           We started today by looking at our accomplishments on the website and what we needed to work on. Michael worked on a complete timeline list of our goals, while I tried to reconfigure the sidebar tool so that the links worked. To my dismay, I was unable to achieve my task, and to more disapointment, I was unable to locate Mrs. Jansen in the library at approximately 9:12. Without her help, I am not sure I can successfully complete this website, because it is fairly complicated and frustrating. Tomorrow I hope to figure out the links on the side bar and then work to discover more facts about the bacteria.

 

          Later that day, I worked on contacting Michael about how else we could continue the project and remain happily out of procrastination. Although I had a busy night, I was able to look at the data that Michael posted and work it into my own knowledge of our bacteria. Through combined efforts, I am sure we can gain a better understanding of this strange new organism, and I hope we can share that understanding, with the class using this high tech wiki website. 

 

 

12/05 : Wednesday

 

          I began my work by looking at the tools in the St Andew's Upper School library website. Also in class, Mrs. Rasmussen revealed to us that our bacteria was really a yeast and it was different from the other students. This didn't come as so much as a surprise because of the research we had already done. Most all of the recommended student databases have been or are exhausted of their content on our yeast, but still we look on. Here, in class, Mrs Jansen helped us find fraud websites and make sure we didn't use them as our sources for data collections. We visited several sites and answered questions about the websites, so that we could detect authenticity. The whole class period we looked into this and "sharpened our crap detectors"                 -         as Mrs. Jansen put it so well.

 

          In the evening, I went to work on changing the Sidebar so that it contained links to the web pages. After a lot of difficult work and communication with Mrs Jansen, was able to correctly connect the right link to the right page. I didn't do too much research this night, if any, because according to our timeline and the work that Michael has done, we should be all set. I will in the future track more websites because tomorrow we will be working on a lab and we won't have time to work on our website.

 

 

12/06 : Thursday

 

          Today in class, we worked on the website because the lab had not been prepared correctly. Unfortunately, the lab will take place tomorrow when I will be absent in the afternoon. I will hopefully use that time to do more research. This thursday, I made a wonderful accomplishment in the world of websites; I uploaded a video! This is fantastic and will open more doors to the future of web design and other additions. Michael will finish the timeline soon and upload the file to this website and then we will have a plan for what we can accomplish. I believe that all of the student databases are exhausted but we haven't cited the sources yet. I do not want to search the free web because I know that finding a site and finding it authentic is difficult.

 

          After school, I worked on preparing the lab for the following day. I believe that some more research is necessary for the project, but Michael and I have it covered. With the timeline he recently uploaded we have a detailed schedule of when we should research the following topics.  I have also contacted  some people from other classes that have the same bacteria or yeast that we can ask for help if ever we should need additional information on it.

 

 

12/07 : Friday

 

           This morning we worked on the lab that we were supposed to prepare the previous night so we could efficiently get it done. We did the lab in a short twenty minutes before returning to our work on website. Also in class Michael added a Citations page from which we get some of our bibliography. We used a citation builder website to string together these notations. These citations were from student databases only and not from other sources.

 

 

12/08 : Saturday

 

           Today, according to plans, I worked on looking into the questions and adding more specific details. Soon I will figure out how to change the background or skin correctly and out website will have more of an appealing look to it other than the shear white and orange it is at this time. I tried to upload a file to the main page for music, but I feared for my computers health and did not download the direct x code necessary for playing the file. I would advise all reading this to not download things that pop up and say Direct X active Control, without further investigation.

 

 

12/09 : Sunday

 

           Well honestly today I didn't do anything relating to my project because of time issues but I hope to do more work on it in the future. I hope to create a game possibly and upload it to the website but I fear that the codec won't run properly and the file will not play. This would then prove to be a huge waste of time and it would obstruct me from my true objective which is providing an educational source of fun for this website. If all else fails I think I might add links to games and crosswords and so forth. Adding a vocabulary list is not a bad idea, in fact, so I might do that soon. I believe that Michael is falling behind on his journal and his work but hopefully on Tuesday we will cover it.  

 

 

 

12/10 : Monday

 

            Today in class we analyzed the results from our lab on Friday and not much could be accomplished regarding the website. I was told from our teacher, Mrs Rasmussen, that we would be given time to work on the website on Tuesday and I am greatly anticipating that day. I feel it is necessary to advance our work for this website in full and that we need to make more progress. I think I will talk to Michael about finding other websites that can have games and crosswords for vocabulary and so forth. Together we should get something done what ever it is.

 

            After school I just basically did a self evaluation of the website and noted what needs work on. I believe that our content could use some expanding and that our pictures are low and just recently I noticed that somehow, I accidentally deleted our main page while trying to create a link to a music song.  After identifying this problem, I immediatly set out to fix it and restore our website to its former glory. I thought that the main page needed a little spiffing up as well so I tried to center the picture and after some frustrating attempts, I prevailed.  

 

 

12/11 : Tuesday

 

            I worked with Michael very hard to create a correct file that the computer could read to play a specific sound file to be used on this website. I created a Test page where we could put any and or all of our strange plugins that we wanted to try out before we actually added them to our site officially.  Other than the new page, I edited my journal for typos but I feel that it still needs more work.

 

 

 

12/12 : Wednesday

 

             Today in class, we began a lab called the Bacteria Confirmation Lab that will teach us that we can identify some bacteria through Gram staining. It was difficult staying on task, but we finished with flying colors. Although difficult, I found the process fascinating how we stained the bacteria and looked at their different tests.  

 

             After school, I furtively searched for files and ways of playing the music that I want played, but I think that I might have found a way. I was unable to upload the file because I think that it was too big to be put on a small space site, but I am on the right track. I think that if will not have put the track on the site by Friday, that I should give up and try something else to get my well deserved "A" on this assignment.

 

 

12/13 : Thursday

 

            Today in class, for the most part we worked on the second part of our Bacteria Confirmation Lab, where we analyzed the results from the previous day and then created  slides from which to do Gram staining. It was a long and difficult process in which, I added a burn scar to my collection, but overall the lab was a success.

 

            As the day progressed, I found it difficult to concentrate. I know that this project is coming to a close and soon my site will be assessed, and we will have to present it. Unfortunatly, I feel that we are not ready, that we lack information as well as content, and interesting things. I am sure our visitors are bored and don't like this site, because I know I don't. Some ideas that I have to improve the site are: adding links to other different sites, (I hope to do that later tonight) and adding some sort of music file to the site, and also making the site more visually appealing.

 

 

12/14 : Friday

 

           As expected, the music didn't load properly so I have failed in my efforts and I will force myself to delete the test pages that were created to serve the music purpose. I looked into the vocabulary section today to explain to my readers what I was talking about in some of the articles and notes. Michael has consistently done a good job helping me and I think we are well on our way to a good grade.

 

           I decided to edit the page again and then change some of the text that Michael wrote on the content page. I changed it to be more readable because before it was missing nouns and verbs, but now they are complete in thought and text.

 

 

12/15 : Saturday

 

           Today was the day when my researching strength was tested, because I know that I had insufficient data on the site. However I did find an interesting site where the authors brought up an interesting topic to debate about. They asked the question, "Is this yeast able to be classified as conspecific?" the article goes on to describe many of Saccharomyces Bouldariis traits and how they would need to change the definition a little if they were to do so.

 

           Finishing up the website is difficult but necessary for a good grade so I am willing to do it. I added a vocabulary page to the site where I will post some Merriam Webster Dictionary references to words that might be difficult or that might be useful. It is a cool page and I think we have done well on the project as a whole.

 

 

12/16 : Sunday

 

           The last day of the project was spent filling out evaluations for the website and making final touch ups. I found myself frantically looking over anything I typed on the site and double checking for quality of my writing. I also elaborated on a few of my journal entries and I advised Michael to do the same. I am sure that if this assignment fails to meet my expectations when its being graded, I will be a very unhappy christmas Scrooge. bah humbug to bad grades!

 

           Overall this project seemed like a drawn out report on a bacteria, not a website. I know that whoever has to read this over the break is going to appreciate that I recognize their suffering and I can only say that it's over.